Pizza Diavola

Photos beneath the cut. These are all taken with a cameraphone, since (a) my digital point and shoot is erratic and unreliable; (b) the Canon Eos 35mm is not exposing properly and I have to take it to a shop as soon as I get the current roll out. The cameraphone is surprisingly convenient, since I nearly always have my cell phone on me, and it’s light and fast. So I actually do take pictures with it on the go. And the ease of getting photos off of it in digital format is seductive. It still doesn’t match up to working in a dark room or shooting a person for an hour, though. There’s a whole different mentality to working with a person and concentrating on her or him, but consciously making the effort to take a photo a day is making me see things differently again, the way I did when I was taking photography in college and shooting three 36-exposure rolls a week.

Saturday, 2008/04/26, Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market

The tomatoes have been out since early March, I think (I’ve been losing track of time lately). They were so gorgeous, so vibrantly red they practically glowed in the bright sunlight at the market. I was ecstatic the first time I saw fresh tomatoes at the market this year, without even remembering what they tasted like. I knew I’d rather make pasta sauces with fresh tomatoes than canned, but it had been so long since I’d done it that I’d forgotten what the difference was. Then, back in March, I made spaghetti all’ amatriciana for my first fresh tomato sauce of the year and it was great. The phrase that comes to mind is one that I heard from an acquaintance in Athens last summer, “There’s a party in my mouth and no one else is invited!” (the flip side of that one is “There’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s throwing up.”). There’s an extra layer of taste, a zing, that comes from fresh tomatoes.

One of the drawbacks of using a cameraphone is that it doesn’t … I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t work with light the same way that digital point and shoots or a 35mm SLR does. There’s a second line of text on that notice, under “Get your FREE reusable bag,” that didn’t show up because of the glare off the paper, and a point and shoot or 35mm SLR would have corrected for the glare. Also, go GOOG for sponsoring free reusable bags, distributed at a location where people are likely to use them (the small, blurry text on the bag says, “This reusable bag sponsored by Google”). Smart advertising. I already have a handful of canvas totes, so I didn’t get one. There was also a parade of people at the market, wearing costumes made of cut up plastic bags and waving signs supporting reusable bags over plastic. Go them!

Friday, 2008/04/25, bus shelter in SF

“TO THE LIST
OF PLACES YOU
MIGHT FIND SEXUAL
PREDATORS ADD THIS ONE”

One good aspect of my cameraphone is that there’s only one shutter speed, so it’s possible to take photos at night with minimal blurring. I originally thought this ad was part of a series on sexual assault that I’d noticed on the buses and liked, but it’s sponsored by Delete Online Predators or something like that. The bottom right image is of a bedroom and a desk with a computer monitor on it and there’s a statistic that didn’t show up in the image, “1 in 5 children is approached by a predator online.” I’m not sure how I feel about it, because child abuse is vile, but at the same time I dislike the tone of the ad, which came off as fear-inducing. Thoughts?

A sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich that I got on the way to work. It was heated in a toaster oven but the cheese didn’t melt. I am suspicious of cheese that does not melt in a toaster oven.

Thursday, 2008/04/24, SF

On the way to work in the morning. I love the sky, so:

I looked up. The sky was a light greyish blue. Taking pictures of the sky is difficult.

Walking to work, I saw a gorgeous, gorgeous (if gas guzzling and environmentally unfriendly) car, realized it was a Lotus, and went back to take a picture to send to an acquaintance who loves Lotuses. Then the window rolled down to reveal that the driver was still inside. Oops. He didn’t seem to mind, though, and said in a humorous and non-creepy fashion that since I’d taken a picture of his car, he wanted one of me. He also said that it happens to him all the time, and a meter monitor once tried to ticket the car while he was in it. Gorgeous car and a gorgeous driver.

Tuesday, 2008/04/22

A sign on Stanford campus. I like pictograms.