Photos as I Like It

For today's 4pm photo moment, I took a walk on the local Alameda beach. It was pretty quiet being the first day of school in town, but there were a few birds to entertain me and be my subjects. 4pm on August 25 Molly 4pm Sarah 4pm

One of the things I've enjoyed about moving to Alameda is the beautiful variety of homes. I've been doing a lot of neighborhood walks lately since I got a FitBit and started following a few friends, who could easily be called over achievers (in the 20k+ steps/day category). Alameda is known for its victorian homes, but there are also quite a few bungalows, spanish style and even colonial east coast looking homes.  There were so many homes to try and capture, but so hard to get an interesting shot that really featured what I like about the homes. I ended up with this looking up option showing all the peaks and detail in one of homes.  3pm on August 4 For my outtake today, I wanted to share one of these cute little free libraries. I've seen several of these around town and I love them. Such a great idea, and I love how they are all different from each other. Molly 3pm Sarah 3pm

For today's 2pm moment, I am back home so I figured it was a good time to finish my series of routes on and off the island of Alameda. Today's feature is the High Street Bridge , another draw bridge with a very distinctive look all in silver paint. I loved all the lines and shadows. This photo is taken from the Oakland side, looking into Alameda. 2pm on July 24 And, a few outtakes showing different parts of the bridge, including the lights and lots of corners. Molly 2pm Sarah 2pm

For our 1pm photo moment, Molly, Sarah and I were in the same place at the same time. We met up in Santa Monica, the site of many of Molly's photos. I found this beautiful old building with pretty window and decorative details. For a little extra fun, I added a sunflare, a common element in many of Sarah's photos. It was really great to explore and photograph together. 1pm on July 11 Here's a few outtakes, the first showing the building in context, and the second a sweet group of old ladies having a chat on the promenade. Molly 1pm (Be sure to visit her blog for more info on her twist in this challenge.) Sarah 1pm

For today's Noon photo moment I decided to go on an adventure as I had a friend visiting from Las Vegas, and I wanted to show her the beautiful coast line and country side in Marin County. (And, the last of the bridges into and out of Alameda can be saved for later.)  We headed out with the idea of going to the Marin Headlands and photographing from above the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty foggy several days this past week and I was hoping to get a photo of the bridge peaking through the fog layer. Foggy days are usual for June Gloom around the Bay, but today was a bright sunny day with nothing in the sky.  There were several tourists trying to do the same thing as us with very limited parking, so we headed further into the Headlands to find one of the many historic forts and check out the options there. I'm so glad we did. We found Battery Mendell, which like many historic forts is a combination of decaying buildings with graffiti and striking views of the ocean,...

Getting close to finishing the access routes on to the island of Alameda. The Bay Farm Island Bridge leads from the Alameda "main island" to the Bay Farm Island  district of Alameda, which is not really an island, rather a peninsula attached to Oakland. This is one of the few drawbridges and includes a separate pedestrian/bike bridge which also acts as a drawbridge. Being a bright sunny day, it was pretty busy out there with cyclists, runners/walkers and even a few kayakers, which you can catch a glimpse of in my photo below. 11am on June 8 This photo shows the two bridges, one for cars and the other for pedestrians. Molly 11am Sarah 11am

Moving on to option four for access on and off the island of Alameda, I planned a ferry ride for the 10am moment. I have a friend visiting, so I figured this would be a fun outing to take the ferry into the City and then wander around a bit and take the ferry back. (Of course, this being my run-nine-miles-for-fun friend, Galen, that meant we climbed the approximately 400 steps up to Coit Tower and back down, on our way from Pier 39 to the Ferry Building.) Even though it ended up being a fairly foggy/overcast day, the ferry ride was fun and great views all the way across. I love in this picture that the water is shining from the little bit of sunlight and how you can see the strength of the wind from the whipping of the flag. 10am on May 30 And, I had to post this one outtake from the ferry ride. As we were approaching the dock, a flock of seagulls decided to tag along and I love this shot of how close one bird got, with the little bit of skyline below. Molly 10am Sar...