HDR Photography
When I’ve published photographs from UC Berkeley’s student machine shop in the past, I’ve tended to focus on the enormous, ancient, and immovable machine tools that dominate the shop. The tiny details at the edges, however, are the key to making everything function. Here we see the array of a Allen wrenches, tool bits, and cutting oil necessary to turn a chunk of steel into a precise part.
With the sun setting behind me into the Pacific, the light on the Golden Gate Bridge, the city, and the Bay Bridge beyond it (thus the sandwich effect) begins to shift from golden to deep blue. The lights came on just as the rain started to spit, and the whole scene made me wish I’d brought a thermos of hot chocolate with me.
I took this shot the first day I had my Sigma 10-20mm lens to get a feeling for what it could do. To this day I am still floored at the width of the field of view. It is absurd how close I could get to Berkeley’s Campanile and still capture the whole tower.
It’s a little cold for my taste but the folks around the Bay really like to get out on the water. Right around the Berkeley marina the water is absolutely jam packed with windsurfers, kitesurfers, and just small sail craft of all types. This surfer’s colorful sail really caught my eye here against the sort of drab backdrop of the waterfront condos.
This particularly gorgeous flower was spotted in the garden of a particular Berkeley professor. I’d like to think that adds to the mystery.
Today is a double feature to make up for a lack of post on Tuesday.
This shot isn’t so much about capturing a subject as it is about capturing a time of the year. This was the moment I realized that the season was changing in Berkeley. The leaves were changing color and falling (well, as much as they will in sunny California) and the sun was shining on this fine fall morning in Berkeley.
Going back through old photos is always a trip. This particular shot reminds me how far I’ve come in the past year. At the time I don’t think I thought anything of this picture but now looking at it I really like the contrast between the colors in the sky and the darkness falling over the bay and the silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge. The clouds rolling in from the ocean also add a neat effect.
Little pockets of calm exist all over Berkeley’s hustling campus, but Strawberry Creek on a rainy day is a particularly superlative example. The leaves and water take on this lovely green that perfectly offsets the red needles from the Redwoods above. Against this palette, the textures of the mud and roots are all the more striking.
Part two of the promised double-post, I caught this while playing car photographer with my new f/1.4 lens. Some front damage notwithstanding, this little red Mini is a handsome car, and even better looking in HDR.
First of a make-up double post, this old fountain caught my eye while I was walking through campus playing with my latest lens purchase. The colors and the setting were perfect.
Evening is finally rolling around, low tide has rendered the waves gentle, and the beach is pockmarked by the day’s footprints. If you let yourself get lost in the sky and the mild surf, the sights of people disappear and the mind wanders into the sea.
Today’s photograph was taken by Piper Klemm (who has previously been on the other side of the camera), and really conveys the way quads and paths carved into the trees of Berkeley’s campus. The flow of students between classes gives the image the “campus” feel.
Berkeley’s college radio station, KALX, recently had me in the studio for an interview about one of my other projects, the Berkeley Science Review. While I was there, I snapped a few shots of their mammoth 100,000 record collection. The size of it really was staggering; it’s sort of amusing to remember that it could all fit on a couple of cheap hard drives. What would be missing, of course, would be the gorgeous, enormous album art and the feeling of vinyl in your hands.
This little canyon ends at the beach, and its miniature stream flows back and forth with the tides. On this particular evening, it was starting to rain as the sun set through the clouds. The beach was abandoned, and whole scene felt post-apocalyptic.
To finish off my week of playing car photographer, I present a shot of a very pretty Ferrari 328 GTS which is often seen parked around campus. Here I was really playing with the depth of field, and I may have gone a little overboard. Still, I like the effect, it makes the car look fast, even when its parked.
Decaseconds 