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Here In Oakland

Art & Life


   



June 12, 2016

They're Hiding

Sunday. I did get to bed not long after eight to watch this and that on the tablet before turning off the tablet and then the lights at ten to awaken at just after six. Good. Hit it right for a change.

A clear sunny morning and an easy drive to breakfast to take my time over the Sunday papers. There's a street fair out on Telegraph starting at noon, so something to photograph. We'll catch the bus down at the base of the hill instead of driving. I've done both in the past, but the hesitancy to drive seems now firmly in place. I wonder if there's any chance that will change as the actual driving is just fine, it's getting out the door and into the car that's the problem.

Later. A bath and then a bus to Telegraph and 51st, the Temescal Street Fair running from 41st to 51st street. I'd last photographed this fair in 2013 and the last time I've been to the area might well have been then. Three years? I first lived in this area when I came to Oakland and visited it often even after I'd moved, but no more. Not a new story.

Anyway, crowded, lots of people about and so pictures. I'd set up the cameras last night to use their AF-ON button instead of their shutter button for focusing, what I'm pretty sure is a better way to reliably take more sharply focused pictures, something that will take some practice to get in the habit. This made the picture taking a little more clunky than it normally would, but the results (insofar as sharpness) were encouraging.

He said.

You eventually learn to identify your bad habits. One of my many as a photographer is to not have hammered into place the technique you need to consistently take a good photograph, the nuts and bolts required to take the picture. rather than the aesthetics. Learning the zone system with film comes to mind, learning the seemingly infinite setup possibilities these digital beasts offer. I will spend whatever time it takes to nail down this focusing change, one way or another.

And so it went at the Temescal Street Fair from around noon until two, then back on the bus home to download the pictures and start processing. Took a break to go over to the burger drive-in to bring back a grilled chicken sandwich for a late lunch and that's been the afternoon and now into the evening.

Evening. There's a vigil scheduled at eight at Oakland City Hall for fifty men and women murdered at the Orlando nightclub early this morning, something I'd normally attend and photograph, tired or not, held in the evening or not, but tired has won out and so it's to bed instead. Events like these are still just stories and images you see in the news or read in the papers, if you're lucky, but remain at the back of the mind. Best to not let them too far out of wherever they're hiding.

The photo up top was taken at the San Francisco Carnaval Parade with a Nikon D5 mounted with a 70-200mm f 2.8 VR II Nikkor lens.


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