 Moss at Tomales Bay I’ve added Tomales Bay State Park to the Galleries on ProtectOurParks. Tomales Bay State Park is an hour and half from San Francisco. It’s hidden away in the Point Reyes National Seashore. It’s a great park with several interesting hikes. There are beaches for swimming also. It is a good place to launch a kayak;there was a class in progress while I was there. Check out the Galleries on ProtectOurParks for pictures.
The Park is on both the east and west shores of Tomales Bay. The last picture in the Gallery is from the east side;the others are from the west side.
One rumor I saw said that the park might be taken over by Point Reyes National Seashore. While that certainly makes sense,it doesn’t seem as if Congress is any more likely to send money to our parks than our own legislature. In fact, given the dysfunctional way Congress is proceeding,it seems less likely. ( I know, I know, both bodies are dysfunctional.)
The coffee place of the day was the Fair Fix Cafe. There are (at least) two coffee places in Fairfax; the other one is Fairfax Coffee Roastery. Both are reasonable – albeit, not great – places.
 Ripples on the Pond The opening at Canessa was great. Lots of people stopped by – the place was jammed all evening. Sorry if you missed it. But, that wasn’t your last chance. I’ll be at Canessa(708 Montgomery Street • San Francisco) from noon to 3 pm next Saturday, Sept. 10. Stop by and say hello.
 Twilight at Ocean Beach Tonight is opening night for the exhibit. Hope you’ve made plans to stop by some time during the month of September. Meanwhile, you can see my pictures on display on my special Canessa show page.
 Sonoma Coast Want to know more about the group show at Canessa? Check out the gallery web site.
 Artwalk 2011 September is a happening. A (small) subset of my portfolio Colors of the Spirit is on display at Canessa Gallery for the entire month. My work is part of a group show; the group includes other photographers, watercolorists, painters and sculptors.
The show culminates with Artwalk on September 24/25. Artwalk consists of local artists displaying their work and talent at neighborhood cafes, businesses, studios and galleries. Here’s a complete list and map. Spend a beautiful day in September wandering around North Beach checking out the art, having coffee at Cafe Greco and dinner at, well, you decide. There’s lots of places to chose from. I’ll see you there?
 Leaves, Benicia SRA Today I visited both state parks in Benicia that are on the hit list. The SRA is busy with hikers, joggers, bike riders and fishermen. Nice views and good trails. The picture is from the SRA.
Benicia State Capitol is much quieter. It’s only open on week ends now. Unfortunately, there was a meeting in progress in the Chamber [the Bear Republic will rise again?] so I wasn’t able to get many inside shots. Special thanks to the ranger who let me get a quick shot of the interior. She also recommended First Street Cafe for coffee. Good choice with excellent coffee and great scones. Check it out on your next trip to Benicia.
Protect Our Parks has been updated with the pictures from today.
 Flowers in Golden Gate Park I spent an hour or so in Golden Gate Park today testing a new camera. The camera is an Olympus XZ-1. So far, the results are pretty good. No, it’s not an SLR but it’s an order of magnitude lighter to carry around. I envision using it for a vacation camera. Check out recent work for some more shots from today.
 Exposed to the Right The Luminous Landscape website has a new article on expose to the right. I guess we could call it an update. Check it out.
 Typical Room in the Adobe I visited the Santa Cruz Mission SHP today. There’s not a lot left of the original –the church fell down in a 1857 earthquake. But there’s still something to be learned there. You can see my favorite shots on the Protect Our Parks Galleries. Most of the shots are of construction techniques. Mistreatment of indigenous people is a little harder to get shots of today.
I can’t imagine that the upkeep of this park contributes anything to the budget problems of the state. There was one (very helpful) ranger at the visitor center plus one other one working around the grounds.
Also,kudos to the person –not with the Parks –who spoke with me as I was entering the park. She gave me a good idea what’s important in the construction of the Adobe,something I had no idea about until I spoke with her. Thanks.
And, I had breakfast at Zachary’s once again. Great Place.
 Monitor Profile From time to time, I run into really useful software that performs some function I need/want. DispcalGUI is one such software program. The problem I’m working is display calibration. One piece of advice you will see every where when working in photography is to “Calibrate your Display.” Without a calibrated display, you have almost zero chance of getting prints that look like what you are seeing on the display. Many years ago I purchased a software/hardware package(Monoco EZColor Optix XR) to calibrate displays. It has worked well. The problem is that the new Apple OS, “Lion,” will not support that software anymore. While I don’t anticipate upgrading to Lion “real soon,” I thought I should look around for calibration solutions now. DispcalGUI is just the right thing. It is actually, as its name implies, an user interface to a collection of programs (Argyll) that will calibrate and profile your display. It works flawlessly on a Mac and is “Universal,” i.e, runs on any kind of Mac not to mention Windows and Linux as well. The price is whatever you care to donate to the developer. BTW, the developer is very responsive to requests for help – although it would be better to use the support forum. Check it out for your calibration needs.
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