Berkeley by Day, San Francisco by Night

Not unlike college days of old, I wandered Berkeley by day and then hopped on BART to play in the city at night.  It's amazing how natural it all felt and there was the bonus of being mistaken for a student and a local when more than one person stopped me for directions.  I also retained my uncanny ability to nap on BART and wake up just in time for my stop - mildly interesting superpower?

Despite loving the conveniences and logical city planning of suburban paradise, I do find the order confining and uninspiring at times.  It's hard to find inspiration when you're staring at the back of a Prius that nearly backed into you in the parking lot of Whole Foods (true story).  Still, I find that plenty of people who live in the old cities with architectural masterpieces let their mundane daily agendas drive their attention and they miss the forest for the trees.  It's probably why they always say it's important to travel and see the world for all the wonders it has to offer.

This was also my first attempt at nighttime photography with a tripod - definitely a third time's a charm situation since I lugged that thing all over the place and finally got to use it my last night in the city.  Good thing it's only 2lbs and conveniently fits into my camera bag.  Also would have doubled nicely as a makeshift bludgeon in the unlikely yet possible event that we would have been jumped by weirdos.  I love how the shots came out even though they were pretty stock in nature and not particularly visually dramatic.

Campanile over Wheeler - some of my favorite classes were in that building

Sather Gate - fun discovery: the lights have swirly lightbulbs in them

Two of the larger bells of the carillon in the Campanile

San Francisco City Hall

Columns at the Palace of Fine Arts

Palace of Fine Arts

Seeing the city through the trees

Coit Tower

The Bay Lights installation on the Bay Bridge

Hours to Date: 41
More Berkeley
More San Francisco in the Dark

Amendment to the Rules

Over the last 5 days, I've managed to clock 16 hours of active shooting time at famous landmarks and locales all around the Bay Area and countless more hours uploading and reviewing over 800 shots.  Amidst all this work, I've actually come to an important epiphany that is going to be a gamechanger for this project.

To date, I've only been tracking actual shooting time.  The flaw in this methodology is that shooting pictures is only one part of becoming a good photographer - previewing images on a teeny screen in bright daylight doesn't reveal imperfections readily and it isn't until I get them onto a big screen that these errors are glaring.  The majority of my active learning time actually occurs when I'm reviewing the photos I've taken and evaluate how they could be improved for next time.

The perfect example from this weekend was trying to correct for the classic foggy haze that is San Francisco weather - though I experimented while actively taking pictures with different apertures and shutter speeds, the pictures still came out on variations of hazy with flat colors once up on a bigger screen and even digitally manipulating them didn't always yield pleasing results.  I then did what I do best - search the Internet for some answers.  I spent a solid hour reading about camera filters and how they work to manipulate light and colors in less than ideal weather conditions.  I definitely gained more in an hour of academic reading than I would have after another hour of blind experimentation adjusting camera settings.

So, all that being said, I'm changing the rules!  I'm now going to start counting hours I spend reading about photography and reviewing photos - it's a much more accurate documentation of my learning experience... and there is the added side benefit of getting to 10,000 hours much more realistically attainable.

On Sundays, We Have Brunch

I miss Sunday brunches in San Francisco... and more specifically, Sunday brunches in the Castro, the veritable gay Mecca of the world.  There are so many fantastic and amazingly delicious little bistros and cafes, all replete with eggs benedict, bacon, mimosas, and bloody marys - the latter two generally having some kind of bottomless form.  Sure, there are Sunday brunches elsewhere, but they just aren't the same.  And it's always one of those game on brunches when one is specifically told to take BART into the city so no one has to drive.

Aside from the amazing food, there's always something to see and someone to meet in the Castro, whether it be the random guerrilla artwork that pops up or some bedazzled festival-goer.  And among all of the characters, I've met some genuinely hilarious, accepting, and fun people there - it's a refreshing thing to be in a place where people can have a good time without passing judgment or ridicule.  In fact, we saw some of the attendees of Dore Alley later in the afternoon.  An offshoot of the Folsom Street Festival, Dore Alley is also a leather and BDSM festival and the attendees definitely get all decked out with leashes, harnesses, and assless chaps.  To date, I still haven't managed a trip to the Castro without seeing at least a few naked butts at some point during the day, but more power to them... I definitely would not be shaking my cheeks to the wind.

