Nitecore UM20 Charger Quick Product Overview

I do a quick product overview of the Nitecore UM20 USB Li-ion battery charger capable of charging 2 IMR and Li-ion batteries up to 18650s in size. I do not like this product.

Nitecore UM20 Charger Review available here.

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Nitecore UM20 Charger Review

I review the Nitecore UM20 USB Li-ion battery charger capable of charging 2 IMR and Li-ion batteries up to 18650s in size. Do I like the product? No.

Nitecore UM20 Charger Quick Product Overview available here.

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Nitecore LR10 Overview & Beam Shot

I give you a product overview, a quick first impressions, and a beam shot test of the Nitecore LR10 Lantern Flashlight. The lantern is a high CRI light and has a built in 1200 mAh battery, is microUSB rechargeable, and has a max of 250 lumens.

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Nitecore UCN1 Canon Charger Review (Video)

The Nitecore UCN1 Canon battery charger is a USB powered Nitecore charger that can charge Canon LP-E6, LP-E6N, and LP-E8 batteries used in many Canon EOS and Canon Rebel DSLRs. I review the charger after around half a year of use.

This is my go to field charger for my Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Canon EOS 7D replacing my old generic OAproda micro-USB charger. In fact, I find myself using this more often than the Canon OEM wall charger as USB power is more commonly available.

This video doesn't contain info on the specifications because I already did that in another video.

For links to the other products mentioned, please check video description on YouTube.

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Nitecore NBM40 Battery Magazine Review (Video)

The Nitecore NBM40 battery magazine is a storage unit for four 18650 batteries. The battery magazine is a great way to carry around your 18650 units helping protect your batteries from weather and short circuits.

I review the product after using it for around 4 months. Only bad thing I noticed about the battery magazine is it is very hard to get your batteries out. On the other hand, that means your batteries won't fall out by accident.

Product links can be found in the video description on YouTube.

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Anker 60W 10-Port USB Wall Charger Review

I review the Anker PowerPort 10 Wall Charger which is a 60W 12A 10-Port USB charger. This product is great for photographers with a lot of USB electronics, big families, or large group gatherings. You can charge up a bunch of USB devices on 1 charger.

Specs:

• USB Ports: 10
• Input: 100-240VAC 50-60Hz 1.4A
• Output: 5VDC 12A (overall max), 2.4A (per port max)

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Nitecore F2 Charger Overview/Review (Video)

The Nitecore F2 Charger is a USB Li-ion/IMR battery charger and power bank made by Nitecore. The device can take 26650, 18650, 17670, 18490, 17500, 17335, 16340, RCR123, 14500, and 10440 batteries.

I review the charger after around 4 months of use. This charger has replaced my Nitecore UM20 charger as the portable charger I take with me on my wilderness photography trips. It charges batteries at a great current and is small and compact.

Complete specs and product links can be found in the video description on YouTube.

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Nitecore TIP Flashlight Review (360 Lumens)(Video)

The Nitecore TIP flashlight capable of outputting 360 lumens of light using a CREE XP-G2 LED! I review this tiny yet powerful keychain flashlight that I have been using for over a year now.

This video doesn't contain info on the specifications or beam shots because I already did that in another video. Find the link below.

Overview/Beam Shots Video

The entire product links list can be viewed in the video description on YouTube.

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Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank - Ultimate Battery For Wilderness Photographers

Before I get started on the review for today, I want to give a warning to everyone who might buy this power bank or has already bought this power bank. The unit I am reviewing here is a replacement from Anker. The original unit I got was defective and managed to overheat and fry one of my chargers. I will give more details about this incident at the end of this article/blog post. As a precaution, I would recommend everyone who get this power bank to closely monitor the device for the first few charge and discharge cycles to make sure the unit you get is not defective. If you do get a defective power bank, you can contact Anker's customer service. I've been with Anker for years and most of their products are fine. When I do get a defective device, Anker is quick to make things right. Their great customer service is one of the main reason I am still their customer after all these years.

