He also discussed in great detail the City's need to address the long-standing homeless issues and how we can move forward with elimination of the problem instead of continuing to attempt to manage it!

Climate and groundwater related issues and the City's approach to dealing with them were also presented.

Hmmm??

What delights and surprises await each meeting!  Pondering the path this jar of honey took from Mexico like peering curiously into a crystal ball I am reminded of my anticipation before each Sunrise meeting.

With just two more weekly meetings remaining in my turn holding the gavel each tick of the clock increases my appreciation of our journey this past year.  Fortunately many, many images taken by Warren enhance my memories and these which follow capture the Goodwill and Better Friendships generated and expressed at Sunrise.

Can you recall the context:

Even this tough duty has its rewards.  Without 'em we'd have a real snafu.

Even our speakers enjoy themselves too ~ even they are surprised at connections within Sunrise, aka Flash & finger.  Thank you Mayor Tom!

Two obscured members are concentrating on serious business~ Rotary brings us constructively together.

Ever heard of SRKSEP?  Did you make it to Montgomery Village Saturday?

Could Max's new duty account for his gleeful grin?

Icing on the cake:  New Club Board member Roy can hardly contain his enthusiasm.  Have you signed up?

At our early hour the vitality, great breakfast, good things to do, friends to meet and strangers to greet are my food the thought and continue to sustain my incredible journey through this year.   My hope is each and every one of you are recharged with our meetings, committees and projects, and find fulfillment and inspiration through our service.

Whether this portrait is before or after the multi-mile In&Out trail is subject to discussion.  Expressions of either anticipation or satisfaction are clearly visible.  Organized, scoped and lead by Jim Moir, far right, Sunrisers from left to right Dave and Shauna Lorenzen, Peter and Mary Banks, and Jim and Cindy Brenton punctuated by Tall Dude Moir added the human element to the towering redwood grove.

Jim is eager to leverage the inherent healthy benefits of his hiking schedule to all interested feet.  Check out our calendar for September 19th for a hike and dinner and a bit of sweat equity at Sonoma Land Trust's  Glen Oaks Ranch!!

In this year’s photo contest we received more than 600 entries from 59 countries and geographical areas — from Argentina to Zimbabwe and many places in between. Through your photographs we traveled to a glacial lagoon in Iceland and a mountainside in Bolivia. We saw Rotarians working on projects and met the people they encountered along the way. Taken together the photos you sent us create a composite portrait of our world and the ways Rotarians experience it.

Our judge, George Steinmetz, brings to the task his decades of experience traveling and photographing the world. Steinmetz shoots from the elevated perspective of a paraglider where the landscape almost becomes abstract art so he can appreciate a photo both for its aesthetic qualities and for the story it tells. In addition to the winners and honorable mentions in this issue you’ll see photos from the contest in The Rotarian throughout the year.

First Place

Photographer: Santosh Kale

Rotary Club of Shirol, India

Location: Pandharpur, India

Steinmetz: I love the energy of this picture. It documents the flow of humanity experiencing the Pandharpur Wari pilgrimage and shows the architecture of this Indian site, the vibrancy of its storefronts. I also like that the photographer had the prescience to wait for his subject and took an unconventional approach by shooting the action with a time exposure.

Second Place

Photographer: Chin Fung Hou

Spouse of Yeong Hsiou Chen, Rotary Club of Taipei Hwachung, Taiwan

Location: Taipei, Taiwan

Steinmetz: The photographer made creative use of what many would consider a technical problem — raindrops on the lens front. Most people think great photos need good weather, but pros will tell you that bad weather is a photographer’s best friend. This picture of Taipei is very original and impressionistic.

Third Place

Photographer: Luca Venturi

Rotary Club of Siena Est, Italy

Location: Siena, Italy

Steinmetz: This photograph perfectly captures a public event at the Palio di Siena, a twice-annual horse race in the heart of the city. The rider’s expression and the faces in the foreground convey a lot of emotion, but then your eye travels around the image and you see the context of the town square. Framing on a tilt makes it feel like you are part of the scene, being jostled in the crowd. It’s a great way to capture the energy of the moment.

Honorable mention

Photographer: Yeong Hsiou Chen

Rotary Club of Taipei Hwachung, Taiwan

Location: Keelung, Taiwan

Steinmetz: This picture has a wonderful way of showing calm in the middle of an urbanized seaport. I like the subtle accents of color framed between a monochromatic sea and sky, and the surprising blurring of the boat in motion in the foreground.

Honorable mention

Photographer: Tono Valdes

Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur, Guatemala

Location: Guatemala City

Steinmetz: Sometimes you like a picture for what it doesn’t show. Here, you can’t see the ground or the background, just the emotions. What the smoke conceals creates mystery. In a way, it is like the mystery of religion itself. And this is a very sensuous photograph; you can almost smell it.

Honorable mention

Photographer: Roberta Kayne

Rotary Club of Dublin A.M., Ohio

Location: Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Steinmetz: We shouldn’t project human feelings onto animals, but you can read the child-parent relationship in the postures here. I think of times I have seen this sort of scene in the wild, with bears on the shore catching salmon.

Honorable mention

Photographer: Lee Won-Geol

Rotary Club of Daegu-Chungsan, Korea

Location: Andong, Korea

Steinmetz: The few bits of color make an otherwise monochromatic scene come alive. The snow adds beautiful texture to the traditional architecture, and the leaves and branches in the foreground create a nice frame. This is a landscape you want to explore.

Honorable mention

Photographer: Chris McDiven

Rotary Club of Sydney, Australia

Location: Niagara Falls, New York

Steinmetz: I’ve seen this kind of situation, a rainbow created by mist, many times in photographs, but this is one of the finest versions that I’ve come across. Sometimes simplicity is best. I love the placement of the boat at the end of the rainbow. It’s simple, powerful, and unexpected.

Honorable mention

Photographer: Roberta Kayne

Rotary Club of Dublin A.M., Ohio

Location: Westerville, Ohio

Steinmetz: Newspaper photographers are asked every year to photograph something that conveys the idea of patriotism for Memorial Day; this is an excellent version. The lines of flags create perspective and depth, which makes the person walking through stand out.