Inside the Ferry Building
One of my favorite spots in one of my favorite cities…
Every time I visit San Francisco, I make a point to get over to the Ferry Building. It’s just a lovely structure and something about it just draws me in, every time. I have shot here before sunset and after sunset, and at all times in between. Regardless of the time of day or the associated crowds, it’s just a lovely place to see and photograph. Highly recommend if you are visiting this beautiful city!
Chasing fame and fortune
A couple of shots of that most famous of signs out West…
Whenever I see a picture of the Hollywood sign, I think of all the stories of all the people who ran out there chasing fame and fortune. Most of them are forgotten, and have moved on, but I am sure it still draws quite a few every year. Not me though, I would never want to live in LA. But when I was there, I definitely wanted to go see the sign!
Morning in San Francisco
Blue hour at the Ferry Building in San Francisco…
I love to get up and wander in the early morning hours when I travel. It’s generally always peaceful and quiet, and I can enjoy the beauty of a city without all the crowds getting in my shots. :-) This was taken before sunrise in San Francisco one morning. This is the Ferry Building, which is one of my favorite spots in the city, which is full of great spots by the way. I just love the look of this place, inside and out.
In the Ferry Building
Inside the Ferry Building in lovely San Francisco…
My favorite building in San Francisco is the Ferry Building, which is just lovely. I adore the place. This was taken on the 2nd floor a few years back. I just wandered up there and fired away. Easy!
An amazing sunset in Carmel
An incredible sunset on the beach in Carmel, CA - I was quite happy that evening!
Sometimes it just all comes together!
I love to shoot sunset as much as the next person, maybe more. So when I am traveling to a lovely destination such as Carmel, CA and I happen to also get some amazing light, well that just makes my day. I've had plenty of trips where I go somewhere awesome and the light is crappy, but sadly there's not much to do about that. Just take your shots and move on. But now and then the forces align and you get a stunning sunset on the beach. It does happen!
Some random shots from LA...
Here is a handful of images from a trip I took to LA last year…just some random snaps from random spots…
I made a short visit to Los Angeles last year, just for fun. My daughter really wanted to go see LA (ok, Hollywood mostly), and though I had been nearby the city many times, I had never really been IN the city. So we went. It was mostly for her entertainment (that is, NOT for my photography) so I only brought a single prime lens for some random snaps here and there.
Sometimes a trip like that is exactly what I need. I can release myself from any expectations of "getting the shot" because the trip isn't about that, and instead I can just enjoy being somewhere without any artistic pressure that I often put on myself. I can relax into the adventure of it all and take a few documentary-style photos along the way. I actually think I ought to do that more often...it's refreshing.
So here are a few images from various spots around Hollywood, taken while wandering aimlessly and looking for movie stars. Never saw any. :-)
Catching sunset in Carmel
A stunning sunset in Carmel, CA - an incredibly quaint and beautiful spot in northern CA!
I do love to visit Carmel, CA! Such a great spot for a sunset!
Have you been to Carmel before? It's a lovely little village - yes, I would call it a village - down by the sea a bit south of San Jose, CA. It's super expensive but so quaint, beautiful and quite fun to visit. I have been several times and really never tire of it.
On our crazy-long road trip last summer, we passed through there for a couple of nights, which means of course that I was on the beach firing away at the sunset on one of those nights. Luckily, I picked the right one (our first night there) because it was gorgeous, while the second night the sunset was not that great. Hey, sometimes you guess right and get lucky!
So I strolled downhill to the beach and basically hung out for a while, firing away and chatting with others that were there. Of course some folks asked me to take their picture - I obliged, naturally - and otherwise I stood around enjoying nature's bounty with a lot of strangers. Good times, really!
Last light in La Jolla
A lovely sunset along the coast in La Jolla, CA...
I sure love photographing the Pacific!
When I was in San Diego recently, I wanted to get out and shoot at least one sunset along the coastline. So I connected with my friend Scott Davenport and we met up and headed out. Scott is a local photographer and workshop leader and knows this area really well. He choose this spot and it was a real winner!
La Jolla is a little town just north of San Diego and the coastline there is just incredible. There are all sorts of interesting rock formations and some tide pools as well. It was excellent!
