Off Mission Street, SF.
Nikon D3x, 85mm Nikkor at f/5.6.
Category Archives: Photographs
Some architecture
A great way to end the year.
Few things beat a crisp, sunny day in San Francisco, and the city’s propensity for preserving its old buildings means more subject matter for an itchy trigger finger.
These were all snapped today on three classic ‘metal era’ MF Nikkors from my copious inventory on the D3x – the 35mm f/2, the 85mm f/1.8 and an all time favorite, the 200mm f/4, an outstanding optic for picking out gorgeous period details.
The absence of autofocus for this type of subject matter is anything but a hindrance. If anything, the more contemplative approach required is a benefit.
Processed in LR6, some verticals straighened in PS CS5, some juice added here and there in Snapseed.
At the Wharf
Lovely colors.
Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco is much more than a tourist trap selling dumb T shirts to white trash which has travelled 3,000 miles from Noo Joisy for no other purpose.
Take the back roads and amble along the commercial fishing wharves and you are met with more subject matter than you can shake a stick at.
Dungeness Crab nets. The metal ring is to let out immature crab. Keep telling yourself that, environmentalists.
Alcatraz is always present ….
…. as is the Golden Gate.
Coit Tower.
Dungeness Crab ready for the pot.
Honoring sailors of yesteryear.
Season’s Greetings.
All snapped on the ancient Nikon D2x with a 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Nikkor. The early CMOS APS-C sensor in this magnificent body does all colors justice and the body can be found throwaway cheap in mint condition and will certainly outlast you.
With thanks to Keld Helmer-Petersen who taught me how to see in dockland.
After so exhausting a session there’s good food to be had and, yes, it is available among the hot dog stands and pizza parlors.
It comes by the name Capurro’s, has been here for ever and if you search out Paul Capurro, the former marine who owns it, you will be regaled with tales of the mob and Capone’s buddies, back when Big Al was cooling his heels in Alcatraz and Paul was hearing tales on his father’s knee.
Arrive early and you miss the crowds, and mercifully the prices here discourage T shirt shoppers:
Start with the Drake’s Bay oysters, locally caught and wildly flavorful.
Follow up with Sand Dabs, now in season.
Capurro’s snaps on an iPhone6.
Later at the fishmonger’s:
Ready for eating and Made in the USA!
I have the fishmonger break up the shells and then add some lemon from the garden. Delicious!
American individuality
No two alike.
Complain all you want about intrusive government, rules and regulations, America remains a land of individuals.
Taken a decade ago.
I sent the snap to an old friend who was with the USPS at the time, thinking he might remember this from his route and he wrote back:
Click the image for the map.
You can see the ‘Gates’ plaque in the image.
Canon 5D, 24-105mm Canon zoom.
The Freedom Trail
American history.
My son’s trip to Boston to check out prep schools coincided nicely with his history studies in intermediate school where he is in the middle of colonial and revolutionary American times, so at his teacher’s suggestion we took the Freedom Trail tour over the weekend to better soak up the history abundantly on display in downtown Boston.
The Trail covers over a dozen historical sites and is led by a guide dressed in period costume.
The Trail map.
Here is Winston, suitably bundled up, on Boston Common, ready to start the tour:
Bundled up and ready to go.
A goodly amount of time is spent at the Granary Burying Ground, named for the 12,000-bushel grain storage building that was once next door, which is the last resting place of Peter Faneuil, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams amongst others.
Wealthy individuals like Peter Faneuil enjoy large tombs.
Our tour guide is dressed in period slave costume.
Paul Revere’s tomb.
Sam Adams not only signed the Declaration of Independence, he also brewed beer, made to this day.
The picture on the beer bottle label is of Paul Revere.
The Boston Latin School. There is no spire as funds ran out!
Dating from 1635, it’s the oldest public school in America.
Five signers of the Declaration of Independence attended Boston Latin:
Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, and William Hooper.
The old State House. Built in 1713 to house the colony’s government,
the Old State House was at the center of civic events that sparked the American Revolution.
The Boston Massacre took place right outside.
Another tour guide in period costume.
We enjoyed beautiful weather on the tour.
Built in 1729, Old South Meeting House was not a church,
but rather a meeting house for the Puritans to worship.
It was in this House that the momentous decision was
made to dump British tea in the harbor, rather than pay taxes.
A poster advertising the Trail.
The trail wends through many small alleyways.
This old bookshop typifies the setting.
Sign designating the original location of the Old Meeting House.
Faneuil Hall. Often referred to as “the home of free speech” and
the “Cradle of Liberty,” Faneuil Hall hosted America’s first Town Meeting.
All snapped by Winston and dad on iPhone6 cameras.