Posts Tagged: albany
Albany Commercial Streetscapes
Albany Streetscape #143 / © neo serafimidis 2011
Among all the other things that were going on, I managed last weekend to finish photographing the west side of San Pablo Ave in my Albany Commercial Streetscape series. It took awhile because I wanted to do it during the morning hours. I only have weekends on which I can take mornings to go shooting. And often, it is hard to take a weekend morning with all the domestic tasks that must also be done. But shoot I did, this last weekend. So, now I’m approximately 25% done. I’ll shoot the east side of San Pablo late in the day. Then Solano Ave from roughly San Pablo up to the Albany border with Berkeley. The tricky part is knowing exactly where that border is–Solano eventually splits with one side continuing in Albany and right across the street becoming Berkeley. I’ve yet to really figure out shooting times. I’m actually hoping for some lightly overcast days to get more even light, especially for the south side of Solano, which is always in shadow.
Dingbats and Matadors
Matador and Apartment Building
Today is another day of nothingness. But as I wander through piles of photographs that have yet to processed and catalogued, I can’t help but smile when I come across something with as much charm as this. It’s got everything one could want: hollywood junipers, rock facade, decorative concrete blocks, googie styling, and of course a thrashed Matador. Ahhh, Albany.
Lucky me. Either the AMC collector in El Cerrito sold his collection or moved into my neighborhood. Three beat Matadors and a Javelin are constantly showing up parked in different places, trying to avoid the three-day limit on parking before towing happens. They are always somewhere new, but I never seen any of them actually in motion. Maybe he does it with a Star Trek transporter. The only downside is that there are no Gremlins or Pacers. C’mon! Are you a collector or what?
Photojournalism
SFMOMA Interior / © neo serafimidis 2011
It was a weekend of photojournalism.
Yesterday, I managed to get to SFMOMA to see the Henri Cartier-Bresson show just before it closes. It was fabulous. I was familiar with a little of his his early stuff, such as ‘Behind Saint Lazare Station, Paris, France’ but really did not know the range and depth of his work. And I was surprised by some images that I had seen before, but did’t know were his, for example, portraits of Sartre and Camus. It was a tremendously inspiring show.
Then I had my own brush with photojournalism this afternoon. I had picked up my mother from her facility and was bringing her to my house for our usual weekend time together. As I pulled out onto San Pablo Ave, the traffic was getting backed up. The reason was that right at the bottom of my street at San Pablo, there was some sort of traffic accident. The police were there but the paramedics were only just coming up behind me.
Pedestrian Hit / © neo serafimidis 2011
After the fire engine passed, I ducked down a side street and parked. I asked my mother to stay in the car and grabbed my camera. This was a little bit dicey because of her dementia, but she is doing ok lately, and really can’t move fast enough to get very far very fast these days. And I intended to be quick about it.
As I got to the end of the block I could see that they were working on someone lying in the street next to a stopped vehicle. A pedestrian had been hit by car, probably turning left onto San Pablo at this T intersection. I quickly snapped a few shots and ran back to the car. I could see that the person on the ground was able to move a hand, but they were totally facedown on the asphalt.
After getting home, I got my mom settled with some food and drink and got online to post a breaking story–just what I saw–to the local news site I shoot for occasionally, albany.patch.com. Before long, our awesome editor got the rest of the story from Albany PD and updated it.
My photo results are obviously not to be mentioned in the same breath as Cartier-Bresson. But the lesson of being always ready with camera as one moves through the world, as he was, was reinforced today.
Traffic Court 1
I’m ready to sell the car and never drive again.
I don’t think I had ever received a moving violation for anything other than a very occasional highway speeding ticket. But in these hard economic times, the man is out to make some extra scratch for the machine. In my mind that helps explain not one, but TWO moving violations in as many months. I’m just sure of it. I admit I’m not always a senior-citizen-goody-two-shoes driver, but still…
The first one was for making a left-turn immediately on the green, not yielding to oncoming traffic. But the oncoming traffic was at a dead stop a hundred feet away. It is a common occurrence at this spot because of the unusual shape and depth of the intersection. The officer asked, “Do you know why I’m stopping you.?” I said, “Why, no, I’m not sure.” Getting irritated, he barked, “Driver making a left turn shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching from the opposite direction.” “Oh, I’m sorry, officer,” I replied. And the ticket is written.
