Navel Gazing

Boz at Devil's Gate Dam, October 2009

City Daily Photo didn't have a theme day on January 1st, so today we're celebrating The Festival of the Belly Button by contemplating our navels. The question I'm to ask myself is, over the time I've been blogging, how has my photography changed?

 

Boz has eyelashes, November 2012

Mostly, two things:
1) I'm more aware of little details than I used to be.

and

2) I am now more interested in telling a story or conveying an emotion than showing you a thing.

You'll find the links to other worldwide navel gazers here.

Zen Monday: #183

Zen Monday 

Zen Tuesday 

Zen Wednesday 

Zen Thursday 

Zen Friday

Or, in your words....

Non Sequitur

I usually don't post graffiti--and truly, I have no idea what this says--but I like the picture. No photoshop, no messing. It is what it is. Kinda like not having a face-lift.

I'm too tired to write much about the photo. John says it could be an entrance to faerie. What with all our urbanization it's conceivable that such entrances exist in parking lots or other places in town. Faeries have to get home, too.

Or

I'm eating a cookie with red and green sprinkles on it. The green ones are teeny, tiny Christmas trees.

Devil's Gorge

As long as we're visiting the devil's head rock formation in the Devil's Gorge below the Devil's Gate Dam, I figured we'd get a look at this actual gate in what we might call the devil's throat--his gorge, if you will. This is part of the water system in the dam, although I'm not sure which part.

Our devil's nose and pointy chin are at left (see yesterday's photo for comparison). To give scale: if I stood at the center of that gate my head would come up to about two thirds its height, maybe a tad more. At least that's my best guess. I'm 5'4" tall. The gate was across a stream from where we stood and as it was deep there I didn't try crossing.

I don't normally show graffiti on this blog, but as this is such an unusual spot (for me--apparently not for vandals with cheap paint) I decided to post it.

It's not a particularly dangerous hike, but you need high boots and a walking stick. And I shouldn't have to tell you this but just in case: don't attempt it when there's water behind the dam. To illustrate, Mister Earl found us this amazing video. Thanks, Mister Earl.

Love Tag

I almost posted this photo for yesterday's "graffiti" theme day. I see this kid-sized blackboard on my walks in the neighborhood. I've even featured it before. The messages change, as you can imagine. This time I got permission from the homeowner to come onto the porch and get a close-up.

I resisted posting about graffiti yesterday--so much so, that when I did I used an old photo where the graffiti is off to the side in the picture. I don't want to encourage taggers. I don't want to spread gang messages.

As Margaret mentioned in yesterday's comments, "tagging and graffiti art are different things." As long as the owner of the "canvas" (i.e. wall, fence, or whatever's painted on) is fine with it, it's fine with me.

I do wish we, the City Daily Photo bloggers, would vote for more ambitious monthly themes. I'd like to see us challenge ourselves more.

Theme Day: Graffiti

Pasadena's good at cleaning graffiti when it happens. If you see graffiti and you want it removed, call the Pasadena's Graffiti Abatement Hotline at 626-744-7622 and the offending tag will be removed within 24 hours. Sounds like a tall order, but so far I've seen it work every time.

I took this photo two years ago. I'm pretty sure this graffiti's gone by now. Sure, a new tagger will come along. But the City's got more paint.

The City Daily Photo family is now 1286 blogs strong, and many member blogs around the world participate in theme days. Check them out here.

Zen Monday: #85

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion, unless I change my mind. Because, you know, when I get in there everything goes downhill.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.