Also, I participate in the Amazon Associates Program so Amazon does pay me a commission for every sale I make through the product links in this article/blog post. This won't cost you anything extra and the money helps fund my blog, photography, and videos. If you do buy through my links, thank you for your support. My product reviews are of my honest opinions and recommendations. I do not let the commission I make affect me in anyway. You can trust me on this, because if I was really in it for the money, I would not have told you about how the original defective unit fried my charger. I cover the good and bad of products.

Today I will have a bit of an in depth review of the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank with Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger. Some parts of the review is fairly technical so don't be alarmed if you don't understand certain parts. The photos in the article/blog post can be viewed bigger by clicking on them. The review will be separated into the following sections: Specifications, Review, and Incident With The Defective Unit. The sections are clearly labeled with a larger title, so if you wish to skip to a certain part in the article/blog post, just scroll around.


Specifications

Let's first start off with what you get in the box. In the bundle you get an Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank, an Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger, an Anker micro-USB cable, and an Anker drawstring storage pouch for the power bank.

The size of the power bank according to Anker is 180 x 80 x 24 mm (7.08 x 3.15 x 0.95 in). You can see the power bank compared against a ruler (inches) in the photo above. The weight of the power bank according to Anker is 590 g (20.8 oz).

The size of the Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger according to Anker is 56 x 53 x 28 mm (2.2 x 2.1 x 1.1 in) and it weighs in at 70 g (2.5 oz).

The included Anker micro-USB cable is 0.6 m (2 ft).

The power bank itself can be recharged via any USB charger with a micro-USB cable, however it is recommended to be charged with a Quick Charge 3.0 charger for the fastest recharge speed. The power bank recharges via Quick Charge 3.0 (you can also use a Quick Charge 2.0 if 3.0 is not available). As for the USB ports on the power bank that is used to recharge other devices, there are 3. One of the ports is a Quick Charge 2.0 USB port with an output of 5v at 2.4A, 9v at 2A, and 12v at 1.5A. The Quick Charge 2.0 port can be used to charge other non-Quick Charge devices too. The other 2 ports are regular Anker PowerIQ USB ports that can output 2.4A per port with a combined 3A maximum output. The USB ports used to output power will not operate while the power bank is being recharged (no pass through charging). This is probably a good thing as pass through charging is not good for the battery cells.


Review

Now that I have given you the specifications and features of the products in the bundle that you get, I will proceed with the review of the products. Since the package comes with 3 main products (excluding the Anker drawstring pouch), I will sort of split the review into 3 sections.

The first thing I want to talk about is the included Anker micro-USB cable as this is an item with a major flaw. The included micro-USB cable is bad because the cable is too thin and the wires inside are too thin. I spent an hour trying to charge the power bank with the included micro-USB cable and the power bank didn't go up in charge. The power bank has 10 LED power indicators and has a recharge time of 8 to 9 hours on Quick Charge 3.0. If you do the math, the power bank should gain about 1 LED per hour. Both the charger and the power bank got a bit hot (not to the point of overheat, but warmer than usual). I work a lot with DIY electronics and stuff, so I knew very well this is due to the included micro-USB cable. The included cable isn't defective but is designed too thin, therefore causes a high amount of resistance hindering the flow of electricity. This kind of cable might work with some smaller or older electronics that doesn't require as much of a voltage and current draw, but is not made for big devices like this. I am not the only one complaining about this issue as I saw another review on Amazon that mentioned this problem. This isn't too big of a deal as I just went ahead and used one of my own Anker PowerLine micro-USB cables (which is a thicker than the included cable) which fixed the problem. You can see in the above photo that the included micro-USB cable (top) is thinner than the Anker PowerLine cable (bottom). I wish Anker didn't cheap out and included a better micro-USB cable in the package.

