Some Resolutions for the New Year

A couple of posts ago I talked about my 2010 resolutions and how they worked out (mostly pretty well, actually). Inspired and hopeful for 2011 to surpass 2010, here's my list of photography resolutions for the new year:

*Post one self-portrait on the blog a month
*Write one personal story about myself on the blog each week
*Make my photography business profitable (in the black! this is a big one)
*Create 2 more photo books, mostly just as an exercise for myself
*Write an ebook
*Get my photos and Lightroom catalogs organized
*Have another swap on the blog (soon! look for it in the next couple of weeks)
*Give away one downloadable desktop wallpaper a month
*Get my website up and running (this one will happen this week, come hell or high water)
*Learn how to light, well
*Create my own Photoshop actions, so I don't spend all my time doing the same few things, over and over
*Continue Anatomy of an Image, make it better and more informative, and then actually do it every week!

*Have fun with it all. Because in the end, that's the most important thing.

What about you? What are you resolving to do, or resolving not to do? Or are you just not resolving?

Best of 2010

It's been quite a year. Last year about this time I had just come back from Thailand, and I was settling in, finding work, and transitioning to being back in the Bay Area, and not in Asia any more. It's amazing, it seems like so long ago, and also strangely present. I still talk about Thailand a couple times a week, and I think about it probably even more. Really though, it's just another item on the list of places I've lived, loved, and then sadly, left. (Montreal, Budapest, and most recently New York City are also on that list.)

The main differences between Thailand and San Francisco?
     a) I can understand and have conversations with people on the street! It was like a sigh of relief when I realized I didn't have to use the 20 or so Thai words I know but can't really pronounce for all of my communications with strangers any more.
     b) The food is not as spicy, and maybe not as delicious. When I came back I could eat anything spicy and not even notice. Now I'm back to my usual puny taste buds. Despite the 14 pounds of curry paste Evan and I brought back with us, we haven't cooked much Thai food since our return.
     c) The weather is so much more livable. I can go for a walk during the day without being drenched in sweat, and at night without being attacked by wild dogs, and also without concerned Thai people pulling over to the side of the road to offer the crazy farang a lift. (very awkward to try to explain that I just like walking when they can't understand me, and culturally it's a bit taboo to just go for a walk).
     d) No more beautiful beaches! Or gorgeous jungle. And certainly no more elephant rides.

Anyway, I love living in San Francisco. Cities get my blood moving, and I love public transportation and being able to walk places. Plus there's a vibe here that you just don't find anywhere else. And a kindness and generosity, a willingness to try to do the right thing that I find inspiring. Not a perfect city, by any means. But a pretty good one. Much easier to live in than Bangkok, certainly!

It's been a great year. And also a year where I really feel like I've improved my photography skills, and started branching out into a few different genres. Sure, I still have a ways to go, but I feel like I'm making progress. That's huge.

This year I:
   -lived in New York City for 6 weeks
   -spent waaaay too much money on new camera gear for
   -the new photography business I've just started! (so exciting)
   -lived in a construction zone pretty much the entire time . . . still waiting for real progress on that front
   -made a book using Blurb, which was very satisfying
   -started singing again, after a few year long break, which was great (I'm not a soloist, but a pretty good choral singer, if I do say so myself)
   -made some great new friends, and reconnected with old ones after being out of the country for so long
   -discovered an affinity for Goat's Milk Caramel in my coffee
   -got a picture published in a newspaper
   -learned how to use a tilt-shift lens (mostly. some more practice certainly couldn't hurt), and
   -had a blast!

Anyway, here's a few greatest hits from the year. I tried to narrow it down to ten, but I just couldn't. So instead I arranged them by month. I can't tell if it's just attachment or progress, but I love the later photos so much more than the earlier ones. (I think I'm going to call it progress until someone stops me.)

To see my best photos of 2009, click here.

January


February


March

April




May

June



July

Stop and Go, originally uploaded by quotidian photography.

Lunchtime!, originally uploaded by quotidian photography.

August




September

October

November

December

The Last of Autumn

Also taken with my 85mm at f/1.8 to get the shallow depth of field. 

One thing I sometimes love, sometimes hate about living in California is that our seasons get all wonky. For example, here it is December, almost January, almost 2011, and we still have leaves on the trees that look like this. And no snow. At least not here in the Bay Area. In other parts of the country, leaves that look like this are long gone.

Anyway, when shooting leaves it's always best to shoot them backlit so that you can get some of the beautiful veins and structure to show up in the photo. So I found an angle on this one that let me shoot into the light, and that had a relatively clean background. Then I did a little exposure and curves adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop, and voila! an image that I am very happy with. It's a great orange.

Anatomy of An Image, Week 7

Ok, so this time for Anatomy of an Image, I'd like to try something different. In the past I've chosen pictures I was pretty happy with, and then talked about what was right. This time I'm choosing a shot that I mostly like, but that could be improved in a few ways, and we'll talk about what they are.

