california Archives - Page 2 of 6

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017

West Coast Skylines

This is a long exposure that I took of San Francisco from Treasure Island. I took this at the beginning of the year but if I go back and take it again today it would look different on account of the construction. I never really thought about it but changing skylines seem to be a normal thing. Constant change is an oxymoron if there ever was one but it fits what I see each time I go back.

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West Coast Skylines — West coast skylines are in a constant state of change

I guarantee you there are a million pictures of this same scene. Now there is one million and one. What I like about this one in particular is the detail and colors. I was here a month before and the same shot came out fuzzy. At the time I was using a light travel tripod that couldn’t hold the camera steady in a moderate wind. This time I took my Really Right Stuff carbon fiber tripod and it kept the camera solid as a rock.

I am born and raised in California so I know the area. Now when I go back I notice changes. I also used to live in New York. I’ll be going back there shortly so I’m sure I’ll be seeing a ton of changes there as well. The more we are gone the more we see.

Even when I leave home for a week or two I notice changes around my small town. It could be as simple as a new sign or a re-paved road. If I’d stayed it might have gone unnoticed, just part of the daily scenery. It seems we don’t notice gradual change, rather only when we’ve been away do we see the contrast.

more cityscape images

I think it all boils down to our ability to adapt to change around us; we are wired that way. As long it’s gradual we seem to pay little heed. However the only thing that’s constant is change and, …that will never change. If that’s not a circular argument I don’t know what is.

June 1, 2017

Palace of Fine Arts

On a recent trip to San Francisco I got up early one morning and came here to the Palace of Fine Arts. As it was a Sunday I had the whole place to myself. That by itself is an experience to say nothing of the photographic possibilities. I imagined myself in an ancient Rome as though a ghost out of time.

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In this image I placed the camera near the floor and aimed up with a Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens. It’s a special lens because it keeps the horizon flat without distortion, which is where the Zero-D comes from. Perhaps this is what the cat sees as he prowls the palace grounds each night.

As I look at this it reminds me that I’ll be heading back to Europe soon. I never know what I’ll see but I suppose that’s true wherever I go. When I go out to take pictures I have an expectation in my mind. That’s good for certain types of photography but on others it just gets in the way. When travelling the trick is to see what’s in front of me; I might miss something if I’m preoccupied with something in my head.

That’s not to say I don’t have a lot of ideas of images floating around. But it takes presence of mind to pick out details or compositions in a new place. Otherwise it’s better to work in a studio where we can shape an image to match our idea.

I normally take two or three lenses with me when touring. Like in this case I had the wide angle in the bag and so I pulled it out. I might experiment with taking just one lens on an excursion. Back in the day of film many cameras had a 35mm focal length. There’s a degree of liberation that comes with that because you stop thinking about the lens choice and just work with what you have.

more black and white

If I had to choose just one lens I’d start with the 35mm; that’s a good field of view to work with. But I also like the 50mm and the 85mm. Just thinking about the choice makes me anxious. Isn’t that the craziest thing you ever heard?

April 5, 2017April 4, 2017

Atop a Cliff Overlooking the Pacific

As the name implies, the Cliff House restaurant is atop a cliff overlooking the pacific. This is a long exposure I did a few months ago. I came back about a month later and each time I was lucky enough to see a good sunset. As a result I have a tonne of pictures from every angle and many of them like this taken long after the sun went down.

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I used to shoot film and photos like this were impossible. You might get close but it was trial and error and required precise measurements, settings and calculations of exposure length. Now in the age of digital I can have images like this in a matter of minutes and know exactly how it turns out. So it’s no wonder people like me love shooting in low light. It’s a relatively new phenomenon in the age of photography.

Speaking of cameras and the age of photography, that giant camera at the edge is a Camera obscura. The idea was first used in the 1600’s as a painting aid. It’s an ancient device that employs the same principal as a pinhole camera by projecting a reflected image on a wall or table. Here is a reference to it on wikipedia.