The second item I want to talk about is the Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger which has a slight oversight by design. In my photos above, I compare it to my Choetech Quick Charge 2.0 charger (Choetech has a QC 3.0 charger out now that is the same size) which is on the left in the first 2 pictures and right in the last picture. Ignore the tag on the Choetech charger. As I have mentioned at the beginning of the article, the original defective power bank I got fried one of my chargers. I taped a note on there so I don't accidentally use the charger again. Anker's customer service helped me replace the charger with one of their own so everything is good. As you can see, due to the orientation of the plug on the Anker charger, it covers 2 electrical outlets which the Choetech charger does not do. The 2 chargers are about the same size (Choetech's charger is a tiny bit smaller by like half an inch width wise) but the orientation of the plug changes a lot. While the plug on the Anker charger does fold in for storage, I feel it is more important for a charger to not cover 2 electrical outlets than to save a tiny bit of space in storage. This could be a problem if you are at a hotel or have a limited amount of electrical outlets available. Also, I wish Anker had a bundle where they included the Anker PowerPort 2 Quick Charge 3.0 USB charger instead of their charger with 1 USB port. This way, you can recharge your power bank and your phone at the same time.

Finally I get to reviewing the Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank which I did not find any design problems on. This power bank is huge and a bit heavy but that is needed in order for it to store this much electricity. You are probably aware of this by now but I am a nature photographer who goes into the wilderness a lot so a power bank of this size is needed to keep my electronics powered off the grid.

In the photo above, I have the following devices charging simultaneously by the power bank:

• My Huawei Nexus 6P via an Anker PowerLine USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (3 ft). 
• My Canon LP-E6 battery (which powers my Canon 5D Mark III) via a 3rd party USB charger and one of my Anker PowerLine micro-USB cables.
• My Nitecore NL189 3400mAh 18650 batteries (which powers my Nitecore flashlights) via a Nitecore UM20 Li-ion battery USB charger. 

If you are just looking for a power bank for casual use or you are a photographer who doesn't go off the grid for more than a day, I would recommend something smaller with less capacity as there is almost no way you can use all the power in this power bank in one day. There is no need to pack the extra weight and I doubt you need all those USB ports. If you are looking for a phone charging solution for your whole family, I would recommend you just get a few smaller and lighter power banks. That way your family members can still use their phones while it is being charged and no one person would be stuck carrying all the weight.

If you are a wilderness photographer, camper, backpacker, or a person that will need to be off the grid for a few days, then I would recommend this power bank to you. This power bank is awesome with its 3 USB outputs as you can use it to charge up several USB devices at once (comes in really handy for photographers) and should have enough power to last a few days of general use. There will most likely be no signal in the wilderness so your phone will drain faster because it will constantly be searching for a cell tower. Sometimes people put their phones in Airplane Mode to prevent this, but I normally don't. In some wilderness areas, cell towers has been set up for emergency purposes. I usually leave my cell radio on because you never know when an emergency will pop up.

Since this review/article is more directed more towards wilderness photographers, I'm going to talk a bit more on this topic. One thing you may be able to do with this power bank is charge up your camera/DSLR batteries. You may think that your camera/DSLR battery can't be charged via USB, but you could also be wrong. I had the same thought with my Canon LP-E6 battery which powers my Canon 5D Mark III. Then I found a 3rd party USB charger on Amazon that did the trick. There might be one for your camera/DSLR battery too. Just go to Amazon and search for "(replace with your battery model) USB charger". Since we are dealing with very low voltages and current here, there is very little that can go wrong. I still highly recommend you read the reviews of a particular product first before purchasing though. Another thing you can do with this power bank is recharge the Li-ion batteries found in certain high power flashlights (as demonstrated in the photo above). If you are a night or cave photographer, you more than likely have one of these high power flashlights. There are USB Li-ion battery chargers that can be found on the internet (such as the Nitecore UM20) that recharges this kind of battery. Another thing I can think of (that I don't do myself currently), is recharging your rechargeable AA or AAA batteries. There are USB battery chargers that recharges these batteries too.

The power bank takes about 8 to 10 hours to recharge with Quick Charge 3.0 when mostly or fully depleted. You can recharge the power bank on a regular USB charger, but it will prolong the charging time by a lot. On a regular 2A USB charger, it will take approximately 16 hours to recharge a mostly or fully depleted power bank. I recommend you recharge it overnight if you fully drain the power bank. As I have warned at the beginning, please monitor the power bank for the first few charge and discharge cycles to make sure your power bank isn't defective. After you confirm everything is working correctly, you can recharge it overnight. The recharge times may seem long, but you don't have to do this too often as the power bank has a really large capacity. Due to the long recharge times, I don't recommend trying to recharge this power bank via a solar USB charger. With a solar USB charger, it could take several days of sunlight to recharge a fully depleted power bank. You probably won't need to do that anyways because when this power bank is fully charged, it should last a few days of general use.

