I was in Golden Gate Bridge south entrance doing the usual in bringing relatives to the popular scenery in San Francisco bay area. And I have my camera in b&w mode avoiding the common red color seen in photos. It was about 6:30pm right before sunset time.

In a back-lit scene I saw a pair of young couple taking beautiful portraits with the guy on top of a concrete slap. My hearts was pounding and raising for the shots of my day

Introduction To Golden Gate Bridge

.

The Macho Post

Thoughts -- What's Next

Getting Ready

The Handstand

I have made two new good friends with Lukas and Elisa and I have picked the best shots shown above and send them over to the couple in email. Life is as good as it can get when we go out and live fully with passion. And in my case, that is with a camera and a friendly chat with my new friends after the shots.

I saw the couple full of energy and hope, vibrant with enthusiasm and courage. I wish I can go back in my youth and hang out with them in the concrete slab where their views are not blocked by others and they move as if there are new heights to reach. The young couple, the back-lit moments, the great scenery have made it a very memorable Saturday for me. The happy and vivid moments linger in my thoughts and I start my week with freshness and inspiration to try something unusual with strangers we meet. I have a couple of email correspondences with the couple and I hope our friendship goes beyond and that I have another chance to meet up with them.  Love the couple dearly as friends with Lukas & Elisa.

That is right, life is as good as it gets when we go out with passion on life -- be it a single picture or a simple kiss or a gentle hug with a stranger. I want to leave my boys and my blog readers with the message that we have to love and work with all our wills and passions and have the littlest regret as we can afford to keep.

Don't You Mess With Me by hin_man, on Flickr

1/60sec, 30mm, f/2.8, iso 1000, 0 Ev

Sigma 30mm f/2.8, nex 5N, Big crop from original

The picture was shot on a sleepy toad in Academy of Sciences in San Francisco through a glass enclosure.  It is unusual that I am posting picture not from my favorite Pentax K-5/K-7/K20D. It is a good question that I don't even ask myself consciously why am I posting more non-Pentax branded pictures. It is quite unfortunate (but lovely) that I have found the sweet spot in carrying less and do more with my photos. I still treasure and will continue to use my K-5 until it drops dead. Will I invest more on Pentax. Yes and No. I want to get the DA* 16-50, DA 18-135mm and and FA 31limited but I am short on funding and I want to reserve my funding for the NEX line of development. And the Fuji, Olympus, and the Hasselblad/Rolleiflex pull my legs all the time.

The truth of the matter is I can only pick one system to go out at a time. When it become more serious shooting as in an event, portrait, studio and others, I will pick Pentax.

The Jelly Fish pictures are stuck in my mind the whole Sunday and I re-do the editing on the first one and find others to have a dancing tune to their delicate movements. Perhaps my new headphone AKG K240 has UPPED my mood in the editing part of the pictures with great visualization and imagination.

#1 The Dancing Couple

The Dancing Couple by hin_man, on Flickr

1/640 sec, f/2.8, 30mm, iso 200, -1.3 Ev, hand-held 

#2 Turn With Lovely Tail

Lovely Tail by hin_man, on Flickr

1/800 sec, f/2.8, 30mm, iso 800, -1 Ev 

#3 The Happy Meet Up 

The Happy Meet Up by hin_man, on Flickr

1/250 sec, f/2.8, 30mm, iso 800, -1 Ev

#4 The Ultimate Kisses

The Ultimate Kisses by hin_man, on Flickr

1/100 sec, f/2.8 30mm, iso 100, -1.3 Ev

#5 Fallen In Love

Down I Go

Down I Go by hin_man, on Flickr

1/320 sec, f/2.8, 30mm, iso 400, -1 Ev

I absolutely love the series with blue tone myself.  It is gratifying to see the jelly fish under the beautiful and unique blue color. I was in awe with the beauty and I lack studying all the detail description of the type of Jelly Fish in the Aquarium venue of the Academy of Sciences museum. The aquarium tank is quite small and this type of jelly fish are moving constantly but not at great speed in a small tank as in 30 to 40 gallon size. Size of the jelly fish is above a small tangerine.

I may not shoot it correctly as I purposely shoot it underexposed by at least one stop and adjust brightness and highlight in post processing to bring out the darker surrounding and bluer translucent color from the amazing creatures. I shot some bigger jelly fish before in Monterey Bay Aquarium with long tentacles and some with smaller size body like a quarter coin but results don't come out nice like the above.

