I was just going through my iphoto library, and had forggotten all about these pics I had taken 3 years ago, at San Francisco's annual Haight Street Fair. I went with Bill & Larry, and a few other local longhairs. For some unknown reason, I was unusually bold that day, walking right up to taotal strangers and saying a sentence like, "I'm a tourist taking pictures of longhairs today, --- would you mind if I took your picture?" I don't remember one single time that day that the guys I asked didn't smile & agree, and then pose for the shot, --- well, maybe htere was one time, when someone was in a hurry & refused; but that's it!
Anyway, these pics are from June of 2004. I'll start off with this pic of 2 guys that were kidding around with me, --- one of whom has AMAZING dreads!!
As a funny side-note, after I took I think about 3 shots of them, suddenly the blonde guy lowered his eyebrows and looked VERY serious...
"Hey guy, you aren't REALLY a tourist, are you??"
I had to think quickly, "Well, actually, no, --- I admit I do live here; but it sure was a great line, wasn't it!"
They laughed, and then let me go on my way....
- Ken
Bill & Larry amidst Haight St. bubbles... and who can ever forget this famous shirt that Bill is wearing!
- Ken
Here's another longhair that was more than willing to let me take his pic. But right after I got his permission to snap away, I had to stop and put down my camera...
"Um, with your hair still in a ponytail, from the front it looks like you have short hair, --- would you mind removing the hair-tie?"
"Oh, sorry, --- not at all!" He got my drift right away, --- and THEN SOME! After a wild shake of his head, he held up his CDs.
Thinking back on this day, I'm still AMAZED that I was so willing to walk right up to total strangers, asking them if I could take their pic. (Believe it or not, USUALLY I am way more shy than this!) Obviously, I'm sure it helped that these guys could see I was also a longhair. But, other than that, I guess I was just in a ballsie mood that day!
- Ken
Ken, Thanks for being ballsie! Great shots of an awesome blond longhair! Good music and beer too! Cool! peace, jonalbear
Apologies that I don't know how to include more than one pic at a time in a post; but regardless, here's another pic from the Haight St. Fair, '04.
By the way, that Street Fair happens every June (I forget the date; but I think it's about mid-month... Bill, if you're reading this, do you remember the weekend?)
- Ken
Put the photos in a directory on your web site (I call mine "webboard") and then link them each like this, but put angle brackets in where I've put parentheses. Here's the example:
(img src="http://www.kengourley.com/main/garden1.jpg")
...which will do this when angle brackets are put in instead:
Angle brackets are on the same keys as the comma and period - you use the "shift" key to get them.
You can put in as many photos as you want doing that, but most users will think the message is overly long if you put in more than about six in a message that way. Also, it's best to not put your photos in too big. They won't get shrunk that way like when you upload them to the site. You have to shrink them beforehand yourself, using Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or some other photo program. The site shrinks uploaded photos to be 600x450 and most photos you see on the site are that size, so that will give you an idea of how big the size you make them will show up.
It was June 13, 2004. In the pic at the top of this post, Larry is wearing a tiedye he bought that day. I got the tiedye that landed on the front page of the Chronicle earlier this week from the same fair vendor, but I was carrying mine since I had my mushroom shirt on already. That was three years ago, so I can see I need to get some new hippie shirts!
When you come to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. Or in your mouth! [grin]
Bill
I would strongly suggest posting them on website and
posting a link to it. I have to keep remembering not
everyone has a high speed internet connection.
I stil remember the days when I had a s-l-o-w internet
connection.
BTW, I was one of the original hippies and loved that
point in our history. Many of these people look almost
as old as me.
There are two schools of thought on that. The other side to the argument is that the tougher it is for people to see your photos, the less apt they are to see them. The largest number of people will see your photo if you link it like this:
The next largest number of people will see it if you provide a clickable link, like this:
The least number of people will see it if you make them shade the URL and then copy and paste it into their web browser, like this:
http://www.choisser.com/bill/photo/2007apr11d.jpg
The coding for the three methods, respectively is:
<IMG SRC="http://www.choisser.com/bill/photo/2007apr11d.jpg">
<A HREF="http://www.choisser.com/bill/photo/2007apr11d.jpg">Picture of Me</a>
http://www.choisser.com/bill/photo/2007apr11d.jpg
The third one is the easiest, but it will get you the least number of people to actually see your photo.
As of this year, more than half of Internet users now have a connection faster than dial-up. We still strive to keep the site as efficient as possible when it comes to the site's coding of outgoing web pages, but the whole purpose of the site is to display user content, and we've never encouraged users to not provide it. All the HTML produced by the site and similar coding is kept to a minimum - we have no fancy background stuff going on to decorate each page while it eats up your bandwidth - but we don't want to crimp the style of users. User-generated content is why we are here.
I was over on Haight Street a couple of years ago and a gal about age 17 walked up to me and told me I was too old to be a hippie. I almost died laughing in her face. She clearly was not even born in 1967. Perhaps even her father wasn't. I guess "being a hippie" means different things to different people. [grin]
Bill
As I was leaving the street fair, just as I was starting to walk up one of the steep side-streets, I came across this scene that looked like a complete throw-back to the '60s (only this was the year 2004), --- I thought they were all cute as hell!!! And once again, without hesitation, they all smiled for my camera... that was 3 years ago, --- I sure hope they all still look the same!
- Ken
Here's the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Streets, --- the center of where all "the action" of the psychadelic '60s took place in San Francisco. The Haight-Ashbury area still maintains a lot of that flavor, --- although many hardcore hippies are annoyed that Haight St. has become more "scrubbed & pollished" over the years.
I have a lot more pics I took of longhairs this day at the street fair than are included here in this thread (too many to post all at once, believe it or not!). But, I will spread out my pics over a few days, just so it doesn't get too over-bearing all at once.
Anyway, enjoy a "taste" of this fun longhair-abundant street fair by checking out the pics below... And again, I'm sorry that I don't know how to post more than one pic at a time!
- Ken
Hi Ken,
GREAT pics you have there! That will have to be one of the "places to see" when I get out your way in 2009, hope your offer of being a "tourist guide" that you made earlier remains! I was going to give you some tips on posting multiple pics in one post, but I see our computer whiz Bill has already told you how.
All the best,
David
hey Ken,nice photos
makes me wish I was there
Great photos of such an assortment of longhairs Ken. You surely have a special talent with the camera. (If anyone has not seen Kens website they just don't know what they are missing.) Superb!
Thanks for sharing these photos with all of us. Much added inspiration for us all.
Justin~
Thanks for posting all these pictures. All great. I've heard so much about San Francisco good, so maybe I'll get out there one day.