Welcome Photoblogs Magazine Readers

20050728_elephant_barimg_0467Welcome, all readers of Photoblogs Magazine. This week, I am honored to be spotlighted. I found Photoblogs Magazine a few months ago. Since then, I have started reading a few (of the many) photo blogs listed on the site. From these blogs, I have seen many beautiful images and found creative inspiration. Please feel free to leave comments or send me an email so that I can visit your site.

This image is a banana leaf taken outside a restaurant while we were waiting for a table. I did not fiddle this image but did do a tonal adjustment. I was surprised (but pleased) to see the cyan pop out.

A Perfect Rose

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Chip and I took our dogs for a quick walk around the neighborhood. I took the camera because I saw a white oleander bush in full bloom. None of the oleander shots were sharp — there was to much breeze. However, this lovely rose bush was blooming. I was planning on montaging this with one of my Hercules industrial decay shots but decided it was too nice by itself. I have been reading Andre Gallant’s “Dreamscapes” and feel inspired to photo montage again.

Tall Ships – Part 2

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Another from yesterday’s sail on the Tolafa. This is another shot of the Lynx with the Golden Gate bridge in the background. As you can see the fog was coming in. Even though the waves look tiny, the ship’s deck was tilted and moving enough where one hand needed to hold onto a rope and just hope that the camera was steady. I did fiddle with this one a little and apply a cross-processing filter in Photoshop. That nudged the colors a little.

Tall Ships

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Went to the San Francisco waterfront today to see the tall ships that were in for a few days. We went out for a 3 hour sail on the Tolafa. At the same time, the Lynx went out for the tour. This is the Lynx. By the way if you think that San Francisco is cold in the summer, go out on the bay near the Golden Gate. Chip was not happy because it blew off my head into the bay when the wind was really ripping.

Just for fun…

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Kodak National Park Photo Contest 2004

20050729_hercules_mg_4458First, the winners of the Kodak National Park contest are in. See all the winners at National Parks website. There were over 11,000 entries. I did not win but feel honored to be a finalist.

As for the image, it is another from my outing to the partially demolished factory in Hercules. Chip gave thumbs down to the image in the previous entry but liked this one.

End of an era

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Today, Art Levit led our camera club expedition. Art has some beautiful and intriguing work of aged buildings and graffiti. Where I scout out landscape work, Art looks for interesting and nearly extinct buildings. We went to Hercules to visit an old gunpowder(?) factory that was being actively demolished as we were worked. I was anxious to go on the field trip and anxious that I would not make any interesting images. After getting home and reviewing, I feel creatively charged and am anxious to try further images in this genre. Thanks Art!

This is my one of my first vertical panoramas. The stitching program has errors merging but I think that adds to the abstractness of the image. Therefore, I consider the errors a happy accident. You will probably see more of these types of images on my blog.

Shooting in public…

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I am trying to become more comfortable taking photos in public. I have mainly taken nature shots where I am out in the park and have it mainly to myself. I have still not moved up to taking any candid people shots. I am inching up to it I guess. It did not help when Chip and I went to movies together. We were waiting in line for a move in the lobby. Chip wanted a shot of a movie poster (long story). I take out the little Canon S1 and shoot one pic no flash. About 5 minutes later, I am confronted by a security guard and teenage theater manager. They tell me that the camera is not allowed in the theater and must be turned over or taken outside. So out I go feeling like a criminal.

This is the wall at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants, Yan Can. It has been fairly heavily manipulated.

Publishing your own photography book

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This is a follow-up to my write-up about my Photo San Francisco visit. After deciding on attending on Sunday, I noticed that there was a panel discussion about publishing your own photography book. There were four panelists…

Here are the points that I picked up…

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Greens Restaurant

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Greens is a vegetarian restaurant located at Fort Mason. My friend, Nona, says that Greens is so good that she became a vegetarian after a visit. I popped in for a small cup of black bean chili. It was excellent. Sometime, I will bring Chip and sit down for a real meal. The restaurant has a clear view of Chrissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge. This is a view of their kitchen’s window and yes it was fiddled.