Don't worry, I kept all the photos G rated.

Above-ground power lines

No mistaking which neighborhood we're in

Bear crossing?  Pretty sure that's not a city-sanctioned sign!

Aptly-named "millionaire's bacon" - so good.  And I inhaled the rest of my brunch before getting pictures :(.

Found hanging off the side of a building - a gay mobile with kissing Ken dolls.  I really wish I had my zoom lens on, but had to settle for the 35mm since we were migrating to the next stop.

Hours to Date: 36

Drinkcation: Tour of Napa

Napa is an interesting place and even though I used to live only an hour away, it always took forever to get to the wineries, which are tucked away along back roads and spanning the little towns of St. Helena, Yountville, and Calistoga.  It's especially problematic when tourists want to take in the view but don't want to hire a car service, so they slowpoke along on a 2-laned road while all the rest of us are dying slowly and miserably behind them at well below the speed limit.
Even though Napa is perhaps the first place that comes to mind when one thinks about American wine regions, it's actually one of the smallest by area and only 4% of the wine produced in California comes from the Napa Valley.  I still argue that it's quality over quantity in this case.  There are 15 sub-regions within the Napa Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) and they span all different elevations and soils.  I find myself partial to volcanic, loamy, mountain soils of Atlas Peak, Stag's Leap, Howell Mountain, and Spring Mountain... consistently, I'll taste and pick out wines from these areas because they're so bold and tannin heavy.

We started off our morning with wine blending at Conn Creek, this awesome activity of trying 15 different varietals of Cabernet and mixing them along with 4 other wines (Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot) to create a red blend.  Since I was still recovering from the raucous night before and having done wine blending at Conn before, I just went straight to my favorite regions and tried a blend.  First time ended up being the charm and I ended up bottling that one.  Despite being in pain all morning, I still got some great pictures and had a blast - probably a function of the company I kept.

The rest of the day was actually not as fun - it was an exercise in trying not to tell off everyone - from the pretentious asshole that we kept running into or the crap service we received during lunch and at a later tasting.  Even though I may look young, I have no problem dropping major dollars on wine and I have absolutely done just that before on pretty much every excursion to Napa without batting an eye.  But since the service was so awful, I passed this time.  Oh well, at least we'll always have the pictures.

Ready to blend away!

Those are some big barrels

Bottling the winning blend

Corking's a workout!

Through the looking glass

Soon... sort of.

Hours to Date: 32

The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent was a Summer in San Francisco

The coolest quote Mark Twain never actually said... though it's a pithy witticism that would be so characteristic of one Samuel Clemens.  It was seriously cold though, a brisk wind the entire morning and a gloomy fog hanging over the city that never fully lifted.

I love visiting this city though I would never want to live here... like other great American cities of old, I find a lot of inspiration and room for reflection when surrounded by buildings and monuments that have seen the best and the worst of things - if only the walls could speak, what would they say?

We began our morning with coffee at Four Barrel and breakfast at Tartine in the Mission and then found our way in Russian Hill at Lombard & Hyde among the tourists to look at the 8 hairpin turns of that crooked street.  From there, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39 and waved across the bay at the Campanile, which we only found through the haze by finding The Claremont Hotel first.  After lunch at Boudin's to have the famously tart sourdough (apparently unique because of the humidity & weather in the Bay - the starter dough was actually brought from Europe, but after being exposed to SF weather, it developed that characteristic sourness), we made a quick jaunt to Fort Point to get pictures of Golden Gate before heading back.  I also made a detour to Bi-Rite before jumping on BART back to the East Bay.

I'm behind in posting since I also took pictures in Napa and brunch in the Castro, but those will come soon when I get a free moment from taking pictures to actually update and post!

