So 2 weeks ago I had attended Joe Rogan's comedy show, for which I won free tickets to go see him through my favorite radio station: 95.7. And since I was going to be in the city during this time I took it upon myself to roll with my camera and enjoy some night shots at a usual spot and a new spot.
First of all, Joe Rogan is hilarious. If you have an hour to kill i HIGHLY recommend watching his standup he did back in 2006, if you find that funny his latest bit is golden.
so after the show i hopped in my car and drove up to the Golden Gate Bridge. Now granted I was all by myself so this was in a way a bit risky. I'm all by myself, with maybe $1500 in camera gear on me, hiking up to the Golden Gate vista point to take pictures at 12:00am. Probably wasn't my "smartest" moments but I couldn't resist taking a picture of the bridge at this hour. Nobody was around other than a few tourists who would stop by, take a quick picture and then jump in their cars for fear of any danger. I found a spot out of sight in a way so nobody could tell that it was just one person out there taking pictures, although on the flipside if i got mugged, nobody would know as well. I guess at the time I didn't care, and luckily, I made it out without a hitch and my shots turned out pretty well. The wind was blowing a little bit making it a bit difficult to take a timed shot where my shutter speeds would last between 15 - 20 seconds at F/8
The perfectioninst in me can still see a little bit of blur/aberrations at a high enough zoom but at this size the pictures came out great. I used F/8 to try and get the small starbursts in the lights along the bridge and still reminds me that this bridge is my favorite bridge of all times. I want to go back during the day and take some shots again with my new lens although I think I need to get my sensor cleaned because it has definitely been a while since I've had my camera cleaned out.
After shooting for about 15 to 20 minutes out at the vista point and walked back to my care, i completely forgot about my Lumix camera!!! I had wanted to do a shot-for-shot comparison between my SLR and my Lumix but had forgotten to take it out. I didn't want to risk going back out there since I had already rolled the dice taking my first set wasn't ready to try my luck again.
So my next stop this time was a place i've never actually been to for as long as i've lived here in the Bay Area. I went to the vista point out on Treasure Island to try and take night shots of the SF skyline. This vista point wasn't nearly as dangerous as the Golden Gate bridge because when I had got there, there were a bunch of people hanging out enjoying the very view that I was about to try and capture myself. Some had their plain old point and shoot cameras, i saw a few photographers with their tripods, and the rest were there either getting high or using their iphones to try and take a picture of the city.
Because I felt much safer out there I was able to stay out there for a much longer time, both enjoying the scenery, the cool/cold weather, and the calm sounds of the ocean. My shutter speeds were 25 seconds so you can imagine each shot taking a while for me which gave me a lot of time to just sit there and think.
The Bay Bridge w/ Canon DSLR and 28-70mm f/2.8L Lens
I've always taken the Bay Bridge for granted, mostly because it has to compete with the Golden Gate Bridge and during the day time the drab grey look doesn't exactly strike me as "beautiful" but with the night lights and the reflection off of the water, the picture actually came out better than expected. The above shot was maybe my most favorite shot taken that evening and I actually had it blown up onto a canvas and am very excited for that photograph to be coming in the mail soon.
This time, I remembered to compare my shots between my DSLR and my Lumix camera so here's the same shot with my lumix:
not bad huh? That's what I thought to myself as well. Using f/8 and a 25 second shutter speed I noticed a little crispness here and there but also some blurring in the outer edges. This is probably due to the fact that my Lumix is much smaller and probably less affected by the winds. You would think wind doesn't affect your photos much but it does with long distance scenery shots and long shutter speeds. But i was very impressed with my Lumix shot and I guess one could argue it is better than my DSLR. I am on the side of the fence that says it is different and great but not the same, just "different".
I also managed to take shots of the SF skyline with the bridge:
Canon DSLR
Panasonic Lumix
And played a little bit with black and whites:
Overall a great photo-trip. This was short since I only went to two locales but a good starting point and hopefully I'll go and venture out for more vista spots to take some pictures or return here during the golden hour before sunset to capture the beauty of San Francisco.
No comments:
Post a Comment