Post Meridiem

Blessed rain...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:42:26 GMT

We got some unexpected, unseasonal rain in my corner of the parched California. And it was 15mm of it to boot, so not just some symbolic sprinkling. I took this shot in my back yard this morning. It's an unknown to me weed that I saved from a certain death, so I could see what it turns out to be like. It tuned out cute, as most weeds do. :-)

Faux wieloryb

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:49:49 GMT

Doesn't it look like a snout of a whale?

It snot! I mean: It's NOT! It is an unopened bud of a Naked Lady flower (Amaryllis Belladonna). Here it is what the whole thing looks like in color:

Pics taken in my back yard.

Sunol again!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:09:09 GMT

As in the years past, I've volunteered to man an aid station along the annual Ohlone Wilderness 50K Trail Run. The park rangers dropped me off in the middle of the most gorgeous wilderness, near the Rose Peak (California) and after camping there overnight, I and a few other volunteers helped the 200 participating runners. There wasn't much time to take pictures, but the few I did take you can see here.
The picture below was especially nice, since the underlying phenomena are rather rare:

Mystery flower

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:36:36 GMT

OK, let's see who can identify this mystery flower (hint: not tropical):

Another hike

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:14:34 GMT

This time I hiked with my wife and irrevocabilis. This is one of my pictures from that enchanted place that is Sunol Regional Park

Hike

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:33:16 GMT

For more pictures from this hike click here.

Spring in Northern Hemisphere

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:18:23 GMT

Today I noticed that my yard has 42 different species of flowers in bloom. Kind of cool to have that in the middle of March! You can see them all here

I'ma gonna...

Fri, 23 May 2008 17:55:34 GMT

I'm so emo I'm gonna bite ma arm off...

One of the pictures I took last weekend in the Ohlone Wilderness.

Monterey Aquarium

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:35:55 GMT

Wow! I haven't been here for a while!

Yesterday I went with my sweetheart to the Monterey Aquarium. That was our date to celebrate Valentines Day. It was great. What an incredibly interesting place. Usually I hate visiting a zoo because I feel so bad for the animals. At the Aquarium I was just thinking that these creatures do not have enough neurons to mentally suffer from imprisonment. I hope.

Here is a picture I took of one of the sea anemone.

Also a picture of a jelly fish. They were so beautiful!

Signing off for a while

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 01:19:07 GMT

I will not be visiting LJ for a while. See if I can live without it.

Laterz...

Smoky skies

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:14:55 GMT

When the nearby hills are on fire and the wind blows our way, the skies fill with smoke. The sun casts a strange orange and gold color light.

Mount Diablo

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 02:26:20 GMT

With some friends I hiked to the Hidden Pond on the slopes of Mount Diablo. We had a great picnic and a lively discussion (most people were immigrants from Europe). The wild oat grasses are drying out now, looking like a carpet of gold. It was truly enchanting there and it was hard to go back home.

Back to Sunol

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:32:41 GMT

I spent the night at Sunol Park and the following day helped out at the aid station for the Ohlone 50K race. But before the race begun, I took some landscape pictures. You can see them here.

Bold to be bald

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 03:51:17 GMT

I was looking at a lot of great black and white portraits lately and decided to try doing one myself:

And remember what the Bible says in 2 Kings 2:23 before you comment! :-)

Bike Riding

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:53:11 GMT

I went bike riding with my friend at the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds. It was just the perfect weather. We did over 12 miles not meeting almost any people, just wild Canadian Geese and squirrels. What a great place to be on a day like this.

No, we did not meet this mermaid. It's just an icon.

Carmel sand and US penny

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:06:12 GMT

During my recent visit there, I was fascinated with the sand on the beach in Carmel (California). It was so white it hurt the eyes and so incredibly fine, like powder. I brought some home and took a picture of it through a microscope, with a common penny as a background. Looking at the grains I realized why it was so white - it's pure quartz! See attached pictures.

In the process, it was also interesting to discover that the penny is the only US coin to use lower register "o" in "UNITED STATES oF AMERICA", while the rest of the coins follow the more expected all-capital letters. Funny, isn't it?

Please help!

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 03:28:49 GMT

I was asked to submit 3 or 4 of my pictures to a photo exhibition - any pictures. I have never done anything like that and am a bit lost as to which ones to choose. Some of my favorites are that way just because of their sentimental value and not because of their inherent aesthetics.

Here is where I need your help: please visit this website made up of what I consider are some of my best pictures and tell me which 3 or 4 you think I should submit:

http://zarzycki.org/jurek/picts/favs/index.html

If your favorite pic (that I took) is not on that web page, please let me know. I will appreciate all feedback!

THANKS!

Berkeley Oak Grove protest and picture

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:01:09 GMT

Today I went to Berkeley to participate in Jack Gescheidt's photo shoot at the Memorial Oak Grove as part of the ongoing demonstration there. The University administration decided to cut down these beautiful old trees and build another structure. Since this is the only grove remaining on or around the campus, many people were outraged. Some students started to live in these trees to protect them. Since Jack loves trees and uses his art to help people establish a spiritual connection to them, it was very natural for him to get involved.

I took BART and walked over to the grove. When I left Fremont it was sunny and warming up rapidly, so I decided to ignore Jack's recommendation to dress warmly. As the train left Fremont, the fog rolled in and it got colder and darker. I seriously considered turning around, but decided to count on my lucky star. The walk from BART station to the grove warmed me up as well.

