Art Exhibit

Voigtlander Bessa R, 35mm f2.5 Skopar, Fuji 400 Print

Outdoor art exhibit in front of the De Young Fine Art Museum.

--Warren

Self Portrait at Victoria Bakery

Voigtlander Bessa R, 35mm f2.5 Skopar, Fuji 400 Print

Took the shot just as a guy walked up behind me outside the window.

--Warren

Golden Gate Bridge from Ft. Baker - Ver. 2

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-30mm

Here's another example of using a superwide lens perspective to frame the bridge in the background with and interesting foreground

--Warren

Private Stairway - Sausalito

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-30mm

This was seen while doing the Sausalito/Ft. Baker photo shoot with Eric.

--Warren

Mountains!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to climb up part of Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state of Washington. We went as high as Camp Muir, elevation 10,000 ft. It was fantastic weather and even more fantastic scenery...




That's Mount Adams in the distance. It's about 100 miles from Rainier.





And this is Mt Rainier from where we started. It was a 9 mile hike to basecamp, climing a total elevation gain of 4,600ft.

The big 'tumor-like' rock face at the top right is how far up we went.

Urban Geometry

I've griped before about the dearth of decent modern architecture in Baltimore, but here's an edifice I may have overlooked - Charles Center South.

I haven't quite made up my mind, but at first glance, this 25-story curtain-wall black glass building stands out from its contemporaries as being more elegant. The tower stands at the nothwest corner of Charles and Lombard, a block away from my normal daily trek from Light Rail to work. For most of my walk, other buildings block the view.

Designed by the very fine Baltimore architectural firm RTKL Associates, Charles Center South was completed in 1975. The irregular hexagonal plan of the building gives it a more faceted appearance, especially in comparison to the foursquare 1973 Legg Mason building, the one reflected in this photo.

I decided to give Charles Center South a quick once-over last Friday on the way home, walking west on Lombard Street rather than Pratt. I snapped a few photos and moved on, but then looking back, I saw this composition of diagonals and triangles.

Home for Old Soldiers (and Tourists)

Fort Baker, which is located below the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, has been converted from an old fort to to a vacation resort. Here are some chairs lined up outside what Warren and I think was the officer's club. It's one nice place.

-- Eric

The Outer Limits or Forbidden Planet??

There is a temporary sculpture on Octavia St. in SF. It reminded me of the sci-fi pics I saw as a kid. It could've been something out of The Outer Limits or Forbidden Planet. If you are around 50, you may remember these. The Outer Limits was a classic sci-fi series that made you think (and sometimes scared you out of your pants), and Forbidden Planet was a movie starring Walter Pidgeon and Anne Francis. Hope you have fun with these photos.

-- Eric

Bunker Symmetry

In B&W:

In Color:

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-30mm

These old, coastal defense artillery bunkers' designs remind me of the Pueblo style architecture of the American Southwest. This one was at Fort Baker.

--Warren

Finally - a Tree Orb

We have tons of these to pickup every year, so this year we decided to paint some, as well as try putting a few broken ones in the compost pile. Taken with a Fuji F30, f2.8, 1/30th, ISO 400.

Flag Ladder Foolery

At the carnival the other morning, I found this "flag ladder" lying next to a white trailer. I propped it up against the trailer, noticed the strong shadow, and liked the shapes and colors.

Back in the lab, the deep black shadows my eyes saw turned out to be not-so-deep greyish-blue. The photo at left is about the best I could do by just setting the trailer to white point in the Levels control (I use Photoshop Elements 4, so I don't have access to curves.)

I still wanted to see what my eyes "saw", so I used the polygonal lasso tool to select the shadow areas and make them really black. While I was at it, I lassoed the colored parts of the ladder so as to bring up the white areas.


Here's what the end result looks like. Definitely more dramatic, but did I overdo it? (BTW, the jpg here shows some jaggies along the edges of the black shadow, but in the full-sized image, the edge is very clean.)

What do you think?

Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Baker

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-30mm


Eric and I spent yesterday afternoon exploring and photographing the area around Fort Baker at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were walking past a passenger drop-off area in front of the Discovery Museum when I spotted these bright yellow knobby plates on the ground which gave me a splash of color and pattern to incorporate into a different view of the iconic bridge.



--Warren

Celebrating July 4th

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

Gail and me enjoying a beer on July 4th at Aquatic Park, SF.

We handed my dslr to a guy sitting in front of us on the lawn. We were listening to some live rock music at the time. It was a typical P&S composition with us centered bullseye style in the frame, tilted horizon, etc., so I cropped it a bit and did what I could with the shot.

By the way, has anyone else tried VB beer? VB = Victoria Bitter from Australia. It's really good, and the only North American distributor is located at Ghirardelli Square.

Cheers,

Warren

A Rare Picture by Jill, Our Resident Artist

Nikon N65, Nikon 28-85mm AFD

Please excuse the awful scan job. I scanned this on my flatbed scanner from a 4x6 print that Jill sent to me.

I told her that it was a great picture, and that I was going to post it to the forum. I believe this Egret was seen and photographed at Stow Lake. Jill will have to confirm when she comes online one of these days.

As you'll recall, Martin and I both took pictures of a bird that I think we erroneously called a crane when in fact, it was probably an egret like this one. Our pictures were posted 2 years apart, and here is Jill's version shot another two years from the last one!

