San Francisco, CA – Chinatown Art (HDR)

Chinatown in SF if a wonderful place to walk around and check out the sites and architecture. Here is a cool dragon mural I found this day walking the streets.

San Francisco, CA – City Hall (HDR)

While in SF I wanted to grab a photo exterior photos of the City Hall. While waiting for the sun to set I took a stroll inside to check out its interior. Wow! Very nice for HDR’ing! They were prepping for a big party and had it all lit up and set for a wonderful evening for a lucky group of people!

San Francisco, CA – Chinatown (HDR)

From Chinatown in San Francisco, CA…here is a building off the main street with some cool Red Lamps. Not sure if it is still in business, but I found it looking for some alleys. Add in a little selective color to the HDR makes the shot stand out. Chinatown is def an interesting place to walk around.

San Francisco, CA – Coit Tower (Infrared)

From San Francisco, CA…the iconic Coit Tower….also known as the Lillian Coit Memorial Tower located on top of Telegraph Hill. Black & White conversion thank to my new fav “Perfect B&W by onOne Software!! Buh-bye NIK!

Check out Perfect Photo Suite 7 today!!!

San Francisco, CA (Infrared)

I have always loved the before and after shots people post on the net. Many non-IR photographers may not know how a IR photo looks directly from the camera. You can see it above! Processing an IR shot is easy…but you need to know how to work some photoshop magic. This is the full version processed shot below. Enjoy! I may post some HDR shots like this soon!

San Francisco, CA – City Hall (HDR)

From the great city of San Francisco, CA. I had never seen the City Hall up close in all my visits until recently. Here it is in all of its HDR glory! Definitely worth the visit!! Some info from the web: San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city’s Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure’s dome is the fifth largest in the world. The present building replaced an earlier City Hall that was completely destroyed during the 1906 earthquake.

San Francisco, CA – Golden Gate Bridge (Infrared)

From the lovely city of San francisco…the Golden Gate Bridge in Infrared from Ft. Point…my favorite location the shoot the bridge. Enjoy your weekend!

San Francisco, CA – Street Car (HDR)

From the lovely city of San Francisco, CA – this was taken one early morning at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was parked and empty in front of the CVS Store. The driver must have ran into CVS and grabbed a coffee…it is public transportation, the door was open and I decided to go in and take these HDR’s. A few minutes later the driver came back and jumped when she saw me! I guess she had no idea I would be in the car. I felt bad and apologized, she said it was ok and let me continue taking photographs. All for the love of photography! This one is done in Fisheye! Enjoy!

San Francisco, CA – Palace of the Arts (Infrared)

San Francisco…one of the best cities in the US. So many photographic locations! One of the traditional, yet cool spots is the Palace of the Arts. Standard, HDR, Infrared…all good! Tough to go wrong at this spot!

As I am typing this it is near dinner time….as I am hungry..I always wondered why did Rice-A-Roni become the SF treat??

Here is some info from the web: In 1895, Italian-born immigrant Domenico (a.k.a. Charlie) DeDomenico moved to California, where he set up a fresh produce store. A successful businessman, he married Maria Ferrigno from Salerno, Italy. Back home, her family had owned a pasta factory, so in 1912 she persuaded him to set up a similar business in the Mission District of San Francisco. The enterprise became known as Gragnano Products, Inc. It delivered pasta to Italian stores and restaurants in the area.

Domenico’s sons, Paskey, Vince (1915–2007), Tom, and Anthony, worked with him. In 1934, Paskey changed the name to Golden Grain Macaroni Company. Inspired by the pilaf recipe she learned from Mrs. Pailadzo Captanian, Tom’s wife Lois created a dish made up of rice and macaroni, which she served at a family dinner, creating an instant favorite. In 1958, Vince invented Rice-A-Roni by adding a dry chicken soup mix to rice and macaroni. It was introduced in 1958 in the Northwestern United States and went nationwide four years later. Because of its origins, it was called “The San Francisco Treat!” which is a registered trademark.

San Francisco, CA – Alcatraz (HDR)

I have been watching the new show called Alcatraz. Cool show. I heard today that ever since the show started, tourists think there is a special “bat cave” room under the jail and have been wandering off the tours in search of it. No such room is there. Any prison is a great place for HDR. This one has tons of tourists so people dodging is the biggest issue.

Talke Photography Settings:
Lens: Nikon 12-24 f/4.0
Setting: Aperture Mode
Focal Length: 12.0 mm
ISO: 200
Exposure: HDR 7 Exposures (+3 to -3)
Aperture: f/8
Gear: Tripod
Post Process: Adobe CS5, HDR Efex Pro, Coloro Efex Pro, OnOne Software Photo Tools 2.6