Coit Tower & Bay Bridge from the top of Hyde & Lombard - I clambered up and nearly fell off a brick wall getting this shot

Walking around Fisherman's Wharf

Alcatraz, as seen from Fisherman's Wharf

Sea lions at Pier 39

Practicing for the America's Cup

Bay Bridge from Pier 39

Berkeley & the Campanile from Pier 39, zoomed in and contrast increased to see through the haze

The bar at Boudin's

Golden Gate with the characteristic fog hanging about

Vaillancourt Fountain with the Ferry Building clock tower in the background

Hours to Date: 30

T-minus 1 hour and 27 minutes

I'm about to jet off on my first real vacation in a year's time.  This marks several firsts for me: the first vacation I've taken that will last more than 5 consecutive days. And the first one that I don't have my work laptop in tow.  And the craziness of that all really only hits me as I sit and commit those statements to writing via iPad at the airport bar.

I'm definitely excited for my adventures both to the familiar haunts of San Francisco and Napa, and the new jaunt to Louisville... But also a little terrified at the prospect of being removed from email and my laptop, which I elected to leave at home at the behest of people who care about me and my sanity. 

Luckily, my excitement is overtaking my anxiety and I'm sure with wine, bourbon, and miscellaneous cocktails on the docket, this "drinkcation" (as I have affectionately dubbed it) will be the mental refresh I need to get the creative juices flowing again.

In the Summertime When the Weather is Hot

It's fair season.  Carnival rides abound, farm animals, fried foods, blue ribbons for handicrafts... things that are oh so quintessentially summer.  I think fairs are a quaint visit to a different time for most people and a spotlight once a year on the people who still make a living (or at least a hobby) around raising livestock and various vegetables.  Not to mention the carnival workers - I wonder if this is their livelihood or do they look at it as a way to bring in extra income during the summer months.

I went on a Thursday night to avoid massive crowds and the heat that's been plaguing us lately.  Up side, it was cooler and less crowded, but I'm also surprised that I still didn't see a whole lot of interesting things to photograph without nonsense crap in the background... and for a lot of subjects.  I'm not sure if it's a result of feeling uninspired last Thursday or just not seeing things from the right angles.  In any case, some snapshots, nothing particularly noteworthy:

A sunflower, clearly marching to the beat of its own drum.

Giant sand sculpture... this was pretty impressive, wonder who gets to knock it down

Carnival lights

Ferris wheel... perhaps made of ferrous materials?

Carousel - probably my favorite shot of the night

Fried cookie dough... aka heart attack in a bite

Hours to Date: 26

Risking Life, Limb, and Camera

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again" - John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Philosophically profound, but not very practical... take your eyes off the waves for a few seconds and next thing you know, you and your fancy (but not impervious) camera are soaked.  Since tide pools exist where rocky outcroppings trap water, to explore them and their contents properly, you have to clamber up wet and slimy rocks covered in sharp mollusks.  One miscalculated step or a particularly large wave and you're cold, wet, and potentially injured if you sprain an ankle or cut yourself on a sharp edge.  I also did not have great footwear for this trek - flip flops, the only "shoes" I had in my collection that I was willing to get sandy and wet.  You could definitely pick apart the casual visitors from the frequent tide pool explorers... they were all properly shod with what I will call "hiking sandals" or just straight up hiking boots.  And after 3 hours of trying to maintain my balance on rocks in flip flops, small muscles in my feet are definitely making their presence known.

I really wonder how professional nature photographers (a la National Geographic) manage to get such amazing shots.  Wildlife generally are not very cooperative in holding interesting poses and when you move to compose a shot, they move away.  Additionally, timing for natural light and ideal conditions is a truly an exercise in tactical planning.  I've been wanting to photograph tide pools for almost a month now, but it took until today to hit the quadfecta of low tide, indirect light, not a million degrees out, and minimal traffic and people to get in my way.  And to manage that, I still had to set my alarm for 5am on a Saturday to get there by low tide at 6:53am.  Alternatively, I could have waited until 7:24pm, but there definitely would have been more people and low tide at that point would have been at 2.2' instead of the 0.6' it was this morning and I probably would have seen less with more of the shore being covered in water.

All in all, still totally worth it.  Tide pools are so fascinating - temporal biospheres with flora and fauna that are exposed during low tide.  These organisms have to be hardy to withstand the pounding surf, exposure to the sun, and hungry predators for extended periods of the day.  Crystal Cove also had some volunteer docents who were able to tell me more about the plants and animals, which was an unexpected bonus to my morning.  They were surprised I knew a lot more about tide pools than the typical layperson, but I credit that to a marine biology class I happened to take as an undergrad and multiple visits to the Monterey Bay Aquarium when I lived up in NorCal.

