North Beach has quickly become one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco. Columbus Tower, or The Sentinel Building depending on who you ask, is a favorite view while there. Quick fact: most of the building is rented by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope film company. Cool.
Stop at Comstock Saloon for a few well-made cocktails. Talk to strangers and listen to some excellent live jazz.
Swing across the street to Mr. Bings for a beer or two. Or three.
Head up to the Saloon for late night drinking and almost always a great blues band. In your free time, look up the history of the Saloon. It’s incredible.
I guess, eat some food at some point as well. It is Little Italy, after all.
Image taken with Fuji x100T, hand held at dusk on manual. ISO800, 1/50th, F/4. 35 mm equivalent focal length.
It’s Memorial Day Weekend, and I’ve been a Californian for a month already. Gnarly.
My first weekend here, feeling pretty displaced, I impulsively joined a Pop Up Instameet at the Sutro Baths. A very talented photographer from LA, Andrew Kinder, organized the chaos and roughly 100 photographers met up at the shoreline. It was pretty amazing.
First though, everything here is pretty different. I’m used to shooting the sunset peeking out from behind the NYC skyline. Now, the sun washes out everything until it’s nearly set. I have to be honest, I didn’t do much shooting at this instameet because I was so amazed by the surroundings. Use #PopupSutro on instagram to see some pretty excellent shots by the group.
The Sutro Baths, was a bathhouse built into the SF shoreline in the late 1800s, and burned down in the 1960s. Today, its footprint is almost all that’s left. But it’s one of the more interesting beach spots I’ve been to. The SF surf is unbelievably strong, if not punishing. Due to its shape, the current here converges from three directions, creating some rough waters. Huge rocks and tall cliffs surround the beach from three sides. As if created on purpose, there are all sorts of areas with loosely blocked off access now, for our own safety. These, of course, are the best parts of all.
Overall, a great spot to shoot, but keep in mind you’re shooting direct into setting the sun. Bring reflectors, filters, and/or a flash, or expect to get some seriously backlit shots.
All images below taken with either the Fuji x100T, or Canon 5D MkIII, using an assortment of lenses.
Busy time right now. Preparing to move 2500 miles from home in three weeks; at the same time I have a quick business trip coming up in South Carolina prior to heading out west. When I return, I’ll officially move to San Francisco from New Jersey. I’ll be there for a week, and then head to Geneva, Switzerland, again for work. THEN, I can head back to CA and finally try to adjust to actually living there. No sweat.
In the meantime, here’s a few pics and a sunset timelapse of the George Washington bridge. This was shot from the NJ side of the bridge, looking toward Washington Heights. The timelapse is comprised of 9 minutes of video, sped up at 20x,
The color image is a fun one because I had the camera maxed out: A 30 second exposure, at ISO 100 and F/22.
All imagery shot on the Canon 5DMkIII, using the 24-70 2.8.
Just returned from yet another week in San Francisco. I was averaging about one trip per month for a while, but the pace slowed a little lately. Still, I’ve done roughly 25,000 miles in the air in about 10 months. I *think* that’s a decent amount.
Anyway, when I landed at SFO, I decided to head west to The Great Highway, and then drove up SF’s west coast. As with seemingly all new sites there, it was pretty outrageous. I made a quick stop at Devils Teeth Baking Company (seriously, get the Special Breakfast Sandwich), and then spent some time wandering on the beach. Unknowingly, the Cliff House and Seal Rocks were just to the North, and are now checked off my ever-growing list of places to see/photograph. I even got to grab a few shots of a new friend, Bailey (a dog). Haha,
Camera stuff: I’m purposely trying to walk around with the 24-70 more often, instead of the 16-35. I LOVE using the ultra wide - up close and with flash - believe it or not. Especially in the day time. But, the application I use that technique for isn’t something I’ll be shooting as much of these days, so, time to adjust. A little extra focal length might be good, and will definitely help capture some additional detail from further away.
All images shot raw, using the Canon 5dMkIII & 24-70 2.8L.
I’m bouncing around between the tri-state & bay areas at the moment, but, I recently stayed in NYC for a weekend. Spending two nights at Gild Hall was a pretty excellent surprise. Despite spending the majority of my life about 10 minutes outside of NYC, and having worked there, it’s been rare to spend a full weekend there. So the 48 we spent there were…interesting. At the end of the weekend I felt like I was supposed to get on a plane and go home. Instead I drove the 7 miles home.
It wasn’t a photo weekend, but when you’re carrying your camera, its always a photo weekend. I finally got into the Oculus, which is insane, and spent a good deal of time eating & drinking my way through the bars & restaurants of the financial district. I’ll take a coffee, a bloody mary and eggs benedict, please.
A lot of this weekend’s shots were spent getting used to my new Canon 50 1.2L. As always, it was screwed onto the 5Dmk3. Here’s my official review: “Holy crap, I’m in love. That thing is SHARP.” Ha.
My usual walkaround lens is a 16-35 2.8, so the 50 feels like a telephoto for me. But the sight lines started to feel familiar after a while, and that lens is as crisp as any I’ve used. The lens is definitely heavy, and when combined with the 5d, not to mention eventually a speedlight in certain situations, its going to be a bit of an anchor. But as all photographers know, pain, rain, etc., are just details that you ignore to get the shot.
