Enough thoughts of work. It's summer heading toward fall and I think I need to plan a vacation, take a train up to Portland to see my mother and sister and nephew and then, perhaps, rent a car and spend a week going up the coast with a tripod, return on the train from Seattle, perhaps, or British Columbia, wherever it is that it originates. I think that would be a good idea. As I sit here right now, I think that would be a very good idea.

I noticed that one of the streets near our office in Oakland was being barricaded as I was leaving work and they were setting up a portable stage and lining up folding chairs, the signs proclaiming a jazz festival. I assume it's the beginning of the second annual summer jazz festival that Oakland started last year, that I photographed and wound up with little to show for my efforts. You'd think performers on stage would make interesting subjects, singers emoting at the microphone, and I have in fact shot some good ones, but you can only shoot so many singers emoting at a microphone before you need something else. Shooting the crowd isn't quite the same thing as shooting people preparing for a parade. They wonder who you are and why you're shooting their picture. Boyfriends see opportunities to demonstrate devotion in front of their dates by pushing the nasty man with the camera. So I'm careful and often my production isn't very good. One of the reasons you go out and buy telephoto lenses as a beginner, you think they'll make it easier. They don't. Save your money. You have to get in close.

I just checked the web and the jazz festival isn't until the end of the month. They block off a number of downtown streets and give multiple jazz and blues performances on stages large and small throughout the area, large crowds and small crowds, morning, noon and night for three days. They held the first one last year and it was well attended and everybody had a good time. This one is going to be bigger just because people will have heard about it and invite their friends. I'm wondering how big before it starts to get rowdy and creates opportunities for even more interesting photographs. (What am I saying? I'm too old for that.)