Beijing Steet Photography

Beijing Steet Photography

Charlie Xia, a high school friend and now professional photographer in Shanghai took the time to come to Beijing and show us around. We spent most of this and the previous day exploring side streets, drinking coffee in hidden cafes and, of coures, taking photos. Yet another highlight of the trip.
Other Beijing street photos: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6 (more to come).
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/4000sec

The Great Wall

The Great Wall

While we visited the Great Wall we lucked out and instead of hot and burning sun we got thick mist. It gave the whole place an almost mystical atmosphere. I did not expect it, but visiting the Great Wall was really a powerful experience.
Other wall photos: #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5.
d70, 27mm, iso200, f/6.7, 1/180sec

Charlie and Iliana's Big Day

Charlie and Iliana's Big Day

This was the reason Jen and I traveled to Beijing in the first place and I have to give credit for this wonderful photo to Jen. I was busy as groomsman and could not take any photos of the ceremony. So major respect to her for shooting a photo like this.
Other photos from the rest of the day after the wedding: #1 and #2.

Beijing Market

Beijing Market

We visited a large market and the Forbidden City and found plenty of opportunities for photos: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, and #13.
d70, 46mm, iso200, f/4.5, 1/180sec

Night in Beijing

Night in Beijing

The first night we went for good, cheap food on the streets of Beijing.
d70, 50mm, iso800, f/1.8, 1/20sec

Incheon at Night

Incheon at Night

Had a layover in Incheon, Korea, for a night. I explored the neighborhood and found a Dunkin Donuts. How come there is DD in Germany and Korea, but not on the West Coast?
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/350sec

At the Airport

At the Airport

Starte to catch up on travel photos. Here is the first from the day of the flight to Beijing.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/3000sec

Gone Travelin

Gone Travelin'

Will be gone until 7/24 traveling.

Floating Hydrant

Floating Hydrant

Taken at Rodeo Beach at 3pm. This is one of the reason I love photography: you can mess with the viewer mind. The photo above is a good example. It's a simple photo, but the hydrant seems out of place and the longer you look at it, the more it seems the sign and the pole as well start floating around - and no photoshopping was necessary.
In addition I have a few more jewelery photos: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
d70, 195mm, iso800, f/13, 1/250sec

Taxi

Taxi

Taken on Stockton and Sutter at 5pm. Was running an errand and this lady was kind enough to do something more interesting than just sitting around and waiting for the bus.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/6000sec

Watch Out

Watch Out

Taken on Sansome at 6pm. Was walking home as this scooter drove by. And she looked at me just as she passed the FedEx truck.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/9.5, 1/500sec

Earring

Earring

Taken at home. I spent the afternoon taking loads of photos of Lisa's beautiful jewelery for her portfolio. I have barely started to process the volumne of images, but will post a few more once I get through them. The one shown and this one are my in my usual high contrast style.
d70, 300mm, iso200, f/19, 1/500sec

Russ Building

Russ Building

Taken at 4pm on Sansome Street. The historic Russ Building was at the time of its construction in 1927 the tallest building west of Chicago. I took several photos here as part of my summer project. Other photos of the building: #1, #2, and #3.
d70, 48mm, iso200, f/4.5, 1/750sec

Roof Top

Roof Top

Taken at 9pm on Harison. Was on my way home and like the shape of the roof and the chimneys.
d70, 70mm, iso200, f/4.5, 1/6sec

Enter

Enter

Taken at 2nd street at 6pm. I was trying to get light flooding through the cracks in the door as a person was entering the building, but somehow the effect I was going for didn't quite work out. I'll have to try again sometime.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/2.8, 1/750sec

Sidewalk

Sidewalk

Taken at Main Street at 1:30pm. Back in civilisation I was back at work and just getting a coffee after lunch when I saw this play of light and shadow. The person walking by perfected the image. On my way home I passed the Moscone Center and took a few more photos: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/6000sec

Sunrise on Lake Snag

Sunrise on Lake Snag

Taken at Lake Snag at 6am. I got up early to catch the sunrise, but the cloud cover foiled my attempts of catching an amazing sunrise. Fortunatelly a little breeze was blowing allowing for some interesting reflections on the lake. Other photos from today: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
d70, 31mm, iso200, f/4, 1/1500sec

Halfmoon

Halfmoon

Taken in Lassen National Park at 6:30pm. The area of the park we hiking in was completely burnt by a fire a year or so ago. There were many dead, bizzarre looking trees around. I spent the evening shooting photos of those trees. Other photos from the day: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
d70, 270mm, iso400, f/8, 1/1000sec