If you do a search for "crane", you'll see the other pictures. Interestingly, all three pictures were taken with film cameras. This morning, I saw Martin in Golden Gate Park and he tells me that he is now stalking birds with his new Canon DSLR.

--Warren

Blue Herons in Golden Gate Park

I haven't posted here in quite some time. Here are a few photos I've been doing in Golden Gate Park. At Stow Lake every spring, blue herons nest on the island near the boathouse. Bird photography requires a lot of time and patience. It's like going fishing, sometimes you don't come back with much.
I started dong this at the end of March and progressively got better at working with long lenses.

Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company Carnival

Around our way, the Earleigh Heights Fireman's Carnival heralds midsummer. This year, it's a week or so... uh, early.

Nevermind, though, it's still a colorful photo-opportunity. I thought the dramatic shots would be limited to nighttime, but I noticed that there's also dramatic morning sidelighting while it's still...uh, early.

The Mini-Cooper of Tanks

Ben came "home" to celebrate a friend's birthday, and I suggested that rather than taking the bus back to Philly Saturday night, I'd drive him back on Sunday.

On the way up US 95, I decided to make an impromptu visit to the Army Ordinance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. I'd taken the kids when they were quite small, so long ago that Ben doesn't remember the trip.

Here, Ben stands by a French Hotchkiss H35 Light Tank, a machine that may have been as dangerous to its operators as to the enemy. But newly renovated in that very cool paint scheme, Ben thought it would be nice for tooling around Philly.

Update 7/8/2008: Whoops, I insulted this tank - but not by much. It's actually a Renault R35. Why does it not surprise me that the French made crappy pre-war tanks?

Tree Orbs!

These beautiful bell-shaped tree orbs are living inside the butterfly conservatory at the Seattle Pacific Science Center. Went there yesterday for the first time.. I wish I had gone sooner!

Happy July 4th!

Lunch in SF

Caught a shot of some folks having lunch outside a nice restaurant in SF. It's in the downtown area, and if I remember correctly, it's near Sansome and Market.

-- Eric

SF Coffee Roastery

I was walking around SF one afternoon with the new Nikon D40 and stopped for a cup of coffee at a local roastery. I've always liked the way the roasters look like the train engines of the late 1800's and so I got a shot of this one. I liked the look of the copper, and I liked the brown tones in the place. They made you feel really welcome and relaxed.

--Eric

Outside Pitch

While waiting for the train to head home today, I snapped some photo of the new Sports Museum next to my stop. There was a crowd heading to tonight's Orioles game, and vendors were out in force.

I met this friendly fellow, Kurt, a vendor for Outside Pitch, an Orioles fan magazine, and asked him if I could take his photo. Kurt obliged with a smile and a nice action pose.

Building Exhausts

Nikon D100, Tokina 17mm f3.5 ATX

These look like the business end of a jet engine, but they're actually AC exhaust vents (I think) on the side of an abandoned apartment building on Treasure Island.

--Warren

Reginald F. Lewis Museum

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture is one of those places that I've just got to get to one of these days. It's less than two blocks from where I work, so I really don't have any excuse for not at least stopping by on a lunch break.

Reading Mr. Lewis' biography just a little while ago might just inspire me to go. Reginald Lewis grew up in a tough part of Baltimore, and by dint of hard work and perseverence, worked his way through college and eventually Harvard Law School. He founded the first African-American-led law firm on Wall Street, and in the '80s, became a CEO several times in leveraged buy-outs that saved and turned around several companies.

Mr. Lewis was also a great philanthropist, endowing foundations, scholarships, and other worthy causes with over 10 million dollars before his untimely death at age 50 in 1993.

The museum is a postmodern building that just shouts out to be photographed, as you can see.

Flags

Nikon D100, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D

Here's one for July 4th.

This was taken at Marina Greens when it was set up as part of a triathlon course. The course was lined with flags.

--Warren

Golden Cross

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

The sun was setting in San Francisco's Northbeach district, but this cross on St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral at Washington Square was still able to catch the last bit of sunlight.

--Warren

Spider Man

I don't know how much they pay these fellows, but it can't be enough. This guy was about five stories up on the Candler Building, where I work, in downtown Baltimore.

The Void Beyond the Door

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-30mm

Another blue door on Treasure Island. Don't you get the feeling that something is about to jump out of the darkness at you? I stuck my head in there to look around but I admit, it was a bit creepy to be there.

--Warren

Bromo Tower at Dusk

Sometimes it pays to work late.

I was heading back to the Light Rail stop about 9 PM tonight, and the sky was geting darker, but not yet black. Looking up just about a half-block away from my stop, I noticed how the nicely-lit the Bromo Tower contrasted with the dark blue sky.

I didn't bring one of my small digicam tripods with me today, but there was a handy, flat-topped traffic barrel in just about the right spot to rest Ben's flat-sided Canon A630. I took about 25 exposures at the longest tele setting (equivalent to 135mm on 35mm) from ISO 80 to 400. This was the best of the lot at ISO 100.

Outside the Lighthouse in St. Augustine

D200 Sigma 12-24mm

This was a fun shot with all the colors, the stripe, and the use of this lens made an interesting shot. Not very real, but almost out of a comic book.

Here's one for Warren

D200

I saw this and had to take the picture for Warren.