My photo buddy Doug Kaye and I recently visited San Francisco’s Exploratorium in their new location at Pier 15 along San Francisco’s Embarcadero.
Among the many hands-on exhibits inside, there are a couple fascinating mirror-based exhibits – including the one I used for this photo.
Shot with my Fujifilm X-E2, and processed in Lightroom 5, this image was a lot of fun to shoot.
San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center is one of our favorite spots – the architecture is amazing. There are several of these beautiful spiral staircases in the various buildings – here’s one that’s on the inside. I shot the image with my Fujifilm X-E2.
For this image, I chose to focus on the structure and the lighting – emphasizing the color and the texture. I processed it first in Lightroom 5 and then pulled it into Photoshop CC for further adjustments of the shadows/highlights and a bit of simplification using Topaz Simplify 4. A final touch of the oil paint filter kicked up the texture on the tiles.
Back in Lightroom, I used the split toning panel to change the highlight and shadow colors to a more cinematic (orange-ish highlights/blue-ish shadows) to further bring out the colors.
I’m enjoying the oil paint filter in Photoshop CC – especially when used on images like this with the brickwork and texture. I enjoy how it can add a touch of additional texture to an image.
There are some wonderful alleys in San Francisco – some filled with cafes like The Irish Bank. They’re worth exploring further. I keep telling Doug Kaye that we need to write the book: “The Stages of San Francisco”. The second in that series should be “The Alleys of San Francisco”. Great places for street photography is a great city.
This image was shot with my Fujifilm X-E2 and post-processed in Lightroom 5 with VSCO Film before tweaking with the oil paint filter in Photoshop CC.
Here’s another image from our recent street photography photo walk in San Francisco. After meeting at the Ferry Building, we caught a quick Uber ride up to San Francisco’s Union Square. Lots of people and activity.
As we started out, the Powell and Hyde Street cable cars began moving quite frequently up and down Powell St. We had some interesting mid-morning January light and tried to find a spot that might work out sort of as a stage.
This is one of my shots – taken with my Fujifilm X-E2 and post-processed in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC.
Continuing from my earlier post about Street Photography in San Francisco, here’s an image of the cafe shot was we walked along Post Street on the north side of the square.
There’s a long railing leading up to the cafe area – which had originally caught my eye. But the people were also really interesting – paired up and talking.
I especially like the guy looking at me – and the other guy raising his hand in the air to make a point. Beautiful January light on a morning in San Francisco. Captured with my Fujifilm X-E2.
My friend Doug Kaye and I have been having fun lately doing street photography in San Francisco. We’ve both “downsized” from big Nikon/Canon DSLRs to mirrorless cameras – I’m shooting with the Fujifilm X-E2 and X100s while Doug’s got a new Sony A7 and a collection of manual lenses that he’s been enjoying.
Here are a few images from a recent two hour walk we took from San Francisco’s Union Square down through the financial district to the Ferry Building. When we shoot in San Francisco, we meet up at the Ferry Building – Doug taking the ferry from Marin and me taking BART from Daly City – and then head out from there. On this particular day, we caught an Uber ride from the Ferry Building to San Francisco’s Union Square.
Up top is an image of “The Goddesses” which are on the top of 580 California Street – sculpted by Muriel Castanis. Her New York Times obituary described her work: “A self-taught artist, Ms. Castanis was known in particular for her method of laying an epoxy-soaked cloth over a mannequin built of plastic foam. She would then remove the foam, leaving empty, faceless figures that were reminiscent of Greek sculpture.”
Shooting the top of a building might not be considered street photography – but those sculptures are so fascinating. Here’s a more classic street photography shot that I titled “Waiting for a Ride”. Street corners can be great spots for watching people – as they walk at you. In this image, I love how everyone is looking – she’s looking for her ride, the guys across the street are looking at her and that woman on the left – I’m not sure – she’s either looking at her – or at me!
Here’s a similar street corner shot – this couple walking across the street and the bystander watching their progress.
As we walk through the City, Doug and I are always on the lookout for “stages” – interesting backgrounds that offer beautiful settings for humans to enter. We found several great examples during this walk. Here’s one example – from the plaza at the Bank of America building.
And another – shot as we left The Slanted Door restaurant at the Ferry Building:
While walking the streets, it’s always fun to watch for bikers – and San Francisco has an abundance. Here are a couple of shots – from along California Street as we headed back to the Ferry Building. I love the sense of motion that bikes bring!
But perhaps this is my favorite from the day – shot right across from Union Square on Post Street. I titled it “Looking Good”. Indeed.
These small mirrorless cameras are perfect this “on the go” kind of street photography. Here’s a link to the rest of my images from this particular two hour walk in downtown San Francisco. What a day!
Here’s a final shot – Doug at the Slanted Door. Shot with my Fujifilm X100S.
Do you do street photography in San Francisco? Tell me about it in the comments below – or send me an email.
A favorite shot of ours is one of the spiral staircases in Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. My photo buddy Doug Kaye and I have shot these staircases many times.
Here’s a shot of Doug shooting one of those staircases – shot with my Fujifilm X-E2. Embarcadero Center is such a delight for photographers. If you haven’t been, go – you’ll see what I mean!
Street photography in San Francisco is a delight. There’s always something interesting going on – just find a stage and wait!
Here’s a shot from just outside the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. Doug Kaye and I were returning from a really wonderful walk through San Francisco’s Financial District when we headed into the hotel. I found this spot and just waited – and captured this image.
Color coordinated indeed! Shot with my Fujifilm X-E2 and then used a radial filter and some other secret tweaks in Photoshop CC. Spin on!
On a recent photo walk in San Francisco, Doug Kaye and I were walking up Market Street about to head up California Street. At the corner is a high profile shoe shine stand – big chairs up top and a colorful crowd around. As we walked by, I shot this table of shoe shine brushes – all ready to go depending upon the color of the shine.
I shot this image quickly with my Fujifilm X-E2. It was post-processed using the Oil Paint filter in Photoshop CC along with a few other tricks.
Over the weekend I saw the movie “her” – about love in the modern world. Or perhaps about love 10+ years into our future. A future we can sense is coming – and one that we wonder how we’ll deal with it as we watch the movie unfold.
On a recent photo walk in San Francisco with my photo buddy Doug Kaye, we came up to one of our favorite venues – the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. I found a unique spot where I could look up at the edge of the hotel – with this one woman – ‘her’ – outside on her deck talking on her cell phone.
What else could I caption this shot? It’s ‘her’!
Go see the movie – and think about our future.