St. Joseph's Coat Rose Petals

This abstract shot of Rose Petals was shot with a Panasonic DMC-ZS3 and a Raynox DCR-250 macro lens. Because the ZS3 has a 300mm effective zoom, it's very hard to hold it steady hand-held even with it's optical image stabilization. It is comparable hard to focus. The magnification is also much greater, probably bigger than 1 to 1.

Stanford X-Country RAce

I photographed the Stanford Invitational Cross Country Race today to shoot some sports for a photojournalism class. Huge meet with very little parking and it was hot. After the morning High School races, order broke down and everyone was crossing the red flagged lines, which is good because then I could get better photos. Mostly I shot the Stanford runners because they were in front and I figured I could identify them for my required captions. Here's one that I probably can't identify.

Week 2 Beach Day

Week 2 Beach Day
Originally uploaded by wooac

Example of iPhoto Slideshow from Stanford Camp

Reclaimed Area in Presidio

_MG_3104, originally uploaded by wooac.

My understanding is that this area used to be a dumping ground at the old U.S. Army base. The restoration now has a creek and a play area surrounded by landscaping.

Chance Photo on Lyons Street

Bryan led the Y Walkers on sidewalks near Lyons Street. This shot was taken just above DiFi's house. I'm tempted to smooth out the sidewalk so the guy in the center looks as if he is hanging in midair. This version was straightened but otherwise unmodified.

Fairmeadow Houses

After the Palo Alto Planning Commission meeting, I walked around the proposed "Single Story Overlay" Zoning district and did a survey of these "wonderful" Eichlers and their conditions. The Single Story Overlay  limits new construction to 17 feet. It's the first step to the designation as a "Historic District" which would create another architectural review board comprised of neighborhood activists who would approve any remodels before they could be permitted by the Planning Department. It would also exempt all buildings in the "Historic District" from FEMA flood zone restrictions which would ptherwise force remodels to have the first floor start 5 feet from the ground. The entire neighborhood is somewhere between 5 to 15 feet above mean sea level and there is a major creek about 1/2 mile away.

Most of the neighborhood is reasonably maintained. But there appears to be a bicycle dump at one house. There is another with a small auto repair shop in the front yard. And yet another with extra toilets in the front which I guess were removed during a remodel.

I didn't include photos of my immediate neighbor who has a small tank in his driveway and a 20 foot geodesic structure with an office chair on top in the back. He's not in the proposed "Single Story Overlay" district.

Somebody is painting gang tags on my back fence while the city wants to declare the neighborhood a "Historic District." It's pretty clear that my priorities and my neighbors aren't the same.

Berry Falls

Berry Falls on the Berry Creek Trail is the most photographed and famous falls in Big Basin State Park. This is a panorama image made from 6 positions with brackets of plusminus 1 stop. I had to throw out the plus one image due to lack of memory on the computer where I was running Hugin, the pano app. Surprisingly, I preferred the non-HDR version over the fused because the exposure changed for the images with the white water.

This image was a little difficult to get because the other hikers were pounding on the wood observation platform and shaking it up and down. The sun had not risen high enough to illuminate the canyon directly, so it was quite dark here. The long exposure is why the water is milky.

The image would be better if there were more on the right side. I think there must have been a tree in the way or I would have continued more in that direction.

Intercontinental Hotel

The CAIS Institute Chinese Education Conference was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco from March 12-15th. I shot photos of the conference and two of the field trips to Mandarin programs in San Francisco. I can't display photos of any of the people at the conference but here are two of the hotel. The hotel itself is a 33 floor glass structure directly across from the old location of the California Academy of Science, 888 Howard, on the corner with 5th Street.

Star King Elementary School

These photos were taken during a site visit to Star King Elementary School from the Chinese Education Conference in San Francisco. Star King was a formerly failing elementary school in the Portero District which is now one third Mandarin Bilingual Immersion, one third Spanish Bilingual Immersion and one third normal. It's quite an impressive elementary school and much better than I expected. The school is bright, airy and has high ceiling. It sits on the top of the hill is 270 degree panoramic views.

The Mandarin Immersion program started three years ago so the first class is only now in third grade. Because the large variance in the student population and the lack of native Mandarin speakers, the actual language absorption seems a little slower than other immersion programs. But the students and the faculty seems enthusiastic and it's showing definite improvement.

No faces of either the students or conference participants in these public photos.

YMCA Hike After a Storm

I managed to talk the Hike Leader to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge since many walkers didn't like walking on the muddy trails. The bridge turned out to be very unpopular because the noise and traffic. I suggested it for a rainy day because the bridge is basically a parking lot when it rains. Californians really don't know how to drive in the rain and some of their vehicles are unsafe with the lower rolling resistance. As a test, I carried a fully dSLR this day and shot RAW. After walking around with a P&S Nikon P5000 or a Canon S400, the results were dramatically better with even a consumer dSLR.

