SF Photo Walks April 2014

Ferry Building Fog

Sf Photo Walks is a new series of photos based upon my walks in San Francisco. I tend to do my best Don Draper impressions while walking through the beautiful city by the bay, rather than napping. I was on my way to meet my Catalan (I was reprimanded for calling her a Spaniard) friend for drinks and tapas at Coqueta, when I saw this convergence of light and fog. I had just been at the wonderful Intimate Impressionism exhibit at The Legion of Honor, and I was inspired to work backwards to a sketch on this image. I adore the Transamerica building in downtown SF, and I enjoy how it looks so at home with black and white palm trees. The darkness in this shot represents the difficulty inherent to selling art. The plight of the Ferry plaza art merchant is challenging. I love walking through their work, as I am always inspired to work harder on my images. (Captured with the Olympus Stylus 1 - edited with Snapseed - Glaze - Waterlogued - and Image Blender)

The iconic Sutro Tower is becoming more and more an overlord of a changing city. I shot this walking to the new Sightglass Coffee in the Mission district.  Near the MUNI bus depot, and through a bare patch of sky, I saw Sutro looking down on me from Twin Peaks. This blue house was recently remodeled and I would imagine costs were well over 2 million dollars, considering its size. So beautiful, so inaccessible. (Olympus Stylus 1 edited with Snapseed)

Inspired again by the Impressionists, I edited this image I took at the wonderful Central Kitchen brunch 2 Sundays ago. Oysters by Manet (1862) blew me away at the gallery on Wednesday. I knew I had something that I could convey my love of the oyster while not losing sight of the feeling they deliver at a convivial brunch. Still life bored me silly when I was a kid, now I have so many memories, and so much passion for food and wine, that I get dreamy just considering it all. This one is going to be on our new kitchen wall soon. (Edited with Snapseed, Glaze, Old Photo Pro, and Image Blender)

On my photo walks, I typically start them at a coffee shop, and often finish them in one as well. Who does not love the beautiful chemistry of siphon coffee? Blue Bottle Coffee, in Mint Plaza, does these beautiful small-batch brews with this wicked cool, hipster included, chemistry set. I snapped away while enjoying a lever-pulled espresso, and watching this very skilled and fetching barista work her magic with the siphon. I love that you can see the reflection of the flask in her eye (no that is not red-eye). I adore this shop, and while I typically eschew waiting in line, for this quality, I will make an exception. (Olympus Stylus - Snapseed)

The columns at The Legion of Honor always fascinate my eye. I was playing with the diorama setting on the Olympus Stylus 1, and I think it worked. I want to one day have a piece on the walls here. I believe I can do it. (Olympus Stylus - Snapseed)

My walks typically take me through the grungy parts of SF. This day was no exception. At the same time, I could see it changing, the poor being squeezed more tightly in the Python grip of tech cash. There is enough money in SF to right so many wrongs, heal so many wounds, and frankly make it the most livable city on earth. Tech companies are quick to claim how they are changing the world, all while ignoring their own city. (Olympus Stylus - Snapseed - Glaze - Image Blender - Old Photo Pro - Photo Toaster)

Thanks for going on this SF Photo Walk with me.

The Housewrighter

Father Figures and Ford Mustangs - Part 2

A Classic

This is the continuation of Father Figures and Ford Mustangs Part 1

The speedometer only went to 85  in those days, and it had been pegged since before the last gear change. Andrew's eyes were fixed firmly on the road, while Kelly and Angie vied for rearview mirror territorial supremacy. Mike nervously glanced from the girls, to the road, to the speedometer, and around again, while his palms filled with sweat that he wiped against the gelled sides of his hair. EAGLE 97 had been playing horrible music all night, and when Mister Mister's Kyrie made its third pass for the evening, Andrew reached his right hand from the wheel, and without so much as a peek at the dash, he quickly pushed the milky gray cassette tape into the deck.

As if it had been pre-cued, the first few notes of George Michael's Father Figure began to pop and hiss as it pushed loudly from the factory sound system. In 1988 anyone who was anyone had a "system". An Alpine head unit, class A amps, Kicker subs, and the ability to rattle windows in a windowless high school, were all prerequisites for having one's car considered "dope." Andrew's Mustang had no aftermarket audio equipment. Unbeknownst to the student body, the car was a lease, and no meddling with factory installed components was allowed.

