The San Francisco Bay from the Grizzly Peak Road in the Berkeley Hills on a clear day takes one’s breath away–even in black and white. The black and white print allowed for more resolution and contrast than the color image did. One of these days I will have to stop at Tilden Park and ride the steam train.
Click twice on a picture to enlarge it (the first click will reveal its file name; the next click will greatly enlarge it).
Nullius in Verba 
I love the way the clouds look in B&W. Not that the trees and the Bay don’t look great, but you know I’m into the hydrology of a situation…
K
We ordered a polarizing lens for the camera after taking the pictures.
The trees behind me, when I took the pictures, are eucalyptus that I suspect were brought in by speculators who believed Gifford Pinchot was right about a coming “timber famine.” The rapidly-growing Australian eucalypts had two flaws: the wood was worthless except for fire wood because of its twisted grain and they are a fire-climax species (built to burn). California, with its hot, dry summers, was not the best place to plant a pyric species. The Berkeley Hills periodically see some extreme fire behavior because of these trees. Personally, I would have planted coast redwood; it sprouts from the roots when cut–it’s the crabgrass of trees, in that it’s hard to kill. The hills get lots of fog and the redwoods hug the coast along that fog line. Coast redwood does not burn anywhere near as well as eucalyptus.