Time passes passing time

During today’s commute home, I took a turn through the Presidio. I wound around a bit and found myself driving up a short, narrow road on the northwest side of the San Francisco National Cemetery. The road ended at a locked gate–perhaps an entrance for workers. No one was around so I parked and grabbed a few shots of these hillside graves:

Presidio graves

Canon G11 in observance.

Wetlands panoramas

Looking for vivid color in natural settings in inland coastal California in September isn’t easy. Everything that isn’t cultivated is either brown or dark green. Today I took a detour off Hwy 101 at N. San Pedro Road in San Rafael and headed out towards China Camp State Park. These shots are different focal length views of the same wide swath of colorful wetlands at the northeast end of the San Francisco Bay (I cropped them for a more panoramic sense of the view):

Petaluma Bridge

Petaluma Bridge

Both shots were taken at ISO 100, aperture 8.0, shutter 1/250. Focal lengths: top shot, 30.5mm; bottom shot, 6.1mm. For perspective, the bare brown hill seen clearly in the top image is left of center in the bottom shot.

Canon G11 looking for color in late summer.

Two not in a series

Since it’s the weekend, here’s a couple more shots from yesterday’s pre-gig camera time in the city… Where we played was catty-cornered to this great art deco building (located at Leavenworth and McAllister):

Art Deco building

And the only place to get a shot of this city garden with the view of City Hall (other than being in the garden) is through the window of the Soluna Cafe & Lounge at Larkin and McAllister:

City garden

Canon G11 hunting and gathering.

The Buddha at City Hall

We had a gig in the city yesterday evening so I had a little time to roam around and grab some shots. Because we were playing close to City Hall I figured it was as good as any spot to park the car and look for something to shoot. The HUGE statue of Buddha was a total surprise! (Oh, and backlighting the scene was a thin veil of fog “filtering” the super bright late afternoon sunlight. Letting the sky completely wash out was not optional.)

This is the perspective shot:

Buddha at the SF City Hall

Buddha at the SF City Hall

And the following two are to show the difference in the face’s “mood” depending on the angle:

Buddha at the SF City Hall

Buddha at the SF City Hall

Canon G11 Zenning out.