Cindy and I each shot the wedding with a digital and a film camera. Here’s a bunch of my film shots, and for novelty’s sake I’m limiting my shot selection to shots from a single roll of Neopan 400 black & white film that I shot on my Nikon F100 with my trusty 85mm f/1.4 D.

Daytime at The Festival means early morning runs to reserve tarp space and afternoon runs to fetch snacks and jackets. It means bagels from the big red bakery and festivarians picnicking by the river. The whole experience is about so much more than music, yet the music is unforgettable. This year, so many great acts.

Can’t stop listening to the Head and the Heart.

And then they wait.

And play with beach balls.

And eat chicken.

And then, finally, the stage lights come on.

This year, our first at the festival (after years of my father trying to talk us into attending), we saw Sarah Mclachlan (pictured, top) on opening night, and Old Crow Medicine Show (pictured three times above, in the last two joined by a very-late-for-their-opera-house-engagement-downtown Mumford and Sons) on Saturday night.

When we left both shows, we walked down main street and saw festivarians pouring out of local bars and cafes, often enjoying live music in more intimate settings like the Last Dollar Saloon…

And the Telluride Opera House.

Perhaps most importantly, we found a hot dog stand…

And some excellent night tacos…

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 85mm f/1.4
Processing: Cinnamon Rose ACR Presets (upcoming) – la playa, sessions e, and telluride

And dudes: the bag’s plenty manly.

Be sure to leave your comment on Cindy’s blog between Monday and Thursday; the winner will be selected at random from those who have commented, and the selection and announcement will be made sometime on Friday, May 20th.

Here’s what fits in my green *emera messenger:

And here’s a few shots of my friend Ricky with his messenger bag, just so’s you believe me when I say it’s for dudes, too…

Go enter that bag giveaway already!

• Find the steepest, curviest street in SF (no, not Lombard – Vermont Street running down the south side of Potrero Hill).
• Find a big wheel or, barring that, some other kids’ wheeled vehicle, preferably rickety.  Modify as desired.
• Dress up because, well… it’s Easter and it’s San Francisco.
• Get rad. Let it rip. No brakes.

Shot with a Nikon D700 with a 85mm f/1.4 and a Nikon F100 with a fisheye 16mm f/2.8 (loaded with the new Portra 400)

When I heard the news, I realized I was overdue in posting these World Series victory parade photos, featuring Buster and several of his Giants teammates (along with some special guests). This is by no means a comprehensive collection of photos from that amazing day. We were standing at Market and 5th, and the crowd had to be 10 deep at least on both sides. Rumor has it there were 1.5 million spectators lining the parade route — to put that in perspective, the population of the city of SF is 775,000. It was an just an amazing day, and a loud one, the culmination of an epic season, capped by an inspired late-season run and a pitching clinic of a World Series.

Pictured here are newly crowned rookie of the year Posey along with (in no particular order) SF Giants teammates Juan Uribe, Madison Baumgarner, Nate Scherholtz, Sergio Romo, Mike Fontenot, Aubrey Huff (with rally thong and Bud Light in hand), and Pat Burrell. Also included are Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper (aka Kruk and Kuip, the Giants’ dynamic broadcasting duo), Steve Perry, and Mayor Gavin Newsome, some local newscasters and a few rooftop Giants fans.

And yes, make no mistake, it has been a curse. SF Giants fans have suffered through one excruciating World Series loss after another, with seeming eternities between to ponder what went wrong.

While I wasn’t alive for the ‘62 series, I remember watching the ‘89 Series where my hometown rocked and crumbled as I looked on from my college dorm. And I vividly remember the ‘02 series slipping away after a late-game lead in (what would have been the clinching) game 6. In fact, thinking the game was in the bag, I left my friend’s house with the score 5-0 in the 7th, and got home in time to watch the tail end of a bullpen meltdown, followed by another the next day that just felt inevitable.

So, yes, victory tonight was extra sweet, and fans of the San Francisco Giants deserve every bit of the celebration they’re enjoying this moment. Cars are driving by my apartment now honking so loudly and frequently that it’s hard to hear Marty Lurie and FP Santangelo break down the raucous celebration at 3rd and King.

As for why now, why this team … well, Paul McCaffrey from KNBR half-jokingly calls it “particles”. Rangers fans may point to our home field advantage and their bad luck. Whatever the reason, there’s a general sense that there were larger forces at work here.

To be fair, this may be the best team the Giants have ever fielded. Not the most talented, certainly, but talented enough at the plate and on defense, with an awesome pitching rotation — Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, and for most of the season Sanchez and Zito — and a great bullpen, especially Lopez and Wilson.

But was it team talent and performance alone that lifted the curse? If so, why weren’t talents like Mays, Marichal, McCovey, Clark, Kent, Schmidt and Bonds able to do it?

An excerpt from an email I just received from my father, a lifelong Brooklyn Dodgers fan, may help explain …

Congratulations, I’m glad they won, too. But now for a little perspective.

Dad

Now, most people imagine the temperatures at all California beaches to be a comfortable 70-90 degrees at all times, but this is Northern California and Baywatch wasn’t filmed here, y’all. 85 degrees fahrenheit is a glorious day at Stinson. And so Matt and Cel exchanged their beautifully handwritten vows, surrounded by family — Cel was given away by her father, Matt by his mother, and midway through the ceremony the couple joined by their two lovely children to pour colored unity sand into a tall glass jar.

As the happy couple walked back up the aisle, the crowd very skillfully blew what seemed like thousands of bubbles, adding in no small measure to the sheer joy of the occasion. After the ceremony, we took a few group photos on the beach, drove down highway 1, and headed inland to Tiburon for the reception, where we took portraits along the main street, and then joined the reception at Servino’s. From there, we watched the sun go down over the bay and the San Francisco skyline, and danced into the night. Thank you Matt and Cel for a great, great wedding.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon 70-200 VR, 85mm f/1.4

Production & Processing:
Cinnamon Rose ACR Presets: Figgish, Seep
6×6 ACR Presets: Veil, Beach Wedding
Cinnamon Rose Photoshop Actions: Taffeta, Gauze

Cake, the headliner, took the stage next.  Cake was pretty cool, as the trumpet and the lead singer’s funky percussion instrument (which always adds a touch of whimsy to his cutting lyricism) complemented Xan’s incredible guitar work nicely, and they basically sounded the way the sound on LP, which is to say quirky and entertaining with great musicianship.  They got the crowd going, and the well-lubed masses were singing along to every word.   It was another fine performance, and it was a kick to see Xan play, as I hadn’t seen him since he played with local band the Assortments, from Berkeley, when we were both in high school.

Camera: Nikon D300

Lens: 85mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4

Processing: Cinnamon Rose Actions & Presets – I used this shoot to mess around with some of the new features of Camera Raw (including post-crop vignetting and film grain) and apply some of Cindy and Lauren’s new Photoshop actions, including Taffeta and Sublime.  I also used a couple of my new presets, such as Figgish.