We had lunch today at a restaurant on Palo Alto’s University Avenue. Sitting at a window table, I did some experimenting with manual focus on my Fujifilm X100T as folks walked by that window – capturing their profiles. The film emulation was Fujifilm’s new Classic Chrome – these are JPEG’s from out of the camera.
Here are some more of the images.
Doug Kaye and I headed out today on to the streets of San Francisco. We met up at the Ferry Building – where Doug showed me his big surprise – a Leica M6 that he’d just acquired. The M6 is one of the classic Leica film bodies. Doug’s been accumulating a collection of Leica lenses to use with his Sony A7 bodies – and decided to try a film project – thus the M6. It was fun watching him shoot with this beautiful rangefinder body today! Here’s Doug shooting on Jackson Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
It was a wonderful day – we hopped on the F street car across from the Ferry Building and headed to Pier 39. From there, we walked to Fishermans Wharf and then up Taylor St. to the cable car turnaround.
Pressing on up Taylor, we turned onto Columbus and walked into North Beach. We had lunch at a by the slice pizza place just off Washington Square – Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza & Slice House – very tasty pizza!
After lunch, we made a jog over to Stockton Street and walked into the busiest part of Chinatown – the produce markets along Stockton. I’m always amazed by the sheer humanity in this area – chasing great produce.
Our goal was to hit the Chinatown alleys around 1 PM – when the sun was going to be shining right down them. Those alleys are sheer delight for street shooters like us and today was no exception.
We eventually wound back down to Grant Avenue and came across one of our favorites – Vinton Alley. A perfect background for street shots!
Wow, quite a day! My iPhone 6 reported 10,033 steps for the day – about 5 miles of very satisfying walking in the great city of San Francisco. It doesn’t get much better!
I’m just back from a very quick trip to New York City – and while I was there I took a subway ride from lower Manhattan up to Spring Street – starting on the 4 line and connecting, at the Brooklyn Bridge Station, to the 6. For a brief moment while I was transferring, I snapped this shot across the platform with my Fujifilm X100T.
Here’s one of my favorite shots – from several years ago – inside the Brooklyn Bridge Subway station.
I’m fortunate to live about 15 minutes away from Filoli – with its country house set in 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by a 654-acre estate in Woodside, California. Each year, about this time, Filoli opens for the season – and this was the first weekend the estate was open this year.
I enjoy walking the gardens at Filoli at different times of years. The seasons really sweep across the gardens as different plants and trees flower and blossom. On this first weekend, the bulb flowers – daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, etc. were blooming – but the trees were still waiting for more springtime light to spread their blossoms.
That said, I did capture this one image of early blossoms emerging. Shot with my Fujifilm X100T
Along the streets in San Francisco, it’s always interesting when we can catch the sun beaming done parallel to the street itself. This is an example of an image taken under those conditions.
I was shooting with my Fujifilm X100T – standing at curbside after having noticed this lovely brick wall with the sun/shadow combination. I was waiting for someone interesting to walk into this particular “stage” – when this woman appeared.
It’s a combination of seeing the place and getting lucky with the actors!
My friend Doug Kaye and I were back out on the streets of San Francisco yesterday – after a couple of weeks away. Doug went to Cuba – helping with a people-to-people exchange program there while I was in India. Talk about being on opposite sides of the planet – but with wonderful photographic opportunities at both locataions!
One of our favorite spots in San Francisco is 101 California – and the light yesterday didn’t disappoint. This time of year, it’s mostly about reflected light – from the sun striking buildings across the street and then being reflected back into the nooks and crannies on the other side.
This is a great example. Doug and I were both drawn to this light – and waited for the right subjects to appear. I got lucky with this shot – capturing her glancing back and him – and him with his glasses in his hand looking at her.
It’s all about gesture (thanks Jay Maisel!).
While out wandering one of the neighborhoods in Kolkata on Sunday, I came across this tailor toiling away at his sewing machine in his tiny shop. Shot with my Fujifilm X100T and processed using VSCO Film 04.
Below is a color version – processed using the Kodak Portra 400 film in VSCO Film 06.
On Friday, January 2, 2015, Doug Kaye and I met up for one of our regular photo walks on the streets of San Francisco. We had done a bit of planning in advance using The Photographers Ephemeris which showed that the sun would be streaming down the “north/south” streets of San Francisco beginning about 11:30 AM that morning. These are the streets north of Market St. in San Francisco – such as Kearny, Grant, Stockton, etc.
After meeting at the Embarcadero BART station, we walked over to Sacramento St. and caught the 1-California Muni bus up to Kearny St. where we got off and walked over to Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. We had fun shooting the game players in the park before moving on up Washington Street, eventually finding our way to Ross Alley where the sun was just beginning to floor the street. From there, we headed up to Stockton – but found the light too much on that wide street so we headed back into a few more of the alleys instead – preferring the much narrower streets with the light streaming down on the mostly brick walls of the buildings in this part of Chinatown.
I was shooting with my Fujifilm X100T – using the TCL100 converter which provides a 50 mm equivalent focal length. I also capture some shots along the way with my iPhone 6. Below are a few examples of the fun we had exploring the alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown – with the low sun angle light at mid-day in early January.
The holiday ice rink at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center is a lot of fun. Doug Kaye and I were headed back to lunch at the Ferry Building when we came across the ice rink and started shooting. We had a great time – but, clearly, the skaters were having even more fun!
I especially had fun with the woman with the ear muffs! She was a great subject…
Shot with my Fujifilm X100T.
Tonight we were out to dinner up in San Francisco with my son, his wife and our two granddaughters. We had a wonderful New Year’s Day dinner!
While walking back to our car – parked on Irving Street – this N Judah Muni Metro streetcar came along and I couldn’t resist shooting the people inside the streetcar. For street photographers, streetcars are yet another “stage” – a place where we can wait and watch for interesting people.
When you’re shooting this kind of scene, you need to just fire away – it’s too hard to see whether the “captives” are noticing you – much less looking at you. Tonight I shot about a dozen images of this streetcar – in about 20 seconds. I came away with two images in which the “captives” were looking at me – and this was the better of the two. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Shot with my Fujifilm X100T in JPEG with Classic Chrome film emulation.
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