Postcard from Sacramento

This bridge was my first view of Sacramento. The year was 1959. I was in the 8^th grade and my father had just been transferred from San Francisco to Sacramento. I was not happy.

Back then, there was no Interstate 80. There was only Highway 40. It did not go around the downtown area, but instead lead right downtown. In fact, you came over this bridge on to Capital Ave that led directly to the State Capital building. It is right in your sites as you crossed this bridge, strangely named Tower Bridge.

All well and good if your destination was the Capital. But, if you were headed east towards the North Area of Sacramento or even Reno, you had to take a circuitous route all around the Capital Park, then out 16^th Street, then on to another local highway that eventually became Highway 40 again.

If you were headed for Lake Tahoe, you still had to travel the same route, but you turned onto a different street to connect to Highway 50. Apparently in those days, the City Fathers believed the only way to make people stop and spend their money was to make them drive all around and through the downtown area. My great aunt Monica, when she came to visit us for the first time, said, “They took me all around Robin Hood’s Barn to get here.” Wish I would have said that.

Much later, the Feds built a highway around the city so that you could have a non-stop modern freeway route all the way to Reno and beyond. Today it is Interstate 80. Even if you wish to go to Tahoe you take the Freeway and connect to I-5…then to the Highway 50 turnoff. Of course, the city has not lost money as it has grown to a Giant metropolis with many, many new buildings, great shopping, and the tourist-trap known as Old Sacramento. (see my blog date 10/21/15).

As mentioned, I was not happy with the family’s move to Sacramento. I had to leave the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area. It was my home for my entire life…at least to this point. I left people behind who were very dear to me as well as a city that is still one my favorite cities in all the world. I had to leave the 49ers and the Giants behind (only one year removed from their move from New York) as well as my Grandmother, Market Street, the Cable Cars, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, North Beach, and the Ferry Building.

That was the day when I became a San Franciscan in absentia. Of course that title still applies today. San Francisco will always be my hometown, even though I now live in Tucson.

Did my bad attitude towards Sacramento ever change? Nope! It got better as time passed, but Sacramento was a big city with a small town mentality. As Gertrude Stein once said about Oakland, “There is no there, there.” That was my feeling about Sacramento. I could not wait to get out. And I did. Four years later, after graduating from High School, I left for college. Can you guess where? That’s right…The San Francisco Bay Area. Actually I moved to the city of San Jose, now the capital of Silicon Valley. Admittedly I was 50 miles south of my favorite city, but still managed many, many visits to that great city. I was back home.

Over time, circumstances led me back to Sacramento on two different occasions. I still didn’t like it all that much. I suppose a lot of it has to do with its close proximity to San Francisco…its hard to compete, much less surpass a great city like SF. As for Sacramento, I left it for the final time in 1992. Truth be told, it is better now than it ever was and has more to be proud of…but it can never replace the Bay Area. Never.

Postcard from Tucson

As many longtime readers know, I live in Tucson, AZ. But, in all time I’ve done this blog, I don’t remember ever sharing an image of the city itself. Well, here it is in all its glory!

As you may know, Tucson is surrounded by hills and mountains. I took this image from up on Sentinal Peak. It is aslo known as “The Big A Mountain”. The reason? Right behind where I was standing to take this picture, there is a huge letter A, symbolizing the University of Arizona. It is quite large and can be seen for miles. It is all white, but a few years ago, it was red, white and blue…the school colors. I don’t know why they changed and painted it with just with white, but they did. Every year, it’s a tradition that the freshman class come up here and give the Big A a fresh coat of paint.

Moving back to the photo, the big highway in the foreground of the photo is I-10. This interstate runs from Los Angeles to Florida, or ocean to ocean, as you might say. It first goes east to Phoenix, then turns south for 100 miles to Tucson. Just to the right of the photo, it turns east again and heads to Las Cruces, New Mexico. From there it goes South again to El Paso then eventually works its way south and east again all the way to Jacksonville, Florida. It is a very long, long highway.

Just behind the freeway is downtown Tucson. Its funny in a way in that some of oldest old homes from the days of Spanish occupation in Tucson now mix with the modern downtown. When I first came here, I was not impressed with the downtown area. But it has been going through a renaissance with new buildings, new restaurants and shops. Its becoming quite classy and a fun place to hang out. There are theaters there…and just on Monday, they held a large outdoor jazz festival at various locations. There is a lot of new activity happening here and I am mighty glad to see it.

Now look just behind the downtown area and you will see a large collection of buildings that runs north and south. That would all be the University of Arizona. Look closely and you can see the football stadium. That is at the south and east end of the campus. Let your eye follow from there all the way until the large buildings come to and end. That would be the north end of the campus. It is quite large…trust me as I have walked almost all of it at one time or another. 40,000 students make up the student body. Its big enough that it has its own transportation system as well as a police department.

