Homeless in San Francisco

The cold nights that we've recently had in the San Francisco area reminded me of this photograph I took a couple of years ago (December 2008).

Happy New Year!!!

A quick post to wish every one a Happy New Year. I spent New Year's Eve taking pictures of the San Francisco fireworks from Treasure Island. It is a great view, and overall it was a beautiful night (with some rain showers here and there).

Tried shooting a video of the finale, and it came out "decent". I had my camera set to Bulb mode for the still pictures, and that ends up shooting the video in Auto mode. I think the video's a bit over-exposed at times, but sharing it anyway :-)

Gay Pride 2009

I went and saw the parade and the party for the first time. Took several photographs (93 came out decent), and have posted them to Flickr.

Some of the photographs are "adult", so you have to log into Flickr to see those.

Photography Information:
Using my light meter, I metered 3 settings and saved these in my camera's custom dial settings:

• Sun at my back
• Sun to my front
• In the shade
  

I did this before I took the first shot. Since it wasn't cloudy (moving clouds, hiding the sun), I was all set up. I also set up the right white balance using my expodisc.

From that point on, it was pretty easy. Click of the dial, and I had all the settings preset. Just point, compose and shoot.

Here's a few teasers.

Walk Across the Golden Gate

It had been quite a while since I had crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on foot. Many, many years if I remember correctly.

Decided to do it today. As luck would have it, I managed to get there a little before sunset, and caught the sunset from the bridge.

Yesterday, I had gone to Santa Cruz, and hung out at the boardwalk and took a few photographs.

New Years 2009 Fireworks

Taken from Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Showed up there with plenty of time before the fireworks began. Hung out and enjoyed the beautiful view, chatted with a few people, etc. till the show started.

Initially, I hadn't planned on taking any photographs, but once I was there any doubts were gone.

Had my camera gear with me, but didn't have a tripod. So I put the camera on the roof of the car. Had to put the lens cap and trigger release cable under the lens to get the right angle. Got a lot of light trails and cars in the photographs, but cropping them did the trick :-)

Lessons learnt: Take a tripod when you're taking your camera. You never know when you'll need it.









An un-cropped view

Golden Gate Park (part II)

Some more photographs from Golden Gate Park (taken in February - I've been lazy putting them up). Pretty much the same processing as the Pink Magnolia one.

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