I have already done a full discharge cycle with the power bank. In my test, I recharged my Huawei Nexus 6P several times via an Anker PowerLine USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (3 ft). At the time of writing, the better known Android phones (Samsung Galaxy, Flagship Google Nexus line) tend to have higher capacity batteries than their Apple iPhone counterparts. In other words, if you use an Apple iPhone, you may be able to get more charges out of this power bank than my Android phone. As for which USB port I used on the power bank, I switched it around each time I recharged my phone. The following are my test results (I purposely drained my phone battery to test the power bank):

15% to 100%
15% to 100%
15% to 100%
15% to 87%
77% to 80%
75% to 100%
15% to 100%
15% to 52%

I drained my phone down to 15% each time because that is Android's default cut off before turning on battery saver mode. I doubt anyone on Android would drain the phone completely down, especially on a large phone like the Huawei Nexus 6P. As you can see, it recharged my Huawei Nexus 6P approximately 5.5 times before the power bank died on me.

In conclusion, I love this power bank even though the included accessories had some design problems and my original defective unit fried one of my chargers. As always, it is a quality Anker product and their customer service is always good. They are not paying me to say this, but I want to say it because their customer service has been very helpful to me for years now and the company truly stands behind their products. In the end, I would highly recommend this product for wilderness photographers, people who go camping a lot, and backpacking. I will update the review if something bad comes up as I continue to use it. If you want to purchase the power bank, please use my link here.


Incident With The Defective Unit

The day after I got the original unit from Amazon, I plugged the power bank in for over 8 hours on the Quick Charge 3.0 charger that came with it, but the power meter never went up and it showed it had as much charge as when I first opened the box (3rd led flashing and 3 LEDs lit when unplugged). I also noticed the charger got a bit warm. I thought maybe it was the USB cable so I tried a different USB cable (one of my Anker PowerLine micro-USB cables) for an hour and the power meter didn't go up. I thought maybe the included charger was defective so I tried to charge it with my Choetech Quick Charge 2.0 charger to see if it was indeed the included charger that was the issue. After leaving it on my Choetech charger for half an hour, the battery indicator went up to 9 out of the 10 LEDs with the 9th one flashing. When I unplugged it and checked the power bank, it showed 7 LEDs or 70% capacity. I plugged the power bank back into the Choetech charger and it flashed the 7th LED indicating it was charging from 70%. I left it on the Choetech charger for another half hour. After half an hour, I noticed when I moved the power bank slightly, the LED indicators would turn off for about 2 seconds before going back up to 70% charged state. I felt my Choetech charger and it was so hot it felt like my hands was getting burned. I quickly unplugged everything and brought my Choetech charger up to my nose. As I suspected, there was a smell of burnt plastic. I didn't see smoke or anything, but I also wouldn't dare use that Choetech charger again. As I have shown earlier in this article, I stuck a warning label on the charger so I won't accidentally reuse it again. The defective power bank ruined a perfectly good charger that I have been using over a year. I believe the charging circuit in the power bank was defective, causing high amounts of electrical resistance, leading to the overheat.

After some back and forth with Anker's customer service (and some miscommunication), Anker solved the issue for me free of charge (I didn't even need to pay for any shipping fees). They replaced my Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh Power Bank with Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger and gave me an extra Anker PowerPort+ 1 Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger to replace my fried Choetech charger. As I have mentioned before, Anker really stands behind their products and has the best customer service ever. This is why I have been their customer for years. I am still putting this story up because a defect this big should not have went unnoticed. I understand there will always be lemons in the manufacturing process, but a big defect like this can't be simply ignored. The replacement I got works great so far. Anker fixed everything for me and made things right.