Time of Day
The blue hour, civil twilight, whatever you want to call it. Basically this is the time about half an hour after sunset, and for obvious reasons it's one of my favorite times to take pictures. Since it's winter, this particular time it was about 5:45, but obviously that depends on the time of year and your latitude. If you live near the equator, this will always be the same time for you, but you won't have that cool difference between summer and winter light, and you'll never have incredibly long shadows near the middle of the day. But I may be getting a bit off topic here.

The Story
After I moaned about not having anyone to shoot with now that Miguel has flown back to Colombia, my dad offered to come walk around the city with me and take some shots. Or rather, I would take some shots and he would just chill out. Since it was Dec 23rd, downtown SF was mobbed with people doing their last minute shopping, so we decided to make our way to the waterfront via the historic F line where it would be a little quieter. When we arrived the light was just getting fantastic. First I took some blah shots of the ferry building, and then I took some shots of the Bay Bridge, and then I decided I wanted to shoot the traffic against the buildings, the traffic blurred and the buildings sharp.

The Specs
Shutter Speed: 1 second. To make the passing cars properly blurry but still identifiable.
Aperture: f/16, to get the necessary shutter speed and also make the lights go all starry.
Focal Length: 17mm on an APS-C crop sensor, equivalent to about 28mm on a 35mm sensor camera.
ISO: 800. Why? I'm not sure. Seems high. I guess I really wanted f/16, and it's tough hand-holding for longer than a second.

What I Like
I like the colors. Blue and yellow, especially the versions of those that you find at twilight, always work for me. I like how the yellow of the streetlights is echoed in the yellow of the taxi. I always prefer my lights to star like this, so I like that. I also like the perspective. I was sort of squatting on the pavement and I think this would have been a different photo taken at normal person height. Also, I like that arrow in the corner. It just speaks to me a bit.

What I Don't Like
The photo is a little busy for my taste. Simpler is almost always better, and this is not really simple enough. If I could cut out about half of those trees, I would do it. Also I don't like that huge pole in the center, and I really don't like that the light on it is pretty blown out. I'm kind of on the fence about whether I'm ok with the building lines converging. It doesn't bother me too much, but this would have been cooler shot with a tilt/shift lens for sure. Also it's not as deadly sharp as I would like. It's ok, especially considering the speed I was hand-holding at, but it could be better.

Anyway, as always, I'm interested to hear what you think. Let me know in the comments!

Some Pictures That Make Me Happy

A picture doesn't have to be perfect or beautiful to make me happy. Sometimes the subject matter is more important than the skill of the photographer. Obviously, we photographers might not always want to think so . . .

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of things that make me happy.

Some Goat Milk Caramel, which I love. A spoonful of this in my morning coffee turns it from blah to yum! Decadent, but oh so lovely. If I liked ice cream, I'm sure this would be great on that, too.

And my miniature live Christmas tree, complete with one ornament. It's the perfect size for my house! Plus, I've always hated killing trees for Christmas.

Any pictures you love? Feel free to share in the comments.

Published!

I'm sitting here at my computer with a ridiculously large grin on my face. Oh yeah, the best Christmas present ever has arrived: my photo in a newspaper! And not just any newspaper, one of my favorite publications, in fact, the SF Chronicle. You can view the photo and the story here.

Basically I did a job a couple of weekends ago photographing some interiors for a cool loft conversion project in West Oakland. It's a wonderful project, and pretty unique for the area it's in. The spaces are incredible: high ceilings, exposed beams, great natural light, some brick walls, and beautiful wood flooring. The team working on it seem great too, like they've really considered and thought about every detail. Here's the Cigar Factory Lofts website, where you can see more of my photos. The only ones that aren't mine are the images of Unit 1, which were taken by another great local photographer, Scott Hargis.

Here are some more shots.

A Winter Walk

Went for a walk on Christmas Eve with my family. Took a Canon 85mm 1.8 lens with me. Surprisingly nice lens considering the relatively low price. Managed to snap these shots on the way. As you can see, it's a pretty sharp lens and has some nice bokeh. And it's got a great angle of view for just walking around. The only problem I encountered with it is that you really can't focus and recompose at f/1.8, especially if you're close. Throws your subject completely out of focus. It's better to set your focus point where you want the focus in the shot to be.

Thought this house was a good candidate for some holiday bokeh.

I love taking guerrilla pictures of animals when I'm out and about. There's something about pets and animals in general that I just find irresistible. This cat reminded me a bit of Mouse, as it has a bit of the tiger vibe, and although it looks a little fierce was really a sweetheart. Walked right up to me and asked for a scratch behind the ears. And then proceeded to chase off another cat who also wanted a pet.

And then this pooch was so sweet looking! How much is that doggy in the window? A great California Christmas scene, somehow.

There's nothing better than a walk with people you love (and a camera to capture it all!). Here's hoping you're having some of both this holiday season.