Had the car belonged to anyone else at the school, they would likely have been labeled a "poser"; however, no one would have had the sack to apply that label to Andrew. While not particularly gifted athletically, he played every sport. A pretty boy in the eyes of even the most cynical and jilted teenagers, he won Homecoming King by a record margin. In a redneck town, where the sale of alcohol was divided along religious boundaries, and the property taxes along racial ones, his popularity knew no borders. The night Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks quicker than boy's first orgasm, every manner of race, creed, and political faction was watching at Andrew's place.

He had the world on his plate, yet Mike always thought Andrew seemed sad underneath his polished exterior. Until this moment at least. As the intro began to Father Figure, Andrew once again moved his right hand from the steering wheel to the dash, where he quickly spun the volume knob up to its max. George Michael's first words were met with an atonal uprising from 3 directions. Andrew and the two girls began belting out the tune as if they had staged the curtain to go up at precisely 125 MPH. Mike was immediately appalled by the dissonant lack of harmony, and then became downright frightened when Andrew removed both hands from the wheel and began to plead with the rushing air, pulling both fists in tight as he wailed to the muggy night air.

"That's all I wanted, just to seeee my baaaaaaby's blue-eyed shine (all making sounds trying to imitate the orchestration...and failing) This time i think that my lover Understands me  (all: UNDERSTANDS ME (yelling) If we have faith in each other Then we can be Strong.......

At this point, Andrew turns the actual song down so that he and the girls can hear themselves singing more clearly. They all take in mighty breaths of hot 100 MPH wind, and begin belting out the chorus, while stunned bovine and night owls sought shelter.

"I will be your Father Figure, put your tiny hand in mine, I will be your preacher teacher, anything you had in mind" Then Andrew goes off script and cuts to the end... no hands on the wheel, eyes closed, knees guiding the path. "I will be YOUR...YOUR Teacher....and I'll be your Daddy" suddenly, his hips swayed right and the Mustang veered violently towards the ditch!

Mike, without hesitation, ripped his hands from his wind-blasted coiffure and grabbed for the wheel. His head met a lunging Angie's as they both attempted to steer a new course for these rock n' roll refugees. Andrew calmly came to from his bacchanal, applied the brakes deftly, and just as the right front wheel reached the edge of the pavement, he steered the black Mustang back onto the asphalt.

Kelly spoke up and said, " I need to pee" as Angie and Mike reeled from their collision. Unconsciously, Mike went back to pushing against his slick-downed sideburns. They were less than a mile from town after the near-accident. They eased their way back along Betchnik road pulled into the local convenience store chain, "My Brother's Place" on the outskirts of town.

"I thought we were going to crash Mike exclaimed." "I didn't" said Andrew, with a wry smile and a quick glance in the rearview at the two beautiful girls climbing out to visit the restroom.

"Oh yeah, why is that?" Mike asked indignantly, with far more confidence than this group would typically allow him.

Without a word, Andrew reached down, and with one hand pushed the eject button on the tape player.  He caught the projectile with the same hand in a move he must have made a thousand times, and in the same motion, flicked the cassette onto Mike's lap, and said "because we had FAITH son....because we had FAY-THU- FAY-THU Faith!"

Father Figures and Ford Mustangs

Twilight Road - Ellis County

Father Figures and Ford Mustangs is series of fiction on the actions and dreams of a young man, reared in rural Texas. The series is part of my upcoming book and my first piece of new prose for The Housewrighter.

Mike pushed hard on the sides of his head, attempting to hold his hair flat against the force of the wind blowing from the open convertible top. His chemically straightened mop was no match for Ellis county roads at high rates of speed. He was reluctant to grasp the top of his overgrown bangs so he didn't come off  like Audrey Hepburn on a scooter in Roman Holiday. He knew he still looked completely ridiculous, but his self-conscious calculations could not be restrained, and so he continued to push, looking more and more like he was covering his ears to block the shriek of a passing ambulance. With his hands occupied, the bolo tie round his neck swished back-and-forth across his gaunt torso. While he was the second tallest guy in his class of 300, he thought his height insignificant supported by a mere 155 pounds. The discounted Guess jeans he wore were easily a 1/2 inch too short for gangly legs. The black and white printed rayon shirt made his pale skin appear pearlescent, and his dark brown eyes seemed as black and one-dimensional as a shark's. Still, a booming voice, laser -wit, and a fervent curiosity made him gregarious enough to ask questions that well-heeled kids would not have asked. He did not belong in this fast-moving foursome, but he was good company, especially when no one else was around. He would later understand the true nature of being the sidekick.