Liz on the log

Liz on the log

Taken in Lassen Volcanic National Park at 6pm. Went backpacking with Liz and Adam. We arrived late on the first day and barely made it to our campsite, fighting clouds of mosquitos on the way.
d70, 18mm, iso200, f/5.6, 1/125sec

Mike

Mike

Taken at 11pm at home. Had a great, great BBQ with many friends, but failed to take any photos. Mike stopped by later and I remembered to shoot my daily photo then.
d70, 50mm, iso800, f/1.8, 1/60sec

Neo Gothic

Neo Gothic

Taken at 8pm at the Moscone Center. The sun was about to set while I was shooting photos at the Moscone Center. Other photos from today: #1 and #2.
d70, 70mm, iso200, f/6.7, 1/500sec

Holes in the Street

Holes in the Street

Taken on Grant Street at 1pm. Was taking my lunch break in Chinatown and saw this scene. I have another "holes" photo and one of legs walking in front of me: #1 and #2.
d70, 52mm, iso200, f/4.5, 1/1000sec

Birdy

Birdy

Taken on 2nd Street at 8pm. A last minute photo for the day.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/8, 1/750sec

It's On

It's On

Taken at home at 9:30pm. Was taking photos with friend Sherman for the Strobist's boot camp. Jen was volunteered as model. Here's the b/w, high-contrast version of my submission for the headshot assignment.
d70, 70mm, iso400, f/4.5, 1/250sec

Boxed In

Boxed In

Taken at 7am on Mission Street. Was on my way to work and saw these patterns on the floor just as the woman in the back was passing by.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/3.3, 1/3000sec

Jen in Brown

Jen in Brown

Taken at the little Diner next to the Cliffhouse at 8pm. Went for a drive with Jen and we ended up at this Diner at the Cliffhouse for dinner. I noticed how everything was brown, from Jen's cloths, to the diet coke to the diner decoration. After a little convincing Jen agreed to pose for this photo.
d70, 24mm, iso800, f/3.5, 1/30sec

Stockton Tunnel

Stockton Tunnel

Taken in the Stockton Tunnel at 6pm. Was on the way to Union Square to shoot some photos and these boots and jacket were walking in front of me. Union Square didn't quite turn out due to clouds and I decided to head home instead.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/60sec

Pyramid

Pyramid

Taken in Concord at 7pm. I liked how the lines repeated themselves in a shape of a pyramid.
d70, 24mm, iso500, f/3.5, 1/60sec

Sun and Fog

Sun and Fog

Taken at 7pm high up on Market Street. I had to kill some time and the fog was rolling in. It was so thick I actually had to wait a while until the sun was at least a little bit visible. I also caught up on some of my photos from the weekend: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #8. *Phew*, that was quite a bit.
d70, 120mm, iso200, f/9.5, 1/2000sec

Office View

Office View

Taken at 3:30pm from a Vontu office window. I was trying to go for the look of William Fullers architectural photos in a fairly recent issue of Lenswork. Didn't quite turn out so I went my own way in color.
d70, 18mm, iso200, f/3.5, 1/1500sec

Crack of Light

Crack of Light

Taken at 8:30am on Sansome Street. Was on my way to work and the sun was just shining through two buildings as this woman was walking past.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/3.3, 1/1000sec

Tamales Bay

Tamales Bay

Taken just before Sunset at Tamales Bay. Took a drive up there after work to check out a BBQ place. It was beautiful. This photo is a panorama stichted together from three images.
d70, 50mm, iso200

Golden Gate in the Morning

Golden Gate in the Morning

Taken from Golden Gate vista point at 5:30am. Another early morning with another friend. This time we went to the Golden Gate bridge. Except for this one, shot with a borrowed wide angle lens, I have not yet processed any other photos. I also spent the evening on Treasure Island, so there'll be lots more to come soon. Check back tomorrow or day after for the rest.
d70, 10mm, iso200, f/8, 1sec

Bay Bridge in the Morning

Bay Bridge in the Morning

Taken at 5:40am from the Embarcadero. I got up really early with a friend of mine to shoot photos of the bay before sunrise. We really lucked out, it was an amazing sunrise. I am still processing the photos, but the first few are already for show: #1, #2, and #3.
d70, 18mm, iso200, f/22, 2sec

North Beach Church II

North Beach Church II

Taken at 9am from Vontu office. A re-shot of the church shown 6/13, but this time with the 70-300mm lens of a co-worker and at better weather.
d70, 300mm, iso200, f/5.6, 1/1000sec