I wonder if cameras will become obsolete in some future timeline of ours. They have come so far in a few hundred years and things are not slowing down. Maybe our eyes will get replaced with hi-definition sensors and view screens and then we can choose to save images or share with others in a virtual reality universe.

california images

Would the people that invented the Camera obscure recognize the cameras of today? In that same vein then I will not recognize cameras a hundred years from now. Given where we are headed with sensor tech and VR, perhaps my idea is not so far fetched.

March 20, 2017March 20, 2017

Sutro Baths

This is an example of looking in the other direction during a sunset. The warm light and color in the clouds can be just as valid an image as the sunset itself. These are the Sutro Baths which are at the north end of Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I took this from the Cliff House Bistro where you can eat with a view of the Pacific. I stepped outside to take a few pics of the sunset and then turned my camera north to capture this.

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Earlier in the day I was on those mountains across the bay at Point Bonita Lighthouse. It’s a thirty minute drive over the mountains with spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

I did not see whales on this visit but have at other times seen Humpback and Orca. I managed to get a few images last time but they didn’t turn out that great since I was too far away.

The Sutro Baths used to be covered by a big structure. There were seven pools that were heated to different temperatures. The baths could be filled at high tide in about an hour. These remnants are all that’s left of what was a popular attraction in late 1800’s. However they are still filled at high tide. At low tide there is a small beach just below the rocks.

San Francisco images

Anyway, this is a place to walk and hike around the cliffs and trails and look out to the sea. I recommend it if your in the area. And who knows you might even see a whale or two.

March 14, 2017March 14, 2017

The New Bridge

Each time I travel to San Francisco I pass over the Bay Bridge. This new section was recently completed after a monumental construction project. Now they’ve started deconstructing the old one which sits adjacent to this. Finally after many months it’s getting so you can take a picture of the new bridge without it being crowded by the old one.

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I took this from Treasure Island which is halfway between San Francisco and Oakland. Fortunately it was calm that night so as to produce the colorful reflections on the water.

I take pictures of bridges because I find them fascinating and especially enjoy images at night. That’s because bridges form leading lines for our eyes to follow. They also have repeating elements to provide a sense of scale and direction. The link below is a collection of bridge pictures from places I’ve been.

bridges in the gallery

I grew up near San Francisco so I’ve been over the old bridge countless times. Maybe in a hundred years we’ll all fly drone cars and won’t need bridges. Until such time they’ll keep building new ones and i’ll keep taking pictures of them at night.

February 22, 2017February 22, 2017

Lost in Thought

I can get lost in thought just as much as the next guy. We lead complicated lives. Breaking free of that is a theme with me and reflected in some of my photography. I look for and capture simplicity in a complex world. How did it get this way? We might as well ask why it rains. I think we pile on complexity as we go through life. We do it to ourselves without realizing the consequence. The more we maintain complexity inside, the less we are aware of simplicity around us; at least that’s my theory.

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Taking a walk can help clear the cobwebs. But how did the cobwebs get there in the first place? For me it can be emersion in something to the point that I associated with it rather than the real world. We all do that. If we can at least recognize that then we can know when enough is enough. By detaching from a problem at hand we’re open to things we might otherwise miss. Complexity is self defeating, it works against itself.

I believe that thinking too much is the source of discord. For example, they say money is the root of all evil, but maybe thinking about money is even worse. Thinking too much creates constructs in our minds that are no less real than road blocks in a construction zone. The key to clarity is, well, not thinking. That’s easier said than done. If I could not think for five minutes a day that would be something. Thinking is a tool, but incessantly revolving around something is how blocks occur. So many threads, so much to hold together, something is going to fall.

urbex in the gallery

Anyway, I took this picture of a man walking alone, surrounded by blocks, and only steps away from a clear pool. And that got me thinking….

February 21, 2017February 21, 2017

Into the Scene

Whenever I see a photo of a bench I unconsciously project myself into the scene. It’s something I realized early in photography and a theme I’ve repeated through the years. An empty bench can be a metaphor for many different ideas. This one was at the base of the Coit Tower in San Francisco. In fact there was a girl sitting here earlier but I didn’t like how it turned out so I opted for the empty version.

