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April 23 2012
The Weekend in Review
Oakland is pretty fun!
April 02 2012
Fox Theater in Oakland
This past Friday, we saw Beats Antique play at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
In fact, I’ve written about them before, 2 years ago! It was a fantastic show — featuring a combination of electronic / world music and belly dancing.
Here are few photos from around Fox Theater before the show (taken with iPhone 4 and Hipstamatic).
March 30 2012
Deconstructing Pier 36
I’ve been checking out the progress of the Pier 36 teardown the last few weeks along Embarcadero as I walk home from work each day. The pier is being torn down in preparation for the next America’s Cup regatta, to be held in San Francisco in 2013. It’s been a pretty fascinating process to see!
Earlier today, I snapped a few photos with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic photo app. Black and white make for some pretty dramatic photos of a construction site!
March 28 2012
Monsoon season!
Or something like that. It sure is raining a lot though!
Taken at 5th and Mission.
March 27 2012
Bay Bridge from Embarcadero
I’ve been having a lot of fun with Hipstamatic’s new update (which includes Instagram integration).
Baseball season is almost here!
It’s almost time for baseball to start! I can’t wait. (Photo taken from the outside of right field at AT&T Park.)
February 21 2012
Exploring Oakland
Last summer, Kerry and I moved into the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. For one reason or another, life has been pretty busy over the past 6 months, leaving us little time to explore our “new” city.
Well, that ended today! We set out to Jack London Square and the Warehouse District for some good eats at Chop Bar. It was pretty good! According to various tips on Foursquare, they serve the “best hamburgers in all of the East Bay.” It’s definitely on my todo list for next time.
Walking around Jack London Square, we discovered some tall ships docked in the harbor.
Then there was this awesome statue of Cheemah, Mother of the Spirit-Fire — it’s part of a worldwide project to celebrate ” cultural diversity, world unity and care for the earth.” Awesome!
After that, we walked around Old Oakland. The buildings have this beautiful old architecture about them and the whole neighborhood was just awesome. So, obviously, the only thing I took a picture of was a sign. D’oh! Time to go back.
From there, we walked back to our neighborhood in North Oakland. Interestingly enough, the Oakland North blog is running a series on the history of the Temescal District today.
Speaking of Temescal history, earlier this weekend, some friends and I explored the Kingfish Pub, an old dingy dive bar in the neighborhood. Some commenters on Yelp have claimed that it’s the “second oldest bar in Oakland,” but I’ve yet to find an official verification of this source.
The SF Gate wrote about it last year:
It’s a mystery what, exactly, keeps the Kingfish from collapsing.
The roof sags, the beams lean, the floors slope more than some East Bay hills.
“The whole place is twisted. There’s nothing square in it,” said owner Emil Peinert. “One of the windows just popped out.”
The Kingfish Pub in its natural environment:
All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend in the East Bay and I’ve found myself loving it more and more. Others have mentioned that Oakland is San Francisco’s own Brooklyn. I believe it!
It’s fun. Does this mean I’m about to start saying “hella” though? Maybe not quite yet. 
January 22 2012
2011 Photographic Year in Review
What?! Another year in the history books? I say this every year, but time sure does fly. Especially when you’re having fun. This year seemed like one of the busiest yet! Let’s take a look back at my photographic year in review for 2011.
See previously, my photographic year in reviews for 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.
Quick notes: I probably stuffed way too many events and photos in this post. Sorry! Secondly, it’s interesting to see how many square formatted photographs (courtesy of Instagram) that I have. It’s my primary way of sharing photos these days.
January 2011
I started off the year trying to take a photo per day. Here, I walked town Divisadero in our old neighborhood and shot some random photos of the store front one night. This experiment lasted about 2 days.
Street cars are one of the reasons I love San Francisco.
Speaking of rides in street cars, I kept taking pictures of them / inside them and shot this iPhone panorama.
In early January, Christmas trees are victims in San Francisco.
Kerry took me to the Tonga Room in San Francisco for my birthday. It’s a San Francisco classic. Pool in the middle of the restaurant with a boat and a band.
Our friend Christian celebrated his birthday by scheduling a Mexican party bus to take us around town! Drinks, music, and late night pinatas in the park!
Walking to and from work each day, I’m bound to stumble upon many of San Francisco’s eccentrics. And then document them with my phone’s camera (this is a trend I’ve noticed more and more — I’m using my serious cameras less and less!)
I also picked up this rad bearded beanie (because, you know, I can’t really grow a beard).
To end the month, the group of our friends took off on a chartered wine tour of Sonoma through Terrific Tours.
February 2011
The first weekend of February was Super Bowl weekend! So, we mounted up in our vehicles to head to Lake Tahoe for a winter weekend at a friend’s cabin.
This means there was also some serious Settlers of Catan games going on.
Also, the Starvin Marvin’s BBQ Team decided to help out and provide some tasty treats.
Thanks to a query from Burrito Justice, I went to the SF Library to dig up a research paper on prehistoric humans found while excavating BART in the 1960′s.
Mike Daisey came to town and gave an incredible performance on The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Here’s the setup of the stage prior to the show.