Angie, in the backseat, let her flowing raven locks whip with the gale. Mike noticed how the ends of her hair slapped aggressively at her high cheekbones, and yet she did nothing to prevent it. She was locked into the music, the speed, and sadly Mike thought, the driver. Andrew was cool without equal, handsome beyond reproach, and was the first to sport a real navy bomber jacket after the release of Top Gun. The enormous question vexing Mike on this evening, besides was this particular high-speed junket through Garret, TX going to be his last, was: who did he love more, Angie or Andrew?

Only a year prior, in his sophomore year, Mike was an honor student, addicted to basketball, board games, and vocabulary words. Cool was a manifestation of his own ideas, the path he followed was cut through the marsh of his own nightly imaginings. The wants of puberty, the need for physical release, and the camaraderie associated with the other sex was not yet a concern. The Bard, Juan, and the two Dereks had been his usual companions. Their carefully planned weekends involved premature pattern baldness beer buys, campouts, drinking truth, masturbation dares, and the kind of unity that could only be disrupted by oxygen inhalation and sunrises. He often wondered how this could change, and frequently, he just questioned why his friends could be so short-sided. Why did they need girlfriends, and what was he missing? Mother tried to reassure him that his time would come, he would love and be loved, and that all of this would be a bad dream. Accepting that was basically self-mutilation. Acknowledging that life would get better, once it got bigger, was a copout. He had no capacity for patience, nor strategy. If being cool was now the game, then the game was on, and he would simply be what he needed to be, when he needed to be it.

Kelly had money. Her Dooney and Bourke purse collection made the blue-collar girls seethe with envy. She often changed purses between classes depending on the temperature in the upcoming window-less classrooms. The small clutch worked much better with the cashmere sweater for English class, while the full-strap in bright pink was very cute with a lab apron in chemistry. She drove a red Saab convertible with a manual transmission. Her aggression with the stick followed her to the bedroom, Mike supposed. She was bitchy in an adult way, in a Mother sort of capacity. Humor, sarcasm, and prodding could sometimes bring her to offer an uncomfortable smile, but typically, she simply pushed at her hair, or tugged at her skirt, when confronted with a confusing (i.e. intelligent) remark. All of this being said, he still imagined her naked on occasions when he felt slighted, and that was often. It mattered little, as she was only want to be wooed by Andrew's class. Older, wealthier, and of preferable genetic stock, there would be no consideration of less, not without more Mad Dog, and much, much more privacy.

The 1987 Mustang GT 5.0 was the most spectacular car on the market. 3 boys drove them in Ellis county. A bright red convertible with black top owned by the most elegant guy in school, a blue and grey two-tone hardtop driven by the quiet farmer turned drug merchant, and the most wonderful of all, the black on black convertible currently carving a contrail of high-speed exhaust near the Boggy Creek bridge. $28,000.00 seemed like such a deal for 225 horses of guaranteed copulation. Andrew was very secure in himself, so long as he had his entourage. Mike was always quick to volunteer for posse duty, and on this night, there was nowhere else on earth he would have chosen to be.

iPhone Imaging Classes - How do you do this stuff?

I teach iPhone imaging classes in the Bay Area and around the country. If you would like to get better results from your iPhone camera, let me help you. I offer group classes and one-to-one lessons. I also lead trips abroad, where we shoot, eat, and enjoy great wines, in some of the world's most wondrous settings. My programs will make you a better iPhone photographer. Please read on for pricing, dates, and programs. The images here I have recently submitted to photo contest for the Mid Peninsula Regional  Open Space District

645 Pro Pano

• Group Classes - I teach groups up to 25 persons intro to iPhone imaging. This course can be a single 6 hour day with a lunch break, or 2 three-hour classes on consecutive days (or weeks). This is a fun course and it is amazing how far students go from start to finish. This class ranges from $99-150 per person depending on class size, and configuration. *Pricing is for San Francisco Bay Area only.

