I don't want to say that San Francisco skies are boring ... so let's just say that San Francisco skies can be boring. The fog can create mystically beautiful scenes, obviously, yet it can also come in as a flat, gray, untextured background that's death to a photo. Clouds in storm season provide dramatic opportunity, but sometimes that season doesn't even begin until early December, and ends by late January. Not so in 2010-2011. While not unrelenting, the rains began early, and continue up to the day I write this. Plenty of interesting skies, plenty of creative decisions. I shoot digitally, in RAW format, so one choice that's always out there for me is: Color, or black-and-white? In some cases, the answer is obvious. Perhaps the image is all about color, as in this sunset shot of UCSF and Parnassus Hill on a stormy day, or the rare partial rainbow over Ocean Beach on a showery morning. Or perhaps the scene is all about lines, geometry, and dramatic contrast -- perfect for black-and-white -- as in the image of a storm cloud over Inner Sunset neighborhood apartments. (The cloud appears menacing, but was actually departing.) The aftermath of Bay Area storms is often as big a story as the storms themselves. Flooding, mudslides, and downed trees are common. I am one who loves the non-native eucalyptus trees -- for their visual beauty, their fragrance, their swishing sound in the breeze -- but I have to admit that they make a mess, dropping leaves and stripped bark at the least provocation. Still, even their mess is tantalizing to a photographer. It was color that attracted me to the storm-aftermath "still life" below, on a path near Stow Lake. But somehow I also found myself experimenting with a coppery monochrome treatment, sensing that the damp sheen on the leaves would make for intriguing contrast. Sometimes, you really do want to have it both ways ...

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When I learned that the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum was sponsoring a first-ever seasonal photo contest -- The Great Garden Winter Shootout -- I decided to treat the occasion as an assignment of sorts. The Arboretum, located in Golden Gate Park, is in my neighborhood anyway, and is a frequent spot for walks whether or not the camera's in tow (it usually is.)

I was able to visit seven times in January -- in sun, in clouds, in fog, and in those wonderfully-lit "in-between" periods. I saw the progress of proteae and ferns, magnolias and veldt fire. And I noted, not for the first time, how difficult it can be to define "winter" in San Francisco's climate and micro-climates. Yes, little streams form in beds that are dry in other seasons. Yes, the grass is greener. On the other hand, many leaves are only beginning to fall. Flowers start their show ... but you shouldn't count on them being out at the exact same time next year.

I chose five photos to work up, print, and enter in the contest, and had the surprise and pleasure of seeing four of them win recognition. You can read more about that here. Many thanks to the SFBGS and to contest judge Saxon Holt -- a notable garden photographer -- for this opportunity. I hope the contest repeats in the future, in different seasons. It was a great way to shoot in one of my favorite parks in the City, to fine-tune a new printer, and to see the wonderful ways that other photographers approached the same place in the same period of time. For this first blog I've created a slideshow that includes the four winning shots plus a couple dozen more images selected from the hundreds of photos I took. All photos were shot at Strybing Arboretum in January of this year. Here's the link to the Flash slideshow. Among many surprises therein: Park squirrels can actually find their own food! Take a look, and then find your way to Strybing ... in any season ... without the bag of bread crumbs.