Poetic Shutterbug

All Photos taken by me @ The Chinese Pavilion in Golden Gate Park While trekking through the gardens the other day I decided to venture outside and take a stroll along Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. I hadn't been out there in a while so I thought it would be fun to bring you some photos from that area. I first wanted to show you the Chinese Pavilion on Strawberry Hill which is located right along Stow Lake. This pavilion was given as a gift to San Francisco by it's Sister city Taipei on April 15 th 1981. I have to say that the architecture and intricate artwork is just spectacular. For a moment I thought I was back in Hong Kong. It's a wonderful little spot to enjoy a picnic lunch or just immerse yourself in the beauty of it all. This is a closeup shot of the pavilion entrance near the rooftop. I don't know what it says but I can tell you that it is absolutely gorgeous in person. This is a view of the pavilion from the Stow Lake grounds. Due to the lighting and...

Today would have been my Mom's 86th birthday. The photo above was taken probably about 17 or 18 years ago. My niece Alissa, who is 21 years old now is celebrating her birthday in the photo so it's been at least 17 years. My Mom loved to sing. One of her favorite all time songs was Embraceable You. She would go around the house singing it all the time. So, in honor of her birthday, I give you Sony Holland singing that song with the Big Band last year. I only wish Mom would have lived long enough to meet Sony and hear and see her perform the song. Between it being Mom's birthday and Sony singing her favorite song, this is a very special post. Enjoy! Happy Birthday, Mom, this is for you. Thank you Sony.

I am way too tired to write anything today so I thought I'd display some shadow shot photos I took at the Botanical Gardens last week. Hope you like them, enjoy!

Taken at the Botanical Gardens and Used as The Cover for "nameless faces" Take a look inside https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1067084 You can order through Amazon.com by clicking the above widget Well, it has been quite a journey. My new poetry book release has just been published and is now available on Amazon.com. This is my first "full length" book of poetry and what makes it even more special is that it is self published. You never really know the meaning of self published until you go through the process. To be honest, in the very beginning I thought "there's no way I can do this." However it was not difficult at all and was for me a very exciting process. I learned so much about formatting, working with Microsoft word and PDF files that I feel like a pro :) Seriously though, I had a blast publishing this book and to see it on Amazon.com is really something special. I have to admit that there was one particular day when dealing with the...

Photo courtesy of www.yesasia.com/. ../info.html My friend Vincent who lives in Hong Kong, introduced me to this singer's video a couple of years ago. The song is a Chinese folk song called Beautiful Grassland Is My Home. I am a huge fan of Asian music and when I saw this video, heard Gong Yue's sweet and beautiful voice accompanied by the traditional Asian instruments, I just fell in love. I obviously do not understand the words however it doesn't matter. The music, voice and video tell the story. I wanted to share it with you and get your thoughts. Enjoy!

Photos taken by me. Click photos to enlarge The above photo is a view of the inside entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. One of the outside gates to the Japanese Tea Garden. A Diore ' vase sculpture on the outside front grounds to the DeYoung Museum. Lion sculpture outside the DeYoung Museum.

All Photos Taken by Me in SF. Continuing with my post from yesterday, I'll show you a couple of interesting, or at least I thought of as interesting sights out by the Great Highway at Ocean Beach. I thought this home was really cool. It certainly stands out in this area due to the brick construction and look. I was so tempted to just knock on the door and ask if I could have a tour of the building. I did think however that it would not be the safest place to be during an earthquake. Brick buildings crumble in earthquakes not to mention being right across the highway from the beach where a tsunami during an EQ is a real possibility. I still loved the look of the house. This old wooden wagon was so charming, I had to get a photo of it with those interesting plants. Again this was the only house on that particular block with any sign of nature. This wagon looked pretty heavy otherwise I would have rolled it along home. I loved it. I really enjoyed this embedded sculpture of ...

