The Ballerina Clown

by Ken Spencer



High up on the front of a building, on a busy street corner in Venice, California is this thirty-foot tall statue of a ballerina with the head of a clown. It is very bizarre looking, but seems to fit right in with this famous seaside community. Everyone here knows of the statue and points it out to visitors. It is an artwork by famed sculptor Jonathan Borofsky who has created large-scale outdoor public commissions around the world. This artwork was installed in 1988 when the new Renaissance building was completed. What an unexpected pleasure to discover this in such a small community. It seemed at its most bizarre at night, which is when I decided to photograph it.

THE SENTRY

Audrey C. Tiernan
I remember the day my Mom and I were walking in Manhattan and she pointed out gargoyles on the side of one of the buildings. I was about eight years old and found them ugly and scary. Mom was quick to tell me that they were really more like sentries or guardians of the building. She could always dispel my fears so easily back then. When I went away to college, some of the buildings on campus had gargoyles too. I recalled what she had said so many years earlier and felt like they were friends as I walked past them on campus. Even today when I walk past buildings I am always looking. You just never know where your friends are.

I Came Out of My Cabin...

I came out of my cabin in the morning at Pfeiffer State Park, in Big Sur, California to find this perfect blossom, in perfect light, just for a moment. Not to mention the drops of water from the rainstorm the night before. I love mornings like this!

cha-cha-cha

Karen Stabile

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Audrey C. Tiernan
Pinot Noir? Cabernet? Perhaps even a Chardonnay?

The Ancient Ones

My wife was going out to a conference in Scottsdale last March, and asked if I wanted to come along. "Absolutely!", I said. She would be spending her week trapped in a hotel conference room - I would be spending my week wandering the desert with a camera, visiting Anasazi Sites I have yet to see. Anasazi is a Navajo word meaning "The Ancient Ones" and they lived in the Southwest United states around 700AD to 1300 AD. They built some amazing cities, Mesa Verde being perhaps the best known. And then they abandoned them. Many Anasazi ruins take the form of pueblos, which are multi room dwellings, constructed from stone and plastered over with clay. Many are multi storied. Some of the most impressive, like Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly, are dwellings built into openings in cliffs that may be 1000 feet high. These structures are very impressive, and I have spent the last 18 years visiting and photographing them in the four corners area. This is a smaller ruin which has been reconstructed, called Besh Be Gowah, outside Globe, Arizona. I was probably photographing the light more than the architecture.

Moonlight

Origianl post from "Night Logic"
Thomas A. Ferrara

Gifts from enemies

Karen Stabile

Gifts from Friends

By Ken Spencer


My friend Larry is a professional astronomer at an observatory in California, and he and his wife spend a lot of time in the outdoors. I was planning a trip to photograph landscapes in California and decided to write him for suggestions of places to go that I might not have though of. In one of his replies was this: "... go up to Morro Bay, but when there be sure to drive the extra few miles down to Montana de Orro State Park. The ocean cliff views are tremendous - **** (4 star)."
So I took his suggestion. When I got out of my car, and walked 4 feet to the railing, this is what I saw! Tremendous? Yeah, I guess so!
I am always thankful for the gifts of friends.

NOTE TO MYSELF

Audrey C. Tiernan
A is for....

Winterland

Thomas A. Ferrara

Not all of us could make it to Florida, or California, or the Bahamas... some of us were stuck here, left behind in the snow!!! Thanks guys! :-)

1-800-DICKPIC BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

Karen Stabile



DICKPICS is looking for help.........heard the new employee must answer to Moe or Buddy if a man, and Sweetie, Honey, Hon, Sweetheart, Girlie or Buddy if a woman.

HERE COMES THE SUN

Audrey C. Tiernan
Details. I look for details that are reminders of another time, another era. They punctuate the landscape of our lives. As I walked down Broadway I saw this magnificent timepiece that adorned the now defunct New York Sun newspaper building. One side offers the temperature, the other the time of day. It made me think of a time when New York City supported more than a dozen daily newspapers. A time when both morning and afternoon newspapers thrived. A reminder of a simpler time when people actually got their news from the newspaper, not the television or now the Internet. Reminders of an ever changing world and anchors to another time. A better time? I guess the jury is still out.

Swimming with sharks

Jim Peppler

Paradise Island, Bahamas

The Mystery Man

by Ken Spencer

What’s going on here?

I was walking on the beach in Venice, California, looking for beautiful landscapes. When I walked under the Venice pier, I noticed a man kneeling on the beach. His trowsers were wet and lying next to him on the sand. He was wearing blue boxer shorts and was wet from the waist down. The portion of the skin on his back that I could see between his jacket and shorts was covered with some kind of red sores. He did not move in the 10 minutes that I approached and then walked by him. Other strollers on the beach passed him as well without a glance. There was something about him, however, that held my attention. Did he need help? I decided to take one photo, just because the scene was troubling. I was using a 300mm lens so I shot from a long way off. About the time I was wondering if I should approach him and ask if he was OK, I saw him quickly turn his head in my direction and then just as quickly, turn and look back at the ground. I took that as a sign that he was OK, and so continued on my way. I have no idea what was going on. But I find the image, and the questions, have stayed with me since I took the photograph two weeks ago.

Reserved Parking

Thomas A. Ferrara

I take solice in the knowledge that parking will be available.