Chevy Nova, Capitola

Photo: Chevy Nova on Street, Capitola, California

This whole trip was about exploring new places. Capitola is another place that I had not been to previously. The beach is probably best known for the multi-colored bungalows. On this sunny day it was too crowded over there to walk on the beach and get good photos of the bungalows however.

The downtown area is a cool place to walk around. A lot of boutique shops, restaurants, bars, and classic cars parked on the street. I think there might have been an event right before I got there because the area was cordoned off to traffic except for classic cars. What I found most unique about Capitola was that it reminded me more of Santa Barbara than a town north of Monterey. There is definitely a strong beach culture here.

I was reminded of my grandfather when I saw the Chevy Nova parked on the street because my grandpa used to drive a '62 Chevy Impala and would pick me up from pre-school with that car while my parents were at work. I can't imagine any of today's cars being preserved in this manner 40 years from now. Everything is too mass-produced on a global-scale to be of any sentimental value.

Skyglider Aerial Tram, Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Picture: Tourists Riding Skyglider Aerial Tram at the Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, California

With apologies to my future wife, I took this picture before the accident. Though a travel image, this photo is based on the landscape photography style. I think it is good to learn from all styles of photography because you never know when you might need to use it. Here, I have the tourists and the bench leading the eye toward the aerial tram at the top of the frame. This is not much different than a standard landscape composition with foreground, mid-ground and background elements. Once I found a foreground I liked, I waited until the Skyglider Tram brought along some tourists passing through at the right moment.

In another picture, I photographed some girls riding the tram looking bored out of their mind. It really said a lot to me about today's culture. Kids are so into the texting, instant free music downloads, and video games these days that they can't even enjoy classic family fun like the Santa Cruz Boardwalk anymore. I'm not sure I'd want to raise my kids in that manner. The Boardwalk is much more memorable in my opinion because it brings us back to a simpler time when there was less noise competing for our attention.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Photo: Giant Dipper Rollercoaster, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California

I had driven past the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk twice in the past but had never walked around. The first time, I was on the way to the opening of Frans Lanting's gallery in Santa Cruz and it was raining outside. The 2nd time, I was on my way to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Well this time, I was in Santa Cruz strictly for the Beach Boardwalk.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is one of those places that you can't say you have done the California coast until you have been there. It is referred to as "Coney Island of the West" and for good reason. It's probably the biggest beach amusement park in the West Coast. Pacific Pier in Santa Monica is decent sized for being on a pier, but the Santa Cruz Boardwalk is a full-blown amusement park - a destination of it's own. The best part about it is that it is free to go there.

I felt sort of guilty right before shooting this picture. I was sitting on the curb cleaning my gear when a pretty girl was riding by on her bike. I made eye-contact with her. She smiled. I go back to minding my business. Then about ten seconds later I heard a loud crashing sound. Her tire got caught in-between the railroad tracks apparently. The family sitting next me got up and helped her out because she fell in front of their face. Meanwhile I was sitting there pondering, "What the hell just happened?!?"

The girl was fine and rode off eventually, but I felt like a jerk for not putting my gear down for a second and join in seeing if she was alright... Sometimes it's better to act first and think later. That is a concept that works well for photography as well. Photographers that are too methodical will miss all the important shots during key moments of action. In hindsight, it would have been awesome to have photographed her riding by and falling. :-)

The people riding on Giant Dipper were clearly having a better day.

70-300 @ 142mm, f7.1, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400

Downtown San Francisco Skyline

Picture: Downtown San Francisco City Skyline, Treasure Island, California

Believe it or not, last week was only the 2nd time that I had photographed the San Francisco skyline. It is such a picturesque scene that I wasn't going to pass up another opportunity to photograph it. My best friend used to live on Treasure Island and I was over there frequently, but I never tried shooting this because I was too insecure back then about shooting "postcard rack" pictures. Nowadays I'm all about enjoying the moment.

