Recent Photography: June 2014

I carry a camera with me almost everywhere I go. Phone cameras have made that easier than it once was, and I usually have a phone with me, but I usually carry a full-sized camera as well. This month that allowed me to take advantage of serendipity in capturing two virtually monochromatic scenes that I chanced upon. At a restaurant in Calistoga I found myself the last diner, lingering over a late lunch. The table across from me had seated a party of eight loquacious Chinese women, tourists apparently. Each had left a cloth napkin at her place after eating. The piles of cloth were lit obliquely and from above by high windows. The piles of cloth were beautiful. I photographed several of them quickly before the busboy whisked them away into a grey plastic bin and left the room with them.

Ocean Beach in San Francisco afforded another such opportunity. Ocean Beach is mostly a long stretch of rather flat, monotonous, grey sand, but it forms small dunes along the roadway that parallels the water. These little dunes can be fascinating. I love the patterns created by tiny sand slides, the ripples molded by the wind, and the lines drawn by insects walking across the surface. Unintended art, serendipitous art.