This is a single 25 second exposure, which accounts for the smooth water. Edits were made in Luminar by Macphun, which you really need to try out if you haven't yet!
Sunset at the Griffith Observatory
Sunset at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles...
I've always wanted to see this spot and finally got a chance!
The Griffith Observatory is one of those well-known Los Angeles spots, and I have wanted to visit it for a very long time. On my recent trip to LA, my daughter and I headed up there for sunset one evening. It was VERY busy but that was ok. Luckily we had some nice light and I was able to get some shots like this one, as well as enjoy the incredible view over downtown LA from the back side of the building.
Since it was a fun trip for my daughter and I, I opted to leave most of the gear at home and travel light. This meant one camera and one prime lens attached to it (and no tripod). Luckily, I had just gotten the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 prime lens for my Sony camera, and decided to bring that one to test it out. I loved it! As I get more shots with it, I will share more details about the lens. But suffice it to say that it worked really well for me!
iPhone fun in LA with my daughter
I spent most of the last week in LA on a fun trip with my daughter. We laughed, toured, ate and photographed quite a bit of the City of Angels. It was fabulous. Here are some iPhone shots to prove it. ;-)
I'm just back from a fun week in LA with my daughter.
My 14 year old daughter and I just spent the last week in Los Angeles, CA and had a blast. We walked a TON, shot a bunch, and just enjoyed the city. It was great.
We have been talking about doing a Dad-Daughter trip for a long time, but for various reasons we just now got it done. It was awesome. We walked and Uber-ed all over LA and had a great time. We went to museums, shot graffiti, went up to the Griffith Observatory and over to Malibu and the Santa Monica Pier.
Since this was a trip for my daughter (and thus, not for me to shoot a lot), I opted to just bring a single prime lens and no tripod. I wanted to be able to travel light and shoot fast, even at night. So everything was quick handheld shots with the lovely combo of my Sony A7ii and my new lens, the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 prime lens. It worked great. As soon as I have more time with this lens, I will likely write up a review of my experience with it.
I certainly feel like I took some great shots, but readily admit that I haven't even looked at them yet (other than chimping after a shot), since I am writing this from the airport prior to departing LA and heading home. So today's post is all iPhone images, edited in Luminar by Macphun. It's a killer combo. Now that I use Luminar on everything, I have also started editing my iPhone shots in it, too. It works so well.
So this is a quick tour of some of the fun we had and these are in no particular order whatsoever. We got rained on a bit the first day, but otherwise the weather was just cool enough (high 60's) and I had some nice clouds, too. As soon as I am able, I will get some LA shots up here from my Sony camera, too. Enjoy!
San Francisco graffiti
I love graffiti - it's often interesting, beautiful and well-crafted! In today's post, I share some of the wonderful urban art I found in San Francisco - check it out!
There is some seriously awesome graffiti in the City by the Bay!
If you have been here to the blog before, then you know I have an affinity for graffiti. I love it. In my opinion, it's just another form of art, and some of these pieces are just amazing. Seriously, these artists are simply incredible. On one of my trips out to SFO, I made it a point to get out and grab some shots of the fabulous graffiti there - and there's quite a bit. Although I found some of it in Chinatown, most of this was captured in the Mission District in a place known as Clarion Alley.
As the name implies, it's simply an alley, but it's completely full of graffiti from one end to the other. It's great. I wandered up and down the alley a couple of times that afternoon, as I was enjoying the art as well as photographing it!
If you have some free time one day in San Francisco, be sure and head over here and check out this amazing graffiti - it's both interesting and really fun! Enjoy this selection of carefully curated graffiti! :-)
Sunset at the Palace of Fine Arts
I return again to San Francisco in today's post - a gorgeous sunset at a gorgeous location, the Palace of Fine Arts. Oh, and I walked nearly 18 miles that day. Whew! Read on and enjoy the pics my friends!
Such a beautiful spot in San Francisco!
As I mentioned in my last post, I recently spent some time in San Francisco and got out to shoot a decent amount, considering it was a fairly brief stay in the City by the Bay. One destination I had in mind was the Palace of Fine Arts, which is the subject of today's post.
