Although a created lake, Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park is a beautiful respite from the urban terrain. The lake surrounds Strawberry Hill from which electrically pumped recycled water feeds a waterfall. Resident and migratory water fowl enjoy the lake as much as the joggers, walkers and visitors. Paddleboats and rowboats can be rented in the day and in the early evening on a calm foggy day you are walking in the mist of Avalon, or so it seems!
We have had a lot of fog along the coast this summer. So instead of escaping it I tried to include it in my view finder. Mounted on my tripod I photographed this image with my lens at about 85 mm, f/22 and a fairly slow shutter speed to capture a bit of the fog along the surface of the water. The fog at tree level provides a nice sense of layers with little definition for the farthest trees.
If some last light sun could have found its way through the fog behind me the scene would have been a little warmer. Since it didn’t I added a warming filter (on camera or in post processing) to help eliminate the blue cool cast.
Earlier in the week I enjoyed the dew drops on leaves and flowers at Korbel Winery before it got too breezy (that’s why you get out early in the morning). The plantings around the parking lot are always sporting color and attracting humming birds and butterflies. Using a 100 mm macro lens I was able to get close enough to the leaf of a Nasturtium to include just a few drops. The star like burst in the background is the out of focus vines of another leaf. (Done intentionally).
If you don’t remember how much each f stop will give you at every lens millimeter use your depth of field preview button. If you look closely you will see both the background leaf in the water drop and the reflection of a vehicle in the parking lot behind me. This is one of the reasons I love photographing water drops in nature. Like eyes they capture within them much more than we first realize.
The eyes of Mexico’s Our Lady of Guadalupe have in them  human figures discovered with an infrared photography process. They are not mere chance of inkblots. It is as if her eyes took a picture of the people before her. The figures of a Bishop and a black woman have been identified.  I am reading a fascinating book on the subject and Lady: “Our Lady of Guadalupe – Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women†by Jeanette Rodriguez.
Dr. Rodriguez will be one of the keynote presenters at the November 11-13 Faith and Feminism, Womanist, Mujerista Conference at herchurch in San Francisco. Check out the CONFERENCE details.