The more I thought about it over the next few days, the more it bothered me. Yield to ALL approaching vehicles? Really? All, with no mention how far away they are or anything? So, naturally I looked it up. In it’s entirety, V C Section 21801 (a) Left Turn or U Turn reads:
21801. (a) The driver of a vehicle intending to turn to the left or to complete a U-turn upon a highway, or to turn left into public or private property, or an alley, shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching from the opposite direction which are close enough to constitute a hazard at any time during the turning movement, and shall continue to yield the right-of-way to the approaching vehicles until the left turn or U-turn can be made with reasonable safety.
Left Turn
Well, I’m sorry, but I insist the vehicles are not close enough to constitute a hazard, unless maybe its a ferrari that guns it out of the hole. The turn can be made with reasonable safety, especially when the lead driver in the approaching lane is looking off and doesn’t budge when the light turns green. I contested it with a written hearing, but the court was not giving up the $220 easily. So, I that was that. Then, I had to send another check for $54 for the privilege of attending traffic school.
All this and Ididn’t even get to the traffic court part yet. Stay tuned for round two.
Albany Bowl Bar Entrance
San Pablo Ave, Albany CA / © Neo Serafimidis 2011
This is another shot from the Albany Streetscape set but not selected to be included, since I took about three shots of this view. This is the southern end of the bowling alley, where the bar is. I have to admit I like these in black and white, and it is making me think more and more about picking up a medium format film camera of some sort. I’m not sure whether I would produce the Streetscape project in B&W. I like rather like the color. I suppose it will depend on what kind of feel I can get with color, especially printed.
Also, one of the reasons for staying away from B&W is to stay away from overtly calling attention to the “photography” and focus on the documentary aspect of the project. And since the genesis of the project is an examination of the notion that the commercial streetscape is a 1950’s streetscape, I don’t want to prejudice that examination by suggesting something one way or the other in the treatment of the work. The B&W does that.
Interestingly, I have never really been in the bar despite living within a few blocks of it for almost 10 years now. I always end up further down the road at HTC or Mallard. I’ll make an effort to visit this year.
Albany Hill Mini Mart
Albany Hill Mini Mart / © Neo Serafimidis 2011
Photo of Albany Hill Mini Mart from my Albany Commercial Streetscapes project. I suppose it’s not really that exciting a shot, but I have a soft spot in my heart for it. It is kind of an homage, again, to Ed Ruscha, this time to his Twentysix Gasoline Stations book. Although it could be Shore or Wessel, too. But since the project as a whole turns out to be an echo of Ruscha’s Every Building on the Sunset Strip, I’ll just go with that.
In any case, looking at images from Twentysix Gasoline Stations online, I was reminded of something from my childhood: the gasoline station across the street from my Uncle Pete’s shoe repair shop. There were two things about that station that I never understood as a small child. The first was the brand name, which was Terrible Herbst. I didn’t even know that it was the name of anything because it was so strange, and I sure didn’t know how to pronounce the second word. I remember sitting in the shop looking out the window at the station, silently mouthing the words, trying to figure how to pronounce the name by trying to figure out what felt right in my mouth. I wasn’t used to seeing so many consonants in a row. Who knew it was a big regional brand, much less that it’s still around?
The second confusing thing to my feeble five-year-old mind were the signs next to each of the drive entrances. As I remember, they were three-foot-high metal signs on stands with springs so they would give a little in the wind. They were plain white and written in red letters were the words “GAS WAR!” I really did not know what that was supposed to mean. I knew what gas was, and what war was, but I couldn’t put the two together in any way that was meaningful to me. Even now, I have to suppose that “PRICE WAR” would be more intelligible. Despite being confused, I would feel the effect of reading the word ‘war’ as a tiny little adrenaline-like rush, because war was exciting. It made me want to be back at home playing with my army men.
