When the weather clears here in San Francisco the sunsets are truly magnificent. Sometimes the sunsets are so beautiful it’ll stop a die-hard surfer in his tracks. Surfer on Ocean Beach, San Francisco [tags]San Francisco, sunset, photo, photography, surf, surfer, Ocean Beach[/tags]
In the not so distant past I used to shoot slide film exclusively… One of the last all film trips I took was a winter trip to Yosemite a few years ago. For some reason I’m attracted to the pre-dawn light that adds to the magical nature of Yosemite valley. Long film exposures were always a fun challenge and combined with this pre-dawn light Velvia would really create a beautifully colored scene. As youR
Photographed near the Crystal Springs Watershed in San Mateo County an hour or so before sunset. The stark lighting conditions attracted me to this scene, the beams of light in particular. [tags]California, San Mateo, landscape, photography, photo[/tags]
Dynamic range, in relation to photography, most commonly describes the light sensitivity range of a photographic medium whether slide/print film or a digital sensor. Unlike other definitions of Dynamic Range I think it’s important to discuss the relationship of the human eye and brain and what we determine as the standard of dynamic range. The eye is in all intents and purposes a sensor that can detect texture,
This was one of the first photos I took with my Canon 16-35mm ultra-wide lens. Using a film SLR I was able to capture the full effects of the barrel distortion (a type of perspective distortion) at 16mm. The result was the intentional illusion of the lighthouse tower leaning towards the moon. Over time I’ve developed a fondness for this type of lens distortion to create a sense of tension or place emphasis on a
A couple things happened this past week that got me thinking it might be a good idea to talk about landscape photography and choice of focal length. 1. I read “What’s Your Favorite Focal Length?” by Brian Auer I found the question that Brian posed to be a bid odd and never made a poll selection on his blog entry. The question of what your favorite focal length isn’t really relevant, just as as
“Barrel Distortion, in which image magnification decreases with increasing distance from the optical axis. The apparent effect is that of an image which has been mapped around a sphere. Fisheye lenses, which take hemispherical views, produce this type of distortion as a result of a hemispherical scene being projected onto a flat surface.” – Wikipedia Or… “Barrel distortion is a lens effe
This Sunday I woke up very early (4:40 AM) to drop my wife off at the San Francisco Half Marathon in which she was running. Being up before sunrise I thought it would be worth a try to go out looking for wildlife photo opportunities. Fortunately wildlife abounds here in the San Francisco bay area and it only takes a short drive to get to an area you might cross paths with wild animals. After dropping my wife off I de