A lonely tree overlooking the canyons

New Journal 35 – Arriving in San Francisco

A very large man, dressed in a tiny spandex wrestling outfit, danced in front of our car. A sailor ran over to him, gave him a hug and they both trotted merrily away. Colourful characters were everywhere in what seemed to be a street-wide burlesque. Our driver was becoming more and more irritated. He wasn’t homophobic. Rather, traffic wasn’t moving and he was feeling a potential dent in his wallet because of it.

We’d arrived during San Francisco Pride and the streets downtown were in full party mode – even Mark Zuckerberg came out to celebrate, we later learned.

Rather than joining the party, we settled into our local neighbourhood and researched the best photography spots in the city.

San Francisco has always held a certain allure for me. The Beatnik, Jack Kerouac, painted a picture so colourful and energetic of San Fran that from the moment I read On The Road, I wanted to be here. 10 years have passed since I read that book. At 21 years old I would have been enjoying a very different side of the city than I am now. Yet, while the scenes unfolding outside our taxi today may not have been an everyday occurrence, they seemed to fit in with my expectations of San Francisco, thanks to Mr Kerouac’s writing.

We knew that this was a hilly city, but our accommodation sits on a road so steep, that I had to stop to catch my breath while walking up it. More importantly, we got the lowdown on the best coffee nearby from the guys who we’re staying with.

With our coffee needs attended to, the next stop will be the Golden Gate bridge. I hope that amazing fog rolls through the bridge at some point. I’m going to sit there morning to night until it appears – good things come to those who wait (I hope).

Thank you to those of you who emailed or commented on facebook with great suggestions for things to see and do in the city. I genuinely appreciate it.

Today’s Photo – A Tree overlooking the canyons

It’s all about the mid-tones!! I was very keen to maintain a darker, more sinister feel to this image. Once I’d blended the exposures and balanced the contrast, I then isolated the mid-tones through a luminance mask selection and lowered the brightness in that luminosity range alone. That way, I avoided excessively clipping the shadows while maintain vibrancy in the highlights.

I then brightened the rocky foreground to the right in order to differentiate it more from the background. I also dodged a some of the canyons to the right to bring out some interested lines and patterns.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing