Category Archives: street

10.9.11

Dad Bikes to SF

About two weeks back, my dad cycled from Portland to San Francisco.   On his last rest day we caught up on the Embarcadero over lunch and under sunny skies.  I feel really lucky to have such a healthy and happy father who can still bike circles around me.   I also really like showing him off on the blog, because dad gave me my first great camera, a Nikon film SLR, way back when I was in college.  It’s really cool that now I get a chance to help him out with his Canon G12.    But I still cannot explain the shoes.  Maybe I’ll appreciate them more when I’m older.  But I doubt it.

 

 

 

 

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3.7.11

Used To: The Virtue and Vice of Remembering

In moments of self-awareness, I can acknowledge that one of the reasons why I gravitated so strongly to photography is that I love to remember.   In moments of self-honesty, however, I can also admit that not all of my remembering is good for me.  I can’t remember (har har) what set this train of thought into motion last fall, but I have been thinking about this in the context of lots of things going on in my life since then.  Lots of questions come up.  When do I transition from fondly reminiscing about the past to mentally setting up house in it?   When does trying to reference a lesson learned transition into reliving and wallowing in a negative experience?  How often is history rewritten in my head?    Does it all keep me from moving forward?   And, of course…why?  I made a list of what comes up for me when I think about the past.  Ideas about myself, my childhood, my relationships.  There are plenty of dark spaces in those thoughts.  However, this series is meant to depict associations that are mostly joyful for me, although I have both positive and negative associations with them all.  I’m hopeful that this exercise might provide a segue into examining the shadowy corners.

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

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steph

love love love the mouthpiece. i have, to this day, never heard you play. but i love that you love to remember, as i do too. and i’ve asked myself similar questions. it’s hard for me to know where that line is between remembering and regressing, and i find that on any given day, the same memory might affect me completely differently. sometimes that memory is easy, just factual history, while other days it’s heavy with emotion. i think my emotional response to a memory, especially one that isn’t consistently light and fun, largely reflects what else is going on in my life, and the danger for me is when i let my current thoughts/situation influence my perception of the so-called reality of the memory. suddenly i fail to see all the shadows, and focus only on that tiny glint of sun that at the time didn’t offer any light, warmth, or life. but in my altered perception, i’ve glorified it.

without our memory, our lives lose meaning. so even though remembering can sometimes keep us in a rut, i’d rather wallow in a memory than have nothing in my memory at all. and one thing is certain – everything changes, so the wallowing simply cannot be interminable.

i think you’re very self-aware. and very vunderwool.

Karen from Chookooloonks

LOVE this series. LOVE.

3.6.11

Getting Around in Palo Alto

I haven’t been in the best spirits lately, and part of why is that I haven’t been shooting very much.  This afternoon, I forced my way out the door and down to Palo Alto to meet up with some fellow photographers for a photo walk.  I ended up walking alone and, using one wide-angle lens, I focused on capturing symbols of how people get themselves from place to place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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steph

the dog is unattractive (to me) but looks awesome in your amazing shot. and i love the teal bike handle bars. makes me think my beautiful bike needs a photo shoot with you too…capture its true beauty thru a d.u.eye, you know?

Ernest

Nice theme, Dana! I especially like the bike detail shots, zipcar, and the blurred traffic.

matt

Makes me miss Palo Alto a lot! Great captures Dana – love the movement in that final shot.

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