HDR Photography
I shot another horse show this weekend, which meant a trip to gorgeous Woodside, California. I’d been to nearby Menlo park before, but I was still unprepared by the amount of trees and topography I found. Having a longer lens on to shoot the horses worked really well to compress the series of hills and valleys leading up to the bay. Coming from the East Bay, it was still astonishing to see houses tucked in among the trees. (It almost looks like something from the east coast.)
Berkeley’s machine shop really is one of my favorite places–so much so that I keep posting on it. It’s so unlike the world of modern consumer technology, and simultaneously so integral to accomplishing much of my scientific work, that I can’t help but feel an attachment.
Today’s shot features one of the enormous lathes that take up the majority of the space in the shop. Every control is manual, mechanical, and enormously satisfying to actuate. Once it’s up and running, the amount of kinetic energy is pretty intimidating.
I’ve already posted a few shots from inside the Westgate Hotel, but very few of the view outside. The civic center area of downtown San Diego has a strange claustrophobia to it that I’ve not felt in cities like Chicago or New York, despite their narrower streets. As the morning light first started to battle past the towers, I was feeling this constriction most poignantly.
I’ve posted previously on the benefits of Berkeley’s gorgeous campus (and particularly the top of the Chemistry complex.) Today’s shot of Piper relaxing in the sun is perhaps the purest representation yet of how amazing a break can be. Any moment away from the lab bench is heaven when you have a view like this. (Or the right playlist.)
Though, like anyone else, some days at work turn out to be excellent while others are slogs to the finish, my morning walk to work is always a high point. I cross this little bridge over Strawberry Creek and stare up at the redwoods and inhale those great pine-y smells–much better than any cup of coffee!
At UC Berkeley, 4/20 is celebrated as a major holiday. At the appointed hour, students and staff gather on Memorial Glade. Today’s shot was taken about an hour later, as folks dispersed and things wound down. The amount of trash and litter left behind was a little sad; it felt like the end of a music festival.
This shot is a single-RAW HDR, derived from a shot I took almost randomly when I was last in San Diego. I loved the muscles of the horse contrasted with the regular pattern on the palm behind it. Still, I’m a little disappointed by how much clutter is in the shot. It’s surprisingly difficult to get “clean” shots in an area like Show Park.
When I last visited Palm Desert, I found a variety of very strange things. (Some of which I’ve posted about before.) This particular lagoon stores water to keep the dust in the show rings down. I was just astonished to find it; wandering around in the desert, I saw no indication of its existence. When I saw the gorgeous turquoise of the reservoir, and the way the netting reflected off the water, I felt like I’d found an oasis.
I previously posted a narrower shot of this heavily-graffitied gun battery in the Marin Headlands. It really is incredible how much time and effort have gone into layering art on top of a concrete structure that began as so monolithic and practical. Adding in the encroaching pine needles makes for one Hell of a juxtaposition.
This weekend, Brendan and I blitzed down to Half Moon Bay (or just north of it) to catch the sunset. The beach was arched and curving from the local currents, the waves were seriously up, and I got the camera on the tripod just in time to catch today’s shot.
My last trip to La Jolla, CA gave me a chance to shoot from the summit of Mt. Soledad. I’m continually astonished by the degree to which nature has been remodeled by the folks who settled California.
My time at San Diego’s Westgate hotel really was delightful. As I described previously, the environs are beautifully refined by the standards of West Coast lodging. Every wall was clad in these wonderfully-texted wallpapers, and every door used (instead of a keycard) the most fascinating electronic keys. It all felt Byzantine and sophisticated and antique.
Just after New Year’s Day, I had the chance to visit the beautiful Legion of Honor fine art museum in San Francisco. Though the museum itself is full of totally stunning works, perhaps the local architecture is even more stunning. The mix of natural and man-made elements in the setting feels so totally elegant.
Brendan and I don’t talk much about graduate school (in part because who wants to hear us complain?), but it still has a big impact on how we view the world. Long hours in windowless lab spaces make us really appreciate how amazing it is to feel the sun on your face.
There’s a particular balcony on the seventh floor of Tan Kah Kee Hall that has a clear and unrestricted view of nearly the entire San Francisco bay, and stepping out onto that balcony after spending all day down in lab can be utterly overwhelming. I think this picture really captures that feeling of the sun on my face at the end of a long, and the incredible relief that brings.
I spent last week trapped in the San Diego convention center for the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. I say, “trapped,” not because the meeting wasn’t interesting (it was), but rather because convention centers give me precisely the feeling of being in an airport without every having the chance to actually leave. The same cheapy-modern design, the same overpriced food, and the same sense of being surrounded by other people who are just as unfamiliar with their environment as you are. It’s all a bit alienating.
Still, the “Historic” Gaslamp District (Come see the 2002 Borders building, a relic of a bygone era!) can be reasonably photogenic at sunset. The area around the convention center, much like Miami, is overfilled with palm trees that always feel a bit odd in comparison with the native plants. In spite of all that, the sun reflecting silhouettes off the polished glass facade of a building makes for a gorgeous skyline.
