Salted Caramel Deliciousness!

What better way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend than with some outstanding salted caramel ice cream?

I'm generally not a huge ice cream fan, but I was converted by BiRite Creamery, in San Francisco near Dolores Park. If you have a chance to go there, do it!

Which Do You Prefer?

... the color, or the black and white?

Cars at Night, the Third and Final Installment

Since I don't even really like cars, this is probably the last car photo you'll see from me for a while. But not the last night photo. I really enjoyed shooting just after dusk, the light here is fantastic then.

So, what do you think, which car photo was your favorite of the three?

Another Car Rear End

Long Exposure

Walking home tonight I knew I had to get this car with the wide angle lens and some light streaks in the background. However, since I don't bring my tripod with me everywhere, I had to stay really, really still. I imagined myself as a human tripod, and tried really hard not to breathe. And I took the same picture a LOT of times, just holding down the shutter forever with the camera set on burst mode. This technique has saved my bacon a bunch of times.

Focal length: 18mm (on a crop sensor). The widest focal length I own. At a longer focal length the diagonals here would be a lot less interesting.

Shutter speed: 0.8 seconds. Amazing! (The lens has IS. I am not this good on my own. Plus, wide lenses are a lot easier to handhold. But still, I'm impressed.)

Aperture: f/9. This got me those cool light stars in the background.

ISO: 1600. It was dark outside. With my camera, this ISO is a little noisy. But I can live with it.

Sidewalk Cafe

It's hardly ever warm enough to eat comfortably outside here, but seeing tables on the sidewalk always makes me happy.

Have A Seat (and Momentary Return to Monochrome Monday)

So many of us spend our time rushing from one place to the next, trying to fit it all in, squeeze every drop out of life.

I say, bravo! Absolutely. Don't waste a moment. There's so much wonderfulness out there, just waiting for us. It would be a shame to miss out on it.

But don't forget the benches. Take a moment. Have a seat. Breathe. And look around.

Then you can get back to the hectic crunch. It'll wait.

Last Berry Shot, I Promise

You may recognize a couple of berries from this one; I used them in the diptych from last time.

Diptych - And Some More Berries from the Market

I really feel like since I came back to California I'm obsessed with food. With procuring it, cooking it, eating it (at restaurants or at home). My guess would be this is a reaction to being just sooo gosh darn grateful for the variety here! I loved the food in Thailand, but it felt a bit limited.

Anyway, I'm enjoying shooting my produce very much. This way I can enjoy it even after I've eaten it!

Strawberries

It's my birthday. And what better present could I get myself than a flat of organic strawberries, at the bargain basement price of $8 for 6 boxes?

Dogwood

This flower had seen some better days, but I thought there was still some beauty left in it.

Shadows

I caught these in a walk near my house one night.

A Walk in the Park

A view from tonight.

Sleeping Cat Yoga

I often wish my life was as stressful as a cat's life: sleeping in the sun, getting fed, and pet, and loved. Plus, I certainly am not comfortable in a position like this!

Shoot Me!

Dogs are pretty crazy. This one actually loved this. What better way to cool off under all that hair?

Statue

My internet problems are still not resolved, so I apologize for the spotty posting. I took this with my Lensbaby, hence the blurred bottom.

I feel that this giant lady is the perfect mascot for mother's day. I hope you all had a good one. The weekends are over so quickly these days!

Glow

I've already posted my sunstar recipe in the past, so I won't bore you by rehashing it. If you missed it the first time around, here it is.

The story for this image goes something like this: I was walking through the park on my way home (with my camera, that sucker goes everywhere with me!) and I saw this little wooded path that was bathed in beautiful rays of sun. I knew it was time to try out some sunstars, so I did. And I wanted a lower angle, so I did what any self-respecting photographer would do: I lay down. On the path. Actually, in the middle of the path. And I just lay there and took pictures of this path for a good five minutes. And let me tell you, five minutes is longer than it sounds.

People looked at me. And then, because it's San Francisco, they looked away. They've seen much stranger things than a girl with a camera lying in the middle of the path. Folks, I was almost mundane in comparison. But that's another blog post.

The point is that people didn't really pay a lot of attention to me after a couple of seconds. So they continued to use this path. And I kept taking pictures. This one is my favorite, for a few reasons:

1. I love the way he is clearly showing those women something. That interaction is golden.

2. The rays of sun on the women are incredible. I'm in love with them. Now I just want to go shoot people with the sun behind them all day long.

And that's it! Happy Friday, y'all!

A Flower for Thursday

Sometimes on Wednesdays it can seem like the week is endless. It's been a long week, for no particular reason other than it seems like it's never going to end, and I'm waiting for the weekend. But flowers like this help me get through it all. I hope it helps you out too, if only a little.

After the Rain

I took this after a short rain shower a couple days ago.

Internet Difficulties

I apologize for the lack of posts recently, the internet on my laptop has gone on the fritz. Hopefully the repair pieces are on their way and will fix the problem, and until then I'll try to work around it, but it does make things more difficult. For the next few days, don't hate me if there aren't as many posts as usual.

Patches - In Memoriam

My boyfriend's family dog passed away last week. She was an excellent dog, she never met a tennis ball or a laser pointer she didn't love. She'll be sorely missed by everyone.