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An early morning Golden Hour shot of the Ferry building at the Port of San Francisco. Thanks to Jim Nix , Peter Talke and Rob Hanson for the tips on where to shoot while I was in this beautiful part of the country.
Enjoy your Friday and the weekend! Go Ohio State and U of L!
Thanks for Stopping by!
Turdtown-That’s what I call this place. It was hard to shoot this place being a Steeler fan but it did make for a nice Birthday Present hanging on the wall at 30 X 50
Happy birthday Shane! enjoy!
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Happy Friday Everyone!
I stumbled upon this beautiful place Sunday morning while wandering around the North Beach area of San Francisco. My timing was perfect as Mass had just finished. The Pastor welcomed me and my tripod to fire away.
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!
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I woke up early the 18th of Feb. and had planned on a short walk and setting up and catching the blue hour at the Palace of the Fine Arts in the Marina district of San Francisco. I swear when I was in the car the place looked right down the street from where I was staying at fisherman’s Wharf….not really.
I was really wrong. I left too late for the unexpected 2.5 mile hike before dawn, and almost missed the prime shooting time. I was walking in the general direction I needed to be, trying to find the place. The Palace sticks out like a sore thumb when in a car, especially from the other side of the bay, but walking in the dark at street level it was a quest. Luckily on a last-ditch attempt, I asked a guy getting into his truck for directions, when I approached his truck and asked for directions he just cracked his window a bit and pointed, thanks to him though, me and my promote made it just in time for a great blue hour shoot at The Palace.
This shot was pretty much 9 exposures right out of Photomatix, very little editing was needed.
Wiki-The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site. It was rebuilt in 1965, and renovation of the lagoon, walkways, and a seismic retrofit were completed in early 2009.
It remains a popular attraction for tourists and locals, and is a favorite location for weddings and wedding party photographs for couples throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and such an icon that a miniature replica of it was built in Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim.
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Happy Friday everyone!
Another shot from the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston West Virginia, thought I would take a break from San Francisco and go back to some good old urbex from a fantastic location. It’s kind of funny how you always find some type of chair all alone in a room in these places, I would imagine it was placed there strategically for the sole purpose of photographs, I just wonder who started the whole chair in the abandoned building theme.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks for Stopping by!
Welcome to the Presidio
Only being in San Francisco for only a couple of hours we were trying to make our way to Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate bridge for some product shots. After a couple of wrong turns we found ourselves smack in the middle of the Presidio, now a lush green National Park area with lots of cool old military buildings.
I thought this would make for a great IR shot, so a couple of days later when I decided to rent a car and explore a bit I set out to find this area again, I had this IR shot setup in my mind after seeing the place the first time so it was just a matter getting some wheels and a bit of exploring.
Formerly established in 1776 the Presidio served as an active military base for the US Army until 1994 when the Sixth Army was deactivated. The Presidio was transferred to the National Park Service at that time. The park is characterized by many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1962.
Happy Monday! and thanks for stopping!
©Michael Criswell Photography
I snapped this 3 bracket hand-held HDR wandering around the Fisherman’s Wharf area the day before I left San Fran. This was taken at No. 9 Fisherman’s Grotto restaurant. The clouds were nice and wispy and reflected nice in the water, I had to make my way through some barricades to get the angle I wanted. What a great area on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon, people and crabs everywhere.
There were even some crabby people. One of which had me and many others in tears laughing so hard, best laughs I had in a long time, he was a street performer, known as…The Bush Man! I did not notice at the time but he had a shirt on I discovered in my pics, that said the Bush man scared the sh@t out of me. He gave me this look when he saw me with the camera. Apparently there are a number of bushman around and all claim to be the original.
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Cut yourself some branches from a big bush, grab your milk crate and set yourself up by a garbage can in a real busy tourist area on a warm sunny Sunday in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco.
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…as unsuspecting tourists walk by, well, you can imagine, the Bush Man hoops, hollers and screams to scare the living crap out of his targets, what a gig, he even cracked up so hard at some victims he was keeled over laughing himself….
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Here are a couple video’s of this character in action, one from my phone and one I found of the same guy on YouTube…enjoy
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Have a great Day, thanks for stopping!
©Michael Criswell Photography
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Just North of San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge is a gem. Muir Wood’s, named after John Muir, a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States.
The Muir Woods was a beautiful stop while in San Francisco, the amount of people in the park was crazy, and it made getting any kind of ground level shot pretty much impossible without several groups of people posing by these giants.
I ended up shooting upwards. This was at least nine brackets, pointed up at the great redwood ceiling above all of the tourist heads. I would have loved to spend some early morning time in these woods with fewer people, maybe next time.
Have a great Day, thanks for stopping!
©Michael Criswell Photography
I know, I know, another plane shot, sorry could not help myself. This is a shot that began my journey to San Francisco last week. This was a 3 exposure hand-held shot through the windows at the Chicago airport before I took off.
I met some nice people and had a great time. Shortly after landing we had lunch at a nice little spot on the Pier near Emarcadero. We were headed out after lunch when several motorcycle Police started flying down Embarcadero street. The President was coming! Being in the city less than 2 hours and getting to see the presidential motorcade was quite an experience to say the least, and a surprise. We were literally only few feet away as you can see in the photo and video below.
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Thank’s to Tea Master Caleb and his girlfriend Ali for use of the video and for a great opportunity to visit San Francisco, they were great hosts to have the president there for my arrival!
I hit the street hard every day, up before dawn and usually walking 3 to 4 hours before most people had coffee, and a special thanks to my Empress for the Carbon Fiber Tripod, what a difference that makes when you are walking for hours. 50 gigs of full memory cards and almost 2,000 clicks later I am back home in Ohio. I have spent the last few days getting back into the swing of things, resting my legs, catching up on sleep and processing the shots of the high-end Brewery near Napa. I have a few more days processing and hopefully I can start working on some of my own from the trip so stay tuned.
Have a great Day, thanks for stopping! I will be catching up on everybody’s sites in the next couple days.
©Michael Criswell Photography
This is another shot from the M.A.P.S. Air Museum, the F-105B Thunderchief, “The Thud” waiting for its turn in the restoration hanger, as I am getting cleared for Takeoff.
Looking forward to a nice little trip in the near future, out of Ohio and hopefully I will be bringing back a lot of new material from a place I have never managed to get to in my almost 48 years of existence, so I am looking forward to the trip. A shout out to my photog buds for the great recommendations and to my special Empress for holding down the Fort, and managing two spoiled Siberian Husky hairball’s while I will be gone.
Keep an eye out for a new game of HDR Tennis that should start in the next day or so, and Bob Lussier should be posting the next round of the HDR Collaboration brackets some time this week as well, so until next time Cheers! I hope Alcatraz doesn’t keep me!
Have a great Day, thanks for stopping!
©Michael Criswell Photography
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