The lighting on this particular evening on San Francisco’s waterfront was spectacular and created this interesting effect as if the handrail on this pier were illuminated. It makes the Bay Bridge seem much more futuristic if you ask me.
Category: California
Our Own Gold
The water practically glows with reflected light. The buildings tower over the scene. The long exposure captures the trails of aircraft in the night sky. San Francisco’s waterfront along the Embarcadero may not have the most enormous and prestigious structures, but nights like this make that irrelevant. The scene makes “enigmatic” and “cyberpunky” into something almost friendly. (Or at least inviting.)
High atop it all is that fascinating golden penthouse structure. The visual similarity to a treasure chest must be more than coincidence.
Sinister Ginko
The days just after Thanksgiving hold still, quiet moments; the early morning fog was thick, viscous, and sinister as the fairy tale stuff. The poisonous-looking red berries, the gnarled tree limbs, and the mysterious lamposts all seem plucked from the forests of Fillory. The somewhat shallow depth of field makes it particularly surreal.
Bokeh Bus
The bus is inherently uncomfortable: the seats are too hard, the surfaces feel like too many other people have touched them, and the other passengers come with a side of freaky west coast aggression. All of that misery is forgotten late at night; an empty bus ferrying me home is such a calm respite from the sodium-lamp misery of the outside world.
Happy New Year! Urban Canyon during the Day
First off, Happy new year! Been an interesting year and here’s to another interesting year full of interesting photos.
The subject of this photo is familiar, previously appearing at night. If you look closely you might even spy the photographer of the previous shot.
Urban Sunset
Cityscapes, especially at sunset, are a particularly wonderous thing. The light reflecting off of glass, the vistas down the urban canyons, it is really a sight to behold.
Effusion Cell II
This is another photograph from a lab in the Charles Harris Group at UC Berkeley. I previously photographed this effusion cell apparatus from an orthogonal orientation, but I also found this shot at its long axis intriguing. The sense of complexity and purpose, but also the sense of aesthetic minimalism, always attracts me to physics apparatuses.
Long Cabin
Near Berkeley’s chemistry department are the faculty clubs. (Don’t get me started on why there is both a “Faculty Club” and a “Women’s Faculty Club.”) In any case, this lovely redwood log cabin is part of the complex. The tones of the redwood and the green roof tiles gives the picture a hint of holiday feel.
Redwoods
Here’s a shot I captured during an excursion to Portola Redwoods state park in northern California. I didn’t have my DSLR with me and so I was stuck with my iPhone but I figured that I would see what I could do with an iPhone shot with my usual suite of photo tools.
Gold and Green
Wine country in the fall is a little slice of heaven. The rain had passed, the last of the fogs and cloud were rolling past the distant hills, and the golden vines are drifting into hibernation for the colder season. Perhaps vineyards are the best combination of the sophisticated and the bucolic. If nothing else, the slightly artificial reality of Napa contrasts starkly with the slightly artificial urbanity of Berkeley.
Morning View
I felt that marvelous excitement of the first walk with a brand new camera (my D7000, in this case). The sun was slipping past the ivy-encrusted trees in just the right way yesterday, and it felt so fantastic to take this shot.
Clinical
The labs of the Energy Biosciences Building (which, incidentally, looks quite pretty from the outside, as well) are brand new. Just weeks after the lab opened, the desks are already cluttered with equipment. I particularly liked the orange glass dividers running down the desks.
Rosy Facade
UC Berkeley’s Doe Library is impressive enough during the day, but when it’s lit up at night (from inside and outside), it’s truly imposing. On this particular evening, the ruby hue of its exterior really caught my eye.
Big Kid Legos
I am a spectroscopist, and this is my laser. It’s enormous, it’s fiendishly complicated, and it takes an enormous amount of time to keep it cooperative. Nonetheless, I can learn about the basic motions of molecules with it.
The farther along I get, the more I realize that the system basically amounts to Legos for big kids.
High Finance
Skyscrapers really are marvels of engineering. Just think about what it takes to erect one of these massive buildings. I captured this shot in the financial district of San Francisco on a recent outing and decided to see what I could capture by pointing my wide angle lens straight up at some buildings from the sidewalk. Looking up at the sky like this really makes you feel small.
Decaseconds 