Fun Duochrome Day

Today was a fun vacation day. I bumped into an old friend! I got to pet friendly bulldogs! I got to take photos! I visited some sculptures I hadn't seen before! I was able to leave the fog belt, and then run back to it in the late afternoon!

I have one defective film pack (I suspect the battery is dead), and I need to decide whether to ask for a replacement, or try to fix it myself.  (The odds of me fixing it correctly aren't good, but would be faster than waiting for a replacement...) Hmmm...

Sample of my Duochrome today: 

• the previously mentioned Cellular Origami garage by IwamotoScott
• the extremely attractive garage by WRNS Studio on 450 South Street/Warriors Way (and yes, their website has photos from before it was hemmed in by other buildings, so be sure to check those out), and
• the Salesforce Transit Center Bridge (designed by Arup; builders and consultants credited in this document).

I did plan on photographing UCSF's Owens Street Garage, which I've previously described as a place where Darth Vader would park, and I meant that in a good way!  It turns out that is also by WRNS Studio. My previous visits (not today) were clouded by wildfire smoke.  I'm sure I'll try again another day.

Red veins

Cable ends, cable stays

Taking the available edge of the lot

We don't waste space.

Reflected skyway

Inside of Orbital

This is inside of a work I encountered for the first time on today's walk in Mission Bay, which is Orbital by Futureforms (futureforms.us).  Their photos of this, and the planning photos, are much, much better than this one.

Great garage screen

This is a detail from one of the three decorative garage facades that I enjoy in Mission Bay, in and around UCSF.  

This one is called "Cellular Origami," and it's by the firm IwamotoScott (iwamotoscott.com).  Their website has other pleasing geometric projects!

Staring at plants

Great morning at the Asian Art Museum

I had a wonderful morning at The Asian (asianart.org), and it truly felt like a vacation day!

The special exhibit, teamLab's Continuity, pulled me in, but I also toured the permanent collection, because I love it.

In this collage, which captures a small sample of what I enjoyed: 

• top left: Woman's Robe with Dragon Medallions, 1850-1900, China gallery
• top center: scene from Continuity
• top right: visitors enjoying Yun Suknam's work, in Korea gallery
• center: Sekino Jun'ichiro's Fujieda: Wheat Field at Twilight, 1962, in the Japan gallery, and I am very excited by this artist's prints: there is a thing he does with elevation (a straight-on view) that we do in drafting school, and that my favorite documentary photographers also do with buildings, that this artist does with color in a way I REALLY LOVE, so I need to see more
• bottom left: horse decoration in the permanent collection, which I like to scope out for things to sketch in person
• bottom center: another scene from Continuity
• bottom right: Xu Xi's Night Market in Old Chongqing, 1982, China gallery.  I love her use of density, the way she filled the background (non-traditional in an exciting way), the urban density and mood she portrays...  it's just GREAT!

Continuity was even better than I expected.  There are various 'immersive' art shows out there based on projection, but this one was (a) quite interactive, as in I enjoyed watching a school of fish part and pass around walking visitors, and touched kanji to watch them transform into other images, (b) technically sophisticated from a programming, projection, and equipment standpoint, as some of the images moved through the galleries in a nearly seamless way, which involves lots of complex ceiling-wall-floor geometries, (c) really beautiful - the images, colors, and movements were quite lovely.  The other visitors were also DELIGHTED.  I recommend it highly.

425 (concrete lounge)

I had passed this location while they were putting it in, and I couldn't figure out what it was based on the walls alone...  and I still wouldn't know, if it weren't for the furniture.

I tried lounging on the concrete lounge to the left, and it was okay.  BYOC (bring your own cushions).

Ideal 1980s drawing (concrete curve)

The Maritime Union Rincon Hill mini park opened, and so I can finally approach this from the east.  (I used a filter to adjust the color, which is something I rarely do...)

Light stripes

It is SO SHINY!

Bees and Roses

I have many more images of bees (or yellow jackets, or other bee-adjacent insects) hanging out in roses, but they aren't all smiling for the camera, so I'm not sharing them all here.

Sunflower (seed development)

It is neat to see the blossoms before they turn to seeds this close.

Smoky skies have low contrast (Duochrome)

When I saw sunlight on my curtains this morning, I was eager to get out and shoot some more Polaroid (Originals / Impossible) Duochrome, but the sky is filled with smoke, and so I can't get the contrast I want.  The light has a baby-aspirin-orange cast.  Shadows are present, but muted.  The sky is an ambiguous color - not blue, not gray, not quite as poetic as a William Gibson reference to a dead screen - and so I'll need to wait patiently for cleaner air before I revisit the scenes I'm eager to shoot.  

(I'm sure I've noted it before, but the building is Mira by Studio Gang.)

Multi-texture/color entrance

Modular screen

I like this screen.  I intended to shoot it in Duochrome today, but the sky is too smoky to get the contrast I want. (I'll post about the architect who designed this in a future post.)

Absolutely, positively no entry!

This is a different design than I'm used to seeing...  I really think the side facing me shouldn't have any edges that a vehicle's bumper could catch on and use to push at it.  But I am used to seeing one large barrier that eases up, rather than so many little ones, so there may be some advantage to these I'm unaware of.

Zoom nights

Not about the video conferencing product: about going fast at night.

Polaroid Duochrome is pretty sweet

Any day I get to test a new-to-me film is a good day, and Polaroid Duochrome in Yellow made for a very good day!  

Yes, it is a 600 speed film that I insisted on shooting in my SX-70 under a neutral density filter; yes, I forgot to move the filter to the second package of film (oops), which wasted 6 shots; yes, another two frames failed to eject entirely, so those were also wasted.  The film develops slowly, so I had left the scene before realizing some of my prints were overexposed.

Yet, once I learned what light needs it has, got my ND filter on, and used the 'darken' wheel?  INSTANT FILM JOY.

(Featured Duchrome photos take near and inside Salesforce Transit Center (which I'll also call the Transbay Terminal) designed by Pelli Clark Pelli)

Waves above rams

There are other waves downtown, but these are especially vibrant with the lines in between.  I may need to revisit the rams with a longer lens.

Dahl-Beck’s great sign

So red! Such a nice range of neon and fonts! So clean!  It's absolutely festive.

Another view of SFMoMA

I'm always looking out, never in...

YBG doing its thing

Gardens being gardens.  The gardeners do a great job making the plantings on this particular roof feel a little wild and natural, while the ground-level gardens are more about lawns and organized planting beds.

Two tiny windows

Just those two on such an enormous wall!  It's so funny.  

Fresh hydrangea

Modernist P.A.

Peninsula street life

It is always lovely to see the street used by PEOPLE instead of cars.

Usual terra cotta fun

Stanford neon

Old movie theaters have such great signs!

Taupe with Spanish frosting

I went on a field trip to Santa Clara County yesterday, my first in ages!  It was fun to get out of the fog belt and feel like a tourist.

1062 (red and cream)

Texture appreciation - plaster edition