Fancy Bay Bridge Lights

The city of San Francisco recently commissioned lights on the Bay Bridge, designed by Leo Villareal.  According to their fact sheet Mr. Villareal is "a pioneer in LED lights and computer-driven imagery."   You have probably figured out that I have a great love of night photography, so I had to get out to take some shots.  The problem with night photography is that it isn't the safest activity for a single female, so I paid for a class so that I'd have people around me.

I think I got some nice images, but I recently invested in a remote, so now I want to go back and take some longer shutter speed shots.  My camera maxes out at 30 sec. without the remote.  Let me know if you are interested in hanging out near the bridge for like an hour after dark!

We started out in the daylight since the class was 6-9 p.m. and the sun wasn't setting until around 8 p.m.

The teacher...



And my best shots...

Moving Clouds

More than a year ago I saw these photos where it looked like the clouds were moving. [Go here for some ideas.]  I was so impressed and inspired that I immediately purchased some neutral density filters for my 24-75 mm lens.  Those filters showed up a couple of weeks later, but by then I had lost interest.  Thus, these filters have been sitting around my house for more than a year having never been used.

The other day I had nothing to do and I noticed that the clouds were moving rather quickly outside.  So I dug out my filters, my camera, my tripod and headed up Bernal Heights. 

This was my first attempt and I learned some things:  1) (this is actually a general "rule" for photography) try not to do this in the middle of the day.  The sun is very high and very bright and thus no matter how dark your filters, you can't keep your shutter open as long as you want because it is too bright.  2) It is easier to focus on infinity than to try to get some depth of field.  This is because you have to focus while the filters are off and then put the filters on afterwards -- putting the filters on can move your focus.  3) It is fine and actually useful to double- or triple-up on the filters.  I used three neutral density filters on all of these shots.

And I think they turned out rather nice.  In fact, I was so excited I went back out the next week to take photos of the ocean.  Because this technique is also used to take those fun pictures of water that look like cotton.  But I'll share those photos on another day.

Today you get clouds...

Walking/Biking around the city

When I'm not traveling off to interesting locales, I spend a great deal of time wandering around my hometown.  Or my current hometown, that is.  San Francisco is just incredibly beautiful and there is always something to photograph. Half of these photos were from a walk up Twin Peaks and half were from a bike ride to Ocean Beach.

Burma Part IX: Hsipaw

Hsipaw has a night market.  Really, it is a very, very early morning market.  We went at 3 a.m. and it seemed to be finishing up.  You may be asking why have a market at 3 a.m.?  Good question! The villages send one member, on their one motorbike, down to town loaded up with all their excess produce. That person is responsible for selling said produce and then buying what the village needs. The market is all closed up, and everyone is home, before breakfast.

I also visited the princess in the Shan Palace. Technically she isn't the princess, her brother-in-law was prince (her husband is his brother). The princess, the Shan Prince's Austrian wife, lives in Colorado now. The Prince was killed by the government. The brother was imprisoned for telling this story to tourists, actually he was imprisoned twice, but now with the government reforms they are allowed to talk to us. This is their home -- they accept donations to help pay for badly needed renovations.

I also took another boat trip, this time down the river.

Pineapple field

This adorable old lady talked our ears off. She lives here at the edge of a fruit plantation by herself. She grows some food and she seems to get around pretty well. She didn't know how old she was.

This is her eggplant.

Village shop

Thatching a roof

Twins!

The government writes the vaccinations given to the children on their house. They do this in chalk, so I'm not sure how long they expect it to stay there, but otherwise this seems like a genius way to keep tabs on vaccinations. I'm assuming people don't move often.

This is called, "the Bagan of Northern Shan." It was nice, but it was nothing like Bagan.

The following photos are from a Nat shrine. Before Buddha, the Burmese were animistic. Nats are spirit gods that protect villages. Every village has a Nat Shrine that includes a bottle of oil the village buries every year under the Nat to bless their fields. The oil is dug up after a year and used for medicine. But this shrine was by far the most elaborate we saw.  [Note: Nat shrines are also incorporated into Buddhist temples.  Buddhism is nice like that.]

How to make rice noodles

1. soak rice

2. squeeze out the starch goo into noodle shape

3. set noodles out to dry

I definitely missed some steps in there, but trust me, none of you will ever make them if only because your family/neighbors will complain about the smell.