Welcome to San Pedro!

A visit to San Pedro. Have a taste of San Pedro via our pictures. Big industry.  Massive ships. Pollution.  Water.  People, rich and poor.  Buildings new, and run-down.  Food, restaurants, and small business.  This is our introductory post.  We'll have several additional posts from around town. 

Welcome to San Pedro!  Try not to look so enthused. 

People and seafood and water and cargo and cranes for removing cargo.  A cargo ship is visible under the net on the left of the stacks of cargo. 

Ocean liner visible over housing. 

Smoke/water vapor and oil tanks looming over soccer fields.  I don't know if that particular smoke stack was dirty, but there was an occasional tinge of something unpleasant blowing in the wind. 

Modern buildings

and decrepit buildings.  Can I possible say too much about this one?  The sign you want, all ripped up, the agent you need. Gang art.

UCLA buildings

UCLA Buildings in the early morning light. 

Four windows in the prison facility. 

A whole wall and windows reflecting the early morning sky. 

The prison facility standing boldly against the early morning blue sky. 

The promised diamond window seen from a passageway between Reed and Jerry Lewis. 

Jerry Lewis outdoor stairway.  Love that concrete.  So beautiful.  So bland. 

Extensive brick building with attractive window sun visor.  Neuropsychiatric Institute. 

Center for the Health Sciences smoking porches.  Possibly the junction of the brain research institute meets public health. 

The bottom of MacDonald Medical Research labs.  Looming over the hill. 

Reflections on UCLA

Looking in and at doors and windows. 

Entrance to Reed and photog reflection.  Note the reflected diamond window, it'll show up in a later posting.

The RR, an entrance.

Tree in front of the Jerry Lewis building. 

Kinky Trees at UCLA

Dig those funky trees. 

Bole-side close up of one of those same trees.  You'd be kinky too with all that growth going on. 

UCLA Signs

Another in our continuing investigation of sign, sign everywhere a sign. These from around UCLA. 

What about newspaper racks? 

Yes, ok.  Now what?  Are they hiding inside? 

Ah, but I really REALLY want to knock.  Fortunately I have no interest in actually talking to anyone inside. 

L-9, you're not allowed here.  Originally I included this one because it was ugly just like the next, but then I realized it had two signs you could read.  So it fits the theme.  L-9 restricted access. 

A vehicle that does research?  It has a better parking spot than I do. 

Valencia Redux

A miscellany of pictures: fences dirty and otherwise, ducks in water and the water the duck is in, sidewalks and chairs. 

Principals really need to walk their school yards and inspect for dirty fences.  A neat principal would never brook (great word!) a dirty fence for their school. 

Here is a neat clean fence valiantly holding back the wild fauna of Valencia from invading the tamed lawns of the urban dwellers. 

Seats in the school playground.  A toy and plastic bottle await their owner's return. 

Sidewalk reflecting off the sun.  It really hurts when it hits your eye. 

This duck was quacking up a storm at me.  But if it didn't want me to photograph it, it either should have flown the coop or directly asked me.  But it did neither. 

And here is that promised water photo that the duck was swimming in. 

O Bole Mio or Bole me down!

More pictures of tree boles.  Tree boles are an important subject in art and photography.  It is necessary to be able to pass your tree bole photographing course before moving on to portrait photography, for example.  You are supposed to practice on inanimate objects before moving on to real live people, for example. 

Our first bole with a set of surface roots.  We've seen this guy before I believe here.  This guy is an important subject, hence the generous two-photo treatment.  Here we see the the exposed root system. 

A rare triple tree bole sighting.  It requires extreme patience on the photographers part to wait until the trees line up just so.  Some photographers have waited years for this sort of alignment. 

An aged specimen.  Clearly this guy has been skipping his barber shop visits for years, perhaps centuries, resulting in a gnarled look. 

Now that's gotta hurt.  Unless you're an Auto-bot, it's hard to go over a tree bole, rather than around them like normal folks. 

In memorium.  This is the final resting place of a highly respected tree bole.  Note the special holographic display device inset in the ground and the group of 4 color guard to mark the location. 

A short tree bole.  This one has not risen to the heights seen in other tree bole pictures. 

Valencia Flora and Fauna

Some Valencia flora and an imported fauna.  That's singular, I wonder if it should be faun rather than fauna. 

Flowers behind bars.  That's where they keep the flowers in Valencia.  Behind bars.  Serves 'em right. 

Evil looking feed-me-Seymour type flowers that will eventually bloom. 

The mysterious heffalump. 

In the setting sun, we all look a little bigger. 

The movie star himself disdaining from making eye contact with his owner. 

Valencia Reflections

Reflections on Valencia

Houses from Valencia Bridgeport upon reflection. 

A manse in the water. 

Trees reflecting upon the water and the water reflects upon the trees. 

It's not a reflection, though it could be.  Bridgeport's ersatz windmill. 

Malibu Flora

A short visit to Malibu today. 

Red flowers on a leaf-less tree.  I find these sorts of trees amazing. 

Bristlecone Palm tree.  Ok, I made the name up.  It's really a mis-placed pineapple. 

Pine tree with curlicue branch tips. 

Westwood Tall Buildlngs

Tall buildings in Westwood, CA.

On the left is UCLA's Kinross South Building, LA Fitness on the lower right. 

High rise on the North side of Wilshire Blvd., west of Westwood Blvd.  Reflections of buildings from the south side are visible. 

Occidental Petroleum building.  The palm trees on the left are visible in the following picture. 

Known still as the Monte's building for the steakhouse formerly housed on the top floor. 

10900 Wilshire Blvd.  Corner of Wilshire and Westwood Blvds. 

SE corner of Wilshire and Westwood Blvd.