Pets belonging to homeless residents of Sacramento, Calif. receive treatment during a free veterinary clinic held at Loaves and Fishes on Aug. 13, 2011. Veterinary students from the University of California, Davis, hold the clinic once a month.

On the way to grad school a while back I stopped in Davis, California, where I spent a day photographing the pets of Sacramento’s homeless population at the Mercer Veterinary Clinic. The clinic is held monthly and offers free services by veterinary students at the University of California, Davis.

Editing these photos, I kept having a mental slip where I wanted to say these are photos of homeless pets. But really they have found very loving owners who, despite being homeless themselves, care enough about their four-legged companions to make sure they stay healthy.

Michelle Perry holds her dog Hatchet during a free veterinary clinic held at Loaves and Fishes in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 13, 2011.

Brown pelicans fly by the site of the Grom-o-rama surf competition in Solana Beach, CA, August 23, 2008.

San Diego’s peregrinating pelicans (and their bird bombs) have been in the news lately due to their ever higher numbers. And today I came across a photo I took a few years ago during a lull in a surfing contest I was covering, when several pelicans flew by. Only in the frozen moment did I see that one of their wings had just barely graced the rolling tide.

You can also see this image here in my archive.

Steve Roeder's ocean-friendly garden was the result of the landscaping effort of 40 Surfrider volunteers in June. Photos by Will Parson.

An assignment in the coastal La Jolla neighborhood of Bird Rock brought to mind an ecology lesson from my days as a student. One of my professors would point out the tidal areas negatively affected by nutrient pollution running off the lush unnatural lawns and gardens of all the million dollar homes. In Bird Rock, runoff causes excess algae in the tide pools. The snail genus that eats that algae, normally a pea-sized periwinkle, grows to the width of a quarter — a monster. More serious consequences of runoff pollution include algal blooms and sweeping anoxic dead zones like the big one in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Surfrider organization has initiated an effort to reclaim coastal neighborhood yards in the name of the environment and turn them into ocean-friendly gardens filled with native species that require much less water. One such garden belongs to Steve Roeder, whose front yard was swarmed with Surfrider volunteers, who transformed it into a water-permeable haven for native species like California Fuschia (Zauschinaria california) and Beach Evening Primrose (Camissonia cheiranthifolia).

Read the story on the La Jolla Light here.

Stumble out of a bar in North County San Diego and you might come across Chef Dave, always shuffling and laughing, serving up his macaroni on a stick. I did a double take when I saw grass-fed beef on the menu, and after a bit of chatting him up Chef Dave threw some beef skewers my way (someone had ordered it but left them behind).

Anyway, San Diego CityBeat wrote up his delicious food, so you don’t have to take my word for it. I just wanted to point out that if you ever want to score free food just whip out a camera and count on the owner being a great character.

Juan Murciel inspects earthquake damage at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California. A group of researchers led by Dr. Benson Shing, Vice Chair of the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, inspected the earthquake damage in Mexicali, Mexico, April 7, 2010. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Baja California on Easter Sunday was felt as far away as Los Angeles.

Daylight filters through a large crack in a stairwell as Dr. Benson Shing, Vice Chair of the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, inspects the earthquake damage at a hospital in Mexicali, April 7, 2010. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Baja California on Easter Sunday was felt as far away as Los Angeles.

One evening last week I had a chance meeting with a structural engineer from UC San Diego, and thanks to that encounter I set out at the break of dawn the next morning to tour recent earthquake damage on both sides of the international border in Mexicali and Calexico.

The group I embedded with was led by UCSD professor Dr. Benson Shing, and consisted of UCSD visiting scholars, post-docs, and grad students. All day they hopped around Mexicali with the help of local officials, and toured hospitals, government buildings, schools, and other damaged buildings in order to examine how the structures were affected by the recent seismic activity. It was an exciting time for these researchers, since normally they have to run painstaking simulations in a lab setting to get their data. Every real-world earthquake offers these scientists a chance to really dig in and advance the next generation of safe structures.

Check out a LOT more photos in my archived earthquake gallery. Also check out the La Jolla Light article which ran my photos.

A group of researchers led by Dr. Benson Shing, Vice Chair of the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, stands on top of a damaged Mexicali hospital.

Dr. Benson Shing and Dr. Andreas Stavridis discuss earthquake damage inside a Mexicali government building.

Researchers inspect a damage classroom at an elementary school in Mexicali.

A bunch of hipsters in an alleyway helped me shoot the cover of San Diego CityBeat’s food issue this week. You’ll see some of the CityBeat staff in the mob, chasing a delicious yet ill-fated taco man.

Above is the cover shot, albeit cropped. Below you’ll see the special behind-the-scenes video I shot with my camera once we had the shot in the bag. Thanks again to everyone who showed up!

CityBeat Cover Shoot from Will Parson on Vimeo.

Staff members Domingo Reyes and Peter Javier unload bags of sauce from a cooling tank at San Diego Sheriff's Central Production Center in Otay Mesa. The meals are cooked and chilled on site then distributed to detention facilities around San Diego County.

This week is San Diego CityBeat’s food issue, and included for good measure is a story on prison food. CityBeat writer Dave Maass and I toured the San Diego Sheriff’s Central Production Center, where 35,000 meals are produced daily, five days a week, for inmates around the county. Check out the story here.