Airshow by accident

Over the weekend we decided to take visiting relatives to Ghirardelli's Chocolate factory. It was my first driving experiment after surgery.

One mistake.. there was an air show in the city around the Pier area and that meant there was no way to anywhere near the Chocolate factory. After driving around for an hour and realizing there was no way to park anywhere close by, not to mention the "pee pee" calls from the kids, we had to make a hasty retreat back out of the pier area.

Luckily when we stopped almost close to the freeway entrance, the planes were still circling around and the camera was in the trunk!

Quickly mounted the 70-200 and clicked a few shots from the sidewalk. The wife was surprised by my impulsiveness but when we came home and she saw the photos, her jaw dropped..

"How did you take that one?" she asked.

Told her that support in buying the 70-200mm is much appreciated. When she realized that she was the proud financier of such worthy equipment, she was beaming!

Next year, we are going to the airshow and parking ourselves at a vantage location for photograph session!

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Conservatory of Flowers - Photoblog

The pictures say it all, the carefully designed park with its nice ponds, rock settings, people, dogs, the conservatory with its amazing displays, the amazing exotic flowers which are being saved from extinction, not to mention Jr.'s new fashion statement of wearing sleeveless Salwar tops with black pants..

A day well spent. Strongly recommended for a half day or full day trip with kids.

Note:

1. Botanical gardens is free. The conservatory of flowers is 7$ for adults, 2$ for kids 5 to 11. Good news is they accept cards. It is totally worth it. Please note, it is like a sauna in there with a water mist automatically coming in every 3-4 minutes from the roof. Keep your lenses covered. Don't wear jackets inside.

2. Parking is very hard to find. For around 10$ you can park in the underground parking below the California Academy of Sciences and walk 10-15 minutes to the Conservatory.

3. There are three restrooms which are free. One next to the conservatory, one behind the amphitheater structure (between the Academy of sciences and the botanical gardens) and one near the entrance to the Botanical Gardens.

Note to self : Next trip..take a frisbee and show the kids how to play frisbee. The breeze was just right for frisbee throwing... well, next time!

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Lens envy

While we were at the Queen Wilhemia Tulip garden yesterday, there was a big crowd and a photo session happening in front of us.

We did not know if the marriage was happening in front of us or it was just a post wedding photography session, but was amazing to watch the way people took their time to pose, get the group dynamic going and the photographer trying to arrange this group shot!

Having tried to assemble 40+ relatives for a family shoot at my Grandparents anniversary ceremony, the difficulty of orchestrating something like this dawned on me again and was in awe at the way this photographer was "conducting" the group.

While the families (us and the cousins) were mostly looking at the wedding dresses, trying to figure out who the groom was, etc. etc. (the kids constantly kept screaming.. who IS she marrying in there?), yours truly was all focussed on the photographer lady's gear.

She had diffusers on her camera that looked like giant cups, a lens that would make my lens look less endowed and a battery pack that was part of the camera and visible almost 80 feet away!

She would run back and forth to the crowd, simply because here instructions would not carry in the noise of the ocean. Yes, this place is a block from the beach, right next to the SFO zoo entrance. Every now and then she would go on a clicking spree and her flash would be so faithful to her.

My 50mm lens was dropped on the ground (after two bounces) and the lens popped out of the housing during our Sacramento zoo trip, the day after thanksgiving. While trying to exchange lenses to enable zooming on a snow leopard that had suddenly decided to give darshan to its waiting devotees, I dropped the lens because it looked up and growled at me.

Not used to being growled at by snow leopards and having a camera and two lenses in my hand, the 50 mm just jumped up and fell some 8 feet away and was in two pieces. It was pushed back in and held with some crazy glue and found to be still functional, but with some caveats.

a. Manual focusing only
b. The lens had to be held against the body at all times (or it would pop out)

After seeing the photographer do her magic, told myself that the 50 mm would be used as much as possible and still get decent pictures. Well, 20% came out good, but that 20% was still worth sharing...

Here are four more photos...

Sometimes old and damaged equipment can still give you good results.. if you are pissed off enough to take it up as a challenge!

I know this is counter productive to justifying my getting a new lens... but the truth is, as they say, the truth!

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Jump fun..

The photo school assignment was "Jump!"

Here is my entry:

Here are other photos that were also considered today (you are allowed to post only one photo per assignment)..

It was a great day for going outdoors today and the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was vibrant with colors. The greens looked green, the blues were vibrant blues, the air was so clear it was a great day to take pictures.. especially when the kids were all so co-operative for the assignment.

More photos from the half day trip tomorrow.

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Mt. Tamalpais - a day trip

We took a trip through the Mt. Tamalpais preserve in San Francisco two weeks ago with San's uncle.

From there we visited Point Reyes for the third time in ten years. This time it was a thursday and could take a lot of stitch shots, thanks to it being just me and San's uncle at the lighthouse.

First we went to the vista point on Mt. Tamalpais where you can see stinson beach and the entire lagoon! (we lucked out because the visibility was really good)

Then we went down back on route 1 to the Point Reyes Seashore preserve and after driving for another 45 minutes we got to the lighthouse. For the first time, tried a composite box stitch shot. Came out okay. Will have to learn and perfect this. (note that you have to eyeball where your last shot was on the Rebel XT! The old powershots will actually split the screen and show you the first shot to align the second one)

You line them up..

Hit Merge on Photostitch ..

and abracadabra..

From the lighthouse we went to Drakes beach, one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to!

Although Chitappa was in two consecutive shots, it stitched him in one piece! Lucky shot..(there are 14 images from which this one was made)

This sweep is from 17 images..

The rock side goes all the way to the ocean

and juts out like some dinosaur leg. Reminds you of Great Ocean drive in Australia.

We also saw a lot of birds and animals we do not see usually when we go on these trips. They were probably out because it was a weekday and there was no traffic.

We saw foxes, hawks, eagles, elk, deer, woodpeckers, cows!

These are not the greatest photos, but because there was this one lane road with no stopping, we had to rush it.

Happy cows come from California. Truly believe it now. If I got to graze on a hillside with such scenery in the background, I would be a happy cow too..

All said and done, a day well spent. Strongly recommended for a one day outing if you live in the bay area!

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