Flowers.

I don’t do flowers, not if I can help it. It’s a genre where it’s almost impossible to say anything new.

Yet one of the key attractions of the coastal town of Carmel, CA is the abundance of flowers on display throughout the year. Be it in stores, restaurants or well tended gardens, they are everywhere.

These caught my eye on a stroll through downtown the other day:

Carmel, CA. G3, Olympus 9-18mm @ 12mm, 1/200, f/5.6, ISO320.

The wide zoom Olympus MFT 9-18mm lens is ideal for this sort of thing, and makes a fine walk-about companion for the 14-45mm kit zoom.

Some aver that Seward Johnson’s lifelike outdoor bronzes are kitsch. Others denigrate them for his use of modeling software like Maya, the technology speeding the production cycle.

Seated couple at 6th and Lincoln, Carmel, CA. G3, 9-18mm Oly @ 15mm, 1/400 f/5.6, ISO320.

You can make your own mind up, though I confess I tend to find them never less than amusing and, on occasion, as above, surprisingly poignant. They are Americana in much the same way that Norman Rockwell’s work is, and Rockwell’s oeuvre has much the same accusations leveled at it.

Seward Johnson’s entry in Wikipedia makes for interesting reading.

Surprise time.

Bertie supervises while Winnie opens his gifts.

Nothing like a nice fire to add to the proceedings.

Late light.

In Carmel, CA. G3, kit lens @ 20mm, 1/800, f/5, ISO320.

A wonderful year of street snapping.

Click the picture to view a video commentary on some of the favorites among the 365 pictures I posted to my companion site, Snap!, during 2011. The video is just over 11 minutes long, so give it a while to download – a minute on a 10mb/s broadband connection.

Click the picture for the video.

I turn 60 today. Not since 1971-77 have I had a year of snapping to compare, which leads to the inevitable conclusion that either my critical faculties are shot, or I am senile.

The author at 60. Snapped by my son, Winston, on the iPhone 4S in Carmel, CA.
At The Grill on Ocean Avenue. One of the rare occasions where I was not the one pressing the button.