Under the bridge.

I should have known to keep it shut.

“Would you look at that, Winnie? 15 minutes to get into the city, zero traffic. Can’t wait for lunch.”

Our destination was no more than 300 yards distant.

Suffice it to say that 20 minutes later we still had 100 yards to go. The City of San Francisco, in its infinite wisdom, had decided to dig up the road during the height of the day.

No stress. The sun roof was open, it was a perfect California day, so I did the only thing possible and pointed the camera at the Bay Bridge as we took 10 minutes to pass underneath.

All snapped at ISO 400 with the 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor-S MF on the Nikon D2X body, one whose sensor appeals to me more every time I use it. For a pictorialist or street snapper this is a fine tool, indeed. My tailored lens correction profile, automatically applied on import to LR4, helps things along further. The Highlight and Shadow sliders in Lightroom 4 are a wonderful tool for selective touches in this sort of thing.

I noted one oddity in the EXIF data. Using the MF 50mm lens, to which I had added a CPU, the D2X records apertures with fractions as a whole number – f/2.8 become f/3, f/5.6 becomes f/6, and so on; by contrast the later D700 body reports the aperture correctly to one decimal place. No biggie, but it looks like the D2X lacks space for the decimal point and decimal digit in its software. However, the D2X does report the aperture properly in the finder and on the LCD panel atop the camera during use.

Immense power and strength.

D700, 180mm f/2.8D. Processed in Snapseed.

With a couple of lenses.

Deciding to take a break from watching Apple stock plumb the depths under its new CEO who couldn’t get drunk in a brewery, I made off to the Mission District with the D700 and just two lenses. My favorite, the 38-year-old 24mm manual focus Nikkor and the current 85mm f/1.8D AF. The latter sports a foul plastic barrel but delivers excellent results. A handy street outfit.

It was a fearfully overcast day with light mist in the air, but all the better for those pastel colors.

And this is what I saw:

When all was said and done, I repaired to the coffee shop, a lovely warm and welcoming interior, for a cappuccino.

The first five and the coffee shop on the 24mm, the rest with the 85mm.

Unfortunately, when I returned home, I learned that the inept Cook is still in charge of Apple’s supply chain mismanagement.

Disclosure: Long AAPL 2014 bull call option spreads.

The bride wore tattoos.

Spotted in Cypress Alley in San Francisco’s Mission District the other day, this odd couple was busy tying the knot.

All snapped on the D2X with the 16-35 AFS and 75-150 MF Series E – a real sweetheart, that one.

Waiting.

The 180mm Nikkor on the D700 excels at this sort of thing, picking out the lone figure in the urban landscape with ease.

One very handy tool is the Highlights slider in Lightroom 4 which is an easy way of taming bright highlights like those in the second snap. This is a significant upgrade over Lightroom 3 and worth the upgrade cost alone, given how digital sensors burn out highlights every chance they get.