I had been there and photographed it way back in 2010 on my first photo outing in San Francisco, but I had arrived at midday and the light was very bright and pretty unforgiving. I never really liked the shots all that much, and always told myself that if given the chance, I would return under better circumstances and reshoot the whole thing.
I finally got the chance.
On this day I had begun in Haight Ashbury and after a reasonably quick photo tour in that area, I set off on foot for the Marina District, which is where you will find the Palace of Fine Arts, nestled in front of a beautiful lagoon and just a short walk from the San Francisco Marina. Heck, you're actually not far from the Golden Gate Bridge either. So much awesomeness there!
It was late afternoon when I left The Haight and I knew I had enough time to get to The Palace of Fine Arts on foot, assuming I didn't waste any time getting distracted - which is a pretty hard thing to do in San Francisco, actually. There are a LOT of things to distract a photographer - and I'm easily distracted anyways!
So I hustled along and made good progress, until I got to The Presidio. While I didn't spend much time chasing photos there, I did end up cutting through a field and clambering down a steep hill (marked with signs that warned me against walking there) and then over a stone wall. It was not a graceful exit. Let's call it a shortcut, and I had to take it because I could see the light was getting nice, and I still had a little bit of a walk to go. You make rash decisions in times of need, right? And I apologize if I trampled anyones plants! :-)
After that, it was a straight shot to my destination.
I arrived a few minutes later and was able to wander a little while I thought about the shots I wanted to take. I had only taken my Sony 28mm f/2 prime lens on this trip, so it required some thought and planning to capture what I wanted to capture. I wanted a few shots of the whole scene as well as some of the smaller details. When you have a prime lens, you zoom in and out with your feet, so I did a lot of that. It was fun.
I wandered in and around the structure for a bit, shooting this and that, and by the time the light got just right I was across the lagoon staring at the structure while the sun set behind it. Timing was excellent - way better than my previous visit in 2010 - and I am rather proud of a couple of these shots.
The only "issue" per se is that thanks to all the birds that make this lagoon their home, there were about 300 million feathers and other things floating in the water. While I could sit there in Lightroom and spend hour upon hour working to remove everything, I opted not to do so. I took out the most distracting ones, but didn't have it in me to do any more. Call me lazy if you will, but I generally refuse to spend more than 30 minutes on a photo, and even that is pushing it.
Every once in a while, I see a great photo online in which the photographer talks about spending 2-3 hours working on it, with more layers than the movie Inception. I can completely understand and respect that someone wants to do that, but I can't help feeling like it's a waste of time for me. I would much rather move on and process 10 other images in that amount of time. I guess that's a personal thing. Anyways, I digress.
a view that distracted me for a couple of minutes - can you blame me? this was right after I scrambled out of the presidio area!
After getting all the shots I wanted here, I walked over to the Marina and got a few sunset shots as I continued my lengthy walk. I skirted the edge of the water all the way to Fisherman's Wharf, which is where I found myself at blue hour. I have shot blue hour there many times and absolutely love it, with all the great neon signs and lights on. I just had to visit again. Once darkness arrived, I decided I had better eat, so I popped into Boudin Bakery for a clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and a couple of well-earned beers! Damn, they were good. :-)
I will return another time with photos from Fisherman's Wharf, as well as the rest of that evening, because I kept walking and shooting, eventually making it all the way back to my hotel on the other side of town. And yes, this was the longest walk of my life, I think. I have been using a Step Counter app on my phone (sort of like FitBit) to keep track of my activity level. Here's a screenshot of the ground I covered that day. Pretty impressive, right?
And yes, the next morning my legs did not want to move!
That's almost 18 miles people! Someone get me a beer!
So all in all, it was a very successful trip to San Francisco, photographically speaking. I came away with about 1500 images, which is not a goal in and of itself (the quantity, that is). While it's a loose sort of yardstick for letting me know if I did get out and shoot much, I am not hung up on quantity to the extent that I was earlier this year.
Am I going to keep firing away? You bet! I'm just no longer measuring the success of a photo outing on quantity. I still take a lot of photos, but have slowed down somewhat in hopes of getting a better focus (no pun intended) on capturing the images that I think will serve the viewer the best.
