San Francisco, CA In Smoke (Part 1)

If you have followed up with the news lately, you would know that several massive fires burned up in the San Francisco North Bay a while back. The smoke from the fires practically blanketed the San Francisco Bay Area in smoke. On October 12th, I went to San Francisco, CA to photograph the smoke. That was one of the smokiest days. The smoke created some strange lighting which I documented through my camera. The photos will be split into 3 parts. San Francisco, CA will take up 2 parts, and Treasure Island (sunset photos) will take up the last part. The photos shot in San Francisco, CA might look like they were shot during sunset, but they were not. The reason they look like that is because the smoke filters the light from the sun similar to how the atmosphere filters the light from the sun during sunset.

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 see my best photos from San Francisco, CA shot in 2017, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 |

This is part 1. The photos are all from San Francisco, CA. I have some photos from the San Francisco Ferry Building, along The Embarcadero, and Pier 7.

I know these photos are a little bit late. I get seasonal allergies around this time of year, and the smoke drifting in the air made my coughing a lot worse than normal. Not to mention, the mega rain storms earlier this year meant more plants. Now that the plants are drying out and the leaves are falling, there are much more allergens in the air. It has made me very sick, so I haven't been able to work on these photos that fast.

The other photographer I was with that day got us access to the 2nd floor of the San Francisco Ferry Building. The security guard let us through after we asked if we could quickly get a few photos. The architecture really looks cool.

Black and white process of the photo above.

Another photo from the 2nd floor of the San Francisco Ferry Building.

Black and white process of the photo above.

Looking down Market Street. There was actually quite a lot of smoke, but my camera didn't do too good of a job picking it up.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 47' 40" N 122° 23' 41" W

Black and white process of the photo above.

Another photo down Market Street shot from the same spot.

Black and white process of the photo above.

San Francisco Ferry Building & Harry Bridges Plaza

Photo shot near the same spot as above.

Black and white process of the photo above.

San Francisco Ferry Building & The Embarcadero

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 47' 47" N 122° 23' 41" W

Black and white process of the photo above.

The Embarcadero

Black and white process of the photo above.

Scenery of Pier 1 shot along The Embarcadero. You can see the weird lighting caused by the smoke.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 47' 48" N 122° 23' 43" W

Black and white process of the photo above.

I now get to Pier 7. Here is a scenery photo of Transamerica Pyramid and The Embarcadero. You can really see how thick the smoke was that day in this photo by looking at the sun. I had a 3M N95 Respirator on the entire time I was outdoors that day, and even that didn't completely filter out all the smoke. I know because I still coughed a bit. It should have worked to a certain degree as the 3M N95 Respirators works for the smog in China (which reminds me, this is literally an average day in certain parts of China). I really shouldn't be complaining though. The San Francisco North Bay fire victims had much worse situations to deal with.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 47' 56" N 122° 23' 47" W

Black and white process of the photo above.

Scenery of Coit Tower shot from Pier 7. In the foreground is The Waterfront Restaurant (left) and Pier 9 (right).

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 47' 57" N 122° 23' 46" W

Black and white process of the photo above.

A seagull at Pier 7.

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed the photos! In the next part, I have more photos from Pier 7, and from inside and around the San Francisco Ferry Building. 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 |

Birds & Scenery - Fremont Central Park (Part 3) - Fremont, CA

As you guys know, ever since I moved out of Fremont, CA, I haven't visited Central Park (Lake Elizabeth) much after. I recently took a few trips there and shot a lot of wildlife photos. I will be splitting the photos into 4 blog posts.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Fremont Central Park photos, use this link. To view my best wildlife photos, use this link. To see all of my 2012 to 2015 Fremont Central Park photos, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 

The photos for the blog post today are shot on 1/2/2015 and 1/5/2015. It is all photos of birds and scenery.

There is quiet a funny story behind this photo. My friend was the one who spotted the seagull. He was all like, "What is that?!" I looked and all I saw was a seagull flying with some sort of bulge on its head. The first thing that occurred to me was this seagull had a tumor on its head as I've seen wildlife with cancer tumors before. I followed the seagull until it landed, and I approached it with my camera. Turns out it was just a seagull with a big piece of bread stuck to its head. Of course I had to take a photo of this hilarious seagull. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Next up is a photo of Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) in the middle of Lake Elizabeth. 

Another photo of the Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus). I processed these only in black and white because that was my original intention. I thought the birds standing in the middle of the lake made a great black and white abstract. 

A photo of Lake Elizabeth with the Fremont Police Station off in the distance. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 32 58 N 121 57 29 W   

Black and white process of the photo above.  

This is what I suspect to be a hybrid offspring. It seems to be a cross between a Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) and a Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos). The first time I saw this bird was back in 2010. You can see that photo on this blog post here. 