Tide pools

Pounding waves

Anemone

A shore crab

A fat 6-legged starfish and a completely oblivious seagull above

The tide, starting to come in

More from today at: http://thisgirlelle.smugmug.com/Photography/Tide-Pools/30521504_FrwHsZ

Hours to Date: 24

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

...he/she's gonna want like 10 other things.

This past weekend, I started out wanting to do a simple craft to satisfy my creative/artsy side and I settled on glass etching because it involves very few steps and the results are pretty awesome.  Since I'm a novice crafter (no die-hard pinteresting here), I figured all I would need besides the glass and etching cream would be a cutting mat, contact paper, and a sharp blade to cut out a stencil.  Well, as it turns out, this project involves a lot more patience and skill since I was trying to do this without a pre-made stencil.

And now, I'm seriously considering investing in a Cricut cutter now... it would result in cleaner lines and I could do a bunch of other projects like scrapbooking and cardmaking and the like with it.  Decisions, decisions...

Still, cute mason jars for cocktails, even if the etching is a little squiggly.

Getting ready to begin

Stencils with squiggly lines applied

Finished!  Not bad, given the lack of nicely cut stencil.

Being put to good use: strawberries muddled in champagne

Hours to Date: 21

Happy Independence Day, 'Murica!!

Putting aside my concerns about the average American's minimal knowledge and apathy of American history and politics (and some of the recent events that have transpired) seems ironic and a little wrong on this day of all days, but the mood of this holiday isn't one that's particularly reverent or reflective.  It is a little disheartening since remembering and properly understanding the past is a necessary first step in guiding where we want to go, but the fact of the matter is that Independence Day is a day to celebrate the American way of excess and the summer with friends and family - it's a day in which we are all united by beer, barbecue, and loud booms.

To be fair, those are all much more exciting than remembering technical details like the fact that the 2nd Continental Congress actually unanimously voted to declare independence on July 2nd and John Adams actually wanted July 2nd to be the celebratory day.  The decision was already made, it was just that several revisions were made to the text (including chopping out about 1/4th of the text, including one piece that was critical of the practice of slave trade) and ratified the Declaration of Independence on July 4th.

In any case, the holiday was a great opportunity me for to photograph fireworks, which I haven't come across just yet in my adventures on this project.  However, the itinerary for the day was to head to a BBQ and then wander Huntington Beach largely by foot all afternoon and evening, and of course, all guidance around taking great photos of fireworks pointed to the importance of a tripod and long exposure times to getting great shots of light in the dark.

That fact really highlighted the main challenge with this project - while it is a journey to becoming a better photographer, the main point of my 10,000 hour project is striking a balance in order to have a more fulfilling personal life, not finding a new time-suck obsession.  Yesterday, since the primary objective was celebrating the 4th with friends, not taking pictures, I decided to only bring the camera with one lens that easily fit into my bag and not worry about being weighed down with a tripod or other lenses.  Less is sometimes more - less worry about perfect pictures and more time to enjoy the day.

I went with the 35mm for its compactness, speed, and ability to open up to a wide aperture to best get fireworks.  The downside was the lack of zoom ability and since I wasn't able to get closer to a lot of subjects, the composition suffered a bit.  Still, I managed to celebrate copiously with friends and random strangers, document the day, and get some decent photos - fantastic day all around.

Impromptu water balloon attack from a neighboring party.  They really needed to revisit physics class because their aim was atrocious.  Eventually, they made contact with our rooftop party, but there was more than enough hang time for us to sidestep getting wet.

Sunset and firecrackers on PCH, which was closed to car traffic yesterday near downtown Huntington.

July 4th is the one day a year when a random stranger shouts at your group from a balcony with a megaphone and then invites all of you up to come up and hang out.. and you do.

Getting dark

This is why tripods are necessary... blurry disaster.

Improvement, but C- for composition.

Glitter explosion... almost looks like the cosmos

These huge chrysanthemum-esque explosions are my favorite

Hours to Date: 20