Blue Angels

We did not really enjoy the blue angels show this year as much as last .. but did get a few great pictures with Alcatraz in the backdrop. 

Last year we could not find parking and were outside the city hall. This year we succumbed to the city fleecing and paid a good 30 bucks to park near Pier 39 so we could watch the planes go between the Pier and Alcatraz.

The crowd was overwhelmingly a "smoking" crowd and there was nothing we could do. If it is one or two folks you can request them to kindly move away, but if it is a group of 15-20 people around you lighting up, what do you do?

You hope the show gets over fast and you get a few good pictures!

 

and my favorite.. a shot that was accidentally taken by tracking the planes towards the sun. Managed to salvage it using the HDR toning utility in photoshop that gave this a cool effect!

Next year we watch them live on TV! 

Pelicons

Two Photographs..

The first one is a Pelican with an "a". 

This shot captured at the Shoreline park a couple of weekends ago (when things were very different with life) during a picnic... 

The next one is a Pelicon with an "o". Yes, you got that right. The title was no typo. This shot was taken last sunday where a pelican was trying to act like one of the blue angels.. When you have a 70-200 on a 2x extender the thing is more than a foot long and taking hand held shots is a challenge. To top things off the gulls and Pelicans would come flying in from the sides and mess up my focus! 

The only bonus? This shot of the Pelican was as crisp as the shot of the airplanes (which could be crispier..). A lot of people got conned by the Pelicans. The blue angels would make a noise and everyone would turn to the edge of the Pier and out would come a Pelican and the crowd would burst out laughing.

This year somehow the fun was not there watching the Blue Angels perform compared to last year. There was just way too much of a crowd and too much second hand smoking for one day!

Next year we might not even go.. 

Self portrait?

The Digital Photography School homework assignment was "Faceless Portraits"..

Hit on this one one while taking a portrait shot of the kids in their new clothes. Turned to the mirror to see me in typical action asking them to smile just before the self timer hits for a HDR snap..

However, the HDR didnt turn out as good as I expected.

We did get a shot for the assignment though!