Field trip - at the art gallery

Quality of light experiment

I wish I had remembered the windex bottle.

1) The Marriot Hotel being attacked by a blimp.

2) The sign said "TAKE YOUR OWN PHOTO," so I did.

At the Berkeley Arch and the Aquatic Park

Some Lilac Street murals as a CD label

This was made from a >300-degree panorama

Lilac St. mural panorama #1

This is part of the Lilac Street Mural Project, near 24th and Mission in SF.

I've put links to the panorama software I use at the top of the right column on this page:

Autostitch (the demo version) is easy to use and it's fast, and it's only available for Windows. Hugin is open-source software for Mac, PC, and others (if you compile it yourself.) Hugin gives you a lot of control over the process and the final result, and it can handle projects that Autostitch just can't cope with.

Downtown SF

Austin-Healy

I think I intended to have the car in focus, and the background out-of-focus, instead of the other way around.

I darkened the upper third of the photo, and lightened the area with the car. Maybe I should have sharpened it, too.

In the Jukebox

This is a panorama taken in the Marriot Hotel (Herb Caen used to call the Marriot building "the Jukebox.")

If you look closely you can see some broken seams where the panorama software wasn't able to cope.

BART

The thing black-and-gray thing in the foreground of the first two images is the reflection of one leg of a flexible tripod that I used to brace the camera next the the window.

Fort Point, again

I just don't get tired of watching the waves break at Fort Point.

I've been meaning to go there again at low tide and get pictures of the shore crabs on the rocks.

I sure know how to have a good time.

The Vaillancourt fountain again.

Had I been thinking more clearly, I might have tried to zoom in some on the glasses in the ad, with water drops in the foreground.

Fort Point

The first picture is a panorama taken from on top of Fort Point. (It's funny, but if you drive North across the bridge it seems like it's perfectly straight after you get to the South end of the Ft. Point arch.)

The second is just what it looks like - a big wave smacking into the rocks, with Ft. Point in the background.

Fountain

The fountain next to the Boys and Girls Club in downtown Martinez. I could only find one thing to brace the camera against, or I would probably have taken the picture from a different angle.

Blursketball

This is my nephew Alex playing basketball at the Boys and Girls Club in Martinez one night.

I didn't take any pictures there that I really liked; the kids' coach was between me and the action at a lot of critical moments, and it wasn't easy to keep the camera still for long exposures.

The first photo here has the little girl in the foreground, and the second photo is the best of what was left after that.

I think I like the first one because it seems as if the little girl is interpreting the game in dance (or something like that), and it's just cute. Awwwww!

The way the actual players are positioned is kinda interesting, too.

On the downside, Alex isn't anywhere in the frame. Stupid camera.

DIY camera level

Sometimes it's hard to tell if the camera's level, even when it's on a tripod. This is my $1.60 solution to the problem.

It's possible to buy a hot-shoe level on eBay for eight or ten bucks (after shipping), but I always prefer to try the super-cheapskate options first.

(The extra-super-cheapskate option is to buy a torpedo level at the dollar store, remove one of the level tubes and use it as-is, and sell the torpedo level at the flea market.)

An SF MoMAent

SF MoMA. I tried to make a panoramic scene from shots of highly reflective thingies, and it didn't go well. This shot was about as good as it got.

I've been trying to add pictures to this blog from my Picasa web album, and the images aren't being resized. Arrrggh.

Dendrophobia

The trees next to the Safeway, across the street from DVC.

When I was little, I saw a Disney movie called Babes in Toyland. It had unfriendly trees that accosted travelers in a dark forest, and it really gave me the creeps. This image kinda has a reenactment of the movie scene, sorta. I couldn't figure out how to make the trees look scary or the barrels look frightened, aside from putting faces on everything. I may try that next.

Reflection on a building near Market Street in SF

Mare Island, Vallejo, Morrow Cove, the Al Zampa Bridge

The skies in a lot of my panoramas have kind of a stripy look because I haven't figured out how to make the software blend the exposures properly (I guess).

The Martinez marina

Decisive Moment

Shell Martinez

The Shell Oil refinery in Martinez.

Glen Cove at night

The Glen Cove marina, seen across the Carquinez Strait from my front porch. Crockett Cogen is to the left and in the foreground.

Crissy Field, and near the Embarcadero Center

Taken at Crissy Field.






Assembled from pictures taken at the Vaillancourt fountain.

An Accidentally Decisive Moment

It sort of looks like the truck is trailing a cloud of smoke if you don't look too carefully.

I was just trying to get a picture of the sky over Richmond, and I didn't notice the truck until later.