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2 Weeks in San Francisco

2 Weeks in San Francisco

Take your medication
Take your medication

I just returned from 2 weeks in San Francisco.  I am growing to love this city.  I used to visit when I was in the US Coast Guard and stationed about 40 miles north of the city in Petaluma for training for a year.  I was not making very much money then so it was a very expensive city to try to appreciate on a very limited budget.

I bumped into a funny street side band that were serenading people eating in their Italian restaurant...

Street Band
Street Band

...this time it was the San Francisco PD.

San Francisco Police
San Francisco Police

I was out shooting with my friend Kevin and we were mesmerized with this alley.   I think I shoot about 25 photographs of this alley figuring out focus area and the right mix of settings to get the balance of light I wanted and was seeing.   I thought this was a perfect blend of lighting conditions.  I am really trying to spend more time focusing on light as I really impacts your images.  

San Francisco Alley
San Francisco Alley

Jet lagged and a bit red faced after a few beers with dinner...I found staying up when you first arrive in a city helps you to overcome the jetlag very quickly.   Sadly it didn't work this time.  I went to bed at 11PM and was wide awake by 1AM...

Dave Powell
Dave Powell

I had a bit of free time on Saturday and headed over to mission to check out the street art.

Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti

Taking a graffiti break...

Mission District Street Graffiti
Mission District Street Graffiti

I found the neatest photo store....Photobooth.   They had a very cool selection of cameras.

Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth

Photographer Michael Shindler...

Photobooth
Photobooth

They have some really fun staff as well...

When I walked in this girl ran up to me and said 'Is that a Leica?!'.   I said 'It is...do you like Leica?' to which she replied 'My dog is named Leica!'...I get that question a lot but that is by far the best response I have gotten.

Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth

I chatted with this woman for a while.  She does animation at Pixar.   A very cool job...

Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth
Photobooth

They were doing TinType photos so I though I would give one a try...

Photobooth
Photobooth

My Tintype from Photobooth...!

TinType
TinType

I saw this and it made me think of my mom.   She used to drive a 1964 1/2 green convertible.  This car is beautiful.   Perfectly restored...

1960s Candy Apple Red Mustang
1960s Candy Apple Red Mustang
1960s Candy Apple Red Mustang
1960s Candy Apple Red Mustang
1960s Candy Apple Red Mustang
1960s Candy Apple Red Mustang

I stopped for a while and watched this kids doing tricks on their bikes... ah to be completely fearless again.  I just kept thinking things like 'if you broke your finger how would you type?".   Clearly we have different priorities.

Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
Street Tricks on Bikes
San Francisco
San Francisco

Then I saw this amazing young man - Gabriel Angelo 'MasterBlaster G'... This kid was rocking out on the sidewalk.  I spent a while watching him and photographing him.   He is only 13 years old and plays to raise money for his music school.

Street Performer in San Francisco
Street Performer in San Francisco
The Bay Bridge in San Francisco
The Bay Bridge in San Francisco

The main reason I was in San Francisco was to attend my companies conference Dreamforce.  It is the largest vendor held IT conference with 96,000 attendees this year.  It was amazing.  If you are in Business, IT or want to see how technology is changing the world we live in watch the Keynotes.   It is amazing...Forbes wrote a glowing article about the event today.

Dreamforce12
Dreamforce12

The opening day was kicked off by MC Hammer!   It was awesome....

MC at Dreamforce
MC at Dreamforce

The opening day was kicked off by Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff.   For Dreamforce he brought together some of the world's business leaders to speak about business, technology and transformation.   Just to name a few Chairman of GE Jeff Immelt, Sir Richard Branson, General Colin Powell, CEO of Burberry Angela Ahrendts, Tony Robbins, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Dreamforce12
Dreamforce12

It was great to hear General Colin Powell speak...

General Colin Powell at Dreamforce12
General Colin Powell at Dreamforce12

One night there was an after party held inside City Hall DJ'd by Will.I.AM from the Black Eyed Peas...

Dreamforce12
Dreamforce12

...and MC Hammer!

Dreamforce12
Dreamforce12

The last day was Tony Robbins Day.    I am a complete Tony Robbins convert after listening to him.   What he says makes so much sense.  I imagine I will be buying all of his books.   He was truly great!

Tony Robbins at Dreamforce
Tony Robbins at Dreamforce

He had the entire room of 90,000+ people jumping up and down...

Tony Robbins at Dreamforce
Tony Robbins at Dreamforce

The biggest surprise of the day was when I saw the young trumpet player Gabriel sitting next to Marc Benioff.  Apparently he tried to get into Dreamforce but was rejected because he was only 13.  He didn't think that was fair and emailed Marc.   Marc didn't think it was fair either and told Gabriel he could attend with him.  You can watch his performance on his Facebook Page and hear the story.

Dreamforce
Dreamforce

After a very long week I decided not to do my photowalk at Google and will hold it on my next trip.   I ended up catching up with some colleagues for drinks on Friday.    I was taking some photographs for a charity project I am working on and as this guy put his glasses back on I saw a great shot!   More on my charity project in an upcoming post.

Glasses
Glasses

Thanks for stopping by today...

Tokyo Photo

Tokyo Photo

Shooting Shinjuku

Shooting Shinjuku

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