Piers of San Diego County

Piers of San Diego County, a set on Flickr.

I had written earlier about planning to take photos of piers in San Diego County.

I am in midst of doing this, and placing the photos on Flickr. Also being a user of Google+, I really should be also posting the photos there, but haven't yet gotten into that habit.

So, for now at least, I wanted to share the link to Flickr set I am placing these pier photos in.

The pier thing

San Diego County is known for its piers. Fishing piers, docking piers, private piers.

I've photographed some of these piers in past, but never with an intensive effort to document them and the environments around them.

I've decided to make such an effort my next major photography plan.

So, at least for now, my thoughts are to photograph the following types of piers within San Diego County:

• Public fishing piers
• The major public docking piers on San Diego Bay:
• the two cruise ship piers,
• Navy pier,
• and the Coronado Ferry Landing.
• And at least one private pier: Scripps Pier, which is operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Access to that pier itself is restricted to the Institution, but the area underneath it is very picturesque and easily reached with a walk from La Jolla Shores beach.

I'm thinking to do this going from south to north, and so will be driving to the Imperial Beach Pier shortly.

Two very different photographic results from one visit to Balboa Park

I decided to visit Balboa Park today before the heat built up too much (we are in the middle of San Diego's first significant heat wave of summer 2012.)

Upon parking, in the lot closest to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, I had a good chuckle from this banner, which was advertising one of the current exhibitions in the Science Center.

I then made my way to the Botanical building, and found a display of a completely unfamiliar plant that had an unusual-looking means of flowering: the Golden Candle (scientific name Pachystachys lutea).

Rather than trying to write up my own description of the plant, I am going to provide a link to an excellent discussion of it on an Australian site:http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2000/archives/2000/in_the_garden/flowering_plants_and_shrubs/golden_candles

I saw I had a possible diptych after first finding some nice drops from the days watering on one of the plants, then finding a small web, itself covered with water drops, on another of the plants. The spider didn't give itself much space to work, which I'm guessing may have something to do with how untidy the web was.

Visiting "Fallen Star" on site

Having previously taken photos of UCSD's latest public art piece, "Fallen Star", from the ground, I have strongly wanted to visit the piece when the site it is on became available for public visiting. Here is one of those ground views:




The availability for public visiting started roughly a couple months ago, but I had not been able to make a visit due to when visiting is available: Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM each of those days. Having scheduled a day off from work for today (August 9, 2012), I decided I'd finally make the visit, and of course bring along my camera.

One minor aggravation of visiting UCSD on a weekday is you have to purchase a parking permit; on campus parking is free on weekends! Oh, well. At least finding a space wasn't too much of a headache, as student presence is always lighter during summer quarter.

So I made the walk to the main building of the Jacobs School of Engineering; Fallen Star sits on top of one its towers. I walked into the lobby and was interested to find no mention whatsoever of the piece to be seen; interesting. So, I got into one of the lobby elevators and went to the top floor, Stepped out of the elevator, and voila, there was Fallen Star. There's a door built into that floor's elevator lobby that leads out to the site, the small garden that is part of it, and of course the Fallen Star piece itself.

This was just before 11 AM. There were already a few people standing around the garden, but the door for the piece itself was locked. Turned out that is unlocked by a staff attendant who remains on site to answer questions and apparently act as de facto security by just being present.

Fallen Star proved to be fascinating, outside and inside. Everything about is deliberately off kilter, which makes just standing in it, much less moving around in it quite an experience! The one exception to this is the chandelier, which hangs on a true plumb, but that is just a factor of gravity.

Also, I seem to recall reading somewhere that all the furniture and fixtures were made at three-quarters scale, which just boosts the slightly unreal feel

One interesting note is that even though it is bolted down to the building, only six adults (plus the staff attendant) can be in it at once.

All in all a fascinating experience.

Here's a photo taken today:

Um, yes, I'm still here. Let's give this blogging another try shall we?

Here's a new post:

As it had been several months since I last used my San Diego Zoological Society membership card, I decided to visit the Zoo today, July 4, and of course take a camera with me.

I ended up with three good photos: Two from a nice head-on view I had of what I think was the largest Galápagos tortoise available to view at the time, and one of flowers on a coral tree.

The flowers on this coral tree caught my eye because unlike flowers I have seen on previous coral trees, which were always a bright red, these were either a dark red or a purple. Hard to say which.

And here is a link to my Google+ album of those photos: July 4, 2012 San Diego Zoo photos