John & Anne Wiley

2012/06/11

Housing Geometry

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 01:52

Some homes explore geometry beyond the rectangular shapes most of us live in. This collection is between Carp and Ojai.

1882 Country Geometry

1882 Country Geometry

I like how the angular buildings complement the round landscaping in this first one. Also the contrasting colors of the trees. Next up is a hillside fortress with sloping walls.

1883 Slope Shapes

1883 Slope Shapes

The complex geometric shapes mix well with the sloping stone walls and wandering paths. This last one is massive, and though there’s a clump of rectangles at the core it has some other shapes mixed in. There’s a well-tended estate around it extending beyond this pic. Imagine floating in that indoor/outdoor pool and paddling out to the edge to take in their marvelous view.

1899 UnSquare Feet

1899 UnSquare Feet

2012/06/09

Rock, Water, Life, Time

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:02

When I fly the hills here, the rocks never cease to sing their stony stories. Maybe a geologist would benefit from scientific understanding of every nook and cranny. To me, there’s sculpture wrought by water, life and time.

1852 Tangerine Falls

1852 Tangerine Falls

Not just the rain and waterfalls, but every life form that has touched these rocks makes a mark. Sometimes I see the rocks moving in slow motion over eons to catch a play of light that simulates shapes in my imagination.

1855 Fantasy Shapes

1855 Fantasy Shapes

Talking amongst themselves, they speak to me. When I walk or drive among such shapes they speak, but from the air another sort of language emerges somehow.

1857 Detail

1857 Detail

Maybe the same details would emerge looking across a ridge or down a ravine. But maybe the combination of a fleeting whim to snap a scene combines with the ease and freedom of flight to produce what I experience as unique. I don’t recall a single snap from the ground that evokes what these views do for me.

1860 Add Air

1860 Add Air

When I add air to the rock, water, life and time, another dimension emerges.  An expanded context. Somewhat like when I first met The David in Florence, Italy. I walked around the shape several times, and was startled by how much more powerful it is in three dimensions. I wanted to float around it to see every angle Michelangelo did. I wanted to add air. Is this part of the fascination I find in flight?

2012/06/08

Fly Envy

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 01:15

As a kid, I had fly envy. Watching them whiz around and even land upside down on the ceiling made me want to do that. Now my fly envy arises when we haven’t flown for a week or more and I hear a distant plane. Well, just now it nudged me to share some flying pix. I chose the place nearby with a scary name (in Spanish), Diablo nuke plant, because Edhat ran one of my pix from that flight today. That’s it in the distance in the first shot of course, but check out how beautiful that whole area is.

9281 Diablo Area

9281 Diablo Area

That big offshore rock at the right is the subject of the next pic, and if you click to see the larger version you can make out lots of seals and some birds hanging out there.

9289 Seal Rock

9289 Seal Rock

Locals will know I was approaching Diablo flying along the coast toward Avila and home to Santa Barbara. That route offshore gives a nice safe view of the nuke plant, and the reassuring sight of the gravity-feed core cooling water reservoir above the plant. It’s sure situated in a beautiful area. I sighed deeply just now remembering that flight. My fly envy is temporarily eased. 🙂

9292 Diablo Hills

9292 Diablo Hills

2012/06/07

Bowl Of

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 05:57

Life is a bowl of cherries. Some add a comment about the pits, but I like to focus on how sweet life can be. Playing with a new camera at the farmer’s market it was fun trying to capture the essence of cherry.

0007 Bowl of Cherries

0007 Bowl of Cherries

As she was about to sample one, I caught the sweeter essence of a cherry with the fingers of my favorite human.

0006 Free Sample

0006 Free Sample

Later we paused passing Alameda Park for a very different mood. Light slanting among the chorus of trees and a couple in quiet company sing a different harmony of life’s fleeting sweetness.

0017 Tree Song

0017 Tree Song

2012/06/05

Evening Walk

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:16

We took a short walk up a nearby hill this evening just at sunset, and it was a split decision. We enjoyed the walk and conversation, the air, the views, and being together. On the other hand, I’m checking out a new camera and Anne’s checking out my old one. So the other major aspect of the time was stopping to futz with cameras trying to capture images like this.

0014 Sunset Stroll

0014 Sunset Stroll

The new camera is much quicker (even ISO 6400 shots like this are passable), so after sunset I was able to catch these crows that would’ve been long gone by the time the old camera managed a dark, blurry and emminently deletable attempt.

0017 Magic Moment

0017 Magic Moment

Trying to snap long zoom shots with one hand while flying is much easier when you can use a high ISO setting, so I’m quite keen to take this camera for a ride. This camera also gives truer color in dim light. So even without direct sun on them, the hills in this next one still show up as more like what we saw, rather than gray silhouettes.

0040 Dusk Colors

0040 Dusk Colors

Even after our eyes weren’t seeing much color, it was possible to ramp up the camera speed and get this shot reminiscent of ancient ruins in a jungle.

0049 Dusk Surprise

0049 Dusk Surprise

In case anyone’s wondering, the camera is a Nikon D5100. I’d been looking at the newer and more popular D3200, but just couldn’t come to terms with the relatively poor low light performance. This 5100 is about the same price, lower resolution, and a bit gnarly to use for advanced shots (auto settings are easy) due to annoying buttons, menus and controls. But as you can see, it’s starting to win me over. 🙂

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