Here’s a quick shot taken earlier today in the gentle rain along San Francisco’s waterfront at the Ferry Building. The rain brings reflections – and a whole new treat for the eyes!
Shot with my Fujifilm X100S as we were heading into the Slanted Door for lunch! Monochrome straight out of the camera, adjusted in Lightroom 5 and a bit of platinum toning applied in Photoshop CC.
Here’s another iPhone 5s image shot from a bench in front of San Francisco’s Pier 3 with my iPhone 5s. Actually, this is three images overlaid on each other.
I selected the three images based on the placement of the people in the frame. I used Photoshop’s auto-align layers feature to get them into alignment and then applied layer masks to isolate the subjects. The monochrome conversion was done using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 along with some dodging and burning to adjust highlights, shadows, and contrast – along with a touch of toning.
The image isn’t perfect – if you look closely, you’ll see a few flaws. It’s one of those 90 percent complete solutions!
I continue to delight in how great the whole renovation of San Francisco’s Embarcadero has turned out to be. Recently, I found a bench and just sat down and began taking pictures with my iPhone 5s as people walked, bicycled, ran, and skateboarded past. This was a great “stage” – with no parked cars along the curb and the interesting convergence of the Embarcadero Center buildings in the background. And that locked up bicycle provided an interesting element to “the set”. If you’re curious, this bench is just outside Pier 3 – a few steps south of the entrance to Hard Water.
After capturing this in my iPhone 5s, I post-processed it in Lightroom 5 applying a VSCO Film emulation and a bit more tweaking done in Photoshop CC.
For thirty years, I’ve been having business lunches at the Fish Market in San Mateo. The restaurant has two venues – the regular restaurant downstairs and the Top of the Market upstairs. Top of the Market has long been the business lunch venue.
I recently met a colleague for lunch there. I got there a bit early and snapped this image with my iPhone 5s while waiting for him to arrive. I love the two guys on the pier – sort of a Huck Finn aspect to the image. I’ve added a painterly touch to add more interest – and to simplify the image.
Walking along Canyon Road in Santa Fe late in the day last week, I came across this sculpture – reminds me of Jack London.
Shot with my Fujifilm X-T1 and post-processed in Lightroom 5, Photoshop CC and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Santa Fe has several really special restaurants. For our first dinner, we went to a great spot close by – Bistro 315.
Above our table was this window with the wine bottles all lined up. In fact, all of the windows had wine bottles lined up!
I shot this with my iPhone 5s and added a bit of texture in Photoshop CC using the oil paint filter. The texture on the window almost looks like frost – but it wasn’t frosty in Santa Fe!
I love how the label on one of the bottles is peeling off – adding visual interest.
We had the D’alfonso-Curran 2008 Chardonnay with dinner – a pretty amazing wine!
While wandering around the Fisherman’s Wharf area recently, we came across the Musée Mécanique – an amazing collection of old coin-operated mechanical delights from days gone past. Admission is free, it’s open 365 days/year – but you’ll need to make change and get some quarters to play some of these old timers!
Walking through the place is a trip down memory lane – bringing back memories of San Francisco’s old Playland at the Beach, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and those east coast seaside towns along the Jersey shore. In my family, the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, NJ was the star attraction back in the 50’s and 60’s.
This is an image taken with my Fujifilm X-E2
Below is an image of Laffing Sal – a longtime attraction at San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach. My photo buddy Doug Kaye remarked at how small she seemed – his memories of her from his childhood is that she was “so much bigger”! She looks pretty huge to me in this shot – also taken with my Fujifilm X-E2
Ming Thein recently released a new two part video series on developing style in photography. One of the four styles he discusses is a cinematic style – something he’s known for.
This is an example applying some of his techniques to a 2007 image of mine shot on the steps of the New York Public Library in New York. As I was spinning through my old Lightroom library looking for examples, this woman’s red jacket jumped out at me. The image was shot with a Canon PowerShot S500 – my ever present companion back in those days.
I post processed the image using Lightroom 5, VSCO Film 05 and Photoshop CC.
I’m often blown away by the quality of the images that my iPhone 5s captures. This is one of those examples – shot on New Year’s Day morning at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
Post-processed to monochrome in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC with a bit of platinum toning applied.
Once in a while one of my images just grabs me to be “pushed” – to what it can become. This is one of those – a drab, flat image that comes to life in processing it. It’s an image of a San Francisco Powell Street cable car coming down the hill – shot from my hotel room above.
I shot the image with my tiny Canon PowerShot S100. Post processed it in Photoshop CC to add color and texture – it’s got a lot of style!
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