That's it - thanks for stopping by today!
that is alcatraz island in the distance
Driving Highway 1
I recently drove up a large part of Highway 1 in California, making stops in some of the iconic, wonderful, and always photogenic spots along the way. I started in San Simeon and made it through Big Sur and Carmel, ending in the Fort Bragg and Mendocino area. Here are 25 photos that illustrate the beauty I witnessed!
What's more iconic than a drive up Highway 1 in California?
Ain't Big Sur just spectacular??
As you know I am on a Griswold-style road trip in the Western US with the family, and we have seen a lot of things. So much that it's hard to keep track (though thankfully I take some pictures). We started at our home in Austin, TX and are currently in Oregon, before we head up to Washington State for a bit. Then it's time to go home.
One thing we were really looking forward to was the drive along Highway 1 in California.
On the beach in Fort Bragg, CA
Fort Bragg, CA
It has a reputation as a famously beautiful drive, and it's earned it. It is beautiful. Since we were coming from Texas, we came in at about San Simeon, California where we spent the night and toured the Hearst Castle the next day (I still need to work on the pics from Hearst). From there, we meandered along the coast up to Carmel with several stops in the Big Sur area. That place is gorgeous - what an incredible stretch of coastline.
Fort Bragg, CA
After that it was the 101 through San Francisco and up into northern California, eventually getting back on Highway 1 in the Fort Bragg and Mendocino area, where we spent a couple of days (and when we left, we took the highway hugging the coast all the way into Oregon). It was our first visit to this area, and we loved it. It seems like Mendocino gets more press than Fort Bragg, but we really liked Fort Bragg. Whereas Mendocino feels a little more "fancy", it seemed like Fort Bragg was more of the "salty dog", and I do love the salty dog places.
While there, we did a fair bit of meandering around the coastline in the area, despite having just spent the better part of a long week driving across the country. Isn't it interesting that you can be so tired of driving, but if there is something beautiful or interesting to go see that you forget you are sick of being in the car? Such is human nature. A little excitement can overcome a lot.
The harbor in Fort Bragg, CA
So today's photos are those that I collected after leaving San Simeon, driving up Highway 1 through Big Sur, and in and around Mendocino and Fort Bragg. If you had asked me a month ago if I preferred mountains or beaches, I would have said mountains for sure. And though I probably still do, finding beaches like these (and the ones I have explored in Oregon) are pretty dang hard to beat. I just love a rocky beach with sea stacks and other things to explore. I find them beautiful and endlessly interesting.
Well that's it for today my friends. Thanks for stopping by, and more stuff from this trip coming soon!
Jug Handle State Reserve, between Mendocino and Fort Bragg, CA
Big Sur
Big Sur
Mendocino, CA
At Point Cabrillo
Big Sur
Somewhere north of Fort Bragg, CA
Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, Mendocino
At Point Cabrillo
A boat leaving the harbor in Fort Bragg, CA
Big Sur
Bixby Bridge in Big Sur
A secluded cove along Highway 1 north of Fort Bragg, CA - loved this spot!!
More from that same spot just looking South instead of North
And more from there but looking West this time into the never-ending Pacific Ocean
The coastline in Mendocino
And more from Mendocino
Next to the lighthouse at Point Cabrillo
And there's the lighthouse
One last look along the rocky Pacific shore - so awesome!
San Francisco in blue and gold
I'm a big fan of the city of San Francisco, and always enjoy my visits to the City by the Bay. I also love the Ferry Building there, and that's the main subject of today's post. I caught a wonderful blue hour there one morning on my last visit, as well as some other cool shots from a sunset or two. Take a look at this collection of 12 pics and enjoy!
This city looks so great in blue and gold!
I spent a week in San Francisco back in June and collected quite a few pics on that trip. Since then I traveled to Nashville and OKC and then launched into this wonderful summer holiday that I am still enjoying (and still on). In other words, my camera has been busy.
But my keyboard has also been busy, as I have been working hard to edit a lot of photos and get them published. If you want to keep up with the full library of my published works, you can do so on my portfolio site or follow me on Flickr. All my work ends up in those two places (and you get an early peek at things on Flickr because I put my iPhone images there while I travel - or at least the ones I really like).
