Golden Gate Park

Went to Golden Gate Park on Tuesday. Have started shooting with the camera in "Neutral" picture style (essentially captures the scene, without doing any enhancements such as contrast, sharpening, etc.). This pic was enhanced in Photoshop Elements by:

• Sharpening using Unsharp Mask
• Selecting the sky and setting levels to bring out the blueness, and show the clouds
• Switching the selection and setting levels on the flowers.
• Adding the black matt, and white border

Gateway to San Francisco

I had been thinking about going to the Marin Headlands and taking some pics of the Golden Gate Bridge for some time. Saturday evening, Feb. 07, I decided to do it. Left home, thinking that I had plenty of time to get there before sunset.

I've been living in the Bay Area for many years now, but still manage to get surprised by unexpected traffic jams. Stuck on Howard Street, I watched the sunset, and then darkness enveloping the streets. It was dark when I finally got there.

• Shot a few pics of the Golden Gate and then my car
• Lent my tripod to a fellow photographer who was without one
• took a picture of a couple with my camera as their camera couldn't handle fill-flash, and was making the Golden Gate a black blob.

Took the top down on the drive back. Met a friend back in the city, dinner, hot chocolate, and then back home.

Sunset at Ocean Beach, San Francisco

Friday, January 9th was a long day... work, then a friend's birthday. Saturday was long too. I had planned to spend Sunday at home watching football, and to just veg on the couch. Got up kind of late, and was finalizing my vegging techniques when I realized that the weather had warmed up... from 50s and cloudy to 68 and sunny. So much for vegging.

Decided to go out and do two of my favorite things - going to the city (San Francisco) and taking pics. I had planned to go to the Marin headlands and take some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge with the skyline in the background... but after picking up a friend and following his directions (he got kind of lost)... ended up on Ocean Beach around sunset. Took a few pics... later on had dinner and went home.

photo info:

• shot in RAW, Color Space Adobe RGB
• 13 sec, f/10, January 11, 2009 at 5:45pm
• Location: click on the picture and click "map" link (bottom right of page)
• Shot with camera on tripod, with remote release
  

post processing:
In Canon DPP

• white balance set to 4300K
  
• sharpness 10
• color saturation 3
• contrast 1
• picture style Landscape
• cropped to remove boring sky.

"Out of Camera" Picture