15dollarCam

Only in California ...

2010-12-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

... are you going to find autumn leaves on the left and a palm tree on the right.

Day Horse

2010-06-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is a takeoff on the posting from June, 2008, "Night Horses".

The venue is the same, yet the time of day, bike and camera angle have changed.

(Night Horses shown here below)

2010-01-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Eternity Takes Many Forms . . .

Distant Sunset seen from Space.

2009-12-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of taking photographs out of airplane windows. This is a distant sunset, seen from the airspace of 36,000 feet.

Summer storm in Idyllwild

2009-06-04T21:42:00.001-07:00

Photo Friday - Iconic.

2009-01-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

dream.

2009-01-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

i am you and you are me and we are we, together . . .

The Smell from Here

2009-01-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

This picture of a dog in sun-warmed bliss inspires some olfactory reflection:

The janitorial services at my office started using a translucent green urinal screen that makes the entire bathroom smell like scope. Minty fresh urinal.

The smell knocks me so completely out of my work-dulled reverie every time I walk in there. Today, it inspired contemplation on the nature of our daily smell-scapes. I was considering how much thought goes into creating the smell for a product. And whether the smell-designer thinks about the smells that are already likely to be part of that consumers surroundings, and how they might intermingle.

I rarely find myself willingly blending or merging with the ambient smells of my consumer life. It seems that whatever is considered 'average' and designed to entice the greatest number of people through the lowest common denominator, are not smells that I enjoy. The only times I find myself willingly and openly merging is in natural settings. Perhaps the scent of a jasmine blossom releasing its perfume into the night air. Then I might even pause to enjoy the lingering smell.

Coincidentally, as I type this, a co-worker has just sprayed an "orange" scented air freshener two desks over. It is now permeating my nostrils. His comment that he was hungry and the orange smell reminded him of food is exactly the discrepancy to the normal range of reaction to smells that I experience. It smells like orange-inspired chemicals to me. Period.

For example, I dislike the smell of just about every major supermarket I walk into. The initial blast of "bread smell" doesn't actually elicit thoughts of "bread". It just makes me think of "bread smell." I remember reading something in the book Fast Food Nation that said that intense research goes into chemical cocktails that are used to create the "food smell" of fast food. Think about the next time you pass a fast food restaurant. Does it smell like real food, or chemicals?

Only tangentially related to smells is this that an old college friend drew yesterday during the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony:

As an acquaintance said while we were watching yesterday's ceremony, "Ah, that new-president smell." Yes, just like a new car, the excitement of refreshing change. Let's all take a ride in the Obama mobile. Where do we want to go?

Nature is quite an artist.

2009-01-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

June, 2008.
En Route from California to Wyoming.
20,000 foot paintbrush.

Wild South.

2009-01-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

Baja, Mexico.
New Years, 2009.
Morning fog rolling in over the town of San Felipe.

Hair-oic.

2009-01-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all you guys do for the world of Hair Freedom.

My favorite City.

2009-01-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

San Francisco.
Long exposures.
Moon light and ambient city light only.
December 2008.

Night Horses

2008-06-10T10:54:00.001-07:00

Surly Posse!

(...continued on 6/9/10)

Worlds

2008-04-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

A neon and glass sculptural installation in the center of a pond. Long exposure.

Sunsets are easy...

2008-03-03T13:50:00.000-08:00

(But so satisfying)

111111111111111111111

2008-02-14T22:13:00.000-08:00

2 years and 200 posts . . .

2008-01-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

. . . ago, I started posting to 15dollarcam.

Since then, the 15dollarcam has been retired, and replaced with a Canon SD1000.

Sometimes I miss the simplicity.

Waves into Ocean.

2007-12-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

A wave ribbon cascades into a ribbon of waves.

Photo Friday - Dead of Night

2007-11-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

We are the Jetsons!

2007-11-29T14:29:00.001-08:00

Remember when we were young and waiting for the future to arrive?
I think my visions of what cities would look like were similar to this photo.
Which is strange, becuase I think Chicago has looked like this since the 1970's.
I guess I used to watch too much TV to notice . . .

What What time time is is it it ? ?

2007-11-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

Dark room.
Long exposure time.
60hz power cycling.

Thinking of M.C. Escher

2007-11-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

A little clearer now

2007-11-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

I guess this wasn't as hard as I thought it might be.
My parents both emailed me and got it right.
And RSL was right on it.

I was glad someone caught the farm imagery.
My original thought was of a meteor sailing over Iowa.

Here is another pic from that series
clearly showing the dashboard, speaker grate, and windshield.
The long exposure time caught the traffic light
above the intersection.

Do Not Adjust Your Monitor

2007-11-13T14:32:00.001-08:00

R.I.P. The 15dollarCam! I bought a Canon sd1000, and now have approximately 6.5 million more pixels to work with. Can anyone guess what this image is? Please leave a comment and let me know. -ZYL

Who watches who watches the watchers?

2007-08-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

After I took these photos in August, 2006, I never saw the heads again. But yesterday, while I was bicycling past the apartment where the blue heads used to live, I asked a man entering the building if he knew anything about them. He said that the heads were the product of a sculptor of some renown, and their owners had moved out of the building a year and a half ago, taking the heads with them. "Frankly, I don't miss them." He also said that there were some rules and regulations that the tenants of the apartment building had to follow with respect to what was visible from their apartment windows. He said that although he didn't like the heads, he never complained to the landlord. "Trust me, there's other things to fight about" he said.