Monochrome versus colour

Dear readers, I present to you two of my most favoured shots from today's excursion about town in San Francisco. Both the shots were taken from the top of the San Francisco Art Institute building.

I shot the pictures in colour, but the moment I saw the results I felt that they could look better in monochrome. Here are the two shots, converted to monochrome. Please do let me know what you think.





Also, while we are on the subject, here is one in colour.

San Francisco still life

Some pictures of things that don't move, from San Francisco.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2007

I am not a big fan of bluegrass music, but I am a fan of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. I first heard their music in 1998 when a friend lent me two of their CDs while I was wasting away my youth in New Hampshire. I was hooked when I heard their rendition of Oh Darling from the album Live Art. On the album, you can hear a clip of the song, which does not really do justice to the version on the CD which is 19 minutes long, if I remember my youth correctly. The vocals come on around halfway through the song after a long jazz-like medley of banjo and other instruments. So, that summer, when I happened to visit San Francisco, I bought a used CD of the album Left of Cool, which opens with a lovely song, Throwdown at the Hoedown. In short, I really like their music.

Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise when Gina told me about the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival which was scheduled to be held at the Golden Gate Park this weekend. We checked the schedule online and realized that the Flecktones were to play from 4:10 - 5:10 PM, which was sufficient motivation for me to go. We did, and it was awesome! There's lots to be said about it, but I am sleepy and very tired from the weekend. So, I'll let some pictures from the concert do the talking. It was way too crowded for me to get a shot of the Flecktones, but I did get a shot of Los Lobos, who played afterward.

Also, here's this profound and seemingly true quote by John Hartford which someone was kind enough to wear on his t-shirt:

A banjo will see you through times of no money, but money will not see you through times of no banjo.

Enjoy.

In San Francisco

I'm in San Francisco with Gina. For a month. Yes, a month! I've come here after seven years. Yes, seven! I love this city. The last time I was here I had a great time driving a friend's motorbike from San Jose to Monterey bay and back, but I did not see much of SF city. This time, thanks to Gina's meticulous planning, we are living in downtown SF (the orange spot on the map marks the location of our hotel) and it is great fun.




We wake up early every morning and walk down to Ferry Building, buy coffee from Peet's cafe, buy a bagel from one of the two Noah's bagels outlets which we pass on the way and have our breakfast while sitting on the pier and watching commuters alight from the ferries that dock there. The first few days I kept forgetting to take my camera with me, but have been carrying it around for the past three days. Yesterday we walked along the piers from Ferry Building to Fisherman's Wharf (too touristy), walked to Trader Joe's where I found an awesome beer which I had not tried so far and which I highly recommend to anybody claiming to be a beer lover (Full Sail LTD, in case you are interested in trying it), bought some grocery and walked back to the hotel. Today, we walked along the piers and took a turn to climb up Filbert steps to Coit Tower to witness breathtaking views of the city.

All this while, I have been taking pictures, which I am glad to share with you. As we are here for another month, there will hopefully be a lot more pictures, so keep checking.