New Claremont Blog

If anyone is still looking at this blog, I would like to direct you to my new, reimagined Claremont-based blog which I am calling Claremontography. 

I will shift focus from my life in Claremont, and point readers to those things which make this Southern California town the special place that it is. I will be carrying my camera around town more than I used to, looking for Claremont sights and moments worth sharing.

Thanks to my loyal and occasional readers for following me around, and I hope you enjoy the new format.

Waterlogue

I have been having some fun with a new app that I bought for my iPad. It's called Waterlogue, and it turns photos into watercolors. It has a variety of filters, so you can get different effects. Here are just a few examples.

This is the original photo I took at LACMA in November

Colby Fire

With our drought in Southern California and high temps with Santa Ana winds, we woke this morning to the news of the Colby Fire in Glendora, about 11 miles west of Claremont. Obviously this fire is a great disaster for many reasons, but it also creates some amazing opportunities for photography. Unfortunately for me, whenever I was out and about and could see the smoke cloud or beautiful colors, I did not have a camera on me. Then, when I went looking for photos, my views were obscured either by buildings or the fact that it was just hazy.

Therefore, the photos in this post come courtesy of my friends. These two photos were taken by a firefighter who is married to one of my friends. He was at the fire early in the morning and managed to post them. I'm sure he will be very busy for a few days. Over a holiday weekend, no less.

This photo is from another friend of mine which looks like a photo I might have taken if I'd had my camera earlier today.

New Year's Revolution

You might be enjoying the commercials where the guy is talking to four kids who say the darndest things. In the most recent ad (seen here) the kid says that his new year's revolution [sic] is to eat more jelly beans.

I'm not big into resolutions anymore. Maybe I never was, but on my walk this morning I was thinking that I am so over taking pictures of food. The food is going to have to be awfully special for me to take photos of it. I think I will now go back through my 2012 photos and remove all those food pictures.

A Year Of Photos

This morning I went through all my photos from 2013 and decided not to bore anyone with my favorites, or whatever, as a year-end post. I did delete over 500 photos. That is from this year alone! I mean, how many pictures of flying pelicans, oceans, plants, food, bad photos of oneself, etc does one need to leave on the computer?

I ran across this one that I took last week. We were wandering through the colleges, and I was going to show L where I could not find Gabby Giffords' signature, and, low and behold, it popped right out at me. (You can see it right in the middle of the photo.)

So, in lieu of a year-end wrap-up, I will just say - Looking Forward to a New Year!

Edward S. Curtis Exhibit

From talking to someone who works at Honnold Library recently, I learned about the current exhibit of photographs by Edward S. Curtis, an ethnographer and photographer of the American West in the early 20th Century at the library. Since I had to return some books anyway, I thought I'd take a look.

This exhibit is definitely worth the time to explore. The photos show a great deal of detail and expression of the Native American people from across the country. 

I would suggest going during a non-prime study time since students study near these photos and it seems intrusive to try to look at them when you are standing just a few feet away from someone busy with their studies.

Cloudy Monday in Claremont

For your viewing pleasure, pictures of our luscious cumulous clouds from throughout the day.

iOS 7

I'm not what you would call an early adopter. I enjoy letting other people work out the kinks of a new product before I plop down my money. So, I will not tell you that I was in line today for the newest iPhone. Heck, I don't even have a previous iPhone.

Anyway, I decided to download the new operating system for iPad/iPhone/iWhatever last night on my iPad, and it's not too much different than the previous one. Swiping has changed a little bit, but it's not too hard to figure out, and the apps work the same way as they did before.

I guess one of the new features of this operating system is the filters in the camera, and though I don't take many photos with my iPad, I thought I would try it out. Here is a picture of a rock and its shadow with one of the filters and the enhance button. I don't think this will be a time sink for me, but it's nice to have it if I want it.

Photographing Kansas

One of the things I was looking forward to on my Kansas sojourn was to take landscape photos. The forecast was for scattered showers, so I was hoping for some great clouds. I did not get any of the clouds that I imagined, but I did manage to find a few shots that I like. Here they are, in no particular order.

The wheat is about 1-2 feet high and still green.

This is the barn at my cousins' farm

Sunset at the farm

Sunset with mailboxes

Pawnee Rock Memorial - Read more about it here.

View from the top of the Pawnee Rock Memorial

Shot through the car window - several of many, many wind turbines seen along I-70

Shadow Photos

During one of the softball games at Occidental College last Friday, I strolled through the campus and took some shadow photos. Shadows are one thing I like to look for and photograph. I have a set of shadow photos on my Flickr site.

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Day 16 - Clutter Cleanse: I wrapped up the little book Grunt by Sandra Boynton to send to someone in Ohio through Paperbackswap.com. I thought I might use it in my music classroom, but I never did, and probably never will, even though it is a cute book.

A Photo An Hour - April 8

I got this idea for a blog post from my daughter's Instagram feed. One day she posted a photo an hour from the time she got up until the time she went to bed. Yesterday was the Monday of Spring Break, so I had more leeway for photo-taking throughout the day. Here is a look at my day off from work.

7:00 a.m. - My shades are drawn as I listen to Morning Edition and learn that Margaret Thatcher has died.

8:00 a.m. - Walking home from the gym in the gentle rain.

9:00 a.m. - Updating my podcasts and drinking coffee. (Day 9 of Clutter Cleanse entailed going through many files on my computer and deleting them.)

10:00 a.m. - Trying to decide which salsa to buy at Trader Joe's.

11:00 a.m. - Practicing the viola.

12:00 noon - Almost time for lunch, but admiring the way the sun has come out and the start of leaves on the trees.

1:00 p.m. - Starting a book.

2:00 p.m. - Getting ready to practice the violin.

3:00 p.m. - Working on garageband for an accompaniment for my recorder students.

4:00 p.m. - Words with Friends.

5:00 p.m. - Gathering ingredients for dinner.

6:00 p.m. - Working on eating dinner.

7:00 p.m. - Going to orchestra rehearsal at Balch Auditorium. 

8:00 p.m. - Rehearsing Haydn's Creation.

9:00 p.m. - Chilling in front of the t.v.

10:00 p.m. - Getting ready to read a little in bed before falling asleep.

3rd Annual Women's Retreat

Just a photo from the Glen Ivy Retreat Center this morning just before we left our Women's Retreat. The air was clear, the clouds beautiful, but we had to find the right place for a photo since so many trees block the view of the mountains.

The Getty Villa

Yesterday we took a little field trip to the Getty Villa in Malibu. B is writing his dissertation and one of his chapters has a small section about this museum, but he had never been, so it was a perfect opportunity to go.  We left the cloudy, rainy, cold weather of Claremont and had a perfectly sunny time in Malibu. Of course I was happy to try out my new camera lens. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the museum.