San Francisco Bay Area Photography

Another shot of China Camp State Park in San Rafael.  This one was taken with Nikon F4s on a Velvia 100 slide film - took me a while to get it processed and scanned.  Color saturations and high contrast is mainly due to the film itself.

I was looking for website with more information on this place. . .it’s funny, the best one I could find is Yelp:

China Camp State Park Reviews

One rainy Saturday, while Isabel was in her ballet class, I was following Jae around at St. Vincent’s. I have some sort fascination with arch. . . And, Jae happened to stand in the middle of the hallway facing the arch - a perfect photo opportunity! It took me a while to figure out what to do with this photo. In the end, all it took was a little crop.

(click photo for larger view)

Rafael Theatre, a small independent movie theatre in downtown San Rafael, to me, is an icon of San Rafael. I tried to photograph the building a number of times but never came up with a picture worth displaying. . .that is until, I got Nikon D300. Thanks to its Active D-lighting feature and low noise, I was able to capture this below image minutes after the sunset. By the way, here is the link to the theater - Rafael Theatre:

Owned and operated by the Calfornia Film Institute, the non-profit organization that also produces the Mill Valley Film Festival, this beautifully restored Art Deco theater with three screens and state-of-the-art presentation is located in the heart of downtown San Rafael.

One of the best things that happened in San Rafael in recent months is right here:

There were some OK coffee shops in San Rafael but solely lacked some great coffee. Now, no more driving to get my second cup of coffee of the morning. I can just take my camera and walk down to downtown for the great second cup of coffee.

Isabel wanted to do some night photography. So, we set up the tripod, mounted camera and took the below picture overlooking San Rafael, Richmond Bridge and East Bay at dusk.

“We will never have a culture of our own until we have an architecture of our own. An architecture of our own does not mean something that is ours by the way of our own tastes. It is something that we have knowledge concerning. We will have it only when we know what constitutes a good building and when we know that the good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but is one that makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before that building was built. In Marin County you have one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen, and I am proud to make the buildings of this County characteristic of the beauty of the County.”

1957, Frank Lloyd Wright.

I never seen a photo of this building from this angle. I used circular polarizer filter and saturated colors.