a Saturday photo-walk in San Francisco

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I often like to joke that just like a dog my camera enjoys going on walks, but on Saturday I met up with a small group of like-minded photo enthusiasts for a "camera walk" and we had great fun snapping-up-a-storm. Yes, fun!



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

The Ferry Building's Farmer's Market bustled with activity and colorful food.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I'll have more tomorrow about Jerry Downs, the professional photographer who led this walk, but he encouraged me to get out of my comfort-zone and "shoot" some people. Oh don't worry--I wasn't using real bullets.

Tomorrow I'll report on the photo-walk we did on Sunday in San Rafael.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

Photoshop -- god's gift to mankind

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

When I was just a wee lad, and long before I caught the photography bug, I can vividly remember announcing to my mother that I wanted to be a writer and asking her what I should write about. She threw-me-for-a-loop when she constructively told me to write about things I knew. The only problem was I didn't know much about anything at all. And so, ladies and germs, that was the end of my career as a writer. The nail in the coffin, so to speak. Finis. Da end. That's all folks...

The great thing about photography is that it is a tool of discovery. And really, squeezing off the shutter really doesn't take a lot of talent. We even have great tools like Photoshop to fix our mistakes and to make the impossible possible. Used with restraint and a bit of skill, we can use image editing programs like Photoshop to get the very best out of an image.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

So, this (above) is what I started with. I have admired this scene (where Platform Road intersects with Sir Francis Drake Bouleverd) many times, but it is so far away, even with my long lens, that I have always passed it by with a tinge of heartache. Getting closer to the hills just doesn't work--there just isn't a good vantage point other than this far-away view.

Photoshop to the rescue... I was able to carefully "squash" that tall expanse of foggy clouds into a more compact mass. They call it the "Content Aware" tool. What it does is look for areas in the image with very little detail, squashing those low-detail areas instead of areas with more important information. The technique must be used with upmost care, however. I did the squashing in several stages--baby steps--to avoid the generation of artifacts and other deleterious image effects. To help reduce the risk of inadvertently modifying those beautiful hills, I "selected" only the sky for the Content Aware tool to work its magic.

Hopefully I was able to pull this off without detection. This will be our little secret. Lets keep it on the q.t... o.k.?

Hey, and I know what at least one of you are going to say--that you like the "unprocessed" vertical edition better. Oh, don't worry--all of my photos here on the AphotoAday blog come with a money-back guarantee. Yuck, yuck...


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

giving trees a special treatment

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Most photographers these days are completely willing to share their special techniques and secrets, but I know this has not always been the case.

Back in the early 1960's, when I was a lad of not more than 14, I attended a lecture at the American Federation of Arts in Carmel given by a high-falootin' and highly regarded photographer of the day--Wynn Bullock. He was a master of the 8x10 "view" camera, and his landscapes frequently incorporated nudes. I was a big, big fan.

But the lecture did not center on the work that had gained him fame. Bullock announced that he had begun a new direction for his work--colorful glowing abstracts, which I now assume were big broken chunks of glass illuminated with colored lights. I thought this new work was wildly creative.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed his slide-show, but several hands went up during the question-and-answer part of his lecture, and most everybody wanted to know exactly how he had made the photographs. But no, he was not willing to share his secrets, refusing to answer question after question. The audience became restless and some even became angry and vociferous.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Anyway, I am perhaps only famous in my own mind, but I am perfectly willing to share my secrets and special techniques. The images I am showing here are completely experimental. Oh, you may have heard of that old quip; "lets run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes"

Getting overly creative with the power of Photoshop is something we photographers all go through--and usually the results are an assault on the eyes. The jury is still out on what I have done here. In addition to changing from color to black-and-white, my basic technique was to reduce the "Clarity" setting in the RAW converter (CameraRAW) before making final tonal adjustments in Photoshop. A penny for your thoughts...


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

avoiding that which is derivative

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

A year or so ago I was having lunch with a very fine photographer (who doesn't need any publicity from me) (J.M.S. for those of you who know her), and along with her normal wisdom she offered a statement that I hadn't thought much about--that, sadly, "all art is derivative". That is to say that everything has been done before. Not that we consciously copy the works of others, but we replicate what we have already seen and have appreciated.

