San Francisco « HyperSprite

Seagulls at the Pier in San Francisco

San Francisco City Hall in the Blue Hour

Honestly, I took this shot from the back seat of a moving car. I was watching the skyline and predicting what intersection I would see it in. Set up the camera for a higher iso and this is what I got.

Nighttime in San Francisco

San Francisco Zoo on a Foggy Day

This post is for my friend who was not feeling so well today. Hang in there, I hope you find something in here that makes you smile.

This was another trip to the San Francisco Zoo. The beach was foggy and cool which to me seem like perfect Zoo conditions. For whatever reason, many of the animals are up and about, at least in the morning and you don’t get the harsh shadows and as many blow on backgrounds. This current set is with very minimal post processing, mainly just some cropping, so I could get these up tonight.

A little low-fi work at the San Francisco Zoo

This was just having a little fun with post processing.

One of my favorites at the San Francisco Zoo

This Eagle at the San Francisco Zoo is one of my favorites. Basically she is a rescue bird. Her wing was damaged and she surely would have died in the wild, but here on her own island, she remains majestic and powerful all the same.

Found on the Digital Darkroom Floor

These two were left behind during post processing as needing more than just a few slider adjustments in Lightroom and have languished in storage until now. After looking at each one for a while things took shape in my head about how to present each photo.

Half Dome from Tunnel View was taken in poor weather this last February (for more form that trip click here). The snow was coming down hard and in the end I was left with very little contrast. I came back to this shot and just took my time darkening areas to bring out the detail I wanted to make the shot convincing.

Golden Gate Bridge on the other hand has very high detail. Taken from a tripod in low wind on a clear evening, I was able to capture details like the streetlights above the road surface. Unfortunately, the color image was uninspiring with a cargo ship and a bit too much in the cloud department. Going to high contrast and painting in the area below the bridge and taking out some of the clouds gave this shot a real focal point and a new lease on life.

Blue Inspired

I was inspired by Chris Orwig’s “Blue” and decided to try doing a little tinting myself.

Clearly Chris Orwig and I are working with different types of shots and even different blues.

This shot was taken while at the Night Owl session posted earlier at the mouth of the San Francisco Bay. Originally this was a throw away because of poor color, lack of detail and haze on the hillsides. What it had going for it was clouds and contrast which gave me something to work with.