Vacation Day 1 Photos
By ravsitar | August 16, 2008
Day 1 of vacation photos are finished! It really didn’t take as long as some of the later days will. Because of all the travel, I didn’t shoot as much as I could have. You can read about what I did on my blog post here.
You can see more photos from day 1 on my Flickr site.
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Vacation wrap up
By ravsitar | August 12, 2008
Sorry for not posting at all during the end of my vacation. Here’s the rest of the story.
July 29: Travel Day: No Photo Day
So today was the first day in 5 days that I didn’t take a single photo. It was planned this way. After 4 days of hiking and shooting, I knew I’d need a break before the workshop. So as today was a travel day, I didn’t shoot anything.
I got up latish (7:30) and did some laundry. Then I noticed that one of the back tires on my rental car was nearly flat. Great. Just what I needed. Thankfully, there was a plan just a short way down the road who could fix it. Turned out that I’d picked up a nail somewhere on the way out of Sequoia park. No biggie. 15 minutes later, I was on my way back to the hotel for my laundry and some breakfast.
The plan for the day was to get from Three Rivers to the San Francisco Airport by 5:30PM. That’s it. Nothing more. If you were to just drive it straight. It would probably take you 3 or 4 hours to do. But I had way more time than that. So I looked at the map again and came up with a better idea. I’d simply head straight west for the coast and go north from there. I took a few smaller county highways and reached the coast just south of Santa Cruz around 1PM. Drove up along Highway 1 and had a blast. It’s simply gorgeous there. I’m actually glad I didn’t take any photos along the way. The light was such, that I don’t think I could have gotten a photo that would show what it was really like. So instead I just drove and enjoyed. Simple as that.
Made it to the rental car return area with 45 minutes to spare. Gary O (the other SF workshop organizer) picked me up and we went to his place for supper. Chris and Monika met us there around 7 and we had a great time. The food, prepared by Gary’s wife, was spectacular. And they have a stunning place. After supper, we set down and chatted a bit and put the workshop schwag bags together for the workshop.
Checked into the Mosser and not here I set figuring out what I’m gonna do with my day off in SF. I’m sure I’ll be getting the camera out tomorrow. 
July 30: San Francisco
After the fantastic supper with Gary, Chris, and Monika the night before, I wasn’t in the mood to get up early. So I didn’t. Got up round 8AM and looked through the bus schedule. Not seeing a timing that was convenient to get to the Golden Gate Bridge, I decided to just walk. I was in a hurry and rushed out without sunscreen on. Boy was that a mistake. I was burned pretty good before I got back to the hotel later that afternoon.
I did get some good photos and I saw a chunk of the Fishermen’s Wharf area early in the morning before the tourists arrived. The yachts were pretty neat as well. Once I got along the coast far enough to see the Golden Gate Bridge, I was really glad that I didn’t get up bright and early for sun rise. There was so much fog over the bay you could only see the first pier of the bridge. A little more than 1/4 of the entire bridge.
On the long walk back to my hotel, I realized that I’d worn most of the padding and a good deal of the tread off my shoes. My feet were killing me by that night.
That evening was the pre-workshop get together for all the listeners of Tips From the Top Floor. Chris, Monika, and I went early to the Americano Bar and Grill for supper. The food tasted ok and the beer was good. We ended up with 15 or so people visiting that evening. I had a good long chat with Ron Pepper (of Panorama fame) and Randal Schwartz (of TWIT). I didn’t drink all that much, and took a few photos (both digital and film)
July 31: Workshop Day 1
Apparently, something I’d eaten at the Americano was tainted. I had a queezy stomach when I work up. Meet Chris and Monkia in the lobby and found out that they were worse off then I was. On the way down to the venue, we stopped at a pharmacy, and I introduced them to the wonders of PeptoBismal. Oh that nasty pink fluid. Thankfully it works. None of us really ate much that day. I wasn’t proper motivated during the workshop assignments. I didn’t hunt as much as I should have for photos, but I still managed to get some ok stuff. Monika headed back tot the hotel early in the afternoon.
That night was the official social night for the workshop. All the attendees were going to go out for Chinese food at a nice restaurant. I decided that I would be better off not going. My stomach just wouldn’t take a meal of that kind of food. I headed back to the hotel and ate a granola bar, jumped into bed, and set my alarm to 10PM. After 5 hours of sleep, I felt much better, but still tired. So I took a shower and headed back to bed.
August 2: Workshop Day 2
Apparently 14 hours of sleep is just about what I needed. Chris, Monika, and I meet in the lobby and they both felt better. None of us were up to 100%, but we weren’t falling down sick either. Grabbed a bagel on the way to the venue and felt better. I still didn’t eat much that day. But at least I could concentrate on the assignments. That evening a few of us went out for a beer or two and relaxed a bit after the warm day shooting.
