photo request #25: longhorn sheep and city hall

a while back my friend tim told me i need to get a picture of this ram with city hall in the background. i mumbled something about the lighting never being good in that alleyway, and i could never get the ram and the dome of the hall to look good together.

this one is for you, timmy. hope you enjoy!

photo request #24: cinema 21 in all its faded glory

i love this old building. i wish i had the money to buy it and turn it into something trendy. this was an old photo request from my friend holly. her blog is fantastic - especially if you live in the davis, ca area. check it out!

photo request #23: train stations

a bird waits for the metro at the china town station along the gold line.

thanks to laurie over at the wonderful glimpses of south pasadena blog for her suggestion that i head out and snap some pictures of our picturesque metro stations.

photo request #22 - city landmarks

another photo from this fantastic list, which was suggested by pasadena's award winning information officer (head on over to her blog for today's mystery history post!).

this photo is of a monument outside of city hall that happens to profile pasadena's beloved robinson boys - baseball player jackie's vision is pointed toward new york city - where he spent much of his career, while olympian mack's gaze is directed at city hall, noting his continued presence in the community.

i love that i also captured another photographer trying to take a picture of the lovely trees.

photo request #21: new neighborhoods

last thursday, both petrea and cafe suggested i head out and find some neighborhoods that i don't spend much time in.

george's market is located off the main drag in pasadena, and caters to the neighborhood around it. inside you are greeted warmly with friendly and personal staff, and hey - they have quality meats, right? i love places like this. unaffiliated with a national chain, family owned and operated, and fewer and fewer of them exist today.

thanks for the suggestions - keep them coming!

photo request #20: the auditorium of the city of pasadena

i can't believe it has taken me almost two years to post a picture of this building. it's probably because it has had a big construction fence around it for almost as long as we've lived here. it is a part of pasadena's newly renovated convention center complex, and it is quite an impressive building.

oh, and in case you're keeping score at home, this counts as a photo request because it is listed on this wonderful list of pasadena's historic sites that our wonderful information officer, ann erdman, passed on to me as suggestions.

edit - my wife also suggested that my blog needed a photo of this building.

photo request #19: water fountains in pasadena

one of the requests from earlier this week was from my co-worker jon (who has a fantastic blog you should all go check out). he suggested that i check out the numerous fountains around pasadena. while wandering around this building in search of a different photo (details on that adventure later), i found this little beauty. sure, the fountain isn't that impressive, but click on the photo. see that mosaic image of city hall above the bench? how sweet is that? thanks for the excellent suggestion jon.

keep those requests coming!

photo request #18: ck out the eastside more

thursday's post was a call out for photo requests and suggestions. today we debut a series of photo requests - starting with a request from cafe pasadena who among other things, suggested i get over to the east side of pasadena and start taking some pictures.

sandwich story is a lovely little sandwich shop located across the road from pasadena community college (which you could argue is on the east side of town). i came to know about this place on an excellent tip from my friend shana. they have a fantastic and afordable menu, and you gotta love a family run business in these times, right? plus, i know how much mr. cafe loves pasadena's eateries. go check them out!

lots more request from cafe pasadena, but we'll get to some others first.

photo request #17: memories...

at least i hope this image brings back some memories - for one reader in particular.

last week i got a special request from a reader in australia. roz wondered if the building her family lived in when her dad was a fuller student still existed, and it turns out it still stands! this is a shot of 460 ford place, complete with, as roz put it so well - "a rickety balcony on the front from where we could see the mountains".

i'm happy to pass on this image to a fellow world traveller. i'll put up a shot of the back side tomorrow. hope you like it!

photo request #16: craftsman challenge

like some kind of modern internet based dual, laurie over at glimpses of south pasadena has challenged her area counterparts to post their best photo of pasadena's craftsman homes. i've struggled to capture the best, but i've got a few offerings for her. today's is almost perfect but it lacks the iconic stonework at the base of the columns. it does have several of my favorite features - vibrant paint, a massive porch overhang, and it is surrounded with greenery.

so far mr. earl has stepped up to the challenge, and petrea followed suit, but more could come soon...

like hatching a patch for instance. good one!

photo request #15: can you shoot rain falling?

a few days ago altadena hiker asked if i could photograph the rain we've been experiencing here in town. this is my attempt - you may not be able to see the rain, but you can see that the parking lot is wet, and the precipitation is visible in the mountains. this is about as close as we get to having snow on the ground in pasadena. gem city images had a great photo of the snow tipped mountains the other day as seen from neighboring monrovia, and two other photos of this phenomenon appeared over at mixed meters and glimpses of south pasadena.

