F Market to the Castro

F MARKET | CASTRO

“F this train! (Don’t worry, it’s all cool.)” – January 3rd, 2011

Even when I’m otherwise pissed off at SF Muni, the F line always pulls through. It’s one of my favorite ways to travel through the city — the historic cars, the old seats, and the awesome growl of the train as it travels down the tracks. It’s not the quickest, but it’s fun!

I’m published!

In 2002, I went on a geology field trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Before hiking into the canyon, I took a shot of our class hiking down into the canyon with an old Olympus C-3000Z point and shoot (a crazy, 3.2 megapixes).

Recently, a publisher contacted me to license the photo for the cover of a geology textbook. After negotiating a price, I happily agreed! The featured photo is below:

Grand Canyon Trip

Interestingly enough, a former girlfriend who was on the same trip (not in this frame), would proclaim a number of months later that I was a “poor photographer.” Hah, it’s ironic that this particular image ended up being licensed!

What a missile launch looks like in Southern California

The media is abuzz about a mysterious “missile launch” that happened off the coast of Southern California yesterday.

Interestingly enough, while growing up, I remember seeing a number of missile launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base while at our home in Southern California, nearly 220 MILES east of Vandenberg’s launch facilities! I looked through my photo archives this evening and found a series of (very blurry) photos I took on September 19th, 2002 from my parents’ house in Redlands, California.

You can read more information about this particular launch (along with some REALLY COOL photos) right here. It was a test of the Minuteman III rocket and this specific launch is referenced as “Glory Trip 180GM.”

2002 - Southern California Missile Launch

2002 - Southern California Missile Launch

2002 - Southern California Missile Launch

It’s a shame the Space Shuttle never ended up launching from Vandenberg. We would have had fantastic seats for the launch, even though we were 220 miles away!

Fort Wellington, near Korcula, Croatia

Korcula Panorama from the top of Fort Wellington

Click here for larger size.

In 2008, a number of friends and I traveled around the Adriatic Sea on a sailboat, visiting various islands off the coast of Croatia. Toward the end of our trip, we stopped by the small coastal village of Korčula (map).

While there, I decided to take off for a bit and go on a hike outside of town. I stumbled across an old fort hiding in the woods.

Fort Wellington, near Korcula, Croatia

Curious about it, I walked inside to explore it for a bit. I’ll admit, it was kind of dark, dusty, and rather creepy. But also pretty cool!

Fort Wellington, near Korcula, Croatia

Fort Wellington, near Korcula, Croatia

I even found a way onto the roof of the structure, where I took the awesome panorama that you see at the top of this post.

As I was falling asleep a few nights ago, I thought about this trip and this structure specifically. I still didn’t know anything about it and random internet searches over the past two years revealed nothing.

I had the idea to load up Google Earth and view a layer of Panoramio, which shows photos embedded at where they were taken. While viewing the area near Korcula, I noticed a number of photos near the fort I had stumbled across. And they were named!

The mystery was solved: Fort Wellington!

This is the English tower Fort Wellington that was built in 1813 on the place of the Venetian fortification of the open type from 1616. It is located on the hill above Korcula Old Town, about 20 minutes walk along the steps from Plokata – the main square.

This building is currently deserted and is dangerous to climb the staircase inside the tower, as they are old and unreliable. Forteca tower is also devastated by horrible mobile phone network cables and transmitting masts that are placed there by Croatian mobile phone company.

Built in 1813, dangerous to climb, but awesome views. So fun! Interestingly enough, when I visited in 2008, they had actually taken the transmitting masts off the top of the building and moved them to a structure located near the building.

Anyway, it was a fun mystery to finally have solved! I’m glad I took the chance to go exploring for a bit. Bonus: the views on the hike back down to Korcula was top notch as well!