Winters in California aren’t too bad…
A friend of ours had an 80′s themed birthday. Dynamic Dave and Missouri Mike made an appearance.
Kinetic Kerry and Dynamic Dave, 80′s style.
Our cats continued to make me realize how easy they have it. Here, Tegan is thinking about all her worries.
And a tweet of mine randomly appeared on Twitter’s home page. Sweet!
March 2011
It’s been awhile since we’ve been wine tasting, so back to Sonoma we went!
Proving time and time again that we have the laziest animals in the universe.
March also means the South by Southwest festival is happening. Off to Austin, Texas!
Rachel and Kerry pose with the mascot from HootSuite.
And then pose while riding some cheesy rides…
Austin gets pretty crazy during SXSW.
The Texas State Capital Building is pretty neat at night.
The primary reason we were in Austin was for our annual gdgt live in Austin event.
While in Texas, Kerry and I apparently found one of Austin’s classic “love photo” spots.
We extended our stay a few days and had a chance to check out the world famous Salt Lick BBQ outside of Austin.
Don’t forget about all the awesome music! Here, Liam Finn sings some tunes.
After a week in Austin, we flew back home to our fair city.
With BBQ season approaching, I hung out with the Starvin Marvin’s BBQ Team while they practiced cooking some brisket.
I can’t stop taking pictures of the sky!
April 2011
Baseball season begins!
Our friends Scott and Marcie ended up getting engaged! So we hung out at a wine bar to surprise them (courtesy of Scott setting this up).
For our friend Jeff’s birthday, we went out to the East Bay and had a BBQ in the park.
Koa was there to keep us company.
In late April, I ventured out to Kennedy Space Center for one of the coolest experiences in my life — to checkout Space Shuttle Endeavour’s last flight for a NASA Tweetup! It was the experience of a lifetime.
Here is the new Orion module on display at the KSC Visitor’s Center.
An full scale mockup of the Shuttle on display at KSC:
Credentials!
The VAB! Words cannot describe how crazy huge it is. This is where they put together vehicles that take humans to SPACE. And at one point, the MOON!
I’m posing in front of the world famous count down clock.
We also got to go inside the VAB!
Sadly, due to a late thunderstorm and some technical issues that cropped up, the launch was scrubbed and I had to return home. This was the closest I ever got to seeing a Shuttle launch.
May 2011
May was a fairly inactive month for me. Went for a run down to the beach.
There was also a lot of standing around, as Off the Grid SF started up a weekly event at our office building for lunch!
June 2011
Masquerade party at our friend’s house.
Kerry and I moved to Oakland! One of the immediate and obvious differences between San Francisco and Oakland was the blue sky. That’s right! No fog in the summer, baby!
We immediately started checking out some of the neighborhood eateries. Our first stop? Homeroom! Specialty Mac n’ Cheese!
And here is some cute art on the wall at Homeroom:
I flew to New York City for a gdgt live event. I went a few days early to visit my sister, who had just moved back to New York City from Los Angeles.
Brooklyn summers:
Checking out the High Line.
It was pretty fun hanging out with my sister in NYC. I hadn’t seen her in awhile!
July 2011
In July, we went out to Yosemite National Park for a wedding for our friends, Meghan and Andy. It was a blast!
Of course, I had to go for the standard post card shot of the valley.
Our friend Marcie took an awesome photo of Kerry and I while there.
I also borrowed a new camera, the Fuji X100. I had to test it out, so I used my standard benchmarking tool: the nearest feline.
In mid-July, we went back to Austin, Texas for another wedding. This time for Jess and Adam.
We end the month with some more baseball — this time, the Oakland A’s: a minor league team pretending to be a major league team.
August 2011
August! This time, we venture to Seattle for a gdgt live event. Before all the festivities, we stopped by the Sci Fi museum to see the Battlestar Galactica exhibit!
Space Needle!
In mid-August, we ventured northward to the Russian River for a good old-fashioned canoe trip!
Seemingly millions of people flocked to the Mission to taste food from a few dozen food trucks. Street Food Fest was amazing. Amazingly crowded!
My parents and grandparents came up to visit and stayed in Napa. So we went on adventure and rode the Napa Valley Wine Train!
September 2011
We spend Labor Day weekend on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
The other reason we were in Tahoe? Rib Fest!
We managed to sneak in some hiking as well.
Off the Grid held an event in the East Bay at Golden Gate Fields. So, we went out and saw our first horse races. It was pretty fun!
Mid-September, I went off to Chicago for another gdgt live event. It’s such a pretty city!
More Oakland A’s games! (Admittedly, baseball is always fun to see, no matter who is playing.)
Random stuffed animals left around our neighborhood…
Our friends Katherine and Tony got married!
October 2011
Sadly, Steve Jobs passed away early in October. I swung by the local Apple Store to check out the memorial that fans and mourners were building.
Views from the office building: crazy people.
October means Fleet Week! Scott and I went out on a boat and watched the Blue Angels practice. We had pretty epic front row seats.
We ventured north to Sonoma for another wine tasting trip with friends.
