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Joy of Light Photoblog
The Rincon Hill Towers shortly after sundown in San Francisco. I'll confess to not liking this new tower. It is at the base of The Bay Bridge and seems completely out-of-scale to the beautiful art-deco span. My office is about 2 blocks from here and this light just drew me down the street with camera in hand.
I am pushing the limits of shooting hand-held here. Some fellow citizen broke into my car this week - liberating both of my tripods and my monopod to whatever ends might serve their needs. You all know that I advocate the use of a tripod whenever possible. I consider the tripod as my sidekick on a shoot - and plan to replace it today.
Canon 5D w/ 16-35mm f/2.8 lens - ISO 500 - 16mm - f/2.8 - 1/13th second
Larger view and map: http://www.pbase.com/image/119599309
Update - My 5 year-old $320. tripod today set me back $600. Oh, my - yikes. I believe I am developing a new investment strategy. Tripods. Sure beats the stock market over the same period. The bottom line for now is that tripod and I are back in business together. Hooray!
© copyright 2018 by Stephen Phillips Photography / Oakland, California / www.JoyOfLight.com
please respect these rights - do not copy or use these images without permission.
@Paco Díaz: Francisco! Welcome 'home to AM3' - I've missed your bright presence here and look forward to seeing lots of evidence of where you have been and what you have been doing.
@David: Thank you very much, David. Good old mother nature added much lighting assistance in this one (tomorrow's, too).
@Susan: Hi, there Susan. At the risk of sounding a little new age - I respect everyone - including a thief. I deeply hold that there are no accidents - there is a reason for all that we experience. Perhaps the cosmos needed to get me a message about not taking things for granted - or not paying enough attention to something. I haven't figured it out yet - but I will. The theft will no-doubt take the perpetrator on to their next lesson. There are ironies - he looked for but missed my Canon G10 - hidden within. He got got my Tom-Tom personal navigator in the glove box - but missed something else worth far more. It was disappointing and discouraging when I first came upon the broken glass all over the sidewalk and both front seats, but it's only 'stuff' - and life goes on...
As to the tripod - it is a ultra-light carbon-fiber number with a flippable shaft and fully adjustable legs. I appreciate and use all of these features - but most appreciate the light weight after carrying it for several hours.
@Susan: This isn't the best image but will give you an idea - the tripod shaft comes to the top of the legs and flip 90° to allow the camera to; work over an edge, over a subject without the legs in the way, also - since the shaft is now completely above the legs - the legs can go to essentially flat - allowing one to shoot from a very low point.
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g34/spphoto/2009-11-22_185257.jpg
I am absolutely certain that your tripod is very good to your needs, Susan. My beast gets a lot of punishing treatment every day. Most of my work is architectural - shooting in construction areas and odd position situations is common.
@Liang: I was wondering what happened - I clicked on your name and suddenly found myself on 'Go Daddy'. On the 5D - go for it - get the MarkII if you can(I'm trying to save up for it) - Its capabilities will blow you away. Thanks for stopping by Liang - always good to hear from you.My URL is very simply http://www.JoyOfLight.com - peace.
@Scott F. Schilling: My holding while you press the shutter is probably not the way to go. This is the path of the zen master - licking the stamp and applying it to the wing of the butterfly while pouring hot cocoa - grasshopper...
Or, to say it another way - hold on to your tripod.
