Myrtle Street Labs » streets

street cam video during our house party

sstave — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:16:12 +0000

We had a fun house party, the West Oakland Social Democrat Party, at the physical location of Myrtle Street Labs this last Saturday. Here’s the street cam footage from 7pm until 3am after the party.

Thanks all to everybody who came out, especially to our fabulous djs Mike Evans and Steve Best, and Erik Gilling who supplied the sound system.

an oldie but a goodie

sstave — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:48:47 +0000

Stored exactly one year ago this day, this sequence of images captured by our streetcam is still one of our favorites. The camera had only been online a week or two when, in the corner of my computer screen at work, I saw her walk by and stop in front of my car.

If you pay attention to the timestamps in the bottom right corner you can see she spends almost 20 seconds fixing her hair in her reflection in my car window.

sunrise at the Oakland Produce Market

sstave — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:29:57 +0000

One from the archives. This is from October 25, 2008, when I was at the Oakland Produce Market (near Jack London Square) very early in the morning on a field trip for my son’s 5th grade class.

traffic stop on Mandela Parkway

sstave — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:37:06 +0000

Taken on the evening of January 10, 2009.

tow trucks at the ready on the embercardero

sstave — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:28:02 +0000

I spotted these tow trucks on The Embercardaro around 2:30 in the afternoon on Monday, September 1. They were waiting to scoop up any cars left in the curb lane once 3pm rolled around.

This picture is the first I have postprocessed using The Gimp. I used the dodging and burning tool to bring out some of the shadows and make the overexposed sky a little less dominating in the frame.

New Economy Laundry, Berkeley

sstave — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:15:56 +0000

I took this picture in December, 2008 at dusk. New Economy Dry Cleaners and Laundry is located at Sacramento and Fairview, in South Berkeley. I’ve never taken any laundry there, but I think their name is fabulous.

the light in san francisco, take 2

sstave — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:30:49 +0000

Recycling another old photo that I’ve never shared before. Dusk after the rain, February 24, 2008, looking at North Beach.

electric bus cable inspectors

sstave — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:23:28 +0000

It turns out that the cable car cable is not the only public transportation infrastructure requiring inspection in San Francisco. These gentlemen were spotted last Friday morning (August 21) looking at the overhead wires used by electric buses on Chestnut Street. The truck they stood on top of was driven very slowly up the street and they examined the wire. They appeared to pay extra attention to each junction as they passed by it slowly.

cable car cable inspectors

sstave — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:00:08 +0000

Back in May I saw these fine gentlemen walking along the Powell-Hyde Street line, lifting each removable metal cover over the cable car cable. These covers allow access to the rollers that the cable runs in and these workers were responsible for checking that each roller was in good repair. This picture was taken at the corner of Hyde and Northpoint.

They were happy to stop and pose for me, and stopped long enough to let me snap a picture of the cable and the roller. If you’ve ever walked over the cable car line you’ve heard the metallic whirring noise that the cable makes when it slides through these rollers.

Cable Car Cable and Roller

myrtle street, after the rain

sstave — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:52:26 +0000

This photo is fromback on January 17, 2009. The rain had dried off the street but the brushes on the street sweeper that just drove by were still wet. Mclymonds High School is in the background.