In the end, I still recommend Anker products. This incident did scare me a bit, but it doesn't change my positive opinions on this company. Again, if you want to purchase the power bank, please use my link here. I hope this article has helped you in some way and thank you so much for reading. 

Hog Island Oyster Farm in Marshall, CA (Part 2) - SF North Bay Trip

Due to the news last month of the historical Point Reyes Shipwreck being burned down, suspected to have been done by an irresponsible photographer, I decided to take a trip up the San Francisco North Bay to see the historical shipwreck, and get a few last photos before NPS hauls off the boat and have it destroyed. The trip was taken on 2/27/2016. The photos will be split into 3 blog posts. If you are looking for my vlog, you can find it here.

If you have not heard the news, here is practically what happened. The incident seems to have happened sometime during the night between Feb. 21st to 22nd. Very early in the morning of Feb. 22nd, someone reported a fire at the iconic shipwreck, and it took the fire department 2 hours to put out the fire, and most of the stern of the boat (back of the boat) was destroyed. The next day, locals searching the internet found a long exposure light painted photo posted by Instagram user @imonlyjames that showed someone (possibly @imonlyjames himself, an assistant, or friend) spinning steal wool on fire to generate sparks to create light trails in the final shot. The photo seems to have been taken before the fire. While there isn't any proof (as Instagram does not keep EXIF data of photos), the locals and the photography community (after the news spread) suspect that it was the Instagram photographer who irresponsibly set the shipwreck on fire. The Instagram photo has since been deleted due to media attention (which in my opinion, is a sign of admitting to guilt). While this ship is considered by many locals to be a historic landmark, by tourists as a tourist attraction, and by photographers as a both an important landmark and photo subject, the fire department has said they will not further investigate this incident and won't be holding anyone responsible. Their reason? Apparently "something already damaged and abandoned can't really be damaged even further". It is rumored that NPS is currently considering hauling this shipwreck out to be destroyed as it is now structurally unsafe and people tend to go climbing on it.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best San Francisco North Bay photos, use this link. To see all of my San Francisco North Bay photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 

After I finished off at the Point Reyes Shipwreck, I drove to Hog Island Oyster Farm in Marshall, CA. The photos for today are from Hog Island Oyster Farm. Ever since I ate at their San Francisco Ferry Building restaurant (blog post here), I always wanted to go to their farm at Marshall, CA to eat. I figured the food would be cheaper and fresher directly at the farm. If you read my restaurant review in the San Francisco blog post, you will know this farm had a place in my head ever since I saw that Munchies documentary on the farm on YouTube. Since I was up in the San Francisco North Bay, I finally saw an opportunity for me to eat at the farm. I will tell you more about the farm and review the food in the following blog post so make sure you read!

Message From The Photographer: The message in the past post was actually drafted a few days back, and it took a while for me to get around to getting the blog post finally posted. You can probably guess why that happened (because I'm very sick). Anyways, just an update. There is a good chance I didn't have the flu, but instead it turned out one of my wisdom teeth is growing out and it impacted the teeth next to it. This caused an infection and my entire lower jaw is swollen and I'm in a ton of pain. The doctor thinks the rest of the flu-like symptoms seems to be linked as she didn't find anything else wrong with me. Either way, I am in a ton of pain, I'm tired, and I could barely eat anything. The doctor ended up giving me antibiotics to deal with the infection and opioid painkillers to help me deal with the pain. While I wasn't too happy about the opioid high I got on the pills, it was still better than waking up in the middle of the nigh screaming in pain and not being able to eat because of the pain. The next day my dentist checked and told me the wisdom tooth can't be removed until the infection goes away, and I ended up getting more pain pills (non-narcotic ones so it is weaker). So pretty much I was on opioids a few days and I ended up being high as heck and totally out of everything, so I didn't really get too much stuff done during that time. The good news is the infection as reached a level where I don't need those super strong narcotic painkillers, so yay for me! I am now just resorting to the weaker painkillers I'm prescribed because those opioid ones are highly addictive. I am sort of back in working on stuff, although those weaker pain pills makes me a bit sleepy too. While I deal with all this, I haven't had time to set up my new computer (not that I could, was missing some stuff so had to order on Amazon), and my old computer, as I mentioned, is breaking on me, so everything is sort of delayed (blog post writing, photo processing). I really hope I can return on a normal schedule soon with all this stuff. Thank you for putting up with all the delays. I will be doing my best to get those Tahoe photos done.