Waiting for the Bus

Waiting for the Bus

Taken on Sansome at 6pm. Had a good day and shot quite a few photos while running errands. Here are the other ones from today: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/8000sec

California Bank & Trust

California Bank & Trust

Taken at 6pm on California Street. Even though they were closing, they let me in to take a few snapshots of this entrance hall. They must have just cleaned the floor with those reflections.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/125sec

North Beach Church

North Beach Church

Taken at 5pm from the Vontu office. This church is a landmark in San Francisco's North Beach district and our office has a great view on it. Today I finally remembered to bring in my telezoom lens. Unfortunatelly the light wasn't quite ideal - I had hoped for more sunshine. But I'll bring the lens in during the next few days again, maybe I can get some more good shots from up here.
d70, 200mm, iso200, f/2.8, 1/2000sec

Ferry Building

Ferry Building

Taken at 7pm into the sunset. I took a walk with Jen to the Ferry Building. The sky behind the Ferry Building was so bright from the setting sun, it turned the image into almost pure black and white. Another photo from a little later shows some more color. Other photos from today: #1, #2, #3, and #4.
d70, 200mm, iso200, f/16, 1/125sec

San Francisco in the Morning

San Francisco in the Morning

Taken at 6am from Treasure Island. Got up early today to get some long exposure photos of San Francisco. I like how the long exposure makes the bay look like it is frozen over. More photos from this photo shoot: #1, #2 and #3.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/22, 20sec, + polarizer, ND, and ND grad filters

At the Bookstore

At the Bookstore

Taken at 10:50pm at Border's bookstore in Union Square. Was out with a friend and we stopped by Border's. The red shirt with the red background just begged for a photo.
d70, 50mm, iso800, f/1.8, 1/45sec

Isul Kim Live

Isul Kim Live

Taken at 8pm at the Orchad Valley Cafe in Campbell, CA. This is singer/song-writer Isul Kim at todays coffee house show. I had a very hard time deciding between the photos from the day. I ended up picking this one, but close second is a concrete honeycomb shot (can you guess where this is?) and a cigarette break street photo.
d70, 50mm, iso800, f/1.8, 1/60sec

Shape

Shape

Taken on Sansome at 6pm. I decided to play around with massive grain by shooting at virtual iso 12800 (shoot at iso1600, under-expose by 3 stops). I got the grain alright, but I am not too happy with the way the photos turned out. I have to see if I want to continue in this direction. Here's another grainy photo from today.
d70, 50mm, iso1600, f/22, 1/180sec

Call Me

Call Me

Taken on 2nd and Market at 6:30pm. I saw this guy making a call and liked the background of the columns of the store. Somehow this photo just wasn't any good in b/w. The high contrast between the blue shade and the almost orange skin worked much better. There is also another photo from today in the usual b/w.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/1500sec

Blue Flowers

Blue Flowers

Taken at home at 11:30pm. I realized I had not taken a photo of the day and had to get creative. After some searching I found that these flowers made an interesting photo if placed in front of our room light.
d70, 50mm, iso1600, f/1.8, 1/750sec

Cigarette Break

Cigarette Break

Taken at 1pm on Sansome Street. Was walking back from lunch and saw this woman taking a cigarette break while sitting on this wonderfully textured stone. Another photo from today shows this bizarre blob inside a building on second street. A photo I have been meaning to take for a long time.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/1.8, 1/1500sec

Jamba Juice

Jamba Juice

Taken at 7pm at some Jamba Juice in Livermore. This is Tet, whose patience with being model for my daily photo is slowly running out. Nevertheless I got this photo while we were on a pit stop on the way back from a great birthday BBQ (not mine) with some good friends.
d70, 50mm, iso800, f/1.8, 1/8000sec

The Mark Hopkins Hotel

The Mark Hopkins Hotel

(summer project, part 1)

Taken on Nob Hill at 6pm. I started a little summer weekend project that will require me to take photos of 10 different locations and sites in San Francisco. Check in every once in a while to see what those sites are.
d70, 80mm, iso200, f/6.7, 1/1000sec

Color Painting

Color Painting

Taken at 5:30pm inside an entrance hall on 2nd street. I liked the lines of the window frames on the colorful painting.
d70, 50mm, iso200, f/2.4, 1/6000sec

ME

ME

Taken on Sansome at 6pm. I like this one for two reason: the cool cut-out looking shape in the woman - it is actually a coincident to get this, as the round shape consists of a low hanging back, a flying jacket and her legs in the right shape. The other reason is the loud "me" of the Sansome street sign. Other photos from today: #1, #2 and #3.
d70, 50mm, iso800, f/1.8, 1/6000sec