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As I was saying we tend to project ourselves into photos or scenes. I’m not sure we’re aware of it but it’s a natural consequence of seeing. Where we put our attention is where we go in our mind. You can say a lot of things about what and who we are, but one thing for sure is that we experience things. We experience things physically in the world and we experience things in our inner world of thoughts and feelings.

If we see a bench in front of us, whether we are standing there or seeing it in a photo it’s nearly the same experience. So if we walk up to the bench physically or in our mind it is of little consequence. We don’t need to be somewhere to experience it. This is the essence of projection and it is something we do all of the time, whether we realize it or not.

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If we can pause momentarily and experience the sensation of looking out the window, in some small way we will each have shared a common experience.

February 20, 2017February 20, 2017

Heading Out to Sea

A ship heading out to sea from the San Francisco Bay. I have been fortunate in that when I come to this spot there are colorful clouds at sunset. As I live on another coast I know that it’s not always the case and sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw. I’m not adverse to a little luck.

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There are places known for sunsets and this spot at at Lands End is one. From my own experience it seems the conditions are conducive for colorful displays like this during the golden hour. Another place that comes to mind is in Texas. I’ve not spent a lot of time in Texas but the few times I’ve been there I noticed colorful sunsets.

Not to be outdone, we too have sunsets in Florida, but often there are no clouds so the colors can be limited. We do get spectacular sunsets, it just seems maybe fewer than California, but I could be wrong, it might just be a matter of my luck.

I noticed this ship close to the Golden Gate Bridge earlier and I was surprised to see it still heading out to sea an hour or more later. These large vessels seem to move very slowly, but could just be an illusion created by their size and the distances involved. This is zoomed in almost 200 mm, so it is a long ways out.

seascape images

Once I was at the waters edge at the entrance to the bay in Vancouver BC. It was late at night and otherwise quiet as I watched a large container ship pass under the bridge into open waters. It passed close to where I was standing and the vibration of the engines left an impression on me. For whatever reason I am struck with fascination whenever I see these lumbering giants.

February 17, 2017February 17, 2017

Like So Many Grains of Sand

People dot the beach like so many grains of sand. A few weeks ago I was looking out over Ocean Beach from the Cliff House in San Francisco. When I first looked I was met with this spectacle. That got me thinking about the age old adage about grains of sand on a beach. And from that my mind took off on its own, not waiting for me to catch up.

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It seems people and technology have been recalculating the size of the universe lately and we now know its much bigger than we thought. To put it in context I’m not even sure our planet would amount to a single grain of sand on this beach.

According to estimates there are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy. That would mean our star was one of the grains of sand on this beach. But that’s just referring to our galaxy, the Milky Way. Now scientists say there may be one trillion galaxies in the universe. That basically hits it out of the park, so to speak.

It stands to reason then that there might be as many stars in the universe as there grains of sand on Earth. So that is even remotely true, then what’s the point of ever trying to comprehend it? Just trying to fathom the grains of sand on this one beach is futile to say nothing for the number of stars in the universe.

beaches in the gallery

So, for me, the only thing left to do is turn away from the beach and eat a bowl of soup. That’s the one thing I can handle.

February 14, 2017February 14, 2017

Chandelier in the Cathedral

This is a large chandelier in the Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco. Without a doubt it is the first think you notice when you walk in. It’s positioned above the alter and reflects the light from the windows of four corners. When I walked in it was all I could do to stand there and look up. I imagine that’s the intended effect; to give pause and a feeling that this is an extraordinary space.

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My Sony A7rII camera has a silent shooting mode. I turn that on whenever I enter a house of worship or any place where the sound of a shutter might break the mood. I try to respect places like this even though I want to take photos. My desire to get a good photo does not trump my manners or sense of reverence. As much as I love to get a good photo, I’ll walk away if I feel I’b be crossing some line.

That’s not to say that happens a lot. In the vast majority of cases its cool. Even if I have to take a few chances, sometimes it’s better to get forgiveness than permission. But invading someone’s space when taking photos is not cool. If I find someone in contemplation when I walk up with my camera, I’ll walk away if I cannot capture the scene without disrupting it.

abstract gallery

For me it’s as much about the presence of mind as it is about the picture. That sometimes involves being respectful of other people’s space.