i think. im not a big bird watcher or anything, but i do get extremely interested in local birds. we have a pretty good idea of our local bird ecosystem up on the mountain (red tailed hawks, great horned owls, 800 kinds of woodpecker that wake you up at 7am) but recently i have become very interested in researching the various giant sea and marsh birds we come across on our bay trail bike riding. anyway, all of my interweb research has led me to believe this is a great blue heron. now that i know where he lives, i am gonna head back out with a decent lens sometime and shoot him flying around.

another shot, this giant pelican and his pelican friend followed us around for like 10 miles. they would overfly us pretty low, then go up ahead to sit on poles and bridges to watch us pass. then follow us again for another overfly. pretty funny.

we went bike riding on the sf bay trail today, as per usual weekend plans, this time doing the san mateo => san carlos portion of the trail. we saw lots of marsh birds, shore birds, raptors, and sea birds. this is some kind of hawk or raptor that was hunting the marsh flats and spooking jackrabbits. plz ignore the graininess of all of these as i still continue to leave my ISO set super high and not check it until halfway thru shooting when I wonder why my shutter speed is running into HI again. :(((

yesterday renee hada cupcake party! she invited over kori and me to make cupcakes! what do you get when you mix food coloring, fondant, and 3 art students? sushi cupcakes!

yesterday after riding 15miles with evan, zane, and yuriy, i decided to head down to watch the sierra pt night cyclocross races with AJ, since his gf was competing in the women's elite. here is mel as she comes in from her last lap. view the entire set here.

i have a egret (i think) friend who lives down in our lagoon. i often see him while riding my bike, and have made it a habit to photograph him every so often. this picture is a bad angle, but i love his skinny little legs hanging down.

to cut it or to grow, now that is the question.

yesterday was the 20th annv of my brother's death. i am doing a lot of reflecting and missing over the next few days (not like i don't always miss him, i still think about him every day, just always around the annv i do a lot of thinking about the person he would have become and how our lives would have been had he stayed living.) so please don't mind if there is radio silence.

the sunrise was pretty this morning, however it was also red and dramatic. this afternoon brings clouds and the smell of rain.

here are a couple more pics from halloween taken by the amazing dr j. there will be at least 1 more shot from the town photobooth that was set up, but im waiting on prints back from it.

one more pic from last night. the girls are too cute in this.

my costume ( in honor of my deceased grandpa, an ironworker, and also for all other deceased ironworkers) repping local #377.

--hep

--hep

I did not get a chance to snap a shot of Evan yesterday morning, as a) there is no light at 6:30am when he leaves, b) he did not wake me up because of c) he was running super late and had 5mins to make it to the bus after he woke up. However, he was the Doctor from Dr. Who and it's an excellent costume, I will be sure to grab a shot later this evening.

Zoe was an Autumn Fairy, Zane was the Teen Child of Frankenstein.




nullcherri, kori, and I have the best costumes ever! Even Yura is getting in on it and playing a support character. I promise pix if we all remember to take them! <3 Happy halloween everyone!

happy halloween everyone! i will post better jpgs later!

sometimes when i am really bored i like to climb inside a giant thread spool and just chillax.

this picture of matty aka sabotage by pascal is too cute. totally captures his personality. and HE IS SINGLE, LADIEEEEZZ.

i am going to post two more of these today because they are funnee. click thru to read the sign, or i will just type out what it says here (emphasis mine):

/!\ WARNING

Brick Buildings on Site are Unreinforced
Masonry and Potentially Hazardous.
Do not enter such buildings
or linger in the vicinity.