Putting the fun in Fort Funston

Back in April I took my dogs to Fort Funston's dog beach so they could swim in the ocean. It went well in that I only lost three toys (and only one of them cost more than $10.) I developed and scanned the monochrome film from that day, but haven't processed the slide and color negative film yet. So you may get to see more dog photos. Until then, here are some shots from around Fort Funston.


Hannah stares contemplatively out at the ocean, pondering if it has an end, what rests on its far side, and if there are dogs there.


After losing my floating Kong (the second one I've had which didn't ACTUALLY float...), the dogs found this nasty tennis ball. That, too, belongs now to Poseidon.





Fort Funston has some pretty wicked trees.


For scale, Hannah is about 95 pounds and around 27 inches at her withers.











After the beach, we stopped a 99 Ranch for dinner. I decided, on a whim, to make crawdads. I need to learn how to make crawdads. Even following the directions, they weren't that great. I think my broth was to blame.





This guy was really unhappy at the prospect of being cooked.


Carrots, potatoes, and celery -- a nice foundation for a veggie stew, but somehow it just didn't work with the crawdads.

A Distinctly American Pyramid

Last Wednesday I was scouting downtown for a series of statues called the Corporate Goddesses. My goal was to figure out if I have gear which can photograph them in a manner which does justice or not. The jury is still out. While I was in downtown, I stopped by the Trans America Pyramid to get some architectural shots, for fun.


1/60th, f16. I've read criticisms of this lens for being dull or unsharp. I agree it is difficult to focus. However, when focused, it presents incredibly sharp details and nice contrasts. The color rendition is also very good. Color rendition is important when photographing in monochrome. Poor color rendition translates into poor tones and contrasts. Good color rendition improves tonal range and increases photo quality.


1/60th, f4. This lens' only problem is that at its widest it's an f4 lens. This directly relates to the focusing difficulty noted above. Because it's an f4 lens, it lets less light into the viewfinder than an f2 or f1.4 lens. That complicates focusing as details become obscured in shadow and fine focal points are disrupted by the darkened viewfinder.


1/60th, f16. This lens is never truly 'soft' like some wide-angle lenses. But at f8 and smaller, this lens become exceedingly sharp. This image loses some sharpness because it was heavily keystoned to correct for the drastic upward angle.


1/125th, f8. Here the lens' abilities are on display. For an ultra-wide, it does a marvelous job of correcting horizontal lines. A few of the coming images, as well as the first image in this series, have full-frame horizontal lines. This was intentional to explore how well this lens maintains plane at 18mm. This lens does quite well.


1/250th, f8. Honestly, not my favorite shot. I needed to be a step or two to the left to make all the lines even out on plane.


1/60th, f8. Inside the Pyramid's footings. This is an interesting place if the goal is photographing merging and diverging lines.


1/125th, f8. Along the top you can see the amount this lens bends horizontal lines. Are there better lenses for rectillinear correction? Of course. Are there better lenses that would cost me $52.15? No.


1.60th, f8. An interesting quirk of this lens, the bottom of the lens corrects for barrel distortion better than the top half. Curious.


1/125th, f4. Let's end today on a note of whimsy: Trans America Pyramid topiary.

The KX Kicks It

This was my first outing with the KX and it was difficult because the KX has something smeared inside the viewfinder. So composition was difficult but, fortunately, the smear is on the lower part of the viewfinder and not in the central focusing. This means I was able to focus but had some difficulty composing shots. That said, I managed eight reasonable shots on this roll.


Underneath the Bay Bridge.


Millennium Tower. Designed by Handel Architects and built by Webcor Builders. Somehow many of the buildings I'm drawn to photographing -- Infinity, Foundry Square, and now Milennium Tower -- are build by Webcor.


A train care nestled between some skyscrapers. It may be interesting to see what's inside it some day.


A sculpture I don't know much about. All year the plaza that houses it has been under construction. It looks like the crews are finishing up, though, so there may be more and more dynamic shots of this soon.


I don't know too much about this sculpture of two faces -- one yelling and one rolling its eyes. It's an interesting piece, sort of. Not my favorite, but not one I dislike.


I give the sculptor a lot of credit for the very good articulation on the mouth.


Establishing-type shot of Embarcadero Plaza.


An interesting double exposure. Cropped differently, it could look just like heavy fog.