What happens to all the photos people take? Yes, a few end up on the Internet, but where are the rest?

Guy with Camera, July 4, 2011

Copyright © 2011 Paul D. Natkin, All Rights Reserved

When a photographer sets up at the Viewpoint, it completely changes the space.

Photographer and Sentinel (III), Mar 11, 2011

Copyright © 2011 Paul D. Natkin, All Rights Reserved

A couple with a camera can spend a very long time at the Viewpoint.

Couple with Camera, Jan 1, 2011

Copyright © 2010 Paul D. Natkin, All Rights Reserved

Now that we've passed the winter solstice, I expect the days to gradually grow longer. I drove by the Viewpoint a little earlier today. I didn't have my camera with me. It was cold, and the sky was mostly gray or white, with some bands of pale blue showing through. I wasn't tempted to hurry back with my camera.

Hanging Branch

The most unusual thing I spotted at the Viewpoint today was a small branch that was hanging, loose, from one of the larger branches of the Sentinel. I've seen loose, hanging branches on the Sentinel before, but not often. The branch may hang there for days, even weeks, before the wind brings it to the ground.

There were three teenage guys hanging out in a van on the neighboring street. I don't remember what they looked like, exactly, or what they were wearing, but I think they had on either jeans or sweats or a combination of the two. I'm kind of remembering black, dark blue or gray. One of them had blond hair. I remember him best because as I was leaving the park, he nearly ran into my tripod, as I was folding it up and putting it back into its case. He had gone on a short excursion over the edge and was scrambling back up onto the cement walk where the edge meets the neighboring street. I was walking down that walk.

Other than this, I saw just two people while I worked with my camera at the Viewpoint: both joggers, both women in the range of about thirty to forty years old. One had on a black top and short red shorts. She had dark hair. The other had on a combination of black and white, I think, but I've forgotten the details. They both looked like they were in good shape.

I took just one photo--one of the bay. It's a cold day today, and the light is bluish, so I wasn't as inspired as yesterday. The landscape is punctuated by reds and yellows, although we're not to the height of autumn yet. I wonder whether the palm trees on the arterial will make it through the winter. I've noticed people are planting them more frequently than in the past. Up until a few years ago, the most exotic tree anyone grew around here was a monkey tree or a Chinese yew. The only place you saw palms was in the conservatory. They remind me of Miami and L.A.

The Full Moon

Moon over Interlaken

Copyright © 1987 Paul D. Natkin, All Rights Reserved

No two full moons are alike. Each is different from the next. One can always expect something new from the moon. Tonight's was pale orangish yellow when it rose--a reminder that fall will come pretty soon. And it felt like fall this morning. It was cool, and the sky was overcast. Someone I know who comes from Poland told me he was thinking about going mushroom-hunting--in the mountains, I think he said.

It was hard to find a vantage point from which I could see the moon over the Viewpoint. From the street, the moon's position was over the dark ravine. If I wanted to view the moon framed by a tree overhead, I had to walk a few feet below the edge, at a point where the slope isn't too steep, and then I needed to stand at exactly one point--a slightly precarious one. If I moved even an inch or so to the right or left, the moon moved too far to be perfectly framed. I didn't take a photo; I didn't have my camera. I'll save it as a memory. It was the Sentinel that did the framing.

Later, once the moon had risen up above the two cemeteries, a trail of thin clouds wafted across its surface. When this happens, I sometimes watch for a very long time, observing the slow changes.

I've noticed that the park below has been closed for many weeks. I don't know why. It's been in the back of my head, but I guess I've been thinking about it a lot on some level.

I forgot to mention that I saw a bat flitting around on my way to the Viewpoint.