HAIGHT-ASHBURY
So on a trip to San Francisco, and even this very street corner, there are so many tourist photos one could take. If you Google San Francisco, and even Haight-Ashbury, you can see all of the typical photos people take when they come here. I'm not saying I didn't take those photos too. I certainly did. But for my photo project, I didn't want everything to look like a postcard. Some of my photos definitely do and can be somewhat cliche, but I'm trying to go out on a limb a little when I can.
So Haight Street is definitely an eye full of experience that I'm glad I took in. It's surely not somewhere I'd want to live, but it was a culture that was fun to photograph. There were so many colorful people everywhere and lots of tourists.
Being from Minnesota, I guess I'm just not used to seeing this many really down and out people. I assume that's because it just gets too cold sometimes for people to be homeless, but the homeless culture here is HUGE, and dirty, dirty, dirty.
But I wanted my photo today to be of something fun, and this gal certainly was trying to make the day fun for herself and everyone around her. Her bubbles and her smile sure made me feel like smiling!
CHINATOWN
I have always always wanted to go to San Francisco. And here I am. I can't believe I'm here. I'm actually here for a work conference, but after I arrived and checked in, I hit the streets.
I walked and walked and walked. Pretty sure I walked for four hours. My friend Val suggested biking around, which was my original plan, might be tough. Now I get what she meant. This is not a place for people with knee pain! Hahaha. My legs are killing me.
But I must say, I love Chinatown. You are walking down the street, and boom, you're in a foreign country. It's so crazy and wonderful!!
In a place like San Francisco, I do believe I could have 30 poast per day while I'm here. Luckily for my memory space, I'm only here for three days.
And I'd like to keep my photos as non tourist-ey as possible, but I still have a bit of tourist in me!!!
BIKER GIRLS
I'm walking down the sidewalk at lunch, looking for some flowers or dragonflies or butterflies or something to shoot today. And I look up, and these two amazing young ladies were standing on the sidewalk waiting for their grandma. I couldn't get over how pretty they were, and they were all decked up in their biker gear ready to get back in the sidecar and go.
So I waiteed for Grandma to come out of the store and asked if I could photograph them. People must ask them all the time because they hopped right in the sidecar an posed and smiled. Don't you love them?
OH! THOSE CLOUDS!
So I'm sitting in the office, and my mate says out loud, "Hey, look at that sky!" So of course she knows I'm going to run straight out there and take the shot. Luckily there was a moment I could. I couldn't get over how majestically the clouds seemed to surround the Cathedral.
Now mind you, I didn't really want to post more photos of the Cathedral, and that's not what my focus of the photo was intended to be. I hope I conveyed that this shot was really about the sky. And it looks as though there might be a storm brewing, but it's actually fair weather clouds and not storm clouds.
Again confirming my love of the sky in my world.
PREPARE FOR LANDING
Another summer commodity, the bee. Some people fear this little guy, and some people know the importance of him. And the reality is, they're in danger.
I'm not afriad of bees. I've been stung a time or two. I'm not allergic at this point in my life, and I've been bit by worse things. Mosqitos irritate me more than bees. But it's really fun to sit and watch them flit about the flowers, poking themselves inside to get the pollen.
I read an article just yesterday about how much pollen it takes to make honey, and I tell ya, I'm glad I'm not a honeybee. That's a lotta work for little payout.
Bzzz, bzzz till later.
HI! DRAGONFLY
Getting up close and personal with the cool looking creature, the dragonfly. I see these all the time. Another summer wonder. And I've seen tons of varieties on the different photography websites I look at. I've tried a few other times to get a good close up of the buggers but it's usually too windy or they don't sit still.
I'm hoping to take one day before summer gets too far gone to sit out in a nature field of flower patch somewhere. I want to just sit still for a while and see what flies around me, butterflies, insects, birds. And maybe I'll be able to add a variety of these guys to my project later on. I'm looking forward to a day like this because it's a time where you think about the millions, billions, maybe zillions of living things carrying on around us that you never give a thought to until you pay attention.
Just another thing to love about summer....cool looking bugs.
THE NEON CITY
I'm going to confess, this is from last night. I did not have time to go out today. And I know I've done something similar to this already, but I'm figuring, practice makes perfect, and it was a littel different angle and a better sky. Do you see the storm clouds t othe east?
From this very spot next to the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis, you can surely captuer many different beautiful photos not matter the time of day or night. I loved being perched where I was and looking around at all the people and wondering how many folks there were around the fireworks with cameras doing the same thing I was.
I love reflections and when you can capture them reflected in water, they see so sparkly. I love it.
I'm not taking any further photos, this year at least, from this spot. But as summer winds down in the next two months, I'm going to have to try harder to captuere "summer" scenes.