August 3: Workshop Day 3
Unlike the previous round of TFTTF workshops, this year we planned a full day excursions for each of the workshop. There was just too many scheduling issues with half day excursions. Not to mention how slow a group of photographers moves. A snail’s pace isn’t slow enough… I’d say “stupid slow” is a better description. So today we were going to spend the day at some of the touristy portions of San Francisco. We meet at one of the cable car turn arounds on market street. We took over most of a full cable car and rode it down to the end of the line. It was neat, but not the best for taking photos. They really pack people onto the cars, so it’s hard to get a clean line of sight. From the end of the line, we split up for a couple hours of people shooting at Pier 39. It’s a very touristy area. But good for people watching. The light was so difficult to manage. The brights were very bright and the shadows were virtually black. I spent most of the time wandering around shooting from the hip with my camera, or with the 70-300mm VR lens on shooting from the distance. I also ran some Tmax100 film through my F80 with a 50mm lens on. I think I got some good stuff on there. Of course, it’s in for developing so I have no idea.
After a quick lunch at Boudin Bakery (they invented Sourdough), We were off for more of Fisherman’s Wharf and further down the coast. I didn’t get as much in the afternoon as I did in the morning. I was also starting to run down. My shoes were in even worse shape. Parts of the heals were coming off and I was feeling every step. On the way back to the meeting place, I stopped to shoot some bikers rolling down the hill. I tried some panning shots. What a great way to burn up space on a memory card with crap. I’d say I might get 1 out of 11 shots that are worth keeping. And maybe 1 of 20 that are worth post processing.
I was over voted for choice of supper. After 2 days of not wanting food, I finally felt hungry for real food. I wanted a burger and fries for supper. Something thick and classic and a known quantity. Instead the 10 of us going out for supper ended up going to a Pakistani restaurant for supper. For those unfamiliar with Pakistani, it’s like Indian, but not as spicy. Another interesting thing with the place we went, was the liquor situation. Getting a liquor license in SF is very expensive. So a lot of the smaller restaurants don’t have one. To make up for it, they have a BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer) policy. So after grabbing a few tables to put together, some of the guys ran across the street for a couple 6packs of beer. I did try a little bit of everything we got. It was all family style, and we got loads. The lamb and chicken were fantastic! Some of the sauces and vegetables were wicked spicy. I only had a little of it. All in all it was a great day.
August 4: Workshop Day 4
Up bright and early around 7AM. Apparently, nothing I’d eaten the night before caused any problems. As a matter of fact, I was actually hungry. Chris, Monika, and I were all feeling better finally. We grabbed some bagels and headed down to the venue. The last day is a short day for the workshop. We generally end around 3pm instead of 4 or 5PM. The morning session was a lesson in post processing. Most of it is very simple and not of interest to me. I’ve moved beyond the simple stuff in post processing and I’ve watched Chris give the talk once before. I do watch some of the session when he is discussing the newest editions of the software. For most of the morning, I spent the time on my laptop post processing photos in Bibble.
We broke for lunch and I hit the streets to take photos of the people hanging out for the San Francisco Marathon. The race was over, but lunch and a concert were still going on. I grabbed a slice of pizza from a Chicago Style pizza place. The band they had playing was pretty active and I got some great shots of the action. Ran of a lot of photos of them playing.
The afternoon session went very fast with a bit more post processing, a final assignment, and image review. At 3:15, I caught the BART train to the airport to catch my plane back home. No surprises at the airport or on the flight. Arrived back at my apartment around midnight. Crashed and tried to get some sleep before work the next day.
The aftermath:
Now the big pull is get my photos processed. I’m working on them in the evenings while I watch the Olympics. The total for the week was just over 36GB of photos. In the end, I bet nearly half will be deleted and less than a quarter will be processed. I also ended up with 4 roll of film from the trip. That’s in to Ritz for developing. I’ll be posting up photos from the first two days of vacation on flickr this weekend.
To hold you over on the photos, I’ve found that I have a few photos from before vacation that I hadn’t uploaded. Here’s a sampling.
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A little delay
By ravsitar | August 12, 2008
Sorry for the delay. I’m almost through with a post that runs through the last 5 days of my vacation. Getting back to work and all has just cut out all my energy. I’m hoping to finish it and post it tonight.
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I made it through the wilderness..
By ravsitar | July 28, 2008
Last day in the woods before returning to civilization. The day started off properly and early. I managed to get up to Moro Rock for the sunrise. I didn’t make it to the top until a few minutes after the real sunrise. But, hey, I was 6725ft above sea level at 6AM. That’s pretty good. The photos from there should be ok. They’ll need some work though. Something about sunrise and sunset up at these altitudes that puts a haze over everything. Polarizer does nothing, so I have to correct by hand.
