Re-examining Sutro Baths

There are lots of misconceptions about photography.  Most people have this misleading notion that it's difficult to find interesting things to shoot in one's hometown, and that one must travel somewhere new and exotic (like a third world country) in order to find entirely fresh, compelling subject matter.  I disagree.

I bring up this issue because of what someone said to me recently: "You have the opportunity to take great photos because you travel all the time."  OUCH.  That felt almost like an accusation.  So of course I had to prove to myself that much of my photography is attributed to hard work and a dose of talent, as opposed to sheer opportunity.  I needed to show that I could create interesting landscape photos without having to travel beyond three miles. 

So here it is, Sutro Baths, a tourist destination also popular among amateur and professional photographers.  The abandoned ruins of San Francisco's old bath house, nestled against Ocean Beach, is eerily beautiful, especially after the sun sets.  I was lucky to have a full moon this week, which cast a nice glow over the ruins and allowed me to reduce exposure time for these night shots.
 
I initially photographed Sutro Baths a little over three years when I was a photography student (images below).  This was a fascinating exercise for me because it allowed me to compare and contrast these two sets of images (taken 3.5 years apart) and examine whether I've shifted the way I see and compose things over the years.  Do you notice the differences?

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Red Rocks Adventure

Most people go to Las Vegas, Nevada to gamble away their hard-earned money at the casinos, but few ever venture off the strip to explore the Red Rocks Canyon located 15 miles from the city.  Too broke to travel abroad for Christmas this year, and too impatient to spend the holidays with family, my friends and I decided to spend our precious vacation climbing Red Rock's famous sandstone rocks. We encountered surprisingly warm sunny weather at the beginning of our trip, but a storm eventually moved its way in, bringing dramatic fiery sunsets.  With tripod in hand, I took multiple exposures for the sky and the land and rendered the images through an HDR program to create these "realistic" landscape images.  Why yes, the sunset colors are genuine, and I was lucky to have witnessed this rare occasion.

Okay, enough landscapes photos. 

I've mentioned rock climbing several times in my earlier posts,  but haven't yet posted any pictures.  So finally..... some climbing pics of my burly/badass friends Steve DeLuca, Thomas Gronkbukt, Skippy Gaunt, and Isabel Von Rittenberg at Stratocaster Wall in Red Rocks.  Facebook friends may have seen these already, so I apologize for the redundancy.

 By the way, have you met my husband, Aaron?  He's pretty dorky looking when he boulders/climbs, but I've always had a soft spot for dorks.

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