Posts tagged "photos"
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The Cool Blues of San Francisco
Recently, I had an opportunity to purchase a few rolls of Kodak Vision 3 500T Film (5219). I was warned that it would be almost too 'cool', that it had tones of blue in most photos unless I used a warming filter, or fixed it in post. While my style of color photography tends to be vibrant and warm (Portra and Ektar are…
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One Night in the Mission
I used to be a creature of the night, but no longer. I used to be out all the time, but rarely now. Partly, it's that San Francisco is so chilly at night, but also that it's pretty dead at night compared to the much bigger cities I've lived in. I don't quite enjoy walking around, cold, in areas where there just sijmply…
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Lower Polk, SF
Join me on a walk around Lower Polk, a neighborhood directly adjacent to mine. I spend a lot of time here because it has the grocery stores and other shops that I go to the most. I rarely need to take a bus or car anywhere else because I get everything in the Tenderloin and Lower Polk, as well as in and around Nob…
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Scenes from a Lifetime Ago
In 2007, I moved to the United Arab Emirates for my first full time job out of college. I was working at a publisher that specialized in trade magazines. I worked mainly on travel titles, as a deputy editor and also staff photographer. It was a pretty good life (tax-free, high salaries, lots of adventure). It was not a…
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Three in the Tenderloin
Look up any travel information for San Francisco and 'helpful' people will tell you: avoid the Tenderloin! It's not safe! There's lots of.. stuff we don't like! Well, I live there. By choice. I won't downplay the issues we face here: the living conditions on the streets are dire. They are maybe comparable to some other…
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Taking the train during the rain
While my primary mode of transportation in San Francisco is my bike, I do find myself enjoying the varied modes of transit here as well. They are especially useful during the rain: it has been pouring, for days at a time, during the 'atmospheric rivers' that we are currently facing in California. When that happens, I…
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My favorite place in San Francisco
I love running or biking towards the Golden Gate Bridge. I come here far more than I go to Golden Gate Park (which many of my friends prefer). They're both the same distance, but I come here more because as an island girl I need to see the ocean. (Also, I don't have to go uphill too much) Recently, I caught Covid-19…
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St Patrick's Day in San Francisco
Some photos from the first roll of film I developed and scanned myself. I have been wanting to learn how to dev and scan for many years now. The sheer number of items and chemicals to procure left me dizzy, and I never did. I'm lucky to be near the city-run community darkroom and photo center, Harvey Milk Photo Center.…
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A Singapore Story
I have been away from 'home' full time for almost five years now. Even though I've lived in other countries in the past, I never stopped seeing Singapore as 'home'. 'Home' was where my family, childhood home, friends, food, favorite places, and memories were. I was afloat, in that I was quite literally all over the…
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A Walk Around a Wet Market in Taiping, Malaysia
Wet markets have a bad reputation, because of the 'rona, but their name really just comes from being the opposite of a 'dry market' (like a market that sells pots and pans and such). They are very common in many parts of Asia and don't have wildlife. For many of us, a wet market is our first port of call to make the…
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Touching Grass
I was always a big city person. I liked nature, but not excessively. Now that I'm almost 5 years into being a Californian, that's starting to change. I don't just like the outdoors, I love it. I survived (and thrived) at a five day backcountry Yosemite backpacking trip with no toilets or showers. I scaled Half Dome. I…
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Review: How Daido Moriyama Takes Photographs
Finished reading: Daido Moriyama: How I Take Photographs by Takeshi Nakamoto 📚 Daido Moriyama is one of the photographers I admire the most. His work (black and white street photography) is an influence on the kind of work I am trying to do in my photography; and his shooting style most resonates with me. He is known…
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Borders Real and Imagined
San Francisco's Chinatown is one of the oldest ones in the United States. Chinese people, mostly from the "Sze Yap" region of Toishan and surrounding areas, came to northern California almost two centuries ago. They were boxed in in certain areas, within cities and regions, both in the city and outside it.…
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A Sense of Home
Rollei QZ 35T, Ektar 100, developed and scanned by Underdog Film Lab in Oakland. I talk about this sometimes: for various reasons, my cultural identity as a Teochew / Chaoshan / Diojiu / Chiu Chow person is important to me. Speaking the language regularly is important to me. Being able to eat this food is important to…
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Fisheye at Pak Ou Caves
I had the good sense to have brought a toy camera then, since I was concerned about my nicer cameras falling into the river. No such concern for my own physical safety... Holga fisheye, probably. When I was in my early 20s I thought it would be a super swell, super safe idea to get on the 'fast boat to Laos'. I met T,…
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Seventeen Years Later
I'm thankful to my photography hobby, which has been a part of my life in some way or form for the last 20 years. I thought it might be interesting to locate photos that would locate me at different parts of my life, in many places, so that I could see, at a glance, what a journey it's been. In many ways, my…
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Spending More Time in Chinatown
Photo taken on Rollei QZ 35T, Ektar 100, developed and scanned by Underdog Film Lab. For whatever reason, I've been going to Chinatown in San Francisco more often. I don't particularly love the restaurants there (a few faves, but that's it), but it is convenient to go there when I want to pick up certain groceries.…
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Fill Your Life with Music (And Fairies)
Photo taken on Minolta Hi-Matic 7S II, Fuji Superia 400, developed and scanned at Underdog Film Lab, Oakland Another photo from another concert I walked to from home. We were invited to attend a gala concert for the New Century Chamber Orchestra. I'd gone to a show some time ago, really liked it, wrote about it, and…
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Take a Bow
Photo taken on Leica M3, 50mm Summilux, Kodak T-Max P3200, developed and scanned by Underdog Film Lab, Oakland. One of the joys of living in downtown San Francisco is how I can get to many cultural events with a 10 minute walk. Some nights it's jazz at SFJazz, others it's at the opera or symphony. Many rock and punk…
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The Best Camera is the One You Have
I have been an avid enthusiast of phone photography and videos even before iPhones arrived in the world. To that end, I still chuckle when I think about how in the mid 00s, I not only took cool photos that I still love today, using a Nokia N73, one of them even went on the front page of Flickr for a while! A photograph…
88 posts tagged "photos"