In between the downtown and the campus lies the 4th Ave District and the University District, each with its own unique ambience and definitely worth a visit if you ever come this way. Connecting all of these is a new streetcard system that begins on the west side of the freeway, just to the left of the photo. It travels through all the districts I mentioned, ending up at the very north end of the campus. Its a great way to travel the city and not worry about parking. As a matter of fact, I took it today to attend an art lecture at the University Museum of Art.

Tucson is surrounded by mountains. Most of the mountains you see in this photo are part of the Santa Catalina Mountains. To the far right of those mountains in the photo is the beginning of the Rincon Mountains. The city of Tucson runs right to the base of both those mountain ranges. It is a big city, in term land size. The city sits at about 2,500 feet evelvation and has aproximately one million people in the greater Tucson area.

I hope you have enjoyed this quick tour of my adopted home. I live in the western foothills above the city, at about the same elevation as the Big A mountain. It would be a couple of miles to the left of where this photo was taken. I really love this city and have enjoyed my 7+ years here. Maybe not so much in the summer, but everything here is air conditioned, included the streetcars. Thank God for that.  

Postcard from Tumacacori

The Old Mission Church

by Belinda van Rensburg

The air is hot and humid as we sit in the church pew,
the building's very old and nothing in it's new.
The walls are cracking; the alter cloth is stained,
and I'm sure that we'd get drenched if it should rain.

The roof is leaking but the preacher keeps on preaching;
A tired fan is squeaking and the rusty door is creaking.
The paint is peeling but the people are all kneeling;
pouring out their hearts to God with honesty and feeling.

I don't know the lingo but my spirit can discern,
that the congregation's here to worship and to learn.
Oh! How fortunate I feel as in this place I kneel,
for upon this mission church is God's approving seal.

 

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)
To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…
or visit my Flickr Page.

Postcard from Tucson

I bought a new pocket camera just before Christmas. It is a Lumix camera with an amazing Leica lens. It has a 30-1 analog zoom and takes photos in both JPG and RAW. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I use a Sony NEX-6 mirrorless DSLR camera most of the time…but also use a Nikon D-200 camera (big and heavy) and an iPhone 6+. The problem with the first two is they do no fit in my pocket. And while the iPhone takes great photos, if you start to zoom in to a subject, the pictures get increasingly bad. It uses what is termed digital zoom…not good.

So, I wanted a small, quality camera that fits in my pocket that will let me zoom when I needed it. The new Lumix more than filled the bill…and I got it at a great sale price!

Of course after receiving it, I gave it a proper workout. The results have been astounding. With that long lens, I recently photographed all the mothballed airplanes out at Davis Monthon Airbase. I shot from one of the high hills here in town. You can barely make them out with the naked eye and only if you know where to look. This camera took a fabulous picture and even with the camera zoomed out almost all the way, I was able to get a good photo just by holding it in my hand. It has an anti-shake mechanism built in that works very well.

Anyway, this is one of my test photos that I took out at Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is located just south of Tucson. It is a very old mission dating back to the 1700’s. You’ve seen a few photos from there in in past episodes of this blog. It is a quite famous mission and was once photograhed by Ansel Adams. His photo, (click here to see it) is very famous. It was taken at the rear of the mission.

My photo here was also taken behind the mission, just a few feet from where Ansel did his.Just to the left in my photo, you see a small part of a dirt driveway that leads into the mission. His photo was take on the other side of the road. Trust me when I say I am not trying to compare myself to Mr. Adams…he is leagues above me. But I do like this image very much. It captures the flavor of the old mission in the middle of the desert.

The mission gets a lot of tourists every day of the week. But few take the time to walk around to the rear. I was all alone back here while taking photos while the front of the mission was bustling with folks walking looking around. Fine with me.

I also took other photos of the mission on this day and again a few days later. It is a good place to test out my new camera. I went inside the church which is very, very dark. I managed to take a few images inside that turned out quite well, even holding the camera for a 1/6 of a second exposure. Now that blew me away.

The best lenses in the world are made by Leica. Many of the most famous shots by great photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, Eugene Smith, Garry Winogrand, and many more were done with Leica cameras. I recently went to a photography lecture by a famous old-time photographer (whose name I sadly can’t remember) who said right up front he made the decision early in his carerr to spend the money and get a Leica. They are expensive, for sure, but those lenses are the best…but of course they are not cheap. That is why I was so happy to get this new camera that came with a certified Leica lens.

But the best part was when I finished my shoot. I just put the camera back into my jeans pocket and drove away. Not a bad deal. It will go with me now every time I leave the house.