i really like seeing palm trees and snow in the same image. as usual, photo requests are always welcome!

photo request #12: the same thing posted from several different perspectives (take 2)

some of you may remember my first attempt at photo request #12. well, it turns out the requester (my good friend deb) wasn't entirely satisfied with an event being the used as the subject for their photo request. something about that not being what she had in mind.

needless to say, i cannot leave a loyal reader unsatisfied, so we'll try again. i decided to pick a subject that would give me a variety of photo options and ended up deciding to take a closer look at the castle green. one of pasadena's iconic landmarks - and somewhat surprisingly, a building that has never been featured on the sky is big in pasadena.

so hang on to your hats, because this week i will take you on a tour of the exterior of this impressive building. you can read all about it at the castle green website, and it's own wikipedia entry.

photo request #14: old fashioned gas pumps on green st.

lucky clare, she gets her second photo request granted in the same week. these old time gas pumps may look familiar if you are a visitor over at pasadena daily photo. petrea has featured these before.

keep those photo requests coming!

photo request #13: glass elevator from c&tcf

my friend clare scott requested a photo of the top of a building at the corner of madison and colorado that she claimed looked like the glass elevator from charlie and the chocolate factory. i was skeptical until the other day, when i found it! you've seen the trio apartment building before on this blog, but the building right next to is it what clare was thinking of. doesn't that look exactly like your visions of the great glass elevator?


back to how i found it... i was shopping at trader joe's the other day and spotted clare's elevator from the top of the parking garage. as you can see from this photo, even though it was way across town knew exactly what she meant. my zoom didn't capture it well enough, so i took off and headed toward the building. i quickly realized that you can't see it when you get really close, and it is hard to get a good shot from far away. i ended up using the above photo to capture the building and a bit of its surroundings.

and for those with a sharp eye, in the parking garage shot, you can see the bell tower that has also been featured on this blog.

from the comments - docker over at mixed meters has some more great pictures of this very building.

photo request #12: the same thing posted from several perspectives

my good friend debbie asked if i had ever considered doing a series of the same subject from several different perspectives. i liked that idea, and although this probably isn't quite what she had in mind, i'm going to feature pasadena's art night for the next 5 days. the same event, 5 different photos, all on the same night. i hope you enjoy!

photo request #11: cinnamon roll from euro pane

yesterday's post invoked my lunchtime companion to request this photo i took of my fantastic cinnamon roll i ordered while we were dining at euro pane.

this blog is made better with input from it's readers. if there is a photo missing from around pasadena that you would like to see here, simply let me know and i'll do my best to track it down! you can check out the 10 previous photo requests right here.

those who may have missed this announcement in the side panel, if you would like to have your pasadena business featured on this blog, send me a paypal donation for my new bike fund and i'd be happy to grant your request!

photo request #10 - vroman's bookstore

tash over at the fantastic palos verdes daily photo wondered if i had any images up of vromans, a fantastic independant bookstore in pasadena. i didn't have any up until today. one of my favorite things about this bookstore is their "big city" newspaper and magazine stand out front. really cool!

as you can see i've been out snapping pictures late at night recently. i gotta get out in the sun for a few!

photo request #9: fuller bookstore and coffee by the books

life observer, over at the wonderful cafe pasadena requested that i take a picture of the fuller bookstore and coffee shop. unlike other campus bookstores, they have yet to fully "sell out" and are still considered an independent bookstore rather than one run by efollet or something else. i'm pretty proud of my school for remaining strong in this regard.

coffee by the books is also pretty outstanding. located behind the bookstore, they serve fair trade coffee and other tasty goodies. really a fantastic alternative to the many starbucks in town.

photo request #8: neon train sign

laurie of the fantastic glimpses of south pasadena site suggested i track down this neon sign on colorado. here it is. friday neon and a photo request all in the same day!

i've got a few other photo requests in the pipeline. sorry for the delay!

photo request #7: images of fuller seminary

petrea over at pasadena daily photo recently mentioned that i needed to feature my very own school more often. she's right of course, so i'll delay the bike trip photos one more day in favor of some friday neon and an image of fuller's student center.

a few notes about fuller theological seminary:

- largest multi-denominational seminary in the world
- almost 5000 students from 67 countries
- 108 christian denominations represented
- in addition to the main campus in pasadena there are 6 extension sites across the western usa

if you want something "uniquely pasadenian" featured on this blog, please drop me a line or make a comment. i'd be happy to oblige if i can figure out a way to take the requested image.