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.

Merry Christmas!

It's been a lovely couple of days. Yesterday Evan and I spent the day with my family, leisurely cooking, taking walks, and just hanging out. (Plus, we may have exchanged some gifts, in the spirit of the day.) We ended it all with a delicious meal and some good conversation. It was nice to have some time to spend together that didn't seem jammed into the schedule of a hectic workweek.

Then late last night we drove up to the snow, arrived about 1 am and collapsed into bed. When we woke up, it was Christmas. And time to hang out with Evan's family, have cookies for breakfast and take some more walks, snowy this time. It's feeling like the right place to be, and at the right time.

I just wanted to take this moment to thank all the people who come here and take their precious time to read my silly little blog. Without you, it would be harder to keep it all up. I hope your holiday season is as good as mine, and that you too have some time to just relax and unwind.

Merry Christmas!