A Photowalk with Thomas Hawk
Last Thursday, July 24, 2008, I found out, via FriendFeed (what else), that Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk were venturing out on a last second photowalk in San Francisco the following day, Friday.
Luckily, I was able to make the neceesary arrangments and met up with them at the Ferry Building. We walked along Embarcadero to Pier 27 (Thomas knew exactly where he was heading). Pier 27, apparently, is where the city stores all of the equipment for the Chinese New Year Parade. As soon as we got there, Thomas Hawk disapeared into his playground. Seeing this equipment up close and personal was very intersting. From the huge Gas Service Man to the weird looking stage setup (for lack of a better term), there were a ton of things to photograph. I probably could have spent hours there, but after a short 20 minutes or so we moved on to the Cable Car Museum.
For those that have not been, the Cable Car Museum is not only a museum, but actually still the place where the cable cars in San Francisco are run from. The lighting was a bit harsh, but there were still a bunch of fun things to photograph. Thomas Hawk, being the guy that he is, noticed (I think) that I wasn’t getting the exact shot I wanted out of my lens. He kindly offered for me to borrow his 14mm wide angle lens. I was a bit thrown at first, but Thomas Hawk insisted and I obliged. After a few shots with the 14mm, he came back around and offered that I use his 24mm. By the end of the day, he had allowed me to borrow his 14, 24, 50, and 135mm lenses. Only problem I have now is, I really want to go out and buy that 135mm lens! It’s a beautiful lens and as Thomas mentioned, at f/2.0, the background of the images just melts away and really brings out the subject. Thomas also mentioned the 135mm is his most used lens of his arsenal and highly recommended it (before I started playing with it).
It was a fun day and I’m really glad I made the arrangments to go. Thomas Hawk is as nice and thoughtful in person as he is online. I can only hope to get the opportunity to go out with him again.
Everyone else out on the walk was extremely friendly as well. Special thanks to Robert Scoble, Rocky (Scoble’s camera man), and Nathan (for providing some sweet Seagate “gifts”).
For those interested, I have created a guest pass to view all of the pictures from the day. Enjoy them and don’t hesitate to provide any feedback…it’s one of the ways I learn to take better pictures.
Till next time…
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