Another common letter, T is everywhere. Surprisingly, though, many look disgustingly similar. These are my top picks:

First, where would we be without the Tiffany T? I pulled this one, complete with robin egg blue background, off a advert in the financial district. My favorite though is a tops up between the red and white T from outside the chinese restaurant near my office and the lowercase black and yellow T from the Sterling Bank ATM.

This week’s entry is an open and shut case. The letter S is the most popular letter in the English language. But they’re not only everywhere, they also come in a variety of squiggly shapes and styles. Choosing my top three was difficult but choosing my number one has never been easier. My favorite letter S goes to the logo of my alma mater: Syracuse University.

A few weekends ago I spent a weekend in Sonoma County. As Cellar 360 members, Joey and I were keen on visiting Chateau St. Jean just north of Sonoma, and then we combined the trip with a Living Social deal that also took us to Dry Creek Vineyard in Healdsburg.

Both tasting rooms were fantastic hosts and we tried some great wines. The first two images are simple frames from Dry Creek while the third image is an HDR of the Chateau St. Jean… chateau. As usual, the image is a composite of 7 different frames taken a third of a stop apart. I was lucky to get the shot at all as we arrived amidst a hilarious hale storm, but just as we were leaving the clouds broke just a bit to let a bit of blue sky peak through.

We now move into what I fondly refer to as “the bonus round.” As some of you Pat Sajak fans might already know, in the bonus round of Wheel of Fortune, the contestant is given the 4 most common consonants (and the most common vowel) before they are expected to solve the puzzle. Three of which fall right in a row. These letters are: R, S, T, L, N, E.

After Q, R was certainly a bevy of possibilities. So varied is its form. From the capital R in serif and sans, to the complicated script R, which looks nothing like itself. My top 6:

The pink and purple R is by far my favorite followed closely by the gold serif R found on the outside of my office building (**0 California). The descender on the brown R is also, quite lovely and even delicate.

I’d have to say of all my picks, though, the techno, red and white R is my least favorite. It’s too curvy, and I don’t like how it’s all one line, therefore creating two x-heights. Detached from its counterparts, indeed, it barely looks like the character at all.

Every time I see the ocean, I’m shocked by how close I am. It’s not like I grew up in a landlocked state or anything but for me “the beach” was something you planned out and packed up the car for, not a trip to the grocery store. I cannot fathom the idea of my house, the ocean, Japan.

Maybe it’s because the northern California coastline is so truncated; unlike the open expanses of sandy nothingness of the eastern shore, California’s coast is mostly rocky cliffs. One minute you’re driving along. The next moment, water. There’s no warning. No flat, sandy grace-period.

No the western shore certainly doesn’t have that “i could walk from Rehoboth to Miami” appeal but its crags and coves do have their own appeal. I tried to capture that untamed, spirit of adventure in this HDR, composed of 7 frames, each 1/3 of a stop apart.

For almost two weeks I searched and search for Qs — along my morning route, my afternoon route, even while grocery shopping. And what did I find? Nothing. I was desperate. Where were the Qs??? I finally decided to do some research – what words started with Qs? what words contained Qs? and where could i find them? I locked on to the word “square.”  I hiked out to Union Square a few blocks from my office and found…. Qs.

The uppercase Qs are clearly more exciting than the lower case, which all have the same general silhouette. Of the uppercase Qs, I can barely choose a favorite. They’re all so different. The perfectly circular versus the oval with the varying stroke. The cross that crosses through the O? or the line that simple extends from the bottom? So hard to choose!

This past weekend, Joey took me to the tidal pools in Half Moon Bay for my birthday. We started at Bean Hollow State Beach and walked south along the rocks south for about an hour. Along the way we saw snails, sea anemones, and even a baby harbor seal. So much more extensive are these tidal pools than the ones at China Beach near my home, I felt the only way to give them their full due was with a panorama. Scroll right to see the whole image.

The letter P was rather easy to find and came in so many more varieties than O. The problem with P was the way the bowl of the letter extends out over the other lowercase letters.

In the top row we have our commercial P’s: Pac Sun, Panera, and The Washington Post (from the Kids Posts my mum sends in the mail!).

This second row is stenciled P on a concrete wall, a parking sign from the Financial District, and a decal from a van logo.

I’m not sure which one I like best. The parking P has great color and is so clean, while the stenciled P has great texture.

Two weekends ago, I took my parents, who were visiting for President’s Day, up to Napa for a bit of wine tasting. Apparently, we hit the season just right to see the beautiful mustard flowers bloom. Field after field of gold! This HDR was taken just before sunset at Mumm Napa, a Champagne House in Rutherford, CA, and it composed of 7 photos, spaced 1/3 of a stop apart.

Last year I started a variation on a 365 project where I went about town searching out each letter of the alphabet for two weeks at a time — 26 letters, 52 weeks in a year, you get the idea.

Everything was going swell up until about August when I posted my last blog on the Letter N. Not sure what happened, but I stopped and never completed the project. The Letter O sat in my to do list for weeks and then months on end.

With the start of the new year, I’ve decided I am going to finish what I started. And so here, the first of my alphabet posts for 2012: The Letter O.

I’m starting to wonder if maybe the reason I stopped posting was that Os are hard to find. Not that there is a lack of usage, but that they are all just so… circular. Two of my top 3, I feel look too similar. The O on the left is from your standard street sign where as the O in the middle is a decal on a store window. My definite favorite of the 3 is the third O, all the way on the right. I love how the stroke thins so suddenly at the top and then fattens up along the edges.