This post is old news by now- once again, I’m reaching back into the ancient mists of July. Please forgive this overly busy Bat for the lack of posting during July when it was actually happening. And stop me if I’ve told you any of this before…

On July 5 (you know, the day after Independence Day, when you can expect to see beaches littered with debris from parties celebrating the American tradition of trashing the place) some devoted early risers from Santa Cruz NEXT, in conjunction with Save Our Shores, collected 257 pounds of trash and 62 pounds of recycling at Twin Lakes Beach. Here’s the Santa Cruz NEXT blog post about that day.

I was there to take photos of people picking up trash, making me once again glad to be a photographer, tasked only with lifting my camera and walking around. These folks were out at Twin Lakes at 7 am, collecting trash. And no, they did not go to bed early the night before. They partied like the rest of us (though presumably with less mess) but got themselves up at the crack of dawn to make Twin Lakes tidy again. Their enthusiasm at 7 am was very impressive. I hope they all went home patting themselves on the back, because they deserved that and more.

Here are some photos:

Regular readers know of my love of cellphone pics. (To see cellphone pics from previous months, click here.) The gallery below has 60 photos from my phone taken during June and July.

Alas, I have sad tidings: around the beginning of July, I dropped my phone (again). Suddenly, the camera could only see life from a psychedelic perspective. Now my cellphone photos look like this:

No, they don’t all look like photos of Caffe Pergolesi on a Saturday night. But they do look like the strangest dream I’ve ever had about ordinary, everyday stuff. They show what the world might look like if my soul was suddenly trapped in the body of some other species- possibly a species nobody knows about because it’s invisible. Sure, these photos are kind of interesting, but after just a few I find myself feeling queasy and uncertain about my grip on reality. And I simply cannot lose my grip on reality, not during WEDDING SEASON.

You can see a few more of these trippy photos at the end of the show below.

The bright side of all this is that I now have one more reason to buy the phone Patrick uses, the one he described in this post. But first there are a few lenses I want to acquire. As soon as I can fully justify a new phone purchase, cellphone pics posts will begin anew! Until then, what you see here will have to suffice.

So long, Samsung t439 camera, you fragile beauty…

CLICK THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE IMAGE BELOW TO GET STARTED.

I’m always looking for cool new photography-related technology, and I just stumbled across a neat little flash-based widget called Closr. The idea is that the software allows you to view high resolution photos without having to actually download the entire thing, which can take a while even over a fast connection. For instance, the file size of the photo below is 5mb. The actual size, if printed at the native resolution, would be about 48 x 32 inches. Not particularly small.

All you have to do is go to the Closr site, sign up, and upload a photo!

Try clicking the full screen button in the upper right corner. Pretty cool!

The first set of photos were taken at the same beach as Rebecca’s previous post. The second set was shot at Sam McDonald County Park up past Pescadero on Highway 1.

For the perfect day trip, I recommend stopping at Arcangeli’s Grocery in Pescadero, where one can pick up a nice wine (or some cold beer) and some tasty bread (they make it themselves!) and cheese. From Pescadero, it’s a few short miles to the park.

It’s a gorgeous drive and a beautiful hike, it’s practically deserted, and not particularly strenuous. Plus, there’s a really nice horse camp with a bunch of picnic tables a mile or so into the hike, and there’s even a little shack with a fridge, a toaster and a microwave, in case you want to stay a bit longer, or make something slightly more complicated than sandwiches. Highly recommended!