Mission Creek 12-14-11 (lots of photos)

[David]

Earlier this week I took my N70 and the kit 35-80 lens out with some TMax 400. For contrastyness, I added a Nikkor red filter. It so happened that during my walk Lincoln had The Embarcadero and King Street shut down to film an SUV driving around really fast. One interesting thing about San Franciscans, they think that cars will stop for them, even when a cop is yelling at them that the cars aren't stopping. No one was hit, but damn if some of the spectators didn't deserve it. That said, there are more shots in the album than just a Lincoln tearing up King Street. There are also some nifty shots of the interior shot SUV being pulled by a Ford truck (logical), the camera boom Mercedes SUV (interesting choice) and the lead and warning cars, a Chevy van (odd) and an RV. Interestingly, the only Lincolns on the set were the two being filmed (curious...) Anyway, as a Ford stock holder, let me assure you that Lincolns are of the highest possible quality with great styling and safety considerations. No go buy one so I can have a bigger dividend next quarter.

As always, here is a link to the entire album: https://picasaweb.google.com/102333270936007447976/MissionCreek121411

This was one of those rare walks when I'm not unhappy with everything I shot. Maybe this is because of the photographic diversity -- an old iron bridge, some buildings, some cars tearing around an empty street, and some more buildings. I took four shots of the 4th Street drawbridge, which is far less intense looking that the one I've shot before (recently with Ilford 50 and a Samyang 18mm.)


My personal favorite, this is a couple stickers on the old bridge. Not sure why or how, but it's neat.


This turned out decently well, I think. But I didn't expect it to. I had to re-crop it a bit because the top was poorly framed (the top of this shot was the original negative's top; I had hoped to grab the whole plate in the frame.)


This is one of the gears used to raise and lower the drawbridge. It's greasy and nasty and not a good place for fingers.


On the other side of the bridge, now facing the sun light, this shot feels less ominous than the others. I'm also glad it turned out since I was holding the camera up above my head and hoping.

In addition to the bridge, I also got a few neat shadow shots. This is a new skillset to me, like architectural photography, so these aren't perfect but are better than previous efforts:


This has shadows AND reflections. OOOOOooooooOOOOOOOOooooooh. Anyway, some tables at a building. It's my favorite building in the City this week. Why? Public bathrooms and I drank a glass of water before my walk.


More shadows. Tried here for a minimalist shot. Had to photoshop away some minimalist cigarette butts, though.


This is my favorite building this week.


These are some very nice and (I'm sure) expensive apartments. I would like to live there one day. Of course I'd also like to marry a model and be able to fly, but neither of those are likely, either.

A few final shots, these are from the Lincoln commercial filming. They should make you want to go buy a Lincoln (or one of Ford's many other fine products) tomorrow.


This shows the boom mechanism on the chase Mercedes fairly well. It was a neat contraption.


Here is the Ford pickup pulling the Lincoln used for interior shots.


And here's the pulled Lincoln during filming with lots of people standing safely with seatbelts on (er......) and filming stuff inside the car.

There are a few more interesting shots in the album, but these probably turned out best.

[mmelvis]

Did you happen to get any shots of the full bridge? Looks very interesting from the close up shots.

[David]

I'll have full shots of the 3rd Street bridge posted in about 30 minutes, and it is extremely neat. To me, that bridge looks like a walrus. The 4th Street bridge, however, is not particularly attractive as a whole, so I've never shot it in its entirety. I will do that this week, though, and see if I can make it look good.