I hope all my US friends are having a safe and happy holiday weekend. (For those of you outside the US, I hope your non-holiday weekend is also safe and happy.)

It's not so hard to find. You just have to look for it. It's right there waiting when you do.

In an effort to both get to know my community better and to combat the expansion of my waistline, I've taken to walking in the mornings. My neighborhood isn't highly regarded among San Diegans, but the more I look, the more I find to like.

Film and processing turned out to be kind of expensive, so I've had to hold off on buying more for a while. I stretched out the last roll for a while, but eventually it ran out—I got my pictures back from the lab today. This one was from a walk around the neighborhood a couple of weeks ago.

Lately I've been really drawn to more minimalist images. Just lines, textures, shadows, curves, a pure aesthetic that doesn't really have a deeper meaning or tell a story. Except that everything tells a story. A patched crack in an asphalt road, cracked again right through the patch. A story of age and wear and, I suppose, futility. But there's no context; this could be anywhere.

Truth be told, it's cracks like that that are one of the biggest reasons we want to move out of our neighborhood. But that's a different story.

A little archive diving today.  This is where we got Jason's last birthday cake.  They've apparently been making delicious cakes for 30 years now.  I have no idea how long they've had the weird chef statue.

On this side of the canyon the pavement is cracked and some of the yards are overgrown. The roofs aren't all the same color, though; I kind of like that.

You never know when or where he may be, but believe this: Taylor Lautner is watching you.

From a couple of weeks ago, picking up a to-go order at a Thai restaurant.

One of these days I'd like to try my hand at printmaking. I could probably handle developing my own negs even now—it doesn't take much space or money, and I have done it before, even if it was over ten years ago at this point. But to make prints you need an enlarger, and a light-tight room big enough to hold it and the developing trays. Not something that's really in reach right now. It's nice to dream, though.

I would have sworn that it was over 90 this weekend, but I guess that old age has turned me into a wimp. Still, despite the heat and the mosquito bites (mosquitos love me; I wish they loved me less), I had a pretty fantastic 4th of July weekend. I ate a lot of food, drank some beer, had some big laughs, and—by way of initiating a friend's new girlfriend into our group—told the Clown Joke for 44 minutes. Not much more I could ask for, really.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8DX
f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 200