Dang, I can still picture that station in my mind. I sure wish I had a photo of it. Besides being an interesting thing to have, it would help me sort out some of my foggy memory about it, because I seem to remember there being a winged horse, which is the old Mobil graphic, of course. I vaguely think the stations were next to each other. Here is a google streetview of where it/they once stood.
View Larger Map
Swivel the view around to the other side of the street and zoom in a bit to see the little white storefront building where Panos Shoe Repair was located once upon a time. There’s lots of memory there. But that’s a story for a different time.
Found Rant #2
Club Mallard's Great Old Sign - © neo serafimidis 2011
Just found: this deep-sixed, gut response to an apparent effort to make Albany yet more wholesome.
“Some of the effort to resolve problems with the Mallard seems to assume we live in some idyllic suburb where we only encounter members of our own tribe, and all the establishments are either only for use by those within walking distance, or are in strip malls with plenty of parking stalls. The reality is that we live in the middle of a huge urban center that will only continue to become more densely populated. We may not want to believe that, but it is true. The dangerous affliction of having strangers parking in the neighborhood is evident all over town, not just in poor ol’ West Albany. God knows its bad out here in North-North-East Albany, near the border with the hinterlands of Contra Costa County and the sphere of influence of AHS.
On the upside, having people around is what makes a place culturally interesting, exciting, and desirable. Indeed, some people here might welcome more culture, nightlife, music, and art geared for adults. Sometimes it seems this town has [censored–too provocative even for the personal blog].
If people can’t put up with the challenges of densely populated areas to enjoy the benefits of same, then they owe it to themselves to move to a place that provides them what they really want. I hear there are good deals on houses in the central valley these days.”
West San Pablo
San Pablo Ave, West Side of 500 Block
Today I began photographing the Albany commercial streetscapes. Throughout I used a Nikon D300s with a 35mm-f/1.8 lens at f/16, and ISO 200. I began on San Pablo Ave., at the northern border with El Cerrito and worked my way south toward Berkeley, shooting only the west side of the street. I paced off about 18 to 24 paces between shots.
I didn’t quite finish the side because I ran out of memory near the end. I might have ten more shots to go to finish the side. As it was I came home with almost 200 shots, and it took me a little over two hours of walking and shooting. I have already managed to edit this down to about 130 or so. I think San Pablo will end up being a set of 300 or so. Perhaps Solano will be about the same. The shot above is near the north end, and the one below is at the south end, just below Marin Ave.
San Pablo Streetscape at the Gill Tract
Documenting the Streetscape
Test Shot for Streetscape Series
Yesterday’s post had me opening my big fat mouth about the sorry state of Albany’s commercial streetscapes. The rant led up to my mention of a project to photograph the retail zones in Albany in their entirety. Once one starts talking like that, one becomes committed to undertaking the project. And if I don’t, I know somebody else will.
Today, I took a couple test shots, and here’s how my approach is shaping up. I want to have a consistent scale across all the shots, so I am going to try to do it entirely with the 35mmf/1.8 and shoot from across the street. On my D300s this ends up being a 50mm angle of view. I will at least start out using a tripod to get the sharpest and most consistent results possible.While I admit I have an axe to grind, I don’t want to intrude too much into the frame, so I hope to take a kind of documentarian “just the facts, ma’am” approach.
I plan to shoot all of San Pablo Ave from the El Cerrito border to the Berkeley Border, and Solano Ave from San Pablo to the Berkeley border. I’m going to try to shoot at regular intervals, about 12 to 14 paces, so that’s going to be a lot of photographs.
It would be nice if it were overcast for that nice even light. Not likely to get that for awhile, at least not without rain. I’ll shoot the west side of the street in the morning hours, and the east side in the late afternoon. Mutatis mutandis for Solano.
Wasn’t there an artist who did a piece where he photographed all of Sunset Blvd.? This is like that, only quainter and more family-friendly.
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