During a recent hike to the Stanford Dish, I was amazed by the volume of trees stretching to the horizon. Usually, I see trees in isolation. However, this elevated view provided a different perspective. Maybe we’re living in an urban forest. We just don’t know it yet.

The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge connects the city of Richmond in Contra Costa County to the city of San Rafael in Marin County. The first time, I crossed the bridge, I was surprised to discover that San Quentin State Prison was located right on the shores of the San Francisco Bay. The prison is the set of buildings in the bottom left corner of the photo.

Made a return trip to Natural Bridges State Beach, which is the winter home to migratory Monarch butterflies. When I was there six years ago, the boardwalk was quite crowded and the trees had clusters of Monarch butterflies.

This time around, I didn’t see as many people. There were opportunities to observe the Monarch butterflies, but most of them were flying about. I even spotted a pair that was focused on procreation.

The new Google headquarters being built on North Shoreline Boulevard between Amphitheatre Parkway and Charleston Road has attracted a fair degree of attention. Located next to the Googleplex, that project boasts an eye-catching dome design. I walk by that job site a few times each week and have seen their steady progress over the past few months.

From Shoreline Park, I’ve also seen the cranes on Moffett Airfield. I had assumed that Google Bay View campus would be a traditional corporate park, like the adjacent Google office buildings nearby. So, I was in for quite a surprise when I took a walk on the Stevens Creek Trail and spotted the same structural lines that define its big sister a few blocks away. Mountain VIew is going to be an interesting place in the next decade.

Today, I spotted a person on top of Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. I had never seen anyone up there before. However, it makes sense that there must be some way to change out the bulbs in the aircraft warning lights.

We had a touch of rain the night before so the skies were cleaner than usual. Fortunately, there was a small cloud just off to the side that really completed the image.

Stepped out for a quick photo of the harvest moon. This time, I completed the edit in Luminar 2018.

Yesterday was a remarkably clear morning. The past few weeks have been absolutely dreadful with poor air quality due to the smoke blowing in from the Northern California wildfires.  Glad to see blue skies and haze free mountains again.

“Why are you shooting JPGs?” That would be the question I would pose to my younger self. If I had RAW copies of photos from half a decade ago, I could revisit some earlier adventures and see if I could improve the processing. I can still make some minor adjustments with JPGs, but RAW provides a greater latitude in the degree of modifications I can make.

I was in Sonoma County to zipline at Sonoma Canopy Tours and decided to extend the trip with an excursion to Fort Ross, the Russian settlement along the California coast.

First, Sonoma Canopy Tours allows guests to bring a camera, including a DSLR. Make sure you have a secure camera strap with sufficient reach since your camera will be strapped to the harness at chest level. I was using a 24-70 mm lens, though a 28-300 mm would have given me more options for the longer runs. The big challenge is the lighting. Even early in the morning, the light was quite harsh with most photos featuring a mix of shadows and strong day light.

Sonoma Canopy Tours is located in Occidental, California. If you are heading their way, you might want to download your maps in advance for offline use. From Sonoma Canopy Tours to Fort Ross, I had one bar at best, with most of the journey spent with no data connection. No maps. No Yelp. It felt like time travel because I had to ask for directions and dining recommendations.

Fort Ross was an interesting detour. It was perfect for a side trip. The visitor center offered an exhibit on the history of Fort Ross, and a short walk led to the enclosed grounds of the settlement. There are a few sparsely furnished buildings that could hold your attention for an hour or so.

The real treat was the Sonoma County coastline. The first photo was taken at Duncan’s Cove at the Sonoma Coast State Park. The coast was magnificent that afternoon with blue skies, clear aquamarine waters, and strong surf crashing against the sea rocks.