Her statement got me thinking about the non-originality of my own work, and yes, perhaps it is true. But it also inspired me to seek out new ideas and subject matter. I decided tht my motivation should be to find new ways of seeing, and to thoroughly explore the discovery process on a personal level.

Oh, I'm fairly sure I'm not the first photographer to shoot ripples on a lake, but since this epiphany about derivative work, patterns of ripples like these have been new and exciting subject material for me.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

This ripple photo (above) is not new--taken in May of 2012. It hung this year in the Marin County Fair photo exhibit. Better, I think, than the first photo.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

differences between sunrise and sunset

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

That is a sunrise (above).
-----------------------------
I've always wondered if it was just my imagination or if it was true--that sunrises seem more brilliant and colorful than sunsets.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

That is a sunset (above).
----------------------------
Well, the word-on-the-street is that during a sunset our eyes just can't adjust fast enough to keep up with the rapidly darkening conditions.

Early in the morning our pupils are wide-open, ready to notice even the faintest offerings of color. At dawn, colors are less "washed-out" by the brightness of the day.

Taking all of this into consideration, I think it is logical to assume that the colorful drama of sunrise lasts longer, time-wise, when compared to a sunset. Where is my watch?


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

G.G.B., in a few of her permutations

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Given a choice, I would prefer to view my Golden Gate Bridge very early and in relative darkness. I enjoy the quiet stillness. 6AM this time of year is just about right. But earlier----yawn----would probably be even better.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Breaking a rule here... I shouldn't be mixing color with black-and-whites.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

A bit of our beloved Golden Gate fog. No choices, and no rules... It just is.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

experiments -- plenty of room for failure

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Well, if there is anything I enjoy more than kissing pretty ladies it would probably be snapping that shutter of mine. But truth be told--opportunities for kissing pretty ladies around here are rare. On the other hand, with the camera, it is just one snap after another. Snap, snap, snap...

Sometimes I like to get a little bit experimental. Sometimes this works out and sometimes it doesn't. I'm really not too sure about this one (above).



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I'm a bit more confident about this mirrored image (above), but I still don't think I've quite found my groove. I've just discovered that my Ohio-based buddy Jan Bell of Bell Images has borrowed this mirrored technique for one of his website images (column2, row3), so maybe I am on to something.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

seeing is believing

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

This is my heartfelt memorial to all of the toll-takers at the Golden Gate Bridge, actual human beings, who lost their jobs in favor of cold, impersonal, and thankless machinery.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

...


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

China Camp on San Pablo Bay

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I had already been feeling sorry ENOUGH for myself with places like the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore shut down until members of Congress get-their-heads-out-of-their-asses, but for the past few days we have been having "Red Flag" conditions--dry and windy days that have closed down some more of my favorite places, like Mount Tamalpais.

Then there have been the "plain vanilla" skies, cloudless and uninteresting.

The scene (above) is from China Camp, on San Pablo Bay, the top "thumb" of San Francisco Bay. This is another scene that I rarely pass up.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

mysterious beached boat, Tomales Bay

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

A diligent reporter would have more facts regarding the venerable "Point Reyes" trawler, such as when she was built and who captained her. Or maybe of more general interest--why she ended up stranded here on the shores of Tomales Bay. But in reality, I haven't got a clue.

But I DO know that this boat gets photographed a LOT. Seldom do I pass her up--she has been resting on that lonely sand-bar, abandoned, for years.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

the colors of sunrise

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Red can be brief and elusive. Pinks and oranges usually take up the slack.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

foggy hills of early morning

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Left to their own devices and perhaps a bit of ground fog and clouds,
the hills surrounding Nicasio often take on their own brand of moodiness.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

Foggy and slow at Rodeo Beach

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

With the Federal Government shut down, places like Point Bonita, Rodeo Beach, and the entire Golden Gate National Recreation Area are locked down, tighter than a drum.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

On Monday I realized it might be my last chance for a while to get soaked to the knees by those sneaky and foamy waves.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.

Bean Hollow, San Mateo Coast; and a "new trick"

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I'm just having way too much fun with my new Neutral Density filter.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

I am now able to take lengthy exposures in daylight, capturing movement.


CLICK for 40 photos on what I call my "big site"; photoarrow.com.
CLICK for "Photographing Marin County"; my Marin County exhibit.