a series: shake down street

Posted by Stephen Phillips (San Francisco, United States) on 8 June 2009 in Miscellaneous and Portfolio.

So what did these twelve images have in common?

JERRY FREEMAN of Kentucky (ordinaryimages) wins the prize. On Thursday, June 4th he wrote: "I find commonality in the light [time of day] and location [same block] love a puzzler : ] best...jerry"

The prize is two round-trip ferry boat tickets from San Francisco to (Jerry's choice); Sausalito, Tiburon, Angel Island, Oakland, Alameda, or Vallejo. The catch is he has to come and collect the tickets from me personally and it has to be done during my lifetime.

All of the images were taken on the same city block. Thirteenth, Folsom, Twelfth, and Isis (pronounced 'Ice-Sis') Streets - in San Francisco - on a beautiful Memorial Day morning two weeks ago. And all were taken in less than half-an-hour (21 minutes and 52 seconds to be exact)

In every instance, starting with the second image - the position of each capture can be clearly seen from the one before it. (the clues here might be the number of images that have pieces of a building or fence or shadow from the preceding one) Kind of a connect-the-dots exercise.

I hate to admit that I didn't put any of this together until after I got back to my office and processed the images.

All were taken with a new Canon G10 that I'd just taken out of the box. The store was two blocks from here. I made the purchase and pulled over in the shade to place the strap on the camera and read a bit of the instruction book. I've been shooting with Canon cameras for years and so had a good head-start on the system. I set the clock and calendar and started to walk.

I'd been wanting to replace my 'knock around camera' for more than a year. The camera that goes with me when I don't want to carry the big guns. I'd done a lot of research. I was thinking of buying the new Canon SX-1-IS. But that camera is almost as big as an SLR and has 'plasticy' feel about it.

The G10 is a solid little beast with an all metal frame. It is reminiscent of the old 35mm rangefinder cameras of the fifties and early sixties. 14.7 MP. It shoots RAW files. This was a must. It does not have the zoom lens reach of the G9 - shaving the 200mm (equivalent) focal length - to a mere 110mm. But the trade off was extending the 35mm wide angle view to 28mm. And you know how much I love the wide view of things.

Here's what we saw over the past week and a half:

[ file #] - [ time ] - [ speed ] - [ aperture ] - [ ISO ] - [ Image ]

001 - 09:46:56 - 1/250 - f/4.0 - 100 - Graffiti and Hydrant
004 - 09:52:44 - 1/1600 - f/4.0 - 100 - Garden Billboard
006 - 09:55:31 - 1/1250 - f4.5 - 400 - Big Brother Billboard
008 - 09:57:36 - 1/1250 - f/4.0 - 100 - 3-D Skykone Billboard
009 - 09:59:13 - 1/1600 - f/4.0 - 100 - B&W Warehouse
010 - 10:01:04 - 1/320 - f/4.0 - 100 - Telephone Pole Detail
011 - 10:02:08 - 1/250 - f/4.0 - 200 - Steel Wall
012 - 10:03:09 - 1/800 - f/4.0 - 200 - Blue Condominium
014 - 10:06:11 - 1/2000 - f/5.0 - 200 - Delivery Sign
015 - 10:07:06 - 1/2000 - f/4.5 - 200 - Green Steps
016 - 10:07:52 - 1/2000 - f/6.3 - 200 - Flower Box
017 - 10:08:48 - 1/2000 - f/4.5 - 200 - Under the Central Freeway

...a lot of luck here. I had no intention of doing anything beyond walking around with my new 'toy'. The morning was beautiful. And image opportunities just seemed to jump at every turn.

Click here for the map of where each image was taken. You will key in on the last (12th) image. From there, going clockwise are all of them. Clicking on each individual map indicator reveals the specific image:

http://maps.pbase.com/joyoflight/image/113023826

(you may need to zoom in or out a notch or two to make this work)

I hope you had fun with this! It certainly has me appreciating A Minus 3 all the more - to be able to share such an exercise with you. I'm home for two days before two more road trips beginning Tuesday. Both paid. Hooray! I hope to catch-up with all of your work as I can. Joyous light to you all...

...find this photographer on TWITTER > as 'fogguy'

© copyright 2009 by Stephen Phillips Photography / San Francisco / www.joyoflight.com
please respect these rights - do not copy or use these images without permission

Your comments are invited. You will also find me at ...

vfxy Photoblogs | Listed on Photoblogs.org

Comments (16)

Alun Lambert from cheshire, United Kingdom

A very nice little camera, i have one of these, great when you just want somthing smaller with very good image quality

8 Jun 2009 5:40am

ordinaryimages from Kentucky Bluegrass, United States

Honestly...I didn't know it was a competition! I may be a redneck hillbilly, but I do know my way around the Bay area. There were several other commonalities, but that would have been piling on. Enjoy the G-10! best...jerry

ps I have been to all those destinations...never once took a ferry...so I will decline your generous prize in favor of seeing an image posted from up along the Mendocino coast...during your lifetime.

8 Jun 2009 6:03am

Magda from Vancouver, Canada

Congratulations to the winner!!! :) The answer was simpler than I thought! hahaha And I was trying to think "creative" (grin). Wonderful series - enjoyed it a lot.
Happy to hear about your new camera. I need one of those little point and shoot camera that can do RAW - like you said "it's a must"!

8 Jun 2009 7:09am

Anthony Morgan Lambert from Bielefeld(old Pembroke Dock boy,Wales), Germany

The end of a great series and light is shed on the puzzle.A great idea,look forward to some more in the future maybe !!

8 Jun 2009 7:54am

Marcie from United States

What a wonderful thread tying the images together. It explains everything..and really worked!!! Looks like a fun little camera.

8 Jun 2009 11:49am

Calusarus from St Sorlin en Valloire, France

This one is really nice ! Congratulations

8 Jun 2009 3:36pm

willow from Chelsea, United States

Hmmm.... I was over-thinking the possibilities WAY too much! Congrats on your new toy and I've enjoyed it's first products.

8 Jun 2009 4:19pm

Liang from San Francisco, United States

you are super creative with this series, every image was great and excellently executed.

8 Jun 2009 5:18pm

grant from kansas city, United States

i like the "connect the dot" idea - it would be an interesting exercise. very clever presentation here, btw, of the photos and camera.

8 Jun 2009 7:17pm

jeff (aka dogilicious) from Millerstown, PA, United States

Great collection. Nicely done!

8 Jun 2009 7:29pm

Evelyne Dubos from Le Mans, France

Great wall of shots, that's a nice presentation of your work. G10 is really a good APN...

8 Jun 2009 9:23pm

Susan from Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

Kudos to Jerry for figuring this out!!! I was looking "in all the wrong places"..... but enjoyed all the shots, and the "mystery" of it all..... Have great fun with your new toy, as you obviously have been!!

8 Jun 2009 10:00pm