short trip

This was the fourth time I went to Angel Island (day trip) and it’s always a treat. It’s pretty incredible that a lot of people living in the Bay Area have never been to Angel Island. Last time, I went camping (see previous post), we did get ideal conditions. This time we went later into the spring, hoping to get better luck with the fog. Overall the weather was ok but not yet as interesting as it could be, knowing the location potential. I will have to try again, until I get the image I want to make. In the meantime, here are some draft images I made while being...

Recently I rented a Fuji GFX 50s for one week. During that week, I had scheduled a photoshoot with one model and spent a couple days camping near the Golden Gate Bridge. My goal was to evaluate if the Fuji was a possible replacement for my Canon 5D MK IV. I have heard great things about the Sony Alpha 7 R II but when I used it, I did not like the view finder and the ergonomics. In contrast, Fuji came with a lot of expectations about the natural ergonomics and ease of use. Plus a 50 megapixels camera was very interesting to me.  It is true, I was able to use the Fuji within a couple minutes without even opening the manual. Everything is right where you expect it,  it’s like putting on an old favorite jacket (including finding loose change at the...

From San Francisco, Channel islands National Parks is relatively close and can be done in a 3-day weekend. Channel Islands is not very popular because it’s relatively hard to get to and most of the features require to dive to see them. There are about 30,000 visitors a year that actually go to the islands and another 60,000 that simply dive there. The reward is well worse the trouble, it’s not frequently that you can hike in a National Park in California and not being crowded. The park is composed of five islands (Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Anacapa and Santa Barbara), all are open to the public except the island of San Miguel which is currently closed. With a little bit of planning before your trip you can secure a camping spot and a place on...

This year for the 4th of July, we did not want to drive a lot but we were still looking for an camping trip. We looked at several possible options but they were all booked (some booked over a year in advance). My wife got the idea to check out Pinnacles National Park. It’s so close to the Bay Area that you can drive to it in less than 2 hours (excluding traffic). Pinnacles is known as a climbing mecca (in winter months), for its California condors and for the large bat population living in the caves. We were expecting a lot of people during the 4th of July weekend and yes the campground was almost full but you read it right, on the busiest weekend of the year, there was still space left in the campground. Pinnacles, I found out, is the best kept secret in...

Angel Island is a California State Park in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. It has incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San Francisco and Alcatraz. In a previous post, I made a day trip there but this post is about spending the night on Angel Island. Depending on the season, the last ferry leaves the island between 3:30 and 5:20pm (make sure to check the schedule online) and unless you have your own boat that’s your deadline. But for a few hard core planners, it’s possible to secure a camping spot on Angel Island. In that case you will be sharing the island with at most 40 persons (including the park rangers, the kayak groups, and the large camping group). After the departure of the last ferry (which was 3:30pm in our case), the...

Hearst Castle was the home of William Randolph Hearst and is now a California State park. Hearst Castle is located near the unincorporated community of San Simeon, California in the Central Coast of California. Despite being relatively far from majors cities (San Francisco or Los Angeles are both 250 miles away), it attracts about one million visitors a year. So don’t expect to be alone when visiting the “Ranch”. We spent a couple days in Paso Robles, so one day we drove to Hearst Castle. On the way, we saw wild zebras. Zebras were imported by Mr. Hearst for his private zoo and released in the wild (at least on this large property) in 1958. For me, the most striking feature of the place was the two swimming pools: The Neptune pool (outside)...