Majestic and alluring San Francisco is my favorite city in the USA, after Tucson of course. Santa Fe, Boulder, and Savannah follow close on their heels. Enjoying the unusual experience of a short break in our production schedule for my TV series Meteorite Men, I mentioned to my director that I could really use an actual vacation, rather than traveling somewhere to research a story or dig for space rocks. She said: “Take it soon.”

So, I returned to San Francisco—a city that I find, at once, relaxing and inspiring. It was my first proper holiday in two years, and these are a few favorite images from a week in and around that lovely city by the bay.

Fisherman's Wharf

The living roof atop the California Academy of Sciences

Haight-Ashbury cafe

Mailbox in Berkeley

Artist Gail Suzanne Weissman in her studio in Marin County

Street market in Chinatown

Cat-friendly sign in people-friendly Bolinas

Sleeping nautilus in the California Academay of Sciences aquarium

Cable cars near Market Street

The Haight

Chinatown

USS Pampanito submarine museum

Public shrine in Bolinas

Crab traps at Fisherman's Wharf

Abandoned resort in Fairfax

Grant Street, Chinatown

Riding the cable cars is still the best part

Photographs © by Geoffrey Notkin. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

The original installment of Macro Thursday was evidently quite popular with my readers, thank you. So, I have decided to make it a semi-regular feature within the realm of the Logical Lizard.

The idea here is to use the ultra-fab macro lens on my favorite digital camera to capture hidden details of the natural world. All of these photos were taken in a single day during a lengthy hike through the Rincon Mountains, outside of Tucson. Amazing what you can see if you take the time to stop and look.

Spines unfolding

Why did the tarantula cross the road? My hiking companion claimed it was because she wanted me to pick her up and stroke her belly—apparently they like that. I didn't see my friend rushing over to do any such thing, so I was happy to just take the photo and skip the belly rub.

Butterfly with camouflage

Spiral of barrel cactus buds

Balancing act

Lichen growing on a boulder

All photographs by Geoffrey Notkin © Geoffrey Notkin. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

During the past few weeks, despite the appalling heat, I have been enjoying a lot of adventuring and rockhounding in the Sonoran Desert. When I am out in the field I always carry a little pocket Nikon digital camera with me. I need a camera or three, primarily, to document our expedition work, but I also like to pause and take pictures of the life around us. I have always been fascinated by the details of the natural world, particularly patterns and shapes. Stopping to appreciate them for a moment, here and there, can be a welcome break from sometimes arduous field work.

A good macro (close-up) lens allows an observant and patient photographer to examine the minutiae of the plants and animals that live with us here in the Sonoran Desert—a unique habitat teeming with natural wonders, some of them not found anywhere else in the world.

In the old days, the dedicated photographer had to haul a bulky macro lens around in the camera bag and mount it on an SLR for those close-up shots. Digital cameras, with their built-in macros, have made those brief journeys to inner space so very much easier, but no less fascinating.

Here are some details from this week’s adventures.

This handsome fellow, blending extremely well into his surroundings, is one of about ten horned lizards or "horny toads" belonging to the Phrynosoma species

Bark patterns on an elderly mesquite tree

A beautiful cluster of Coryphantha vivipara, the "Bisbee Beehive." This elegant plant is rarely seen around greater Tucson.

Wisps around a yucca plant

Industrious red ants working on their cave. Don't let these guys bite, it really hurts.

Ferocactus wislizenii is a survivor. Three new heads grew from the body of this injured plant.

Photographs © by Geoffrey Notkin. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.