Here is a photo of Hog Island Oyster Farm from the parking lot. It tends to get really crowded on the weekend. I think on the weekend (at least the Saturday I went), they had free valet parking service. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 09 43 N 122 53 37 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Here is the picnic area and the boat oyster bar (that building in the background). The oyster bar is only open on the weekends and it tends to be very crowded on the weekends (as you can see here). My parents actually waited in line for a while and I took that time to do some filming and some photography with my camera and phone. On week days the oyster bar is closed, but you can buy "to-go oysters" from their kiosk and eat it at the picnic area for a small picnic fee (you get an oyster knife, a bottle of hot sauce, a lemon, a lesson on how to shuck an oyster, and a place to sit). The "to-go oysters" are a lot cheaper as they are raw and you have to open them yourself. You can picnic during the weekend too, but as you can see, you may have to wait a while for a spot instead of just buying and sitting down. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 09 44 N 122 53 38 W 

Here is one of the cooks at the farm barbecuing oysters at the oyster bar. The place is pretty laid back. 

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

Here is a photo of one of the oyster shuckers shucking oysters at the oyster bar.  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Here is a photo of one of the waiters waving at me and one of the oyster shuckers shucking oysters at the oyster bar. 

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

Another photo of the oyster shucker shucking oysters at the oyster bar.

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Another photo of the oyster shucker shucking oysters at the oyster bar.

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

I ordered a few barbecued oysters for my parents and I. They were delicious. We drank some ginger beer with our food. The food at the farm is top notch. You can really taste the quality and freshness of the oysters. As for the pricing at the oyster bar, it is fairly expensive and comparable to a higher end restaurant. If you want to eat at the oyster bar, be ready to shell out money. As I mentioned earlier, the "to-go oysters" are a lot cheaper and you can eat at the picnic tables for a small picnic fee. I guess they open up the oyster bar on the weekends to make a bit extra money from tourists passing by as this place is pretty famous. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

A plate of two dozen raw oysters. We got it already shucked so it was more expensive (and this already shucked plate is only available when the oyster bar is open). The raw oysters were very fresh and delicious. I have ate oysters from my local Chinese supermarket before and I have to be honest, those tasted horrible. These fresh from the farm oysters are the best I've ever ate. These taste as fresh as the ones I got served at the San Francisco Ferry Building restaurant. The farm maintains the quality of these oysters well. 

 Another photo of the plate of raw oysters. 

A photo of the oyster holding tanks at the farm with the people lining up for the oyster bar in the background. The oysters are not farmed in these bins, but is farmed out in Tomales Bay. These are holding tanks for the oysters after they have been harvested. If I remember the documentary correctly, this is the area where they sort oysters by size and get rid of any non-oyster debris that may have gotten trapped in their harvest. For "to-go oysters", you can buy different size oysters along with different species of oysters. If I remember correctly, they are sold by the dozen. They have a kiosk near the entrance where you can buy that. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 09 44 N 122 53 37 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Here is a photo of Tomales Bay from the parking lot of Hog Island Oyster Farm at Marshall, CA. My trip to the farm was great. The food was very fresh and tasty. The only thing I did not like was the price of food. I can somewhat understand the price point for the Ferry Building restaurant in San Francisco as the real estate there is very expensive, but considering how the farm is out in the middle of no where in Marshall, CA, I have to say the price of the meal is not friendly. I still enjoyed my visit though. Next time, I might just stick with "to-go oysters" and shuck them myself instead of eating at the oyster bar. My final suggestion, if you have time, try to head there on a week day when it is less crowded if you hate waiting. Shucking your own oysters isn't hard, and they teach you how to do it with the picnic fee. Also there are several other oyster farm places on Highway 1 that could be cheaper than this place (although I did not visit any of those before). I saw quite a lot of people lined up outside a few of them on my drive that day, so I guess they are good places to eat at too. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 09 43 N 122 53 37 W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed the photos! In the next blog post, I will have photos from Dillon Beach and Highway 1. There will be lots of sunset photos. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 

