Photo Walk San Fran 50mm

I recently took a trip out to San Francisco for a Search Engine Strategies conference and had an opportunity to bring my camera along for the ride. I ended up only bringing along my Canon XSI with the BG-E5 battery grip and my Canon 50 mm 1.8 lens, as I didn't want to be lugging around too many bags and wanted to keep things lightweight on the trip. Though the focus of the trip was to learn and bring back as much inspiration as possible to the office. I figure we would have some free time to wind down after such intense learning sessions. Luckily, I was able to reset my mind by taking a walk with the camera and tour the city.

Now that you know the equipment I used lets get into the photos. One thing I will say is that the 50mm lens was not the ideal situational lens for San Francisco. I Found there to be lots of landmarks that require a wide angle lens. So the 50mm forced me to be more creative with the subjects and framing choices. Another reason I chose the 50mm lens is because of its ability to let in more light with a faster shutter speed allowing me to leave the flash behind on this trip. Check out the photos below:

These custom Converse are known as the Missoni Chuck Taylors collaboration celebrating craftsmanship and unique style that dedicated shoe manufacturing can achieve. These bad boys look stylish with their urban textile pattern and leather combination.

Over at the San Francisco Converse shop, they provide a custom printing service, where they can apply any design you want on converse shoes.

These Prada sport style shoes caught my eye while passing by. I'm not a fan of Prada, but I do have to hand it to the designer of these shoes as the have a clean urban style to them.

Our journey from the Marriott Marque heading North towards Pier 39 ended up taking us through China Town where there are many interesting sights and shops that are filled with all the same souvenirs shop after shop. I don't know how they stay in business if they all sell the same things. The cool thing is there are many specialty grocery shops and dojos.

Not sure what these are, some sort of Chinese cookie or pastry. But, one thing for sure is that there was a line out the door of people trying to get their hands on these cookies. anyway, if anyone knows what they are, leave a comment below.

We ended up wandering across the Rogue Brewing Company's Chatoe Rogue a type of gastropub where we enjoyed an appetizer and a beer. This was also the spot where we met up with my brother.

This shot above with the arch and the ship as the center focal point is probably my favorite shot during the San Fran Photo Walk. To get make it happen I was actually not tall enough to get an angle over the chain link fence, so I had to raise the camera over my head and take multiple blind shots until I got the shot I was looking for.

All in all I feel I was able to pull off a couple nice shots during my business trip to San Francisco. The only other thing I would have changed with my photography equipment choice is to bring along a different lens. Maybe something like a 24 mm - 70 mm - F/2.8 that way I wouldn't need the flash and still have a nice zoom range for wide angle shots as everything in San Francisco is pretty close together, limiting many creative options with a 50 mm lens.