High Speed Photography

I setup a rig for high speed photography and every now and then I try something. These are basically pre-focused shots in a dark room which are illuminated by a flash. I'm using an AC powered flash that is designed for Disco dancing. I've tried both acoustic and optical triggers for the flash. This photo was triggered by the noise of the rock entering the water. Thus what you see is the rebound of the displaced water. I think a larger vase might help. Also, since it's pitch black, it's hard to drop the object in the center.

I thought I could photograph directly through a rectangular vase but the optical quality of this cheap IKEA vase is suspect. Mostly the images are very muddled through the glass.

Model Railroad - Conservatory of Flowers

I took advantage of free Tuesday to visit the Conseratory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. The model railroad is still there even if it now has cobwebs. I sold one of these photos to San Francisco Magazine!

Trip to Muir Woods

I volunteered to drive a group of Taiwan Exchange students to Muir Woods. Even though they were 5th and 6th graders, they all had cameras and some had iPods. They basically never stopped talking and seemed much more interested in shopping than large Redwood trees. It appears that "Nature Deficit Disorder" is universal. Gone are the days of digging up bugs or climbing trees. Now everything is an electronic gadget, a new videogame, music players, internet site or cellphone. Reality is now man-made.

Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade

This year I walked with the CAIS float in the Chinatown Lunar New Year's parade. It was quite a privilege and I regret that I might have bumped another parent. My daughter was in the dance troupe in front of the float or I wouldn't have even asked. The last time I was even remotely involved with this parade was at ISTP where basically anyone who wanted to go could walk with the float. (There are now only 5 students in left in the her Chinese class.) Also, the design and building of the float was outsourced to former ISTP families at that time. CAIS does everything with parent volunteers and the kids that ride on the float and the parents who walk are tightly controlled. Also, the parade itself regulates how many can be in the parade.

The parade itself is a lot of hurry up and wait. It is a little confusing because the floats only appear at the last minute in three columns and the participants have to load up before it takes off. It can be a little like the battle of the bands with each float blaring out its music so the participants can practice. Plus there are real marching bands and dragon teams and drums practicing.

There is a surprising amount of power used in each float and each truck carries a large gas powered generator. The CAIS float used multiple halogen work lights for its basic illumination plus the OX's head and tail moved. There is a substantial amount of electrical plus the mechanical engineering. Another major consideration is safety, especially for the small children. The CAIS float had guard rails made of pipe all around it for use as handrails and keep the children inside. And since there are small children, the float carried a portable toilet and not the kind for potty training but one that sits on a 5 gal bucket, plus a frame and screen for privacy. Luckily it was only used once but it was used!

For photography, it helps to be one of the first floats because it was basically night before we even started moving. Most of the illumination was from the truck headlights on high beam and that illumination is extremely uneven. There is a section in front of Macy's where the TV crews film which is extremely well lit. But the float participants are not allow to take video or still shots in that zone (or the float will be penalized in the competition). Never mind that all the spectators are doing exactly this. But those are the rules. So photography and videography was challenging because it was extremely dark but with some wildly bright highlights and you and your subject are slowly walking down through the smoke of fireworks and firecrackers. You have to use a flash but the dropoff is fast and it can't overpower the uneven illumination. If I ever do this again, I'd like to try to use a camera with extremely good high ISO performance.

The previous year the weather was really terrible with high winds, but luckily the worst rains stopped just before the parade time. This year, it had been raining all week, plus it rained the next day, but the weather was mild for the parade itself. But because of the terrible experience of the previous year, the dance troupe didn't wear their normal fancy costumes but rather wore clothes in which they could stay warm if the weather deteriorated. Last year, one of the CAIS dancers made the front page of the SF Chronicle. This year CAIS was not as fortunate.

The float itself told the story of how the rat stole the honor of being the first animal in the zodiac by riding on the back of the Ox. But it was too subtle because you could hardly see the little kids in rat outfits on the top of the Ox. The float had to be explained to me and I already know this story. I think the Head of School or an adult should have worn the rat outfit and rode on the Ox's back because he would have been visible to the crowd. Though dimensionally correct, under the dark, smoky conditions, the little kids did not stand out enough to get the story across.

(Even though these kids were on television, my public photographs cannot display faces of the students since they were taken for the school.)

Chinatown New Year's Street Fair

Two things are very striking about the Chinatown New Year's Street Fair. First about 10% of all of the booths represent gambling, either directly from a casino or bus agency, or as a game. The number of spinning roulette type games was amazing. If you only counted the large booths on Grant Avenue, the percentage would be even larger. Second, there is a large population of very old Chinese. Maybe it was the time of day (mid-morning), but about one quarter were over 65 or they looked as if they were. I don't normally see so many old Chinese folks in Chinatown walking about.

YMCA HIkes

Started hiking with the YMCA in preparation for my backpacking trip in March. This is the walkway from the Presidio's Commandant's house to the gardens near his tennis courts. Some parts of the Presidio are very peaceful and idyllic. Other parts are freeways or cemeteries. This is from the first hike where I took photos on 1/30/2009.

Battery Near Golden Gate Bridge

The coast trail on the west side of Golden Gate Bridge finally reopened. It's been rerouted further inland and there are still detours which force one over the old gun placements. This is one of those batteries in the late afternoon just before Chinese New Year.