One part of the San Fran trip that I was dying to edit is all the shots I am sharing here today. They were all taken of, in front of, behind or beside the Ferry Building. Let's just say that area is a target-rich environment.
I find San Francisco to be just an absolutely gorgeous city. Every time I am there I love it even more. I can understand why so many people love it too. It's way more my style than say some place like NYC. Nothing wrong with NYC of course - it's amazing - but I could never imagine living there, whereas I could see myself in SFO.
As I have written here before, the Ferry Building is one of my favorite things to shoot in San Fran, and I have shot it inside and out several times over the years. Many of today's shots are also of the Ferry Building, since it's really to close to where I normally stay and being on the water too, it's just a natural draw for me.
One morning I got up early (my body is used to Central Time, so I always wake up early there) and decided to go grab a few shots before work. My hotel this time was literally across the street from the Ferry Building, so that's the first place I headed, and I am glad that I did! I just loved the lights reflected on the street and of course I always love blue hour.
It's always great to get out and shoot San Francisco, but in the cool early morning air when the streets are mostly empty - that's just really special. As you can see, I also captured a few pics from another day, right around golden hour and sunset. I thought I would just throw them into this post, since they sort of fit the theme. Call it a bonus! :-) The last two pics at the bottom are from my hotel. Not from my room though, unfortunately. I had to work to find that view but it was well worth it!
Thanks for stopping by today!
A bit of this and that from San Francisco
I love San Francisco - it's really a beautiful city. I spent a week there recently, and was lucky enough to get out a few times with the camera (and the prime lens) and fire away. Here are 26 photos that give you a good idea of what I was looking at - and shooting at, of course. Enjoy the tour!
There is just so much to shoot in San Francisco!
As I highlighted in a recent post, I spent a week in San Francisco recently, and despite a very busy work schedule, I was still able to get out and fire away to a pretty significant degree. That always makes the week better, doesn't it? :-)
Of course, it required me to sacrifice a little sleep here and there (my meetings ran into the evening, so it was easiest for me to shoot at sunrise, which is WAY early this time of year), but that's why I always stop at Starbucks while I am out and fuel up (a venti Awake tea, thank you very much!). Honestly though, I would rather shoot sunrise anyways. I always say that, and it's true. You can walk around the busiest cities at sunrise and nearly have them to yourself. It's amazing. And oddly, I don't see as many photographers out that time of day.
As everyone knows, San Francisco is a beautiful city. I really love it there. There is a lot to see and do (and photograph), and it's just gorgeous. It's one of my favorite American cities, that's for sure. There is a lot of diversity, despite what I read in the news about Google and other companies "taking over" old neighborhoods and driving out the locals.
To be clear, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, as I am sure it does. I'm just saying I still notice a lot of diversity, which is good and in my opinion it makes a place more interesting. For example, I spent some time one day in the Mission District, which I had never been to before. It has some excellent graffiti, which I just love, so I wanted to go see it. Well that area is much different than down along the Embarcadero, for example (which is normally where my hotel choices are - because that's where my work happens). Vastly different, in fact. (And yes, I will do a future post of the excellent graffiti I shot that day.)
Since I go to San Fran several times per year, I end up with a lot of photos from there as well (oh darn). And while I am addicted to the new, so to speak, there is a lot of enjoyment I get from revisiting a place time and again - especially one so interesting. Because of my constrained work schedule, I only brought my tiny little prime lens, so that I could travel fast and light.
I wanted to force myself to look at things somewhat differently than if I had a collection of lenses to choose from. While I wouldn't do that if I was going to a new place, it is a great creative exercise. It forces you to work the scene with your feet before firing away, instead of just zooming in on something. It may not sound like it's a big difference, but it feels like it is.
And in addition to shooting with only the prime, I also decided to just shoot whatever caught my eye, anything I observed that I found at least somewhat interesting. So I have some street scenes I captured as well as some bits of this and that. I did shoot at the Ferry Building quite a bit, but I just can't help myself since I love that place so much. Oh yeah, and I grabbed some shots of the Bay Bridge as well. It's a beauty!
Well, I hope you enjoy this little tour of San Francisco, and come back for more soon! I have a lot of graffiti to share as well as some stunning blue hour photos I caught one evening after a rain. I will get all those processed and shared as soon as I can!