Today I spent most of the day relaxing at home. I watched Avatar with my wife, which honestly was a good movie, though I don’t understand the hoopla all around it. Then around 5PM I had an itch to go take some photos. I called up Brandon and made plans to meet him at 7 at Shoreline Lake.
I left a bit earlier and drove around Alviso, which coincidentally is quickly becoming a favorite spot of mine for shooting decaying buildings. It’s not very big, and you can shoot most of it in a few hours, but I like to go back and see what I’ve missed. (Plus it’s only 3 miles away.)
After wrapping up in Alviso, I headed over to Mountain View. There is a stretch of trees on Shoreline Blvd. near Charleston Rd. that I’ve been meaning to stop by at some point. So, why not today? I parked and wandered back and forth. I really liked how the low sun was streaming through the gaps in between the trees. I figured if I really underexposed I could get a nice look. Considering this is still around 7PM and the sun is out, not a bad job, imho.
From there I headed over to Shoreline Lake to meet Brandon. I walked along the docs and got a few photos of some paddle boats. I applied one of Matt Kloskowski’s Vintage New York Presets, and I really liked the faded outcome.
At this point it was practically sunset, and today was a rare day for the Bay Area, for there were clouds in the sky. The sun treated us to a glorious good bye and I grabbed this 7 shot panorama. It’s about 70MP after it was merged in Photoshop CS5.
At this point I went home, had dinner with Sara, and watched the Amazing Race. At about 1AM I recalled thinking about shooting this 24 hour DIY car wash near my house. I’ve been wanting to do it for about a year, and I figured, “Why the hell not?” I grabbed my camera and my tripod and I ran out.
The sky and foreground were pretty boring, so I decided to add the black bars. I’m normally not a fan of these things, but given the fact I really liked the shot of the car wash, it was a small price to pay.
All in all, it was a fun Sunday evening, 3 locations, 3 very different subjects, but a lot of fun.
Time to go sleep so I can get up for work in the morning.
Cheers.
