San Juan Cruise Ships

Here are a couple of cruise ships sitting in port in San Juan. The port's connected to the old part of the city, Old San Juan. The colonial buildings here span blocks and blocks.

Today there are 6 cruise ships in port as opposed to yesterday's 4 (see pic above). That mean there's nearly 20,000 tourists pack into the Old City. Try and walk the streets and you'll bump into other tourists because there's no room to walk.

Don't forget to check out my book the 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco. It's a look at the City by the Bay like no other.

Barbados Monkey

Finally got to a place where I can get online after being on a cruise ship for a week. I was on Serenade of the Seas, and Barbados was one of my destinations. The picture above is a monkey at a tourist spot in the island's highlands. More about the cruise is forthcoming. Oh, by the way, if you're going on a cruise and wanting to get online on the ship, expect to pay an arm and a leg, like .55 a minute (US).

Painted Ladies

You may have seen a similar picture of the painted ladies to this one. It's not an easy picture to get. You have to be at just the right place in Alamo Square to get this vantage point. The trick is to include some of the grassy area of the square in the frame and to position the downtown buildings directly behind the Painted Ladies. 

For more tips of shooting in San Francisco, please get my book, "The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco." If you're planning a trip there it's got both travel info and shooting tips. Let your camera take in all The City has to offer!

If you like looking at images of painted ladies, check out America's Painted Ladies: The Ultimate Celebration of Our Victorians . 

Meeting the Gentle People

This has to be one of my favorite songs. Just the idea of wearing flowers in your hair takes one on the ultimate trip of mellowness.

Don't be shy sing along with the video. Here are the lyrics:

San Francisco (be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair) lyrics

If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation,
such a strange vibration
People in motion
There’s a whole generation,
with a new explanation
People in motion, people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

Golden Gate Park Statue

Just when I thought it would be hopeless to find anything about this statue, I run into a site that actually has info about it.

I thought this guy was looking for water, when in truth he's grinding up apples!
The statue was built for the mid-winter fair in 1894. There's another pic of it here.

Everything you wanted to know about Golden Gate Park is here.

And...yes...I am selling a book about San Francisco these days. It's not only filled with photo ops, but it also has lots of history of the City.

Dolores Park in the Morning

If you climb uphill to the southwestern edge of Dolores Park, you get this dramatic view. If you go early in the morning, you'll get a multi-colored sky, going from gold to deep blue. Of course, you'll have to bring your camera to get this kind of picture...and a tripod. 

Getting up before dawn is not the most pleasant thing for most people. If you're a photographer or aspire to be one, try getting up early in the morning just once a week to take a photo of the sunrise (or just before the sunrise when the sky is a rainbow of tones). Look at the weather report. If it's cloudy, don't bother going out. If a storm has just passed, get out there right away, you'll not only get to breathe in the clear air, you'll get a great landscape with it, also. The clouds that the tail ends of storms bring with them are stunning. 

I just finished writing the book, 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco. Go ahead and dare to guess 5 of them in the comments below. I'll get right back with you to let you know if you've guessed correctly.

Barrel Reminds Me of Root Beer

Caught this gem of a piece of architecture on the way home from Yosemite a week ago.

It's actually programmatic architecture, or architecture shaped like an object with which people are familiar. In this case the building is shaped like a keg used to hold root beer.

Root beer is a fascinating drink, one of my favorites, actually. Root beer has all kinds of stuff in it minus the kitchen sink. "Depending on the brew, bottler and manufacturer, root beer still contains a large number of herbs (burdock root, sarsaparilla root, yellow dock root, ginger root, juniper berries, wild cherry bark, birch bark, etc.), oils (anise, lemon, artificial wintergreen, etc.), sweeteners (sugar, molasses, corn sugar, fructose, asparatame, brown sugar, lactose, malt extract, etc.) and carbonation (yeast, artificial, forced carbonation.)" (from http://www.essortment.com/all/historyrootbeer_rhnc.htm)

Grace Cathedral Doors of Paradise

The doors of Grace Cathedral are only one of its many draws. For a virtual tour of the place you can go here.

The doors you see above are replicas of the Doors of Paradise in Florence, Italy. Their art form mark the beginning of the Renaissance. Michelangelo had described the doors as being like Gates of Paradise.

Here are details of the real thing. The pictures of the originals are really detailed. Each picture contains a title that explains what the sculpture is about.