Bluewave Digital

After having gone to the fireworks display at pier 39 twice and regretting it, I've tended to avoid the overcrowded July 4th festivities. This year, however, I decided to go to the other side of the bay to enjoy the fireworks from a calmer environment. As fate would have it, however, the weather would not cooperate.

One of the interesting things about living next to ocean facing cliffs is seeing random hang gliders fly over every once in a while. On a previous photography expedition, I encountered a few further south, near Pacifica. However, these are not the ones I see on a regular basis, so I decided to find out where they come from. Amazingly enough, despite the fact that I have lived out here for quite a while, I've never gone out to Fort Funston where the gliders depart from.

I had some extra time this afternoon and someone from the office suggested I go outside, due to the weather being nice. I thought it was a splendid idea, but I didn't know where I should go. My girlfriend suggested Golden Gate park's Botanical Garden. Not having gone there in a while, I decided that would be a good place to relax and take some photos. Little did I know the place was overrun by small, furry rodents.

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

As anyone who has lived in or been around the San Francisco Bay Area can tell you, summer is full of lovely fog so thick, it's impossible to see more than five feet in front of you most mornings. However, it can make for some very fascinating photography.

The following were shot on Kodak MAX 400ISO film while I was scouting for possible locations to do some portrait photography in a few weeks. The Flickr photos are geotagged, but to give an idea of whereabouts I was wandering around, please refer to this map:

A year ago, or thereabouts, I was in a panic. I needed film for my intro to film production class, and I hadn't had time to go into the City to procure some. I ended up at a well known film supply shop, but they were all out of most stocks of 16mm. I had my heart set on black and white film, but all they had was Kodak Tri-X 400ISO film. I was going to be shooting outdoors on a bright, sunny day on a Bolex, so I was pretty heartbroken. I bought the stock anyway, because I needed something to shoot on the next day.

A long time ago in a completely different part of the state, I was given a decrepit, semi-functional Fuji SLR. I marveled at it's mechanical knobs and levers and wondered how something so wondrous could function without any motors or batteries. I learned how to master its gnarly lens that lacked any sort of automatic controls and leverage a flashbulb that could turn night into day.

One more paper to write and my Fall semester coursework will be over. It's a little crazy to think about. I thought this semester would never end....

I've been really bad about keeping the blog up to date. As such, I've been relying a lot on Twitter to actually prove that I'm alive. What has been keeping me busy this semester?

It's not really as bad as the title makes it sound. It really isn't. However, it is fairly accurate.

In case anyone was wondering what 100% humidity looks like, here's the view from my apartment window.