All Photos Taken by Me in the Sunset District of San Francisco While walking home the other day from my jaunt out at the beach, I decided to take some shots of flower beds and plantings in driveways and entrances of homes and apartment buildings. Being in the city, there are many streets that look so stark and clinical with just stucco homes and bare, gray sidewalks. Some have plants or flowers at their garage doors or entrance ways and some do not. I always wonder what type of people live in all of these homes. Do the ones that plant flowers have more respect for nature just because they have these flowers? Are the ones that have bare sidewalks in front of their homes more clean and tidy? It's just a fascination I have. It's fun to imagine what and who is behind those stucco walls by seeing the outside facade. Much like meeting someone with their outer persona and wondering who they really are inside. I guess I have too much time on my hands :D These are just a few th...

All of these photos were taken by me @ The Botanical Gardens. The above photo depicts a flowering plant from South Africa though I did not remember the name. They were quite beautiful. I think what I may start doing there is exploring one section at a time while taking notes of names etc... Otherwise I just go crazy and take pics randomly of everything. Also, the squirrel is not necessarily a sign of Spring however I had to include him because he just cracked me up. I was walking along a path and he came up to me and perched himself on a rock and stood there until I snapped the photo, then off he went. It was hilarious and it happens all the time now. They are like little divas on the red carpet.

Photos taken by me @ The SF Botanical Gardens IN THE GARDEN Between the lawn and pebble deck stands a Oaxacan tree-of-life: fired clay trunk and branches flowering at the top with birds of peace that gaze softly down on Eve and Adam, the Serpent with an apple in its mouth. Around the mythic tree, periwinkle twines its tendrils among red-clay limbs, through leaves; over Adam’s shoulder, about Eve’s waist; over-coiling the Snake, weaving everything with living green.

All Photos and Video Taken By Me @ Ocean Beach San Francisco. The audio in the videos is a mixture of the waves and the wind. It was a warm and beautiful day yet extremely windy. I decided to upload these on YouTube because for some reason the blogger videos do not show a photo frame and I like having a photo frame on my videos. Hmm, interesting shadow shot? I'll leave it to your imagination :) There are huge walls of sand along the great highway at the beach due to construction work going on at Sloat Boulevard and beyond. Due to high waves etc... there is alot of erosion and as a result walls of sand are being moved and cleared. It was an interesting hour at the beach today.

Photo and Video by me. There have been so many songs written about San Francisco by so many great songwriters and artists. The video/photo montage that I created as a tribute to Sony and Jerry Holland after they left San Francisco plays my favorite SF song, On A San Francisco High. Written, composed and arranged by Jerry Holland and sung by Sony Holland. Enjoy! Visit Sony's Website @ www.sonyholland.com

This is the cover to my new book. I had to do a second revision so I am now waiting for my proof in the mail. I think though that I made an error on this last revision so I may have to revise again which will delay the process another few days. In any case, the book should be available by the beginning of April or thereabouts. As you all know I have a waffle fetish :) which has nothing to do with the book other than a waffle poem I composed. However, I will be traveling to Glendale, Ca and need to find a breakfast spot that serves waffles either for breakfast or all day long. Now, I could research this myself but I thought why not make a contest out of it and give away an autographed copy of my new book when it comes out. So, to win the contest you have to find a spot in Glendale, California (not any of the surrounding areas but in Glendale) that serves waffles as close to this address as possible - 200 W. Colorado St. , Glendale , CA. You don't need to know the area at all....

Photos taken by me @ San Francisco Botanical Gardens - Click photos to enlarge. Many of you know that I have been trying to get decent bird photos for years. The last one I took that was moderately acceptable was a couple of years ago when I happened on a bluebird perched on a bench with has back to me. You couldn't see the bird very well but it was an interesting shot. The other day, while at the gardens, I was on my way home when a bird in flight perched on top of a tree branch which I happened to be passing at that very same moment. He was a large bird, I don't know the species but luckily I had my camera in hand and was able to capture him. I was so excited! This is the very first time in years I've been able to capture a bird without him flying away as soon as I attempted to snap the picture. The lighting in the shot is not very good but you could still see him. Does anyone, Ratty? know what species he is? This shot made my day. I can't tell you how excite...

All photos taken by me on the streets of my neighborhood.