Posts Tagged: Photography
Cadillac and Lattice
Back to exploring the square. And the colorization. That is all.
Point Loma Crepuscular
Point Loma Sunset B&W (click image to view large)
My sister-in-law has been living in San Diego for the past year, and we finally had a chance to visit here there for her birthday last month. Her second cousins also live there, and the day we were leaving we visited them at their home near Point Loma. They were kind enough to whisk us off for a quick tour of the peninsula. This was the view from the historic lighthouse there.
Hieroglyph Sofa and Tree
The Fox, the Hair, and the Sofa,and the Xmas tree (click image to view large)
As we were returning to work from lunch, a co-worker asked if I had seen the hieroglyph couch. I said I hadn’t. She pointed down the block and across the street. I detoured over to take a look. This is about the fourth or fifth large piece of furniture left out on this four-block stretch of Shattuck over the last few months. But it’s the first to feature such fine inscriptions. The long-dead christmas tree was an added bonus.
Temescal Country Squire
Country Squire Wagon #1 (click image to view large)
The car reminds me of a girl I knew in high school. She used to go around saying that a fortune teller told her she would not live to be 21. Of course I didn’t believe her. But it turned out to be true.
Live and Learn Photography
Green House (click image to view large)
As you may remember, about this time last year I embarked on a project to photograph all, every inch, of Albany’s commercial streetscapes. Granted, this only amounts to two streets that intersect and are each about a mile long. It is not a big place, but that still amounts to a few hundred shots to get every linear inch of it all. And I didn’t finish all of it until July.
For this, I really wanted to go for a sharpness that I don’t often worry that much about. I did it all on a tripod with the sharpest lens I have, a 35mm prime. And–well, I’m going to out myself here as a basic idiot, but I’ll proceed anyway–I also thought I would stop down to get deep depth of field and the best sharpness I could. So I shot the whole thing at f/16. So, short of going really far, like using mirror-up mode to reduce vibration, I thought I was going to get the sharpest results possible with my current gear. But somehow,… the results weren’t really that great. The shots didn’t look as I imagined they would.
Today I may have discovered why. I happened across a discussion of techniques for sharpness on a photographer community site, and it turns out that while depth of field increases at smaller apertures, after about f/8 or f/11, diffraction creeps up and results in a general out-of-focus softness. This is something landscape photographers deal with in trying to balance deep depth of field with maximum sharpness. Needless to say, I won’t be reshooting the project. But I will be remembering the lesson for a long time.
Meta-Photography #1
El Camino (click to view large)
Theo has a video project to interview somebody doing something, and to shoot each step of the process. He decided to interview me about taking photographs. This is a picture we took across the street to illustrate the process. It sort of reminds of a cow for some reason. Maybe I’ll post the video later, when he’s all done with it.
Plume
Sun and Plume (click image to view large)
For several years, I had thought about this shot along I-80 in Berkeley, back when I commuted to Emeryville. Each morning when the conditions were just so, I would think to myself that I should try to take a photo, and that I should be ready the next time. And each day, I would get to work, start my day of worries and promptly forget about it. Then I didn’t have that commute anymore and really did forget all about it. Then, the other day, I drove to work instead of biking and the sun was was out, and there it was again. And there was my camera on the seat next to me. Now, shooting photos while driving in rush hour traffic is not too smart or safe, so I didn’t linger long. This is not what I imagined was possible with the scene, but it is a start. Perhaps if I can get someone else to drive while I hang out the back window I can see what we can do.
Plume #2 (click image to view large)
Mustang and Brick
Seen while biking to work. Oakland CA. January, 2012 (click image to enlarge)
I saw a new car while biking to work the other morning. I passed it by at first, and then had second thoughts and turned around. This is a quick first pass at processing.
Personal Photo Request
I was standing just in front of Oakland City Hall late in the afternoon, getting ready to decide whether I would march to the port during the Occupy Oakland event. Just then, an older gentleman approached me and asked me if would take his picture, and offered to pay me. He said, “I told my wife I was going to come down, and she didn’t believe me.” I replied that I would be happy to take his picture but that he didn’t have to pay me. He took a few steps toward the building and turned to me.
After I took the photograph, he again offered to pay, and again I declined. So, he said, “You’ve got a box of bananas coming.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but asked him how I would get the pictures to him. He handed me a card with an email address on it. That’s when the box of bananas became clear. He is the owner of a produce company. The email on the card started with a woman’s name, which I inquired about. “That’s my wife,” he said with a grin. I said, “Well, won’t she be surprised?”
Berkeley Arts Festival: Dean Santomieri and The Glasses
It is pure coincidence that after a lengthy hiatus, this next post is again related to the Berkeley Arts Festival. Dean Santomieri reprised his spoken word presentation from the previous performance and he was followed by jazz quartet The Glasses. Mr. Santomieri’s set was one piece shorter and all around tighter than last time. The Glasses came together to perform songs penned by bassist Safa Shokrai. The rest of the quartet was: Chris Grady, trumpet; Larry Leight, trombone; Dave Mihaly, drums. I hear that the quartet usually includes a violin rather than trombone, but the arrangements and the chemistry for this performance were outstanding. Hopefully, we’ll get to hear more of them in whatever configuration they can muster. The light was low, but I managed to get a few decent shots.
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