A Night at the Museum (well, no, not really)

Union Square, San Francisco. From the Heart Collection statues to the cafe smack in the middle, its a little taste of Europe in downtown SF. Walked around, and ended up going into a shopping gallery. Too tired to write anything poetic, due to a chaotic couple days, so on to the photo.

Ghirardelli Square-Again

Another walk in Ghirardelli Square. Walked into some of the shops as per the recommendation of some folks, and came up with a couple fun shots. Food photography is quite difficult especially when there is such a variety of colors and rows upon rows of the same item...but I made it work. The other one, well, was just neatly set up so I snapped it. I am finally understanding just how to use the 35mm 1.8...it's a close-up lens. For anything longer i'll need an 85mm 1.4 prime, coming soon :)

Day at Crissy Field and Ghirardelli Square

A perfect day to hang out by the waterfront. To change things up some, I did some sport and performance photos, and finished the day off with a cityscape. Crissy Field was full of soccer players, flag football players and kite fliers.

After Crissy Field, a trip to Ghirardelli Square where a violinist was "playing". In all reality, he was waving his wand while his backing track played on the stereo; but hey...still a performance!

And Finally, no photo-shoot of mine would be complete without some form of architecture or cityscape scene. There were quite a few of these ball forms and I will be returning to shoot a series with them. Nighttime should be awesome as well.

Summer 2010

So, after a 3 week hiatus due to being in Spain, took some photos at Sutro Heights here in SF. A gorgeous day, with semi-harsh lighting, but I think I made do well enough. Ill probably return tomorrow for a couple other things, but for now I am still jet lagged so my body clock stopped around 5pm.

Minor update, 1 more photo up :). I think I need to get back to cityscapes, scenes of downtown and whatnot.

Davis Walking Take 2

So, after many frustrations with the 55-200mm lens yesterday, I took another crack at shooting with it. Manual Focus seems to be the only way to get fast response from this lens, so I spent most of the day practicing manual focus. Here are the pics!

Walking Around

Decided to get out of the house after being cooped up all day studying. Found a gem of an old Chevy Truck and did some macro stuff for the hell of it. Came to the conclusion that my 55-200 F4-5.6 lens is awfuly slow focusing, unwieldy, and quite terrible in low light. Also reached the limits of my camera's light capabilities, with very bad grain at IS0800. Next up, SB600 flash, manfrotto tripod, Tokina 11-16mm wideangle!

Now, on to the pics!

East Quad Farmer's Market

Figured I needed to expand my photography to street events, and food so I decided to visit the Davis East Quad Farmer's Market for some shots that I felt turned out pretty well. 

I'll be doing more street events, and commercial food-type stuff from now on to add to the architecture and animals.The Farmer's market, while small had some of the most delicious fruits, vegetables and berries I have had in a long time. If I wasn't so busy taking photos I probably would have bought out the entire market.

After some food shots I decided to try my first hand at portrait work (shudder). Here's probably the first decent shot of people I have ever taken. Thanks to the kind farmer standing by the apricots who let me walk around and shoot pics of him from different angles.

Food

One quick food-related shot before I hit up the farmer's market/Tea List tomorrow :).
Thanks to the sis for being my gracious hand model!

Finally, Another Shooting Day

Decided to go to City Hall in San Jose before meeting up with a friend and then heading off to a bbq in Walnut Creek. Had been looking at the place for a long time, and finally just decided to go. Lots of drama this week, so taking the 280 with my windows down was a much, much needed stress relief. Here is one of 2 shots of the city hall, which is so much more interesting than San Francisco's butchered attempt at a White House re-creation.

Revenge of the Bunnay!(yes, Bunnay)

Was working on Peanut Labs work on the quad. On the way to the last class of the day ran into this little critter Some gal took it out for a walk, so I had to snap some pics.

The Frogbox!

Today was my first "official" shoot for Karfarm Mag. The first in our featured tuner rides section, Jamie's Frogbox could be seen from a mile away. Jamie's xB had enough frogs to populate an entire zoo! Working hard to build this car after her first Box was totalled, the car really loved the camera. What made it even more awesome was that Jamie works on her own ride, including the Air-ride suspension that was put on last week.

  

Whole Boatload of Awesome

 This lens, is epic. Walked around the embarcadero today because the weather was ubberfantabulous. Barney Stinson would call it nothing short AWESOME, which is of course so much more meaningful than ubberfantabulous, since its Barney Stinson. The sharpness at different apertures, focus speed...they all just wreak of AWESOME. The giant structure on the embarcadero...is just wierd; it has an almost Giant Spider Alien Invading the City type thing going for it, but hey, who am I to be so superficial? Here comes the Awesome, coming your way. More tonight.

Epic Fail

Looking through my blog today, I came to the conclusion that i'm still very hit or miss on a lot of subjects. Landscapes fall flat, lighting doesn't work in my favor, or composition just doesn't strike any chords. Failure, especially in photography, makes you realize that one quality photo out of 100 is something to strive for, and not something to be upset about. The more you fail, the harder you should work/practice to get it right. That's the plan here, and the main reason behind 12/2010. I'v got animal portraits and architecture down. Landscapes, though are really my curse. Ill also be working on glassware photography (cocktails etc) once the 35mm F1.8 prime comes in.

In light of the 12/2010 project, I ask you viewers and readers to vote on next month's theme, to help me grow as a photographer.

Tahoe

Another rule break from the 12/2010 project. Oh well, kinda hard to resist when I'm in Tahoe :D.Too tired from snowboarding and hiking to write anything inspirational and poetic, so on to the photos. Seems like my dog loves attention...the only good photos of the day were of him.

In the Left corner, we have the world champion snow-eater Quizno. In the Right corner, his opponent, well...ran away...

The Itch to Practice

Do you go, day by day, waiting for the next opportunity to take part in an activity? Do you put other things on hold in order for just a few minutes of this activity? Do you think about it while doing other things during the day? If any of these hold true, you, my friend, have a case of the itch. Whether its martial arts, photography, polka dancing or anything else, people need hobbies to make the boring moments less mundane, and to pass the time. Everyone has them, no matter how obscure or unapparent they are. So do yourself a favor,go out there, and do your thing! Bonus points if you get odd stares from people around you. Its not nearly as fun unless you get a reaction!


I have to admit that today I broke with the rules of project 12/2010 and had to go shoot. Since there is no city anywhere nearby, I had to make do shooting animals and practicing techniques/composition. Friday, I will be back home, equipped to shoot cable-cars and other downtown city scenes so stay tuned!

Photo shot at:
F/5.6
SS 1/160secs
ISO800
200mm focal length of Nikkor 55-200 VR lens.

Project 12/2010

Here's the "big secret" of a project. In order to expand my skills, I am going to shoot only 1 theme each month for the next 11 months. Since January is almost up, I guess then that makes 11 categories. For February I decided cityscapes. However, for the rest of the year, I am going to need some contributions, and ideas from fans/followers, so lets get those comments rolling! It can be as wide or as specific as you want so get creative!

Art Within Science Pt.2

Every city, every artist has a different style. Cities are defined by nightlife, which in itself is defined by architecture, skyscrapers and flashing lights. San Francisco, even in dire times, seems to bloom. The many towers high above ground level strike the eyes of even the most passive observer. They can be seen from any of the many peaks that make the city famous.


ISO400
Shutter 1/100s
Aperture f/8
Focal Length 108mm on Nikkor 55-200mm lens