EYES WIDE OPEN • Ed Aust Photography

For years I’ve walked around with a camera around my neck, alert to whatever I might discover. I’m constantly surprised by the world around me. These are a few of my favorite photos from the past 10 years.

We drove to Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, walked around, took photos. Simple as that.

I was walking in César Chávez Park and came across this couple on a bench. The sunlight through the clouds reflected on the water and I knew it was perfect for a photo. I didn’t intend to take photos on this walk—the light was flat and dull, but I brought my camera along just in…

I have an art assignment for you. Your medium is buried sandstone. Your tools are sunlight, wind, rain, and snow. You have 65 million years to create something astonishing. Get going. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call Arches and Canyonlands National Parks two of the most beautiful outdoor art galleries in the world. Carol…

Some call it “street photography.” I meander, I take pictures, sometimes with my cell phone and sometimes with my Fujifilm X-Pro3, sometimes in color and sometimes in black and white. My goal is to look and discover the world around me, the humorous and the sad, the blessed and the tragic. I look for color,…

We recently spent four days camping at Salt Point State Park, where six-thousand acres of diverse forests mingle with astonishing geology and rugged coastline about 100 miles north of Oakland. No showers and foggy nights left us worn out, but it was a good weariness, and good friends joined us the final day. Photographing nature…

Here are more photos I took while roaming around Zhengzhou and the Henan Province in the 1980s.

Shortly after we married, my wife Carol and I taught English at an agricultural university in central China. It was 1986 and China was emerging from decades of trauma under Chairman Mao. Our students studied ardently under impoverished conditions; most of them are now published scholars with important roles in universities in China and around…

Pacific Grove is the only city in the U.S. to ever pass an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to hurt a butterfly. I first visited the city in the early 2000s to attend an art show at the Pacific Grove Art Center. It was December and its downtown was lit up with Christmas lights like…

On the first Friday of each month, the nonprofit group KONO sponsors a big block party in Oakland. In the heart of the Koreatown Northgate (KONO) district, street artists, jesters, performers, musicians, dancers, DJ’s, and vendors gather to celebrate diversity and community. Five blocks, closed to traffic, vibrate with artistic, cultural energy. As a photographer,…

I gave myself this self-assignment a few weeks ago. My brother said, “Careful—more pictures like this and someone will get out of joint and have a bone to pick with you.”

Just a few photos from my small backyard garden. It’s getting dry due to the drought; we’ve been able to keep it green so far but by the end of summer it won’t be so lush.

Before the Covid pandemic, I rode the Bay Area Rapid Transit trains to and from work every day. I never thought I’d feel nostalgic about crowded trains, but I actually miss them these days.

Besides painting and drawing, my friend, artist Larry M. Hatfield, sculpts with paper. He is a retired high school teacher, graphic designer, and illustrator who now dedicates himself to the arts. This morning I helped him install two large birds at First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley. His website is at larryhatfieldart.com.