City Scenes...Chess Time--Santana Row

(Thanks to Long for taking the picture.) 

City Scenes...Urban Sunset--Tully Rd.

Well, it's not the same as watching the sun set while relaxing on a beach or sitting atop mountain top, but in an urban sprawl setting you kind of have to take what you can get from the vantage point of a car.

"City Scenes," an introduction

I'm starting a new photo project entitled, "City Scenes," to capture images of San Jose as experienced by me. Since moving back here, this idea of how we, as individuals, experience our environment--through sights, sounds, memories--has floated through my mind quite a bit, especially while driving around this city. I'll see a certain image, such as a woman wearing a Vietnamese conical hat crossing the street, for example, and think, "That is just so San Jose."

So this project is kind of my ode to the San Jose that resonates with me and to capture images that defines the San Jose I know and am growing to (re)appreciate. Some of these images may come with commentary about some sort of nostalgia it might evoke or it could just be a standalone image that captures San Jose life, from the mundane to the...mundane. (I say that only half-jokingly.)

My first picture..."Neon Glory--West San Carlos St."

I love all the flashy, old-fashioned signs on West San Carlos. Some of them, I assume from the font styling, date back to at least the early 1960s. When driving down this street, I can't help but imagine how this section of the city must have been back in the day. They're city relics, I say! I'm going to go back again one day and do a whole series on these signs.