City in Orange

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII at 150mm f/5, 1/60 sec ISO200

The city of San Francisco is aglow in orange right now, and not for Halloween. One particularly beautiful display of orange lighting, celebrating the world champion San Francisco Giants, can be seen at City Hall. With all the Giants fever sweeping accross the city right now, I felt the need to incorporate the orange lights of City Hall with a shot fo Suki for week 43.

Suki is a pretty small creature, so finding an angle that let me shoot from below her to include City Hall’s dome was no easy task. Even when I did find a pretty good composition, I still had to get all the way down on the ground with the camera. Lots of fun!

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII at 78mm f/2.8, 1/25 sec ISO800

Yes, I was out there making images during game 4. I just love photography that much. Of course, I still had the game streaming to my iphone to keep me updated on my hometeam.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 24-120mm f/4 VRII at 24mm f/11, 6.0 seconds ISO200

Took this image not far from where I parked my car. How could I resist? The golden orange light against the cool blue sky was just begging to be immortalized.

GO GIANTS!!! YEAH!

Going Wide

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 20mm f/4, 1/80 second ISO3200

What a great time to be a Nikon shooter. The company has been releasing an exciting variety of new high-performance glass into its lineup, and I couldn’t help but be a part of the action! Just picked up the new Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 VRII, and I’m in love.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 16mm f/4, 1/320 second ISO1600

Of course, with an optic this wide, you have to really push in tight for portraits. This is Suki’s “uh, get that big fat lens out of my face” look.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 16mm f/4, 1/100 second ISO400

This is Suki’s “I’m not feelin’ being on top of this garbage can and am certainly not going to pretend that I’m enjoying it, so don’t bother” look.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 16mm f/4, 1/100 second ISO400

…and this is Suki thinking “what’s with the crooked horizon line in this shot? You’re killin’ me!” Ok not really….

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 16mm f/4, 1/60 second ISO800

See? Suki is not as easy to work with as you might think!

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 16mm f/4, 1/10 second ISO800

Anyway, besides being a definite go-to lens for my Suki Project, this thing will have a special place in my bag for travel, as well as city and landscape photography….

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AFS 16-35mm f/4G VRII at 16mm f/4, 1/30 second ISO6400

….or environmental portraits. I was also thinking of the 14-24 f/2.8 from Nikon, a legendary ultra wide, but size, weight, and cost considerations put me off. No regrets =)

Being a Tourist in My Own City

[ Canon S90 at 6mm f/3.2 1/30 second ISO160 ]

Wow, had such a great time this weekend! Two great friends from Japan visited our home and stayed for a few days. We took them on a tour of the city, heading to the usual “tourist spots” as well as places we locals like to visit. Running around with them made me realize that I can’t even remember the last time I drove around SF just to see the sights. It was pretty fun actually! Ready for a long post with tons of images spanning the course of 3 days? Ok, here we go!

Day One…

Home Improvement Time!

The wife decided to start sprucing up various rooms in our house this week. Had a friend come over and help paint the walls of one of our rooms in Tiffany blue. I played the lazy photographer husband while they did all the work =)

Gotta hurry! We have some friends coming in from Japan this weekend who will occupy this room during their stay.

Even Suki got involved…well, no more involved than I was actually. No, she’s not sleepy here. It’s just that every time I set my camera to rear curtain sync, she blinks! Oops!

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Nikon D300s + Nikkor AF 10.5mm DX // Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8