Stop the Violins

Jay Hosler's site
Updated 13 April 2013

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April 2013

28 April
High Mountain Scenery

Sunlight and snow - April 17
We drove to Mammoth via Hwys 88 and 395, on the heels of a substantial spring storm. We dawdled to take pictures, and to avoid having to put on chains. We didn't arrive at Mammoth until 2. Not much skiing that day, but lots of lovely scenery.
13 images; 1600x1200 available

26 April 2013
Night shift in the thistle wars

Click for 1200x800

Relentless Anti-Thistle campaign continues unabated
Total thistles this season:
7500+
(Click here for evidence)
24 April
Magical light in the Gold Country
For one late spring afternoon last week I was enslaved by sunlight backlighting a hardwood forest.
Ten images. 1600x1200 available.
23 April
Admit it! You know you've been waiting for this!
Cast of millions! Steady action, accelerating to a breathtaking finish!

That's what we do around here: we watch bread rise
(Be sure to use full screen HD for highest drama!)
22 April
Small person watching big sunset light show

Click for larger
Fossil Falls, near Little Lake, CA
(More images coming soon)
20 April 2003: Pat's 87th Birthday

It was a year of plenty of rain and an exceptional flower show at the desert. You couldn't find a place to put your foot that didn't crush a flower. My mother loved the flowers above all. To mark her birthday this week I picked out 42 images, featuring the brothers Kenney, Eric, Mary, and Butch Smith, as well as Pat.
15 April: Reruns

The Great Wall of Soquel
September, 2000

I've spent a couple of days cleaning up the mess in the site archives, which are now easy to go through. After looking at every post (back to 1997) I nominate this as hands-down the most interesting. It covers two weeks of heavy construction in our yard, to strengthen the stream bank after a disastrous flood early in the year. I had a camera on the roof, shooting pictures every 30 seconds. After it was over I edited it down into this project diary.
14 April: Bob

Bob Hosler (10 April, 1912 - 9 October 1995)

Brilliant, multi-talented, and problematic, Bob was difficult to live with or even understand, but always interesting. He made his living as a Hollywood film cameraman, but was also a builder/contractor, nurseryman, and recognized bamboo expert.

Bob spent the last 25 years of his life in paranoid seclusion, writing tens of thousands of pages of journals, screenplays, and letters; I have much of this material and hope to put extracts on this site.

Herewith a modest selection of images, to commemorate his 101st birthday. High-res available for some images.

12 April
Little girls

Chance and Gloria are eight, both born in the summer of 2004, only a month apart in age but separated by a generation. Chance is Aidan's youngest; Gloria is Alex's daughter, Chris's granddaughter. They have hung out together at family gatherings since they were three. 44 images taken over that time (1200x800 available)
11 April: Panoramas

A few panoramas, stitched by a high-quality freeware tool.
10 April
The monster Wisteria that ate the world

Somebody planted this a long time ago
and ignored it until it was too late.
Now it goes where it pleases. The biggest Wisteria I have seen.
Click for six pictures.
9 April

Major surgery to the organization of this page. Landscape Gallery presents landscape photos, and includes the first of what will be several technical articles about photography. Family Album presents albums of pictures of people.
9 April
Another harsh day for a bike ride

View from Highland Ave.
Click for larger.
8 April
Apple orchard, Corralitos

Pickings from a bike ride.
Click for larger.
7 April
Sisters: snapshots of the elders

Pat, Dot, and Mimi -- about 80 images,
with lots of bycatch.
Christmas 1991 at the desert

5 April
A dinner for Stacia's birthday

With Mary, Chance,
and Dave Feinstein...
4 April
TWO new backpacking trips

Two camping trips, 27 years apart,
to the same wild places
3 April: Mystery woman

Chance, Mary, and Easter flowers
2 April
Improve your digital photos
by compressing dynamic range

Zion Canyon at Sunset
Mouse over image to see original

A short article about
a simple and effective technique
Hybridization prize
awarded to local scientists


In a formal ceremony conducted at the conclusion of the annual Soquel Creek Hovercraft Festival, scientists from the RWFHL, the prestigious Horticultural Labs of the Redwood Forest University, were awarded the coveted Order of Horticultural Merit for their astonishing development of this one-of-a-kind hybrid Oregon Grape Magnolia. "Many problems remain to be solved," said Lab director Mary Hosler in an exclusive interview. "For just one example, the hybrid is an irresistable attraction to the endangered Soquel Creek Miniature Weasel." She added, however, that a final version of the hybrid should be available in stores within this year.


January-March 2013

30 March 2013
Selected landscapes
from a September 2012 trip

Dinosaur, Yellowstone,
and points northeast:
37 images
1600x1200
28 March
Two new events from scanned slides

Thanksgiving at the desert
1973

Party at Pat Hosler's
28 Sept. 1974

Full-on Spring

Finally! On March 25: full bloom
Also an aggressive bumblebee...


March 15, 17

March 18, 21
28 March
Rainy morning

The springtime that keeps on giving

A dozen photos
27 March
Grandkids growing up


Recent pictures of James and Chance
26 March
A children's book? You decide...

A fantasy alliance
between a young girl
and a long-ago woman pirate

Blythe's Gold
by Jay Hosler and Peggy Harrison

Download free at
Benchland.org
25 March

15 superb photos of rural US
1939-43 from a Library
of Congress exhibit.
Thanks to cousin Tim Kenney.


70 photos are the Denver Post
Friends from another galaxy
long, long ago

Celebrating Yvonne's birthday
24 March 2013
Late afternoon light

I got home tired from a concert week...
but the Maples and Magnolias
were glowing in a magical light.
22 March 2013
Other admirers of the maples

Facing down the enemy,
squirrel division
21 March
Springtime garden pictures

A compendium of week's pictures

This album will remain as
"Spring 2013" on the links bar
18 March
Now it's the maples

Just more pictures of flowers
17 March
Photos of garden and stream

(warning: flower overload).
Large sizes available.
13 Mar 2013
Face plant: Mary's only ski fall this year

AND she was wearing a camera...
(warning: graphic images, language)

9 Mar 2013
Happy 23rd to her parents

How can anybody be so happy
so much of the time?

28 February 2013
Chance at Mammoth Mountain

Two trips, and she's really skiing.
We had four clear windless days
Mammoth at its finest.

28 Jan 2013
Memories of Anita

Including pictures of the
weekend memorial event

15 Jan 2013
Finally! Jody's picture trove

Snapshots of Mary's family


Posts from prior geological eras

2012
2010-2011
2009
2005-2008
1997-2003