Hiking to Fort Wellington from Korcula

They’re back!

blue_angels_2.jpg

blue_angels.jpg

It’s Fleet Week 2010 here in San Francisco. And so begins four days of jets flying over San Francisco, to the excitement of some and the ire of others!

I took this photo from the top of our office building in SOMA today with a Nikkor 400mm f/2.8 lens. The thing weighs more than I do.

Looking forward to scoring some more ridiculous shots with it.

Nikon is stepping up their game

d7000-2bdf-640.jpg

Nikon announced their successor to the D90, the Nikon D7000 (what is up with these model numbers?). I’ve thought about potentially purchasing a new camera at some point in not too distant future. My Nikon D300 is still serving me well though and ultimately, I’d like to upgrade to a full frame camera (hello, D700 successor?).

That said, this still sounds like a great camera that’s reasonably priced for the feature set. It’ll probably have great lowlight capabilities and make a fantastic backup body.

*High Resolution 16.2 MP DX-format CMOS sensor for large prints and tight cropping

*High Speed 6 frames per second continuous shooting up to 100 shots captures the most fleeting action

*Ground-breaking 2,016-pixel RGB (3D Color Matrix) sensor delivers more accurate control of light metering and optimizes the Scene Recognition System for exposure, white balance, focus tracking and iTTL flash control

*EXPEED 2 image processing and 14-bit A/D Conversion provides smooth tones, rich colors, and fast camera performance

*Large Bright Glass Pentaprism Optical Viewfinder with approx. 100% frame coverage and approx. 0.94x magnification

*Twin SD Card Slots with SD, SDHC, SDXC memory card compatibility gives you options to keep on shooting or separate your NEF (RAW), JPEG and movie files

My favorite iPhone photography apps


Originally posted as a discussion on gdgt.

Since I've had my iPhone 4, I've noticed that I've been using my other cameras less and less. My poor Nikon D300 and even my S90 remain either at home or in my bag. It's simply easier to pull a phone out of my pocket and take a quick snap. Especially now that the quality of pictures (at least in decently lit to well lit settings) are pretty good!

I've been playing with *a lot* of iOS camera applications. I'd be willing to wager that I have more photography apps on my iPhone that any other type of application. Here's a rundown of some of my favorites. It's by no means a comprehensive or complete list!

1. Hipstamatic ($1.99)
hipstamaticapp.com/
I think this is easily on everyone's list. The vintage effects are pretty cool, plus there's a number of different lenses and film types available (for purchase) that you can play with. In my opinion, the only downside of this app is that you can only use it for live photos -- that is to say, you can't import images from your library. The developers claim that they do this to capture the live and spontaneous nature of photography. While I agree in principle, sometimes I'd like to have the option to take an image and just post-process it however I want.
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /rockbandit /4601082...

2. Incredibooth ($0.99)
incredibooth.com/
(iPhone 4 only) It's made by the same developers who created Hipstamatic, and is aptly described as a "photo booth in your pocket." It's a fun application when hanging out with friends. It utilizes the front facing camera, so it's iPhone 4 only. You have the choice of 3 different lenses and it takes a series of 4 photos in quick succession. It's one of those applications that instantly put a smile on anyone's face when they see it in action. It's extremely well executed.
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /mariss007 /47867714...

3. Autostich ($2.99)
www.cloudburstresearch.com /autostitch /au...
Want to create panoramic photos with your iPhone? Autostitch provides an easy way to do it. First, you need to take a series of photos using the native camera application. Then you open up AutoStich, select your photos and it auto detects edges and overlap and creates a pretty seamless panoramic photo! One of the things I dislike about this app -- the fact that you have to take the images first and then open up the app. I wish there was a way to take the images within the app (while still saving each discrete image to your photo library, should you choose to). Also, it hasn't been updated in awhile. Not that it necessarily needs it, but I'm curious to see what sorts of improvements the developer can make to it, especially since they aren't the only app of this type in the iOS photography space.
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /rockbandit /3804256...

