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The afternoon of our first day in San Francisco was spend both lost wandering the city streets for hours and Japantown.  On our way to the MOMA earlier in the day Alan and I had wandered through an area of town known as the tenderloin district. Not a fun place to be! It is full of crazier than usual homeless people and has the unmistakable smell of urine. Needless to say Alan and I were determined to avoid this area on our way to Japantown. This led us miles out of the way and through some lovely neighborhoods. I have to say my feet have never been in as much pain, as at the end of the that day.

Ok, moving on to Japantown. Japantown is much smaller than Chinatown but is lovely none the less. It is all basically centered in a square with a pagoda and a Japanese mall.  When Alan and I got ,to Japantown the first thing we wanted to do was sit somewhere and eat sushi and have a drink. We came across a really cute and reasonable priced restaurant.  Since we were so famished from our walk, we ordered an appetizer of lotus roots. Have you ever eaten these? They are delicious. As was our sushi, and our giant beers.

After sushi we went exploring in the mall, coming away with some great incense, and these amazing kiwi flavored gummies. Here are some shots of our Japantown adventure.

There were tons of Cherry blossoms in bloom.

Inside the sushi restaurant. We were eating at an odd hour of the afternoon, so we basically had the restaurant to ourselves.

The pagoda

All the signs were in Japanese

My first look at San Francisco with Sarah was one of awe.  I had seen photographs and shows on the travel channel, but was unprepared for the sheer size of the city.  Not only the size, but how cool and “vintage” the city looked.  After a short drive (hahah 9 hours from San Diego through rush hour traffic in LA) we crossed into the city.

Once we settled into our hotel, located right in Union Square, Sarah and I set out on foot to photograph the city and check out all the cool sites San Francisco has to offer.

Our first stop was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which was farther than it looked in relation to our hotel map.

The design of the exterior of the building is a beautiful example of Modernist architecture and the interior is no exception.  Wide open spaces, coupled with columns, an open skylight, and a skybridge made this experience very awe-inspiring.

The SF MOMA from a distance

Sky Light at the SF MOMA

They have some very cool exhibits , but of particular interest to me, as a photographer, was a fantastic exhibit called “The View From Here”.

Just as photography has been instrumental in shaping California’s popular image, the state — and San Francisco, in particular — has played a key role in the history of photography as an art form. Reflecting this unusually symbiotic relationship, SFMOMA was one of the first museums in the country to treat photography as an equal to painting and sculpture. In celebration of the museum’s 75 years of engagement with the medium, this exhibition explores the variety and vitality of California’s photographic tradition from the 1840s to the present. Drawn from the SFMOMA collection, it includes Gold Rush-era daguerreotypes and early panoramas of San Francisco, pictures by members of the influential Group f.64, street and documentary photographs, conceptual work from the 1970s, and contemporary photographs. Artists include Ansel Adams, Lewis Baltz, Dorothea Lange, Ed Ruscha, Larry Sultan, Carleton Watkins, Carrie Mae Weems, and many others. – from the SF MOMA exhibit.

By the end of our journey up the four floors of the building, we were absolutely exhausted and stopped to have some coffee on their rooftop garden. We then set out for our next adventure.  Getting lost on the way to Japantown!

Our first day in San Francisco Alan and I went spent the morning wandering the streets and going to the Museum of Modern Art. The MOMA is located within a nice little clusters of museums in a park. Beautiful architecture, very modern lots of clean lines and glass, as well as one very old looking church. I loved it. The weather was nice and warm great for wandering getting lost in the streets and the park.

If you are ever in San Francisco you should be sure to stop by the MOMA, they have a huge collection of pieces, including Picasso, Matisse, Ansel Adams and many others.Also, be sure to check out The Bridge by Joseph Stella. It is my favorite piece, I love the colors, the painting is done in white, blue, and black.

At the end of our MOMA jaunt Alan and I headed up to the Garden Terrance to drink some coffee. I highly recommend this, you get to rest our feet and sit outside among some fun sculptures. Alan and I drank Iced Louisiana Style Coffee. It was delicious! What it is, is its coffee that had been brewed the day before and left to sit overnight, then some chicory flavoring is added as well as some milk,very refreshing. Here are some pics from our streets of San Fran + museum adventure.

Many of the streets had colorful murals painted onto them

I loved the buildings, the city has so many colorful hues.

In the park, with all of the museums. I love the angles in this shot.

A shot of the rooftops. The building with the huge round window is the SFMOMA.

Alan pointed out that our iced coffees looked like eyes, so we made a face

Hello! Sorry for the radio silence. Alan and I have been on vacation in California with our friends Silke and Frank. We had the best intentions for blogging while on the trip but unfortunately never manged to do it.  We have been on the road traveling from Phoenix to San Diego and from San Diego to San Francisco and then back to Phoenix (I have to say, its a loooooong drive!).

The first day we traveled to San Diego and spent the afternoon in Ocean Beach with my friend Jennifer and her boyfriend Brad. I love Ocean Beach, its so relaxed and beautiful and the people are so friendly. It also has a much younger feeling to it then the other beaches in the area. We all really enjoyed walking on the beach (in freezing water!) and out onto the pier (where there was hilarious seagull and pelican duo who kept posing for pictures) and seeing the sunset over the pacific. Here are some pics of our San Diego adventures!

Looking at Ocean Beach from the end of the pier

The dynamic duo posing for pictures and hoping to receive food for their efforts

The sunset

As the sun went down the beach got very misty

Alan and I being cheesy on the beach.

One of the coolest things about photography is the ability to capture or freeze a moment in time and render it as accurately as the artist wishes.  Macro photography, or close-up photography is both beautiful yet can be very difficult to achieve correctly.

If you’re just starting, or learning to take macro photographs, Photo.net has an excellent tutorial called “How to take close-up pictures of small things“.

Photocritic also has a great post called “Extreme Macro Photography on a Budget“, which I highly recommend if you are interested in trying this technique out.

Feel free to post your own in the comment section, or in our very own group on Flickr by clicking here!

Here’s some high quality macro photographs:

Image by ViaMoi

Eye by Michele Catania

Nature's Secret by Cesar R.

Flying Milk by Chaval Brasil

When it all blows over by davebluedevil

Wooden Wings by MrClean1982

Pasque Flower by code poet

Cold by AriCee

Leaf by Jeff Kubina

Floating Island by darkmatter

nasturtium waterdrop by zen

Micro fireworks by pixel addict

Celestial Event by ecstaticist

network by dsevilla

untitled by rosemary*

Golden Spirals by fd

Marching through the time... by Yuga.

red rain by evilnick

cribraria cancellata by myriorama

untitled by Chaval Brasil