End of July Update

Ok, so it's been a while.

I know it's been way too long because Elizabeth pokes me every few days asking when I'm going to update the blog.

Well, it's been a busy few weeks since the last post. I suppose the biggest news is that my mother came out for a visit from North Carolina. It was a vacation for relaxing, not sight seeing. She's been out here several times before so we didn't need to to the "touristy" things. Rather leisurely hikes, books on the deck, contemplating the hummingbirds... that was the agenda for this trip!

The other big news is that we are moving! Yes, we're leaving the mountains and redwoods of Mill Valley in the north bay for the flat lands of Alameda in the east bay. Why? Primarily location and space. Since I'll be working at Mills College in Oakland beginning at the end of the summer, Alameda is much closer. The commute from Mill Valley is at least 45 minutes (and that's without traffic). From Alameda it should be 10–15 minutes. For Elizabeth there is BART access to downtown San Francisco as well as SFO. There's also ferry service to downtown SF.

The new place also has more room, with a storage garage on the premises, so we'll no longer need off site storage. Plus I have more room for my printing work.

The new address is 1614 Chapin St, Alameda, CA 94501...

More pictures can be found here:

It's going to be a busy month! Elizabeth is flying of course, I've got photo shoots in Tucson and Vancouver and am preparing to start at Mills in August... all this and packing for a move. We take the keys 23 July. Poor Nancy!

Best get cracking.

Quick Trip

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Originally uploaded by meatyokra

Elizabeth had a trip to Japan (Narita) the beginning of May and I tagged along!

I travel so infrequently that I am willing – in fact eager – to go almost anywhere, at almost any time... and for any length of time.

Case in point: This 24 hour layover in Narita.

Ok, full disclosure – I flew first class out and back... so that made a trip to Japan, with only one day on the ground, bearable. In fact, it made it enjoyable. A bed, good meals and a dozen movies I've been meaning to watch – it's not a bad way to spend ten hours.

In contrast, while I lounged Elizabeth worked!

After a short night in a small room we were off to explore the city. (this country wasn't designed for someone of Elizabeth's height!)














The town of Narita is about an hour, by train, from Tokyo. Narita has a large temple and grounds as well as a quaint, winding downtown area – both of which we explored. It felt as though we packed quite a bit into our brief visit.

Portland Gig

Up in Portland for a short, one day photo gig. Actually, only a 3 hour gig. Another photo booth for Nike, this time at a store called Aries Apparel – a women's sporting goods store that is a Nike reseller. Like the Boston Marathon photo booth, I created the background for this one as well. I was happy with how this backdrop came out.

Today I'm off to the Nike Employee's store before my evening flight. How to kill a rainy day in Portland? Might as well spend money seeking bargains on the Nike campus!

Bird Hunting

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Originally uploaded by meatyokra

This guy has become my little obsession.
When the weather is nice and I have time on my hands I like to sit on the deck and patiently wait for this guy to show up.
(better viewed LARGE)

Not the easiest thing to catch – he flits around rather quickly and his wings aren't always in a good position (photographically). Guess it's the challenge that makes it fun!

This is what my setup looked like for these shots:









Here are a few others...

Leaving Boston

Beautiful city, Boston. Everything downtown looks like it should have "Ye Olde..." in front of it. Even this 7-Eleven on Beacon Hill.

I was out here working an event at the Niketown store for the 113th Boston Marathon.

It' such a photogenic city and I managed to take hundreds of photographs, too. Unfortunately they all looked a little like this...

Over 1,300 actually.
The event turned out to be a success, thankfully, so for the last couple of days I was relaxed enough (though tired) to have a run one day and take a walk around town the next.

I'd love to spend a week shooting this city. I know that wouldn't be enough to cover it but it would be a start!

The history, the architecture... it's a lot to take in. (you can see more here )

A Nice Day

(click on image to view larger)

Spring is here!

Well, if not actually here then it's close.
I can't believe it's been over two months since our last post! Spring is a time for beginnings so perhaps I will begin blogging anew...

Blossoms are appearing everywhere, even on the apple tree on our deck:

I'm looking forward to this year's crop of apple pies! Last year we had three different recipes, I think. I'm eager to try others so send 'em if you've got 'em...


Now that it's warmer Nancy has rediscovered the chiminea too. It's her little hot house. When the sun is out and hits it it really gets cooking.


And while Nancy is roasting in the chiminea, the humming birds are back at the feeder on the deck.




This "Sound of Music" scene is really only about 10 minutes from our house, up on Mount Tamalpais (Mt. Tam). A great day; it was about 72º, calm and clear.

The view overlooks Stinson Beach, a quirky, small beach community that – like most of the San Francisco area in the 60's and 70's – was a bit of a hippy hangout. There are a couple of nice café/restaurants and a beach front greasy spoon, a couple of new-agey shops and a family owned grocery store. The beach is very nice, although typically northern california cold.

Just the day before we did a hike to Cataract Falls, about 15 minutes or so from our place. The falls run from up on Mt. Tam down to Alpine Lake. As we're just coming off of our rainy season the falls were better than I've ever seen them!

Ok, so before that (there's so much to catch up on!) we took the full moon evening walk out to Point Bonita lighthouse. That too is only about 10 minutes from our place. We seem to be pretty close to lots of cool places...





















And finally – for now at least – the weather is getting good enough to enjoy afternoons on the deck again!












More to come!

NC

Mid January and I'm finally getting around to visiting my family back in NC for the holidays. As the difference between a ticket at Christmas and a ticket two weeks into January was about around $600 it only made sense to delay it just a little. As an added bonus, Elizabeth was able to trade into a Raleigh/Durham trip so she met me out here for a nice, fat 31 hour layover.

Elizabeth loves good barbecue and my mother had a line on a place about which she'd recently heard so we stopped on the way home. Yes, it was quite good...


The day after Elizabeth left we paid a visit to a long time family friend, Dr. John Hope Franklin. Among his obvious achievements, John Hope is an orchid grower and I had the brief opportunity to photograph some of them...



(other shots from the day...)

Happy New Year!

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Originally uploaded by meatyokra

We welcome 2009 at the Benson-Bond household and all of the hope it offers. It looks to be a little onerous in some regards but we're up to the challenge – and we have each other!

The champagne was very good but the bottle seemed a bit small this year. The glasses were sent to us by my mother. They are a set that she and my late father used to really like. We used them to invite in the new year as well as to toast our parents.

Happy New Year all!
_______________
Unrelated but interesting nonetheless is Nancy's recent habit of visiting me in the office at my desk. Every morning and some evenings she begs to get on my lap, where she often sits until evicted. Often she further climbs on the desk, obscuring my view and sitting or walking on the keyboard.

Here she can be seen winning a game of chess(it wasn't even close).

And here she is, taking a much deserved nap last night.


Uh-oh, this just in: Although Elizabeth and I turned in rather early last night it seems Nancy ushered in the New Year on her own! We awoke to find her on the sofa...