Troika

Was up in the city on Sunday to take B to see the last day of the Cartier-Bresson exhibition at SF Moma. For brunch, we met our friends Ian & Tara at 2223 Market, which served me the best cinnamon-pecan bun I've had in years. ;)

It had just stopped raining outside and the clouds were breaking, so the light was going nuts through the windows -- saw these guys sitting in a sort of triangle, and shot this. Love the way the light is rimming the guy in the foreground, and the general geometry of the scene.

The Friendly Skies

I'm on a roll with the airport theme lately. Shot this at the airport in San Jose de los Cabos. We disembarked onto the tarmac, and there was actually a human line of people to mark where we should walk (there was a non-zero risk of walking into machinery or propellers). I thought it was pretty cool that we had actual people sort of welcoming us (even if they weren't always so excited about it), and I liked this shot I got of one of the guys with the zig-zag of the ramp in the background.

Security

Our trip to Cabo san Lucas also brought me face to face with my first Mexican airport. Parts of it were identical (maybe modulo a decade or two), but what I wasn't prepared for was stepping off the tarmac and into a giant room of people shouting about timeshare deals to me. I'm not talking about a few people peddling, I mean institutional support for airport spam. Imagine a whole room of people behind desks, all of whom were ostensibly offering you rides to your hotel -- in return for listening to a time share pitch. It was actually impossible to distinguish between legitimate taxi companies and time share companies (it actually wasn't even clear if there *was* such a thing as a legitimate taxi company).

The coolest guy in the giant was this security guy shoved off in a corner, way more alert than his lazy dog snoozing underfoot. Loved this shot of him, and the framing of bystanders really gave it an interesting perspective.

Vending Wall

"

Our hotel in Los Cabos had a private beach, with a catch. Every few minutes, vendors would wander by the roped off area, hawking random bits of touristy junk. They were pretty adamant about selling you something -- make eye contact with them for even a second, and they immediately start calling to you with an offer. Some of them would stand in a position, others would wander by -- persistently offering their wares every few minutes. After learning to tune them out, I managed to snap this frame as they started chatting amongst themselves.

The Sunset Cruise

Yesterday, B & I took a cruise around the southern tip of the Baja peninsula to see The Arch at Land's End. It was nice -- biggest catamaran in Mexico (so nobody got motion sickness), super friendly crew, and an open bar that never stopped flowing. Since I had some hopes of an interesting landscape shot of the Arch, I naturally got an arrival time that was about 20 minutes too soon before sunset, another boat in our way, and a perfectly flat, boring sunset. So, we fell back to our preferred vacation past times: drinking and people watching.

Saw these two dudes relaxing up on the deck, and one of them moving his hand to point, and the random factors aligned (or at least, my fifth drink hit me). Classic, and nice to get some composition going on at 70mm, which I often struggle with.

Beachcombers

Last weekend, I met a friend in the Mission for lunch, then went out to take some pictures. It was cold enough that my fingers started to freeze -- "too cold!". I had this realization about the time I realized I had MLK day off work, so I made plans with my girlfriend to go somewhere warm. Hawaii was cloudy and rainy, so I decided to go somewhere I'd never been: Cabo San Lucas.

I snapped this shot yesterday, as I was walking along the beach near the end of the day. Long shadows are a favorite of mine, and I like the alien quality this picture has to it.

The Jazz Man

On our trip to New Orleans, we decided to do the Sunday jazz brunch at Arnaud's. The musicians went table to table, offering to play songs for patrons. I was a little irritated that they actually felt a little off that morning, and I much prefer conversation to music right up close (a perennial problem with me and most bars). That said, they were awesome characters, and so I had my camera out when they came by.

Break

Short and sweet -- I loved the character here.

So a Horse Walks Into a Bar...

I was having drinks on Bourbon Street with B and my old friend Lou, and one of the mounted policemen rode into the bar. Just had a second to grab my camera and shoot this -- if you ever wondered what kind of town New Orleans is, this is it. ;)

One Man Band

I've never seen a city more willing to put on a parade at the drop of a hat than New Orleans. No surprise: Dozens of competing Mardi Gras krewes who spend a year planning their *next* parade, jazz funerals, the nearly complete lack of open container laws...

Anyway, B & I were at our favorite breakfast place in New Orleans on our last day, having Bloody Mary's and mimosas while we were waiting for our table, and I heard this parade kick off outside. I asked a bunch of the help what it was about, and they were as clueless as me. Stepped outside, and it was apparently for the Sugar Bowl, but they had turned out a lot of local high school bands and the like to march. Saw this kid, and there was my shot.

Four by Five

I'm in New Orleans for New Year's, and I shot this right outside of my hotel on Bourbon. Very cloudy day, with the light pretty soft everywhere. Noticed people walking single file by this building, and caught them as they were spaced just show.

I went to college in New Orleans back in the mid-90s, before I had any interest in photography. Now that I do, all I can say is: Wow, is this place ever a gold mine for a street photographer. I'm going to have to do some research on Flickr to find out who all is shooting here, and what their stuff looks like.