shoot!!! shoot!! shoot!

After talking to an East Bay model for many months and in the meanwhile many things happening on my side and with her life, today finally got a chance to meet and actually shoot with her!! Does this mean my bad luck in finding SF models to photograph is now done and dead? I don't think so - I've been in contact with another East Bay model whom I also finally met last week at the photography club meeting; she always previously sounded so excited to meet and possibly shoot together.... I met her at the meeting and though she spoke to me there, I haven't heard a word from her since. So much for sincerity and interest!!

So, I drove over the bay bridge where the traffic was slow; I could see the slow traffic crawl along as I drove on the Embarcadero and seeing this, had my camera on the car seat beside me to grab on the off-chance of a pix of the City from that evelated bridge. Traffic was slow due to a stopped car near the Yerba Buena Island exit, and by time I got up on the bridge it was moving better so didn't get a chance to use the camera to snap a picture - the view from the bridge is sooooo fabulous!!

Thanks to GPS, I found her place very easily and we quickly started shooting. When I am in the home of a model, I hate to be demanding, so I stayed where the light was good ~ it was ~ and where she was most comfortable.
This young model has the most lovely eyes and a very luscious form, and wish we had worked together sooner when the outdoors in the warm sun would have been great, but that has now left us.... After starting in color, I soon switched to shooting in monotone and really like the results.

I then left to get downtown where a fellow flickrite was having a photo exhibit but the place was closed. As I was in the East Bay and downtown, I decided to walk around and snapped the interesting buildings and more. At one point, I again spotted the zeppelin this time flying the Oakland skies, and could easily hear its engines and propellers working.
Nobody even noticed it flying and it seemed I was the only one even excited to see the zeppelin. I continued shooting the downtown Oakland buildings and found a lot with interesting ornamental details, even one that looked like a pig or a boar's head on a building!!! I was also surprised to see a new building with lots of lovely reflective glass with the logo of ASK.com at the top ~ I didn't realize ASK.com was in Oakland!!

So, covering a small area of about five to seven blocks, I wandered lost but content with camera in hand. Granted, my other heavy camera was in the shop being repaired for the same problem twice, but I was happy having a backup to use! Stumbling around wondering about the homeless I saw on the downtown streets, I wondered about my personal safety... they didn't seem as friendly in SF so I wondered..... but I didn't have anything to worry about... and continued snapping away. At one tall modern glass-enclosed building, a security guard came out asking me to depart the area and not take any pictures - wow, maybe I can send some carrier pigeons over there, all with cameras....

I drove off then to Central Avenue to gas up before driving across the bay bridge to return home. I also stopped at the little lookout point there taking some pixs of the gorgeous clouds out today!!!!
I couldn't believe how fabulous these clouds were, and wondered if I should shoot the sunset again.... but after arriving home and downloading the pixs, I kept a close eye out the window and as sundown approached, the low clouds and fog came in and I didn't even see a bit of orange.... sigh. A good sign: the other day I found a folded five-dollar bill on the street ~ others had even passed in both directions by the same spot before I did... the last time I found money on the street was in Spain and it was pouring down wet! Now if only the California lottery would help me too!!

Enjoy the pictures!!!!

busy day in the City

The morning started early with my files... During the previous day I had tried to copy/move my milllion image files to the newer hard drive... it took hours so I would leave and go shooting on the streets of San Francisco... when I returned, the operation aborted for some unknown reason and now I'd have to compare both folders on the source and destination locations, and copy the files not moved.... what a pain. So, I decided to just back-up all of the files. It'd just be a slight duration of a few days!

That operation in progress, I started by climbing the hills again to Telegraph Hill. Today Coit Tower was celebrating its long existence and was offering free elevator rides to the top; something I've never experienced in my life though I faintly remember a school field trip as a very young child. The view was amazing from the top, and it was well worth the trip up those hills and the stairs! Plus there were old fire engines and a display of period callsic old cars, and the Mayor would be speaking later that day - I didn't stick around but did get pixs of the engines and cars.
Last night I had heard online that a zeppelin would be flying over the city! So, I drove to Crissy Field then walked toward Fort Point at the base of the southern tower of the Golden Gate bridge..... stopping enroute to snap away at birds and more.
By time I reached a halfway point, lo and behold there was a huge white airship coming toward the bridge from the south... I started taking pixs with both a 170-500 and the wide-angle, finishing up with my standard 28-300. Many sunning at the beach were looking up at the airship, and there was a fireboat throwing up streams of water in celebration; this is the first time since the 1940s that an airship has flown over the City!!

That done, I went walking back to the Crissy Field marsh and photographed the birds there...
it's a "clean" marsh but getting filthier every week... but still... getting close and tight one can see the water and not the cups, plastic and filth... though it's still there!!

That done, I drove home, parked the car and walked toward Chinatown to see a friend who was participating in the San Francisco ARTwalk... I wanted to participate too but didn't have the money for printing the pictures, storing them in some protective sleeves, etc. It's not cheap nor easy to sell or even display images!! This morning I was starving as I hadn't eaten anything all day and had already walked a few miles, plus now will be walking up some steep North Beach hills, so I stopped at my previously favorite dim-dum place for a few snacks. They had depleted their supply of shrimp dumplings, so I took what remained - two - then grabbed some pork thingies that I liked too... the taste of the shrimp dumpling wasn't what I was used to... much has changed in the few months since I'd stopped there before. I went and found my photographer friend on Mason Street in front of the Cable Car Museum and stopped and chatted for an hour... she has an uncanny eye for flora details, and I love her work!!

After that I walked up and down those same steep hills again and drove my sister to a birthday party for her grandson and her brother-in-law.... I dropped her off to finish with the backing up of my files, plus to download the images of the morning and the zeppelin, etc.

I now went to the birthday party and spent over 3 hours there and finally returned to discover the backup operation continuing and now only two days and quite a few hours remaining!!