My favorite image from the photo shoot was a 180 degree panoramic spanning from Treasure Island over to Alcatraz. It took 13 photos to create the panoramic. There's no way of adequately displaying it on the web without it getting ripped off unfortunately.

God Bless America, San Francisco

Photo: Chinese Woman Approaches Caucasian Women in Front of U.S. Flag Mural in Chinatown, San Francisco, California

This scene reminded me of how far society (in California at least) has come when it comes to race relations. I won't elaborate, but it was pretty bad even when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's.

In the next frame, (not shown here) the other lady reached out to take the flier from the Chinese woman but it wasn't visible in the frame from this position unfortunately. I think that would have been a dream picture of mine to have gotten that.

17-35mm @ 17mm, f9, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, handheld

UC Berkeley Tree-Sitters Part II

Photo: Female Tree-Sitter "Dumpster Muffin", UC Berkeley, California

In a recent blog post I discussed the UC Berkeley Tree-Sitters. Well last night, UC Berkeley moved in to remove the tree-sitters at the Memorial Oak Grove.

Here is the story from the San Francisco Chronicle: UC removes tree-sitters' gear before ruling

Here is a YouTube video of yesterday's events: UC Police Extracts First Berkeley Tree Sitter

Update 6/20/08: Food supply support lines have been cut. "Dumpster Muffin" is still in the trees however and not planning on coming down anytime soon according to the Mercury News.

70-300mm @ 70mm, f7.1, ISO 800, 1/400 sec., AP mode w/ pattern metering +1 exposure compensation, flash w/ omnibounce diffuser

Portsmouth Square, Chinatown

Picture: Card Gambling in Chinatown's Portsmouth Square, San Francisco, California

At Portsmouth Square, you can find men and women playing Mahjong or cards all day long, often for money. Probably due to traditional Chinese customs, the men generally stay on one side of the park while the women congregate on the other.

Initially I walked around trying to ask questions about what card games people were playing, but since I don't speak Chinese, it was a futile effort because few older people in Chinatown understand English. Either that or they suddenly "forget" how once they see a photographer...

Next time I plan to spend an entire day photographing Chinatown in better light. In order to get more insightful pictures, I would probably need to hire a well-connected translator as well. I understand some Cantonese, but that is of little use when you can't speak.

17-35mm @ 17mm, f6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 200, handheld / no flash

Chinese Family Association, San Francisco

Photo: Yee Fung Toy Family Association, San Francisco, California

When the Chinese first started immigrating to California during the Gold Rush, most did not speak English. This made it difficult for them to assimilate into society. Combined with the racial discrimination of the time, immigrants needed to form family associations in order for protection. This eventually became The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, more commonly known as the Chinese Six Companies. Individually, the Chinese were weak, but as a group the associations were quite powerful politically.

Fast-forward 150 years later, family associations still exist to help immigrants out when they come to the U.S., and are typically a place where the older generation of Chinese socializes. San Francisco's Chinatown has many family associations, as well as the Los Angeles Chinatown. I would like to have posted a picture of the Wong family association, but I didn't know where it was.

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company Factory

Picture: Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company Factory, San Francisco, California

Four or five years ago I met this guy while walking past a gated side alley. He told me that he was a martial artist and asked if I was interested in photographing him practicing. It was dusk and the light was fading fast, so I tried my best with pop-up flash since I didn't have a compatible flash at the time. I thought it was a rather unusual encounter, but that is what makes street photography interesting.

So I figured there might be something interesting this time around too if I walked the alleys. Walking past this half-opened doorway, I see dingy, factory-like conditions so I popped my head in there out of curiosity. The lady said I could come in so I asked if I could take pictures. 50 cents. I had just stumbled into the fortune cookie factory!

I was quite surprised by how hot and humid it was in there. To be honest, I thought it would be some glamorous, touristy looking shop just like most things in San Francisco. Fortunately that was not the case.

