A white mini parked on the sidewalk in suburban San Francisco.
| Aperture | ƒ/7.1 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
Category Archives: Vehicles
Panoramic Traffic Lights
Traffic along the Mallow Road hurries past on a cold and foggy December night. This was taken from the bridge near Rathpeacon and Killeens.
The bridge itself as you can see from the map above is much wider than the one in this picture but I wasn’t going to stand in the middle of a dark road at risk of being knocked over for my art. At least not this time anyway!
Traffic from the right is coming from Cork, while traffic from the left is coming from the direction of Mallow or Blarney.
PS. Nominations for the Irish Blog Awards are now open. There are several categories and you can nominate your favourite Irish blog in whichever one fits. In Photos won Best Photoblog last year but this is the only time I’ll mention the awards here unlike last year when I did the dog on it a bit! (Not that I wouldn’t mind winning again of course!)
I like these: Snow Squalls! and Palm House – I wish more photoblog software understood trackbacks and pings. It’s hard to start a conversation with them.
Enjoy diet Coke
A sign blazes it’s message above our heads in San Francisco. The Diet Coke logo could be seen from the end of the street so I had to snap it as we got closer!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/40s |
Take the GoCar around San Francisco
Matt Rudd took the GoCar around San Francisco and I remembered seeing one on my travels there last August!
Sixteen miles per hour and I’m absolutely terrified. You wouldn’t think a grown man could be terrified at such low speeds, but it’s because I’m being chased up one of those Steve McQueen hills by a tram. Unlike Steve McQueen, I’m not in a Ford Mustang. If I were, it wouldn’t be a problem, would it? But instead of the Mustang, I’m in a bright yellow buggy with a top speed of 40mph. That’s 40mph if you threw it off a cliff. Top speed up a San Franciscan hill seems to be 16mph. Sorry, 15mph. No… 13, 11, 9?
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
First Draft: Ready to go!
John asked what did he original Ready to go! look like and I’ll oblige now. Showing what the original photo looks like is akin to showing what the first draft of a written essay or post reads like. Sometimes the image comes out perfectly in the camera but that’s rarely the case. At the very least light levels have to be balanced and if resizing for publication online then the resized image has to be sharpened.
Hover over the image below to see what the original shot looked like. Hopefully this will work for RSS readers but if it doesn’t, visit the blog and leave your mark here!
Notice how I rotated the image? I had to reconstruct the bumper on the right of the picture, as well as filling in the gaps at the other corners of the photo. Tree branches and leaves are easy enough, as is the relatively solid black texture of the tar on the road, but the bumper was difficult, and the shaded area of the building on the left presented me with a few extra minutes of clicking to get right.
Want to see more “First Draft” posts? I can’t promise to do many, but if you have a compelling reason why you’d like to see the original of a photo I’ll do my best to help!
PS. Bryan – you might recognise the CSS. I took it from the button of doom you did! Hope you don’t mind!
PPS. Treasa has posted a tutorial of how she worked on two photos with steps in Photoshop to get the desired effect. Nice!
Bike Lane
Riding a bike anywhere on today’s streets is almost a suicidal pursuit but bike lanes help. Here a bus drove past as I took this shot in an urban tunnel in downtown San Francisco.
| Aperture | ƒ/22 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1.3s |
The streets of San Francisco
San Francisco is rightly famous for it’s hills and steep slopes. The city streets go up and down and, and no matter what the gradient, cars will always be parked at the side of the street. Local bylaws state that a parked car on a slope must have the front wheels pointed towards the sidewalk so the car won’t roll if the handbrake fails. As you can see, not everyone obeys that particular piece of legislation!
I can’t remember what building this was, but I was struck by the sheer lines of it, and the grey gloomy and despondent colour. There are no entrances visible and the building seems to grow out of the hillside as if mocking the gradient of the land by standing tall and straight.
PS. Happy Thanksgiving! It’s a normal working day around the rest of the world but the Internet is much quieter now that US visitors are off work, relaxing and enjoying the day!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/80s |
Matt let us drive his car for the day
When we parked in the garage we had to cover the car with this sheet. I dunno what the big deal is, it’s only a Ferrari after all!
But seriously folks, I’m joking, Matt doesn’t drive a Ferrari, yet! WordPress.com is being run like a proper business by Matt and everyone else who are scrupulous about money and doing things sensibly. We’re not going to crash and burn any time soon!
Toni lent us his car on the final Sunday in San Francisco. Andy drove while Podz and I alternated between riding shotgun and sitting in the back seat. Cameras were pointed out the window at every opportunity of course. We went downtown and found parking in a garage and this car was parked next to us in a reserved spot.
Tom asks, Would You Rather Have Sex With Marilyn Monroe or Take Photographs of Her?. “I’d rather …” You’ll have to read the post to find out!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/8s |
Lady at the lights
If looks could kill! I don’t know who she was looking at but she doesn’t look happy!
Pictured on the corner of Washington Street and Grand Parade a few days ago while we waited for the traffic lights to change. Finn’s Corner, a sports clothes shop, has been on that corner for years and St. Augustine’s Catholic Church is visible just down the road. I’ve never been in that church despite it’s central location. It’s so well integrated into the street scape that it’s easy to forget it’s there.
| Aperture | ƒ/10 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
Get There, Go Anywhere
Bicycle locked up and bus arriving on the Grand Parade a few nights ago.
It’s been quite a while since I used either forms of transport.
What caught your eye first about this image? The poster, the foreground or the bus?
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 1600 |
| Shutter speed | 1/40s |
The Signs in Blarney
The signs in Blarney always point towards a B&B!
This bunch of signs do anyway. Right at the end of Station Road there’s a pole with signs to about a dozen B&Bs! If you ever need somewhere to stay in Blarney you shouldn’t have trouble finding accomodation!
Link of the Day
If you haven’t read any of the The Digital Journalist yet then the January issue is a good place to start! I found dispatches for Iraq and Bolivia rivetting and scary and exciting.
In a compeltely different way, Bill Pierce’s memories of the late Michael Evans will stir your heart. He did a great job writing about his friend.
Parked Bikes
Bikes parked on Grand Parade a few weeks ago.