Commute, Photos

Bright afternoon light

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My commute photos are mostly taken between the hours of 2:30 and 4:00 PM. Not the best time for grabbing scenes with dramatic light, but I work with what I get. Here are a couple of shots I took during yesterday’s commute, one towards and the other away from the direction of the sun.

This is the ocean view just southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The coastal view just south of the Golden Gate Bridge

And this is a bay view of Alcatraz from the upper Presidio (for people not familiar with the Bay Area, the dome is part of the Palace of Fine Arts).

Alcatraz from the upper Presidio

Lens: Canon EFS 15-85mm.
First image: 20mm, f/16 for 1/320 sec, ISO 200.
Second image: 70mm, f/16 for 1/200 sec, ISO 200.

Canon T2i working with the light.

Photos, The Homestead

Pole bean gnarl

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This past weekend we had a free day to start work preparing the soil and plotting out our veggie garden. Early May is tomato planting time here in Northern California so we’re getting a bit of a late start. Typically, we leave some things to winter over because it provides the birds with food and perches. The pole bean teepees were still up, so I grabbed some experimental close-up shots with the EX 12 II extension tube between the lens and the camera. I’ve only used the extension tube a few times, but I’m liking the weird results.

Last year's pole bean gnarl

Lens: Canon EFS 15-85mm at 85mm (with Canon EF 12 II extension tube). 1/250 at f/5.6, ISO 200.

Canon T2i focusing on the gnarl.

Photos, The Homestead

Distracted by an arachnid

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The May roses are right on time here in Northern California, and this year ours are particularly nice. Being my Friday off, this morning I grabbed the G11 and headed out into the yard to snap some close-up shots of the lovely yellow floribundas. I saw this spider basking in the warm sunlight so I moved in for a closer look. Instead of a shot of a perfect yellow rose, here’s what I got.

Spider on yellow rose

I thought the original, full frame of the image above was OK, but I cropped off a bit of the extraneous edge details to make a better picture (hence the square format). For fun, the image below is a 100% crop of the same shot.

Spider on yellow rose 100% crop

Canon G11 distracted by an arachnid.

Commute, Photos

Down by the river

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Yesterday, at the end of my commute, I went down by the river to grab some shots. Off 1st Street there are several streets that dead end at the river that have new sitting areas. These two shots were taken from one of the sitting areas (actually at the end of H St.).

Old pilings and river side industrial plant

Very old river pilings

Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm
First image: 26mm, 1/250 at f/11, ISO 200
Second image: 18mm, 1/200 at f/11, ISO 200
Black and white conversion: Nik Silver Efex Pro (version 1)

Canon T2i at the river’s edge.