Unfortunately, this picture isn't sharp even shot wide open at ISO 800. The lady was moving and I wasn't comfortable using the flash in her face. It probably would have helped me get a faster shutter speed though by under-exposing the ambient light and let the flash handle the rest. Bounce flash would have worked better than a diffuser as well because a diffuser tends to create hard shadows if the subject is close to a wall or other objects.

San Francisco Seal Rock

After photographing the tree-sitters at UC Berkeley, photographer Greg Lato and I met up with Jim Goldstein at the Cliff House for some landscape photography. Jim broke his toe recently so we chose this location to make it easy for him since he lives nearby. This is him shooting pictures with his $8000, Canon 1DS MKIII. Too heavy for my tastes, but the image quality is unbelievable at 21 megapixels.

Photo: Photographer Jim Goldstein Photographing the Sunset at Seal Rocks, San Francisco, California

Seal Rocks is a location that I had been to many times before when I lived in San Francisco. I enjoyed exploring the trails around Lands End in particular. This spot I had never photographed from however, though it is the most obvious spot to shoot from.

Picture: Seal Rock, San Francisco, California

It was a fun day of shooting. The three of us went for a late dinner afterwards near the Golden Gate Park and I didn't get to Redwood City until almost midnight. Pretty cool way to start the trip.

UC Berkeley Tree-Sitters

I was looking on the internet the other day to learn about the tree-sitters in Northern California when I saw one story about UC Berkeley. The university was planning to chop down the Memorial Grove of old oak trees in favor of a weight lifting facility for football players so a group of protesters climbed the trees 553 days ago and haven't left since. There is a whole community of activists camping in the trees held together by ropes and various other devices.

In response to the actions of the activists, the police have barracaded the group in with fencing and reserves the right to arrest anyone supplying them with food. However, every Sunday at 2 p.m., environmental activists show up in numbers to support them. Presumably with the strength in numbers philosophy.

"Ki Jones" here has been for the past two months. Jones is originally from San Antonio and heard about the Berkeley tree-sit on the radio so he decided to come out west. Prior to arriving in Berkeley he was tree-sitting in the Northern California Redwood coast, and in Oregon.

As he was discussing his background and living situation, a group of Jewish missionaries walked up to us and started questioning Jones and his friends motives. The missionaries didn't seem to see much validity in environmental conservation. Naturally, the tension started to rise, as Jones explained his position while the missionaries remained skeptical.

Among the positions adopted by the tree-sitters:
- Memorial Oak Grove is situated on a fault-line as well as the adjacent Memorial Stadium
- There has been evidence that this was an ancient Native American burial site and thus is sacred grounds
- The world is over-developed as is and the world cannot sustain it's natural resources at the current rate of consumption
- Even though this is just fighting for a small part of the world, we need to celebrate Earth's natural gifts
- The oak trees were dedicated to World War II veterans so they have historical value

Photo: Memorial Oak Grove Tree-Sitter, UC Berkeley, California (Apologies for the poor file quality. I'm using my laptop and have minimal software installed.)

Personally, I found Jones to be a nice guy and passionate about what he believes in. Among his interests is art. He sketched a telephone pole that had morphed in a tree. He intends to make it into a painting eventually. We also discussed photography a bit as well. His grandfather was a professional photographer back in the day so he developed an appreciation for the artform. In fact, here he is posing with my business card! Before I left, I mentioned that I was interested in talking with some of his friends from the Redwood Coast.

The World's Tallest Trees

Picture: Coastal Redwood Trees (Sequoia sempervirens), Muir Woods National Monument, California

Coastal redwoods are the world's tallest trees. The tallest of which are located in Redwood National Park along California's Northern Coast. The tallest redwoods exceed 370 feet in height.

I find redwoods to be difficult to photograph due to their size. I have yet to make an image of them that I am happy with, but I hope to fix that someday.