4. OldCamera ($0.99)
www.freshapps.com /old -camera/ (non-official link)
This app creates old time looking photos using a number of black and white / greyscale / sepia / vignetting effects. I enjoy the pictures it creates, but sadly, it limits the photos it outputs to a max of 1600 pixels. Also, you can only shoot photos from within the application, so that means no importing some amazing photo that you took.
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /rockbandit /4803094...

5. Polarize (free!)
www.apptism.com /apps /polarize
Simple! It creates photos with a polaroid style border and applies the appropriate effects (increased saturation, vignetting). You can take a photo from within the app or import something from your library. Sadly, this is another that hasn't been updated in a long time, but you can't beat the price of free!
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /martino _pietropoli...

6. You Gotta See This! ($1.99)
www.boinx.com /seethis/
(iPhone 4 only) This app uses the gyroscope within the new iPhone 4 to create a panograph. This is similar to a panoramic photo, however the photos are overlaid on top of each other in a rather non-blended fashion. It creates a pretty cool effect that previously took me a LONG time to recreate using Photoshop. I wish the pictures it output were a bit higher resolution. But it's pretty unique when taking photos of buildings and various landmarks that are either very tall or very wide.
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /rockbandit /4860163...

7. TiltShift Generator ($0.99)
artandmobile.com /tiltshift/
Have you ever seen those forced perspective images that create crazy depth of field illusions (where everything looks miniature)? Originally, it required an expensive lens (or some Photoshop trickery). Some zany developers created an Adobe AIR app and eventually ported it to the iPhone. Now you can create your own tilt-shifted images. When used correctly, the results are pretty stunning!
Example: www.flickr.com /photos /greyvdm /4447376166...

8. Camera+ (was $1.99, temporarily unavailable)
campl.us/
There are a number of applications that have added functionality to the iOS's native camera client -- grid lines, digital zoom, timed images, etc. Camera+ was one of the most unique and well executed apps in this category. Recently, they added a novel concept via a URL hack. It allowed users to take photos using one of the volume buttons on their iPhone. Unfortunately, this ran afoul of the rules and rightly or wrongly, their app has been pulled from the App Store. Hopefully we'll see an updated version back in the near future!
Example: I wouldn't really say I have any examples, since it's just an enhanced camera app.

9. Cam-u-flage ($1.99)
www.sebastianarena.net /ourApplications /c...
This is basically a spy camera application. You can set the screen on your iPhone to various backgrounds (or just display a black screen). Turn off the sound, and start tapping anywhere on your screen to discreetly take photos or video. Creepy? Absolutely. But as someone who rides public transportation almost everyday, it can be amazing to document the interesting people one encounters on their daily trips.
Example: www.facebook.com /photo.php ?pid =3556867 &a...

What are some of your favorite camera apps?

In search of Paul Bunyan

This weekend, I went camping and canoeing on the Russian River with friends. Near the town of Guerneville, I had an interesting case of real life deja vu.

Standing in front of an RV park near town was a giant statue of Paul Bunyan. How giant was he? I am standing in front of him, for scale.

You might be wondering why this is notable, or why anyone would even care.

I actually grew up near another large Paul Bunyan statue, located in the small town of Mentone. It was the strangest thing to see, heading to school or back home every day. A large statue of the infamous lumberjack, just sitting in front of someone’s yard. It’s still there today!

Here’s a photo I took while visiting my parents a few years ago (yes, that’s also a Statue of Liberty head sitting on top of a roof). It’s nearly identical!

Mentone, California

What sort of madness is this? A flaw in the matrix perhaps?

An amusing MMS exchange

My parents have really enjoyed their iPhones since they picked them up last year. In fact, they’ve even taken to sending both SMS and MMS messages to both my sister and I. It often results in some amusing exchanges.

Recently, my sister made a blueberry pie and sent an image of the results to both our Mom and myself.

After receiving this picture, my Mom quickly sent back the following as a reply.