On Nina’s birthday, last month, we spent the morning with her on Baker Beach. Leila was in school, so Nina had a rare morning alone with us. She absolutely loved it. She’s a very different kid when she’s not in her sister’s shadow. She discovered the wave polished rocks and wanted to pick all of them up.
I took a panorama of the scene, and roughly spliced the pictures together. Take a look.
We spent the afternoon in Dolores park. It was the first beautiful and warm sunny day we’ve had in a while, so the park was overflowing with San Franciscans. We were there with friends we’d not seen for the last five months. They are San Franciscan expats who now live on the right coast, so the whole crew was there to hang out with them.
You can see the scene of that glorious day in the panorama below. It is actually a 360º spin of shot I spliced together in Photoshop, albeit rather sloppily. Leila was on my lap asking if she could move the mouse or click on the buttons, so I didn’t spend much time trying to blend the edges.
I was riding in late to work, and as I passed the pier at the top end of Van Ness. I thought since I was already late, I’d go to the end of it to take a panorama of the marina and Ghirardelli square. There was one other guy on his bike taking pictures with his camera phone when I got there. As I set up to take my shots, the guy asked me, “Excuse, me. Do you know what bridge that is over there?” pointing at the Golden Gate Bridge. I politely told him the name of the bridge, and took my shots. He then asked me how to get to the bridge. I told him.
After living in San Francisco for the past nine years, there are certain thing you begin to take for granted, especially how beautiful this regions is. You also assume that such landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge are known and recognizable by all. Interacting with the other guy on his bike, this morning, makes me wonder how much of this other guy’s world is foreign to me. What great landmarks does he take for granted, that I’ve never know existed?
You can see full sized version of the panorama I took from the pier by clicking the small one below.
And, yes, that red-orange bridge in the far right side of the photo is the Golden Gate Bridge.
Last August, my company consolidated their San Francisco offices into one location. The one location is at the top right corner of San Francisco, across the street from the famous tourist spot, Pier 39. This move did limit the options for lunch, only offering up things like the Hard Rock Cafe, or Johnny Rockets, but the views are much nicer than those of the old office.
Using a Nikon D40x, I took continuous shots from the balcony of the third floor of my building, then spliced them together with Photoshop. Click on the small version of the image below to view the full size one.
