Bluewave Digital

Well, it certainly has been a while since I've posted anything here. Let's recap what happened since my last post, shall we?

During the summer I bought a 35mm film SLR. Well, technically it was just before graduation in May, but that's just splitting hairs. Between August 2009 and now, I didn't really have the chance to take many pictures due to being overwhelmed with work. There's nothing like a full week of work to completely kill any creative motivation on the weekends. However, in February of 2010, I bought myself a new toy: a Canon 500D. The picture above is the second picture taken with this camera.

Why did I buy this particular camera? For starters, I've been wanting a digital SLR for a while. Film is nice and all, but it gets really expensive really quick to shoot film every weekend like I had been doing. I was toying with buying a used SLR, but it wasn't really until I started taking classes again (go go ITEC masters degree program) that I had an excuse to purchase something nice. This camera shoots HD video, and it made sense to purchase it for my video class. The fact that it's a full featured (albeit crop sensor) SLR didn't hurt.

The great thing about shooting digital again is that because I'm not so worried about cost of film, or whether the film is actually going to turn out, I can be a bit more creative in snapping moments as I see them. Film is a great tool to force you to compose shots, but when the scene happens, digital allows you to snap away without worries of running out of film. Having two 16GB memory cards also helps, but that's besides the point.

My apartment still remains a black hole for light, but at least with this camera I'm able to get something. This was an experiment in making tempura tofu. Came out quite lovely, actually.

While film delivers a particular "look" and warmth to pictures, I sort of like the no nonsense rawness of digital. Colors are reproduced more or less as they actually are, and if you don't do any post processing, you get more true to life pictures than film.

Got to love California...

That brings us to this morning. Every day, there are two points known as the Golden hour. The skateboarder and sunset pictures below were taken at the golden hour at sunset.

This morning I decided to go the other route. Given that sunrise happens at a sane time around this time of year, I decided to get up and see if I could catch it near one of the city's most famous landmarks. I think I got what I went for.

This one is slightly out of focus. I had my camera on manual focus and with the low light, I really couldn't get focus lock through the eye piece. I sort of like it, though. Gives it a weird, sort of dreamy look.

Bonus vehicle with landmark shot.

The bridge is a reddish-orange color, so the light of the rising sun really makes it look pretty in the morning. I lucked out with the lack of fog as well, as normally you cannot see the bridge at all in the morning. After snapping some images of the bridge, I swung the camera around towards the south east to get some shots of the sun rising.

Alcatraz Island in the distance. Sometimes it pays to be the early bird.

Good morning, San Francisco.

I really want to do this again, but from different points in the city. I'll have to figure out which parts of the city give the best views looking east. I suppose that can be my mission for the next few months. Until next time...