There was a big crowd there already. Usually Jack does not advertise his events publicly, notifying only his volunteers. That way we have some element of surprise and do not attract gawkers. This event however was advertised as widely as possible, with the result that there seemed to be more gawkers with cameras than willing models. Also TV crews, reporters of all sorts and people anxious for interviews with Jack. Cops showed up as well. Two of them - trying to look as serious and mean as they could. They tried to intimidate Jack, but he is not the type to be scared too easily when something important needs to be done. He climbed a tree (with his usual monkey-like agility) to talk to us. But just at that moment Tinker Bell who lives high in that very tree, started to play her guitar and sing a ballad. I was wondering if Jack was going to talk over this, but he is too sensitive and kind for that. He relaxed in a crook between two massive branches and waited for Tinker Bell to finish. The song was long and at times funny and at times very emotional. A strange hush fell over the crowd below and we all were caught up in that ballad, craning our necks upward to see Tinkerbell. She won our hearts.

In his talk Jack was very sincere and very emotional. He told us that the cops threatened us all with arrests, but he was going to continue with the shoot and invited us to do the same. A few other people made emotional and even agitating statements, but Jack calmed everyone down. He told us that we came here in the spirit of peace and tolerance, that we were engaged in a beautiful cause. When people talked angrily about the cops, he reminded us that the cops are good people, fathers and husbands, doing their job.

As usual, we started with a "dressed rehearsal", taking positions while still clothed. He asked us not to climb trees this time, to avoid charges of unsafe behavior. Instead we were to lay down on the ground in front of his camera. We spread out and did just that. I ended up as one of the farthest from the camera, but in a patch of sunlight which just managed to burn through the fog, lifting our spirits and cheering us up. Jack was adjusting some of the people, spreading them out some more and trying to keep the gawker photographers at bay. Some of his crew scurried about with video cameras working on a documentary. They politely asked if anyone minded being filmed and no one did. One women not far from me kept expressing disbelief that she would do something like this for the first time in her 50 plus years. She did not look her age at all. She said that until now only her husband knew how she looked like naked.

Jack kept telling us what a beautiful sight we were and that we should try to feel the earth beneath us, the very soil that gave birth to these magnificent trees and to us. I tried doing that, thinking in these terms and it worked. I felt like a baby splattered on Mom's reassuring warm tummy. It was a very comforting and relaxing feeling. I nearly fell asleep.

Finally Jack was done with his tweaking of the set-up and asked us to leave our clothes outside of "the frame" and return to our positions. We did that quickly. On my one side was a beautiful woman laying nearly face down, her nice butt next to my face. On the other side was my newly met friend Lisa, lying face up, a beautiful blond woman, skinny like a rail yet perfectly proportioned. She told me that she conducts classes on sexuality and worried that she left her cell phone with her clothes and may miss a call from a client.

The cops just watched from a distance.

A few moments later and a few more exclamations from Jack on how beautiful we looked, and we were told that it was over. When I got up, I noticed that the "tree people" (tree sitters high up in the trees the whole time) also were undressed and draped the branches with their naked and vulnerable bodies. They looked so fragile, like butterflies, and just as beautiful. I gasped at the sight. It was like a drawing from a fairy tale, like a sight from Disney's "Fantasia.” Tinkerbell was sitting nude on a branch with her butt hanging out, kicking her legs back and forth. All the gawker photographers were clicking away until their cameras run out of memory. I must say that I wished I had my camera with me as well! There was a general feeling of euphoria among the participants and the cops were gone. Many folks were dressing reluctantly. This was a very spiritual experience for me, an old atheist.

I went to say "good bye" to Jack and he gave me a long and strong hug. Not the typical "A-frame" hugs that most Americans exchange (most American men don't hug at all), but a strong, bear like hug, like I remember from Poland. I love that man.

Carmel By The Sea

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:00:17 GMT

Dian and I went for a few days to Carmel this week. The weather held up beautifully for us. The locals told us that it was unseasonably warm week and that just prior week it was unseasonably cold, nearly snowing. They lost a lot of exotic landscaping plants that previous week.

Following the excellent example of amygooglegirl photographic reports, here are some of our pictures (with extensive captions!) from that trip.

Enjoy!

Moonstone Beach at sunset

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:06:39 GMT

Shot at sunset at the same place...

More pictures here.

Moonstone Beach at sunrise

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:27:48 GMT

Moonstone Beach in Cambria, California early this morning (before sunrise):

Old Man and the Wind

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:38:02 GMT

Not to rob Hemingway, but here I was, an old man fighting the wind

To see a QT movie of the same scene click here.

Nędza z bidą z tyłu idą
Wiatr in w d...ę wieje
każdy się śmieje
a nikt nie zatka
bidnego zadka...

Night's lights

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:34:01 GMT

My son Mike suggested that I take a picture of him and his truck at night without a flash, just depending on the street lights. It took an 8 second exposure, but it worked:

A whisp of a cloud, a spirit of a bird...

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:24:14 GMT

I was invited to a hunt and took pictures there. You can see some here, and if you are totally bored or very curious, the rest of them here.

Rock

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 02:20:37 GMT

Today I took this picture along the road in Death Valley. Weird rock, looked like it was of volcanic origin.

Edit: for more pictures from this trip click here.