Even if you can’t get uphill before the sunset’s gone, you might find an image elsewhere. Here, I caught an orange sky reflected in a stream of water, which was pouring down a driveway and heading downhill in the gutter. The glistening contrast was quite strong to begin with, and I simply darkened any distracting bits and then tilted the image 90 degrees to complete the abstraction. You can get a sense of the original sight by looking at the picture sideways.
The last few weeks in San Francisco haven’t been wintry, not even California wintry. It’s common for us to take a break from rains at this time in late January and early February — call it “Springuary” — but this period has been exceptional. Many days have actually been summer-like as I’ve walked in Golden Gate Park, preparing for my fall show at the SF Botanical Garden. A winning combination of sun and rain have produced sumptuous blossoms in the City, and none more spectacular than the magnolias at the SFBG. Even when the warm sun sets, the magnolias glow at dusk.
In slideshow order, these are the images: 1.Sierra Redwood, SF Botanical Garden; 2. Japanese Maples, Japanese Tea Garden; 3. Yulan Magnolia (with pink magnolia bokeh background), SF Botanical Garden; 4. Warm sunny mid-day at Stow Lake; 5. Great Blue Heron at Waterfowl Pond, SF Botanical Garden; 6. Torrey Pine sunset, SF Botanical Garden; 7. Pink tulip magnolias at dusk, outside Friend Gate of SF Botanical Garden.