After that it was more winding roads for an early morning walk with the giant sequoia trees. Man they’re fantastic in the morning light. Really makes the trunks glow red. I wandered down a few of the trails enjoying just being there as well as the photography. FYI it was plenty chilly before 10AM up there. I’d guess it was in the 50s at Moro Rock for sunrise. And not much warmer in the tree groves. I’d have been too cold in shorts. Jeans were fine (until 2pm or so when it got stupid hot).
Saw the General Sherman Tree (largest tree in the world by trunk volume). Pretty impressive, but hard to photograph. I tried a vertical panorama of it. Hopefully it’ll work out.
The rest of the morning was spent driving and stopping along the way to see the General Grant Tree at the Norther edge of the parks. Not really worth it in my opinion. I should have just taken one of the 3 mile trails from the Giant Forest (towards the Southern part of the park). I would have saved several hours of driving and gotten some better photographs in the cooler part of the day.
On the way back I detoured to walk along the Kaweah River. About half ways to the Tokopah Falls, my body decided that it’d had enough. Apparently I’m not as young as I once was. 4 days of punishment, driving, severe altitude changes, and not enough sleep had taken it’s toll. I called it a day round 4 and headed for the hotel. Got cleaned up and had Mexican for the supper. Not a bad local place here in Three Rivers.
I’ll get some sleeping in tomorrow before I head back to San Francisco. I’m meeting up with Chris and Gary O for supper tomorrow. Should be a great time.
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On the road again… and on my feet again… poor poor feet
By ravsitar | July 27, 2008
Got to sleep in today. Didn’t get up until 7:30am. Not bad for vacation huh? I was unbelievably stiff this morning. All that hiking and getting slightly dehydrated didn’t do good things to my body. And not to mention the camera bag. Before I unpack it when I get home, I’m gonna weigh it just to see what I was lugging around for a week. A big positive is that I don’t have any sunburn. I guess staying in the shade and constantly applying sunscreen has worked. I’m a bit more tan now than I was last Friday, but still not really tan. More of a Minnesota tan. Just dark enough to have something to miss in 3 months when it starts snowing.
The drive from Groveland to Three Rivers (outside Sequoia National Park) was good. A little slow at times. Partly because of the crazy ass roads, and partly because of a wildfire (or two). I only saw one of them. It was small and a couple miles away on a ridge. The other one must have been a lot bigger. There was smoke everywhere for 10 miles of road (like 3 miles as the crow flies). Some times all you could see was the road as the valley below was filled with smoke. Smelled like I was at a BBQ though. That nice smoky flavor for ribs or chops.
Got to the hotel and checked in with no problems. The Comfort Suites in Three Rivers. Just a few minutes from one of the park entrances and big enough to have some places to eat too. I had pizza tonight from the Pizza Factory. Not bad. Place was way busy with people. And seating was limited. As I’m here alone, I figured I shouldn’t take up a booth, and got my food to go. I took it back to my room and ate it while reading Infected by Scott Sigler. (Yeah, I’ve listed to the podcast version, but I needed something to read here in CA and didn’t have my big list of what I own with me). There area few other places in town that I want to check out (namely the bakery). Probably not tomorrow and I’m gonna try and get up by 5 to get going for a sunrise somewhere in the park. Most likely Tuesday before I drive back up to SF for the TFTTF workshop.
Sequoia park is a lot different from Yosemite. The mountains aren’t the same slabs of exposed granite with little on them. These are far smaller and are covered most of the way up by scrub and small trees. There’s also a lot of grass (dry dry dry grass) covering the foothills. As I only had half a day in the park, I stayed in the foothills area near the HWY198 entrance. The scenery is great and there are way less people than at Yosemite. This part of the park doesn’t have as many trails, but they are emptier. Most of the visitors I saw were only walking down to the river for a swim. I’m sure once I hit the giant sequoia groves tomorrow, I’ll see a lot more people. But on a Monday, I shouldn’t have any weekenders here. Likely it’ll mostly be Europeans on vacation.
Saw a deer up close too. Like 30 feet close. The shot below is at 70mm. So it’s plenty close.
Something else I forgot to mention before. Just like my trip to Germany, I’ve got a GPS unit with me all the time. Most of the time I’m on the trails (yes with my bear-bell mother), but it’s still nice to be able to easily back track if need be. Once the whole trip is done, I’ll strip the data from the unit and overlay it on a map to show you just where I was for the week. I don’t geotag my photos.. that’s a little too geeky even for me.
Time to crash. Hoping for an early start tomorrow.
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