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Friday Slide Show: South Of Market Share This on LinkedIn   Share This on Google   Tweet This   Forward This

17 November 2017

The first big storm of the season was on its way in but the winds hadn't been as strong as forecast so it was taking its time. We had an appointment downtown and debated whether or not to bring a camera. Always bring a camera.

If we had taken nothing but photos of the sky, it would have been enough of a reason. The sky was changing every time we blinked. Darker with ominous clouds and few fat raindrops. Bright all of a sudden with strong shadows.

That's a recipe for auto exposure and today's cameras have it all over yesteryear's. Sure, you could let the camera pick the shutter speed or aperture in the film days but you couldn't let it change the ISO.

We don't take many images of moving subjects, so we tend to let the camera pick the shutter speed using Aperture Priority. That lets us control depth of field in our shots. And it's not a bad habit to get into if you use manual lenses a lot, too. The camera can't control their apertures.

Your secret weapon is Auto ISO.

But on that particular afternoon that wasn't going to be enough. Your secret weapon is Auto ISO. These images ran the gamut of our Micro Four Thirds camera, from ISO 200 to ISO 1600.

So what did we see?

We were rushed but we couldn't help uncap the lens, line up a quick shot and move on. The sky, as we said, was dramatic. And there were quite a few new buildings making a statement against that sky.

There's always some construction, too, which provides a little behind-the-scenes look at urban life.

But there was also the old and familiar, like the backup getting onto the Bay Bridge.

And then there was that keyboard.

We walked by it quickly, trying to make up some time, but it was hard to miss. There, in a street-level window, we saw an inbox that had a keyboard stuffed in it.

We laughed. We stopped. We went back and lined up the shot. And just as we did ... well, see for yourself.


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