Digital Noir, photo by Harold Davis.

It was a dark and stormy night. Somewhere out there a dame was in distress.

But this time it was a digital dame, and–oh, no!–her pixels were breaking up…

This photo was taken with my Lens Baby and macro filters with the f/8.0 aperture ring. It’s part of an experiment to see what happens when I boost the ISO with Lens Baby photos. After all, these photos are not crisp anyhow–one may as well get the benefits of a high shutter speed!

The Digital Noir figure was lit with a combination of ambient daylight and a colored Tungsten spot. ISO was set to 1000. The shutter speed was 1/500 of a second. I accepted the default settings for Raw conversion, and did essentially no Photoshop processing.

End, photo by Harold Davis.

This is the end of the road on the incomparable Bolinas plateau. Well, you couldn’t really go much further, could you? Unless you were going to jump into the Pacific…I guess another example of the fine wit and wisdom of Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation).

We spent a nice morning tidepooling at Agate Beach. Here’s a picture of the beach:

At low tide we could all wander on the beach:

Nicky enjoyed chucking rocks in a pool. Julian was great at finding and identifying sea creatures. We found a starfish:

Julian held this crab in his hands. It was still alive, but missing some of its claws, poor thing:

Of course, Yoda showed up in the tidepools, too. Shown here “communing with a Starfish we are”:

After the tide started coming in, we repaired to Bolinas for lunch at the cafe with some friends. Nicky passed out in the carriage. Julian ate a huge pancake. I had some oysters and chips. Then we went to the Bolinas beach and played. Julian found some big kids and started telling them how to build a huge sand castle (the waves swept it away in the end). Nicky ran in and out of the waves. Mathew explored the sand with great delight. On the way home we drove up and along the slopes of the beautiful golden brown green Mount Tamalpais:

Yoda and Emperor Palpatine Contemplate the Fate of the World, originally uploaded by Harold Davis.

Yoda and Emperor Palpatine contemplate the fate of the world…or is it a marble?

A metaphor for our times? It’s wild how Star Wars has built a mythology that works in current times and appeals to kids (and the young at heart).

Master Yoda in the Garden, originally uploaded by Harold Davis.

What I suprise! I went out to the garden to relax a little after our trip to the Star Wars version of Burger King and Alameda Island beach. There, in the flowers was Master Yoda. I think he was probably full of wit, wisdom, and magic as usual. I couldn’t really tell because I had to run inside to help with the kids. But I did notice that Yoda’s light saber was green. I think that means he’s still undecided in the cosmic fight between good and evil. I also think I did hear Yoda say (as I rushed back into the house): “In the garden renewed you shall be…”

Yoda seems to crop up everywhere: here’s more Yoda!