For work, the team stopped by the SF MOMA to check out the Dieter Rams exhibit. It was pretty inspiring.
Besides Fleet Week, October also means pumpkin patches!
Dramatic mornings on public transit.
This is how we hack street signs in Oakland.
For our friend’s Halloween party, Kerry and I dressed up as friendly TSA agents.
November 2011
More wine!
And more Dave and Kerry pics after drinking wine!
December 2011
Santacon!
We took a train ride down to Southern California on the Coast Starlight. That was a blast!
The views were pretty epic, too!
October 14 2011
My impressions of the Fuji FinePix X100
This piece was originally posted on gdgt. Check it out, here.
Alright, I meant to post this awhile ago — here are my impressions of the Fuji FinePix X100 after using it for a week.
Pros
- The viewfinder displays all sorts of awesome live data.
Holy awesome, I don’t know why more camera manufacturers haven’t done this yet, but the X100′s viewfinder has a live histogram. For me, it’s totally key when trying to nail a photo. I absolutely love using histograms to try and get proper exposure. Plus, there’s all the usual information (aperture, exposure, ISO, grid view).
Another cool aspect of the viewfinder is that it shows a rectangle that shows the actual field of view of the image that will be captured. This means you can see outside this area and use it for anticipation, planning, or lining up your shot. I love it. - The lens is fast! It’s a fixed 35mm lens with an f/2.0 maximum aperture. The bokeh at f/2.0 is nice. It’s super sharp when stopped down to around f/4.
- Hybrid viewfinder: So, this camera does something kind of interesting. It has a regular old optical viewfinder, but it also comes with an electronic viewfinder as well that can be manually engaged (or automatically engaged when in macro mode) that shows what your camera sees directly from the viewfinder. Sadly, there are cons to this (see down below!).
- Design: The design is awesome. I love that retro style, and the camera is comparable in size to most micro 4/3′s cameras. Except it has an APS-C sensor inside!
- The camera sensor: It’s an APS-C sensor — this is the same type of sensor you’d find in most DSLRs. Micro 4/3′s cameras (which are all the rage right now, and roughly the same size at the X100) have a slightly smaller sensor.
Cons
- I wear glasses now, so when I put the viewfinder up to my face, I can’t actually see all the information displayed in the viewfinder. I can see the field of view of the image, but that’s about it.
- Focus = slow: Oh, man. I lost a number of shots while waiting for the lens to lock focus. It’s actually pretty slow! And this is a problem that I notice happens a lot in low light environments (which the camera should actually be really good at shooting in!).
- Hybrid viewfinder: This camera does something particularly annoying every single time you take a photo using the optical viewfinder. After you take an image, the electronic viewfinder pops up and shows you the most recent image you took. There’s no way to turn this off. Are you in the middle of trying to capture a series of action shots? Too bad! “Snap — view photos for 1 – 2 seconds — snap! — view next photo for 1 – 2 seconds — snap! — oh, my God, just let me take photos and look at things later!”
The other issue I have with this (and all electronic viewfinders in general) is the general poor quality and low resolution of the image you see. - Slow to try and setup for a shot: This might be my limited amount of time with the camera and inability to truly get used to it, but I found it a pain to try and setup the camera properly for shots as I walked around Austin and San Francisco with it. Changing lighting conditions (which normally don’t phase me, even on my DSLR), wrecked havoc on my ability to take photos. There’s not really an automatic mode (for better or for worse) — this camera is for really seasoned professionals who know their stuff (do you know your Sunny 16 rules? If so, you can probably be comfortable using this camera).
October 11 2011
I played with a Nikon D3x this weekend! Holy awesome.
This piece was originally posted on gdgt. Check it out, here.
A friend of mine (see Marcie Lynn Photography) rented a Nikon D3x this weekend for a photo shoot. She took it along on a wine tasting trip a number of us went on, and I had a chance to play around with it.
The photos that came out of this thing were absolutely incredible. That said, it’s a beast of a camera and you probably need a Sherpa or two to help you carry around the camera and lenses.
It’s a 24.4MP full-frame camera. Coupled with a 50mm f/1.4 lens, this thing practically had night vision. It also absolutely nailed the focus on photos and the images were tack sharp.
The really interesting thing about 24.4MP is your ability to crop the image and still maintain high enough resolution for multiple uses. That was the most impressive thing, in my opinion. You could take a group photo of 10 people, then zoom into any one of them, and there was enough resolution and fidelity for a flawless 8 x 10 portrait. Incredible!
The other impressive thing was the image quality at ISO 6400. Properly exposed, you could barely see any grain! Seriously, that’s insane.
This is totally going on my “WANT-but-probably-not-ever-own” list. Anyone have $9,000 laying around?
September 22 2011
September 19 2011
September 07 2011
Mastergram
Remarkable photos made better (or worse) using InstagramAugust 31 2011
Old SF
Old photos of San Francisco overlayed on Google Maps.August 26 2011
Old S.F.
Old photos of San Francisco overlaid on Google Maps.August 25 2011
July 29 2011
July 21 2011
July 12 2011
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