I shot the first few pictures in b&w as I love things in monochrome but they lose the vibrant color in the beautiful and unique blue tones

Mushroom & Cauliflower

1/200 sec, f/2.8, 30mm, iso 100, -1 Ev

The Enchanted Family

1/500 sec, f/2.8, 30mm, iso 400, -1 Ev

Picture taken with Ricoh xr-p and

Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 P/K-AR mount
Asian Art Museum in San Francisco

Home scanned with flatbed in 1200dpi

I shot the roll with kodak bw400cn thinking it might be the time that I gave up my 35mm film format and this roll changed my plan. The lens with Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 was gone but I have kept the camera and I look for ways to help with film scanning at home with a simple flatbed scanner, I will look for ANR glass next. I just wish I have more time to shoot on films. It slows me down in a good way and photography is more rewarding when I have to work with the limited patience in me.

Picture taken with Pentax K20D and
Tamron SP 24-48mm adaptall-2 (13A)
in Exploratorium of San Francisco

Picture taken with Pentax K20D,
Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 and Pentax-F 1.7x AF TC

Picture with Ricoh xr-p
developed and scanned by Foto Express in San Jose
Kodak Professional BW400CN (asa set for 400)

I took this city lights in fog in Cliff House area of San Francisco mentioned in previous post. I always like black and white film and it is a dream come true this year that I indulge myself on trying out black and white film on a film camera. I am broke with the developing cost but I am very happy to see my pictures developed and the whole process of dropping the film and picking up the next day with suspense moments in between. The wait is insane compared to digital but it also goes with the wowing factor when I see the results.

Picture with Ricoh xr-p
developed and scanned by Foto Express in San Jose
Kodak Professional BW400CN (asa set for 400)

It was late on a Saturday afternoon and my family had a short visit to the beach that was down by the Cliff House area in San Francisco. When we left, all the lights are on and it was getting dark around 5:30pm and I tried out my latest film camera with Ricoh xr-p and I quickly see that at f/3.5 with my Tamron 17mm f/3.5 adaptall2, the shutter was about 1/15 to 1/30 seconds and I was in a hurry to make the shot while family was waiting in our car. With the fog, I was not sure what would have come out.

I am glad to have found Henry and Foto Express in San Jose to help me develop my first three rolls of b&w film. I have found the right mentor and lab to trust.

Photo taken with Pentax K10D and
Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 with 'A'

This was my first photo taken on new year on 1/1/2008 when my family and I took a spontaneous overnight stay in San Francisco and I was up in the morning to get breakfast for my boys and spouse in our unplanned trip.

My sweetie complained as usual as we were not prepared as we took the public transportation with Bart to San Francisco and walked a mile plus from downtown to Fisherman Wharf area. We did not have our car which was usually staffed with spare clothings and our daily amenities. I was the nut case in the family who jumped on ideas of fun, romance and spontaneity. Unfortunately, my sweetie did not see the romance that I saw and envisioned in the cold night with fireworks, lovely restaurants, great artist galleries in Fisherman Wharf, warmth and spirit with hope for a better year with peace in the last evening in 2007. With begging and convincing words, my sweetie said yes for the occasion while my boys jumped in joy when we found a Wharf Inn that happened to have one vacant room. It was the 4th hotel that we tried our luck on spontaneity.

Came next morning on new year day of 2008, I got up early to get breakfast and as I turned the corner on 2nd floor, I saw this Coroner Extra beer bottle sitting on the rail quietly, I thought of good luck in 2008 with lots of celebration in the year to come. The beautiful morning shined brightly through the bottle. It was a scene of surreal beauty in the morning and the beer bottle invited me for positive thoughts as well as safety concern. Someone from last evening must have left it there unknowingly of the danger of falling to the street down below. I had my 1st thought of throwing it to the recycle bin and there wasn't any around. And my 2nd thought was my picture of celebration and a good year to start in 2008. Not a drunken year but a year of celebration. I took few pictures and moved the bottle to the floor so that the janitor would pick it up easily. On I went for the breakfast hunting.

Now that I looked back, I just remembered all the bad things in 2008 related to economy, the continuing war in Iraq, the Bush administration and the continued struggles in family with Asthma and others. And I could not remember a thing that is worth celebration. Perhaps I was drunk all year in 2008 and forgot to appreciate life and let alone the celebration that was much needed and absent for a balance. And 2009 is about to end shortly and I have got to to celebrate every positive thoughts, praises, milestone, goal achieved, challenge fulfilled that the Lord almighty have planned in my life before my negative mind plays tricks on me in not remembering the good things.

The more you praise and celebrate your life,
the more there is in life to celebrate.

by Oprah Winfrey

Picture taken with Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5
and Pentax K20D