Posted in Oakland, Photography on November 28, 2007|
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Here are a small sample of the pictures I took while I was in Oakland, CA this October for the Oral History Association conference. The one above came out the best I think. I took all of these photos with one of those disposable cameras, then had them developed, and had a photo disk made of the prints.
I was inspired by an article I read about a photographer who took some really cool shots using a cheesy cellphone camera. His point was that if you respected the limitations of your particular camera, you could still get some really good shots. Some of the pictures came out blurry–I need to be farther away than four feet apparently to get something approaching a close-up. The camera also did better outdoors than indoors. The indoor pictures appear much more grainy.
Oakland, in general, was very photogenic. There was a farmers’ market held just around the corner from the hotel and I had fun snapping pictures of the produce, most of which I had never seen for sale outside of a supermarket (persimmons, grapes, lemons, oranges with the leaves still attached, almonds, etc.).

The fountain in front of the Barnes and Noble Bookstore at Jack London Square. The day I was there, the weather was unseasonably hot and humid. The pigeons seemed to enjoy cooling their feet in the water.

A Renaissance-type statue that was on the smoking balcony of the conference hotel. No one was using the balcony because–gasp!–it was sixty degrees above zero. Too cold for Californians.

My personal favorite: a sidewalk sign reminding you not to dump anything into the waterways. The top two words on the piece of the litter in the picture read “Bad Boy”. Just tellin’ it like it is.
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