• One to One classes - Usually 1 to 3 students (who know one another) these are hourly courses intended to take students from beginner to amateur level, or to hone skills learned prior (processing, light, capture apps) Classes are $150 per student for a 2 hour course $200 per student for 3 Hours and $300 per student for a 5 hour full-day program

• Travel - We are launching a Travel with The Housewrighter program for 2014. We will be in Southern Italy in November for a full week of amazing fun, and great photography. Much more to come :-)

HDR done well on the iPhone

iPhone imaging classes will improve your ability to take great photos for social media, documenting the lives of your children and pets, and give you a sense of accomplishment and artistic expression. I have taken over 75,000 images with my iPhone since 2011, so let me offer you insight into using the device, and you will be pleased with the outcome.

For more info, please complete the attached contact form, and I will be in touch soon. I will not share your contact info with anyone, including the NSA.

Cheers,

Michael

Olympus Stylus 1 Trials - Russian Ridge

Olympus Stylus 1 Trials at Russian Ridge is part 1 of a series of photos I have taken with my new Olympus Stylus 1 Camera. I am slimming down my camera bag for upcoming trips to Mexico, Northern California, and Denver. This amazing piece of equipment takes beautiful images and weighs so very little compared to my Nikon DSLR. These shots, taken at Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, show some of the capacity that this little gem of a camera has, equipped only with its factory settings.

One of the features I coveted most when seeking a new point and shoot camera is: bokeh. The ability to get attractively blurred areas of an image while keeping other areas sharp. In DSLR photography this is done with short focal length lenses and fast F stops. With the Stylus 1 I simply zoom tight on my subject area from a distance and I get this sharp foreground, and dreamy background effect. The effect is even more powerful on small objects or subjects at greater distances.  I am enamored with the natural beauty of Russian Ridge, and this quick portrait of Juliet given an indication why.

One of the most powerful features associated with this camera, is the built-in Wi-Fi app. I took this photo, and within 10 minutes it was on my iPad, edited, and saved. I need this kind of ease of operation when I am in the field and shooting abroad. The wi-fi connection is a hot-spot between the camera and the iPad (or iPhone) and so no external connection is required to make transfers. One would obviously need an outside connection to post an image. This shot was edited on Snapseed, Old Photo Pro, and Blender. I love the texture and the dreamy association to the past.

I like to crop to 1:1 (square images) to use on Instagram and for print purposes. I caught this young man doing his Tai Chi into the sunset. I was 30 yards from him and was able to get this kind of detail in the zoom. A little editing with Snapseed was all I needed to insure the effect would be strong. This is a moving image and without the lovely zoom and continuous f2.8 capacity of the Olympus Stylus 1, I would not have been able to get this high-quality image. 

Here is an example of the range of the Stylus 1. These deer were roughly 75 yards from me when I caught this image. I cropped the image to 1:1 and the detail in the deer faces is very good. The Bokeh is pleasing, and the shot gives a good example of the twilight capacity of the camera. And of course, the lovely wildlife in Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve.

The purple and pink hues in the sunset that evening were simply stunning behind these craggy oaks. A little Snapseed tied it all together like a good rug in Jeff Lebowski's living room. Very low light is a slight challenge for the Stylus 1 as f2.8 is not the very top end for speed. At the same time, shots like this have less noise than my iPhone and a nicer depth of field.

Finally, with the light waning quickly I snapped off some very nice zooms of the moon. I can never get my SLR to get this correct (without lots of tweaks), and with the Stylus 1 I simply dialed down the exposure, and got a personal taste of moon rocks. I used a fun new iPhone/iPad app called Waterlogue to get the watercolor effects. I blended this in Image Blender to get this take on the moon over Russian Ridge. We were hustling out at this point to avoid any undue encounters with Mountain Lions.

I hope you enjoyed this little review of the Olympus Stylus 1 at Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. The camera is $699.99 at most retailers and comes with everything one needs to get right out and shoot (except an SD card). I give this camera an A- overall, and that may go up as I get better with it.