Yerba Buena Gardens/Market St./Chinatown - San Francisco, CA (Part 2)

I recently took two trips to San Francisco, CA visiting different places and taking photos. I went to many tourist attraction areas, some lesser known places, and took quite some street photography. I am here to share with you the photos that I took on these trips. The photos I took will be split across 7 blog posts. Day 1 of my trip in San Francisco took place on 1/27/2016, and day 2 of my trip in San Francisco took place on 2/1/2016.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best San Francisco, CA photos for 2016, use this link. To see all of my San Francisco photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 

Today I have photos from Yerba Buena Gardens, street photography from Market Street, a flower photo from Union Square, and street photography from Chinatown. These photos are from Day 1 shot on 1/27/2016.

View from Yerba Buena Gardens. The orange building on the right is SF MOMA (Modern Art Museum). 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 04 N 122 24 09 W  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

The artificial waterfall at Yerba Buena Gardens. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 05 N 122 24 08 W  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

At this moment, I would like to share an experience about Yerba Buena Gardens that makes me never want to go back there again. When I got there, I saw a few homeless people (not that I mind them, I understand they need a place to stay) and drug addicts in the park (and I'm guessing 1-2 was probably both), but that wasn't really the shitty experience (although the drug addicts doing drugs does contribute to part of it). Let me get this out there first though... This park does have some nice views for a photographer and an artificial waterfall which is beautiful (as you can see from my photos).

What really pissed me off was this. I was standing right outside the waterfall taking a small break to catch my breath and update my Instagram with my live feed. Some security guard came over and was asking me what I was doing. So I told her oh, I'm just taking photos. She was like, for a school project? I told her no, just as a hobby, I don't sell my photos and stuff. She then was like, well you look too professional, fold up your tripod, your camera is fine, or you need permission. Let me just say here, while it does say on their website no tripods unless you get a permit (I found out afterwards after I got home), I did not see any easily spotted signs (actually, I didn't see any signs at all) that said no tripods or professional photography when I entered the park and this is a public park. I'm sure the law says if you don't want someone doing this, you have to have it clearly posted at the location.

Also one minute before she (the security guard) came, some guy had a blunt in his hand passed me, go back behind the waterfall, and decided to "take his time" looking at the articles on the wall behind the artificial waterfall (while it is clear he just went to smoke his marijuana without anyone seeing him). At first I thought maybe I saw a cigarette, until I smelled the lingering marijuana smoke. He was still there when the security guard came over to hassle me (and you can still clearly smell the marijuanna!). Yeah, come hassle the harmless photographer, but leave the drug addicts smoking pot alone in a park where people take their kids. Sounds like the security personnels are pretty well educated and trained! (Note the sarcasm)

Either way, this experience has made me give this park a 1 star review on both Yelp and Google Reviews.

Another photo of the artificial waterfall at Yerba Buena Gardens.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 05 N 122 24 08 W

A photo of the view at Yerba Buena Gardens. The orange building to the right is SF MOMA (Modern Art Museum).
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 06 N 122 24 07 W 

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

A street photography scenery shot from Market Street shot near the Powell Street BART Station. As you can see on the right, there are paper lanterns hanging on the trees decorated for the Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year).
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 05 N 122 24 25 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

A closer up street photography shot of the paper lanterns hanging on trees in celebration of Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year). Photo from Market Street near the Powell Street BART Station.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 05 N 122 24 26 W

A photo of an Angel's Trumpet Flower shot at Union Square.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 17 N 122 24 26 W 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

A street photography shot from Chinatown (Grant Avenue). This photo was shot at a food and herb store. The photo is of (from left to right, top to bottom) pickled cabbage, dried dates, dried chestnuts, dried haw (I think), and dry salted daikon radish.
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 47 N 122 24 26 W 

Another street photography shot of an herb and food store in Chinatown (Grand Avenue).
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 47 N 122 24 25 W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed the photos! Next time I will have photos of sunset along the Embarcadero and some night photography. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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