Friday Fotos (posted on Saturday?)

I was in California last week and did not get the chance to post photos and I am a bit behind this week, so my Friday Fotos are being posted on Saturday. 

We were in California because our daughter Suzie works for Google and Google held its first ever "bring your parents to work day".  Google really did the day up nicely starting things off with a few speakers telling us what it is like for our kids to be working there.  Of course it is wonderful.  Parents got to walk the campus, be entertained, eat in their renowned cafeterias, and attend a cocktail party (things that our Google kids probably do at work every day).

Opening ceremony for google kids and their parents

Google phone booth (remind you of Dr. Who?) and Android Phone

Welcome parents (and granddaughter too)

Other than going to Google and playing with our granddaughter, we took a lot of walks in and around Palo Alto, home to my daughter's family.  The first hike was through a beautiful park nicknamed the Darma iniative by Suzie and Matt.  Very picturesque but there was one particular object that drew our attention.  Is Big Brother is listening to everything we say.

We were able to walk within a few feet of this radio antenna

Interesting tree sculpture

We also walked around the Stanford University campus.  What a beautiful place to go to school!  They have several Rodin sculptures around campus.  This one is named the Burghers of Calais. Information on this sculpture can be found here. 

Burghers of Calais

Burghers of Calais

Burghers of Calais

We visited a Palo Alto park (restricted to residents of Palo Alto and their guests).  There was a beautiful pond with a picturesque wooden bridge leading to a small island.

Lastly, we walked around downtown Palo Alto.  The first few pictures are of a sculpture made by Mildred Howard called Clear Story.  To read about Mildred and this sculpture click here.  The wood frame of this structure is filled with clear glass bottles.  It was impressive from every angle, inside and out.  The last photo is also from downtown, one of the many beautiful houses in Palo Alto.

Friday Fotos

The Plymouth Digital Photography club challenge for March was "Do you see abstract?"  The instructions were:

    "An abstract emphasizes lines, colors, geometrical forms, shapes etc., and their relationship to one another. Your subject does not need to be clearly identified; you should be more concerned with good design. When deciding what to photograph, look for the play of light and shadow, and consider things like selective focus and details of objects when you view them up close. You can find your abstract in nature, architecture, tools, urban and rural areas." 

I don't know if the following quite fits this definition, but I had fun modifying some recent photos and processing them in ways to create different ways to view the photo.  Below, I show the original untouched photo then follow it with a photo processed version of that photo.

(Boring) Winter Picture of Rocks

Cropped the Rock Picture and "Liquified" Different Parts of the Picture - Now the Rocks Look Like a Flower?

(Self Portrait) Wearing Snorkeling Mask

Spiced Up the Picture with Photo Processing

 

St. John, VI View from Deck

View from Deck Cropped - I like all the Grays, Curves, and Lines

Stormy Sea at Manomet Point, Plymouth (from inside car)

Picture Cropped and Storm Intensified by Photo Processing

Friday Fotos - Web Links to Interesting Photography

     I didn't get a chance to go out and take photos this week, so I thought I would compile a list of web sites that have interesting photos that came to me by emails from friends and family. Some of you may have already seen some of these web sites, but maybe not all of them. Sadly, I never thought of saving the links to these sites, but since I received several in the last couple of weeks, I will provide those links here. Looking at these pictures convinces me that we all should be out there taking pictures because what may seem ordinary to us today may be of historic interest to others in the future. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

     Thank you to those who have sent me the links and if you like these links, keep sending me more links for me and others to enjoy.

Civil War (link from my cousin Bob)

     The Atlantic: "Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, a milestone commemorated by The Atlantic in a special issue (now available online." Photos of the Civil War were published in two parts. Each part shows 48 photos. Here are the links to each part:

     The Civil War, Part 1: The Places

     The Civil War, Part 2: The People

      Commemorative articles The articles in this edition are written by notable authors such as Mark Twain, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, etc.

WWII - Iwo Jima - Rare Color Film (link from my cousin Bob)

     Documentary on Iwo Jima  This is a 9 plus minute film of February 1945 US landing on Iwo Jima.  My father may have been a part of this fight.  He didn't talk much about his service during WWII, but I have a small calendar book of his days in the war.  He briefly mentions Iwo Jima.  I also remember a brief mention of his having something to do with the troop landing craft.  He may have been on a boat that was responsible for refueling these boats.




Retronaut (link from my son James)
     This is a web page that has many themed photos. The photos are also categorized by decade. 

     Victorian Artificial Arm

    
     Construction of ...




     Through the Lens of ...

Humor (I believe I got this link from my friend Paul).  I guess Paul knows that I have a bent sense of humor.

     Bent Sense of Humor


End of Depression/WWII in the US  (link from Paul) Part of Photo Blogs from the Denver Post

      America in Color 1939 - 1943 


     The 70th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 2011)

  Photography of Vivian Maier (I learned of this web site through one of the web blogs I follow).
     John Maloof has published a collection of photos (1950s - 1990s) from a previously unknown street photographer Vivian Maier's.  He acquired these photos at an auction.  Read John's story of discovering this photographer's works in the right panel of the above link as it in itself is a fascinating story.  

UPDATE (3/25/2012)
Revere Beach - old post cards from my neighbor Stan:

    Postcards of Old Revere Beach

Friday Fotos - St. John, USVI Vacation

Just returned from our one week Feb/Mar 2012 vacation to St. John in the US Virgin Islands.  We had great weather, good food, and fun snorkeling in the bays throughout St. John.  The only bad event in our trip was that our underwater camera leaked on the second day and no longer works.  We got one good day of pictures a few of which are shown below.