Another photo of the hybrid bird. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Another photo of the hybrid bird. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

These are all the photos for today. I will continue with more photos from Central Park in the next post. 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 | 4 | 

Fisherman Wharf and Sunset - Victoria, BC (Part 8)

From 7/17/2013 to 8/2/2013, I took a road trip from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Half of the trip was spent driving up the west coast. On my trip, I visited many famous places such as Seattle, Butchart Gardens, Mount Rainier, and much more. Obviously I got many coastal shots and many places that isn't as famous. The reason I am posting it now is because the high amount of photos I took equaled a high amount of processing time. I took a bit over 2000 photos on the trip. After stitching the panoramas, compositing the HDRs, and picking out photos from the repeats, I have a bit over 1000 photos to show you guys. The photos will be split into parts. I will link you to the previous and next parts on each post just like I did with my Death Valley National Park photos and my Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park photos. Hope you enjoy viewing this chain of posts!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best sunset and night time Victoria photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of my day 7 photos, use this link.

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After visiting Chemainus, I headed back to Victoria, BC. Today I have photos from Fisherman Wharf and some sunset shots in Downtown Victoria. These are my last few photos from Victoria, BC. The next day, I took a ferry to Vancouver, BC.

That shadow is me. This was my first photo from Fisherman Wharf. The fish and chips I ate there was very very good. Just looking at this photo still reminds me of it and I am getting hungry. LOL With that said, taking a photo of the food never crossed my mind...

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 22 N 123 22 58 W   

Another photo from the wharf.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 22 N 123 22 57 W 

 People going on a whale watching trip. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 23 N 123 22 55 W

Canada geese (Branta canadensis). I thought they made a nice composition. Sadly it was kind of hard to frame up the shot as the pier was a bit wobbly. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 22 N 123 23 02 W    

Tried to reframe my shot, but those Canada geese (Branta canadensis) swam away...  

Photo of boats at the wharf. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 23 N 123 23 04 W   

 Another photo of the boats. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 24 N 123 23 03 W

Boat docked at the wharf. Seagull standing on a light. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 25 N 123 23 03 W    

When framing up the shot, I noticed the polarizer made a dark strip of light in my shot while I was rotating it. I thought it would make a nice shot if I rotated it so the shadow highlighted the seagull. 

More photos from the wharf. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 24 N 123 23 05 W    

 A gas station for boats. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 24 N 123 23 07 W

Back in Downtown Victoria for a few sunset shots. A photographer from the day before said the boat made a nice subject for sunset. I gave it a few shots.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 23 N 123 22 14 W   

Another sunset photo.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 21 N 123 22 18 W   

A closer shot of the boat. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 48 25 23 N 123 22 15 W   

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I will show photos from my ferry ride traveling from Victoria, BC to Vancouver, BC. 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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San Francisco, CA 11-16-2013 (Part 1)

Recently (well technically around half a month ago), on 11-16-2013, there was a photo walk in San Francisco that I had participated in. I am here to show you some of the photos I shot while on the photowalk. The photos will be from the Embarcadero, the Financial District, and Chinatown. I will be splitting the photos into 2 parts.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best San Francisco photos, use this link. To view all of my photos from this San Francisco trip, use this link.

Parts: 1 | 2 |

The photos for today are from the Embarcadero and the Financial District.

Message from the Photographer: Since the road trip photos from my trip traveling from the SF Bay Area to Victoria, BC, Canada is going to be a very long, I decided I'm going to splice these San Francisco photos in the middle as these were pretty recent. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos!

I first start off at the Embarcadero, which was very crowded that day due to the flee market near the Ferry Building. I did some street photography style shots while there. Here is a photo of someone's pet dog. A few of us photographers went to go pet it. I just took a photo of it. 

Here is another photo of the dog. 

A black and white process of the above photo.

Here is a photo of bok choy at the flea market. I thought it made a great photographic subject for street photography. 

I also did a black and white process of that. 

Here is a photo of a guy writing poems for money at the flea market. I couldn't quite make out what he was writing from my photo... 

I thought a black and white process gave it a better street photography feel, so I did a process this way too.

Here is a photo of a seagull at the flea market. Wasn't scared of me at all. I got pretty close to it. 

Now the photo walk group heads into the Financial District. Please note the GPS coordinates I give you may not be very accurate. The Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver does not work too well in big cities with tall buildings as with all GPS systems. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 31 N 122 23 54 W  

Here is a photo of the old Stock Exchange Building. It is no long used for that purpose, and according to a few of the other photographers is now used as a gym. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 47 29 N 122 24 04 W  

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I have the rest of my photos from San Francisco. 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 |