Posts Tagged ‘california’

May

2011

Seal Rocks

Seal Rocks, three majestic thrusts of rock situated along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I happened upon the isles in the early evening. Seeing conditions were poor, rather hazy, but I think I found a good shot here.

I was experimenting with a high f-number, which increases the depth of field (more of the picture is in focus), but also reduces sharpness and in my case caused any dust on my lens to appear as dark spots (that weren’t visible at lower f-stops). I had to do quite a bit of photoshopping to clean it up. The small “blips” that remain are actually seabirds.

I think the rocks would be more photogenic earlier in the morning or at sunset (if it weren’t too hazy), and I’d also have liked to take the shot from closer range. I’ll just have to go back!

Tags: california, HDR, pacific ocean, san francisco, seal rocks
Posted in California, HDR | Comments Off on Seal Rocks

May

2011

Telegraph Hill

A San Francisco Landmark

I find photography interesting. Sometimes I take 50 shots and 1 of them turn out okay, and sometimes I take one shot, and it turns out really well.

This photo is an example of the latter case.

You’re looking at Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. I only took one shot and I like it quite a bit. As I was taking it, a cable car pulled up behind me and stopped, the driver said “photo opportunity!” and a bunch of people pulled out their cell phone cameras and began firing away. I doubt those turned out that well.

That prominent building on the hill is Coit Tower, which I actually went to the top of earlier that day. The visibility from the top is inhibited by dirty glass windows (which they do try to clean), but it was still quite a view. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge, Oakland Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, and a lot of the downtown skyscrapers from the top of Coit Tower.

I took my tripod up to the top of the tower, but as I was getting off of the lift, the elevator lady cried out, “Oh you sneaky man!”, and told me I couldn’t use the tripod so I begrudgingly complied.

Tags: california, Coit Tower, san francisco
Posted in California, HDR | 2 Comments »

May

2011

San Francisco

Cathedral by Moonlight – Grace Episcopalian Cathedral in downtown San Francisco

I had the good fortune of going to San Francisco for a business conference this past week. When I wasn’t at the conference, I had some opportunities to explore the city. I had actually seen this beautiful Cathedral the day prior, but I had foolishly decided to explore San Francisco sans camera.

I came back the next night and took this shot. As I was taking pictures two lovely young women came up to me, expressing their dismay in trying to photograph this picaresque church at night. I showed them a shot I took, which they seemed to think was pretty good, so I handed them my card and said they’d be able to download the picture from my website later on.

They thought this was too good to be true and insinuated that I would try to charge them for it like some kind of fly-by-night, bait-and-switch, raspberry-seed-in-the-wisdom-tooth-of-the-consumer, carpet-bagging-snake-oil salesman! Well they did seem rather nice, and since they don’t know me we’ll forgive them for it.

So ladies, if you are reading this, you’ll find the picture in question available for download at no charge. Hope you had a great time in San Francisco and found a nice Italian place to eat at. Drop me a message if you like the picture (and if you’d like to apologize for doubting me). Just kidding about the apology!

I’ll be posting more of my San Francisco pictures in the coming days!

Tags: california, Cathedral, church, san francisco
Posted in California | 2 Comments »