Here are shots of everybody at Muir Woods.

Dunno why giant trees inspire giggles…
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Into the woods…
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Waiting for their turn in the tree…
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Hanging out in the burned out bole of a tree
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This giant tree had fallen over the path. You can see where it fell from in the middle of the frame. Genbo is standing on about the midway point of the tree, and it continues way past the edge of the frame to the right.

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Today we went to Muir Woods, a grove of huge redwoods that I remember fondly from when I was a kid growing up in the area. It was great to be able to take my own kids there. Although they didn’t approach the trees with quite the same quiet, pensive reverence that I prefer (to put it mildly), they had their own fun take on the environment and pursued it with abandon. Pictures of G&Z will have to wait until next post, because this one concentrates on the trees.

These are all taken with HDR, or the technique of mixing a light, normal and dark exposure to mitigate the camera’s limited ability to record a wide range of luminosity at once. Using it is a big benefit in this environment, because the forest makes for a whole lot of shadows. This is the first time I’ve really experimented with HDR B&W, but I think it suits the subject.

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These last two were taken outside the park…

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We’ve been spending more time at their cousin Linnea’s. Most of these shots are of them playing in her back yard. I’ll leave off the commentary; they’re just doing what kids do when we don’t make ‘em do something else.

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In these last few, Genbo is doing homework, Linnea is coloring while being irked she can’t understand Gen’s Japanese homework, and Zoe is reaping the rewards of pillaging Linnea’s closet.

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Genbo, Zoe and I survived the 24 hour trip from Kyoto to Minneapolis. It was actually not nearly as bad as I had mentally prepared for; the kids are definitely getting easier. There was the hiccup at Osaka International when the check-in agent informed me we three wouldn’t be seated together, but that was resolved after I rationally (didn’t lose my cool at all; nope, not one bit) convinced them that it was in their own best interests not to seat us separately.

We’ve been playing with their cousin Linnea. Here we are at the pool, followed by Linnea’s house.

Genbo doesn’t really know how to swim, but he can snorkel.
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Linnea and Genbo
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A fetching Zoe…
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God I love the 85/1.4!
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The last post was extremely Japanese in nature, so this one will provide a good contrast. Tonight for dinner we went down to the Sausalito Yacht Club for dinner. The place sounds decidedly fancier than it is; dinner was a BBQ out on the deck overlooking San Francisco Bay. It was perfect, though, for precisely that reason.

Genbo looking at the ocean

Me hanging dangerously over railing to get shot of Genbo looking at ocean from ocean's perspective

If this is the Yacht Club, are those the yachts?

Wolfing down obligatory hamburgers and hotdogs

Not at all different from the Japan....really

Looking out towards Alcatraz and San Francisco as the ferry comes in

Interesting boat catching nice light

Priceless expression

Well, it’s been another one of those post-less months. Now Christmas is passed, New Year’s is almost upon us, and I still have a bunch of Halloween-related posts I want to make. I’m going to get them all up before New Year’s or it’ll never happen. Here is the first one, a Genbo-centric post, from our Halloween back in the States.

Genbo as an astronaut, his friend Gabe as a pirate
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Even astronauts gotta run for the bathroom
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(OK, maybe that’s not why he’s running, but who cares?)

Some down time
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The obligatory pumpkin shot. I love the lighting and background here.
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Genbo looking outrageously handsome. ‘Course, I’m partial.
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I’m just starting to go over all the photos I took back in the States, but these two grabbed my eye immediately. They were taken at the SF zoo. Both are, in their way, examples of fortuitous timing. In the first, I managed to catch the flamingos at just the moment when the center one was catching some great sunlight while all the others, somehow, were not.

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And here, just the right angle of setting sun manages to make these few leaves and some stray spider silk into (what I think is) a beautiful image. That, and my trusty Nikon 70-200, a huge hunk of glass that photos like this make me glad I persist in carrying around.

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We’re having a very good time of things here in Sausolito/San Francisco/Palo Alto. The first week was the best, when all four of us were here (including for Halloween), but I have managed to keep things from becoming miserable for the remaining three of us after Maki had to go back to Japan for work. Helping me has been many of my extended family, who have flown in from various parts of the US to see my kids (definitely not me!).

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from the second week of our stay. I unwisely unloaded the first week’s pics onto a friend’s computer, then forgot to get them back before I left their house in Palo Alto. Lucky for me I’m going back there before we leave. These pictures are un-edited in any way. I haven’t even had time to go through and make sure I am selecting the best pic of each series. But, I wanted to get something up here before too much time had passed. Hopefully in a couple days I’ll post some of the best of these individually.

(To view full-screen, first press the Play button in the center, then place the mouse over the slideshow to view the control bar on the bottom, then press the symbol in the lower-right corner.)

This one really does need to be enlarged for the full effect.

I like leaves, OK? Some people take pictures of forests, some people take pictures of trees, I take pictures of single leaves. That’s just the kind of person I am. It’s similar to my observation that interesting conversation peaks with two or three participants, occurs rarely with four, is a miracle with five, and is theoretically possible with six or more only in the same sense that there is a non-zero chance of retrieving the exact same molecules of a glass of water once thrown into the ocean. During a hurricane.

I like the two versions together.