Oakland, CA

I uploaded this before I had Photoshop on my computer. If you care to use it, feel free to make it better in Photoshop or whatever other program you might have. I'll leave that to you instead of uploading a second version. I suspect it could benefit from some tweaking of the levels/colors or whatever.

Oakland, CA. A sunny day closes as a rainy one tries to work up the nerve to come in off the ocean.

There are several potentially interesting texures in here, but I'll let you crop as you need it.

Lake Merritt (Oakland, CA) is a natural estuary connected to the San Francisco Bay, so the water level varies. Today it was quite low, so pictures of the bottom of the lake were really easy to get!

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

The sea gulls and the egrets seem to eat whatever lives in these shells. The egret I saw today, anyway, was perusing the shells on the retaining wall on the side of the lake. The sea gulls bring them up out of the lake, fly them into the air a ways, and drop them on the sidewalk to split them open and get at whatever slimy thing is in there. Mmm!

(I've never cared for seafood.)

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

The reflection on the surface of the lake is more than just a copy of the surrounding scenery: the waves REmix it into something new. The empty space—the in-between space—is where all the potential lies.

Or something.

OK, more of the chains.

I think this is some kind of duck. I could be wrong. S/he was quite funny-looking, though, and friendly!

Somewhere north of San Francisco. My now ex-brother-in-law took this photo a few years ago. That's me, a Great Lakes native, sampling the salt water. This was I think the second time I'd ever been to an ocean, first time to the Pacific.

Actually, this is how I dress for pretty much everything, unless I'm in a t-shirt.

Pacific Ocean, somewhere north of San Francisco. Taken a few years ago by my now ex-brother-in-law.

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

With so much of the country (US) currently having such nasty winter weather, I feel a little guilty that we're actually having record highs here in the San Francisco Bay area. This is Lake Merritt (Oakland) tonight.

This is from a photo (cropped, and spun around in some way I'm sure) I took when my bathroom light fixture sprung a leak. I cropped out the light fixture.

[This was the original icon for the "Dabbling in other people's hobbies" collab.]

This was actually an unfortunate scenario in my apartment that I came home to one night after work. Once I determined it wasn't leaking anymore, I thought, "Eh, I'll call the landlord in the morning," and went to bed. (The light fixture's globe was completely full of water. Happily I figured that out before taking it off unsuspectingly!)

It's the icon for "Dabbling in other people's hobbies (until I come up with something better) because it looks like that's what someone was doing. I still can't figure out why they installed the lighting fixture right under a drain pipe. The joys of renting, eh?

Who knows if anyone can use this...I liked that the lights made so many different colors! (Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA, reflecting downtown Oakland.)

At one moment in time - after all, no river is ever the same twice. There were lots of people fishing off the Riverwalk that day, but you don't get to see them. Just the water. Note that there are no bodies in the river. Not that we can see here, anyway. Not until someone adds them in, right?