When the weather man said there was a high preasure system sitting over the Bay Area today I knew that would mean little-to-no fog in San Francisco. The city at night is beautiful so I drove up to take a look. It was unusually warm in San Francisco tonight and the Embarcadero was very quiet.

This location is about one block to the southeast of the Ferry Building (toward the Bay Bridge) and right next to Pier 14, which is just to the southeast of Pier 2, while the rest of the piers increase in count to the northwest. Well pier 2 comes before Pier 1 also. Don't ask, I have no idea why!

I'm not normally into photographing people or things people create, like bridges, buildings, etc but I couldn't pass up this scene and composition. What do you think?

San Francisco Zoo -- Revisited

Can you say 1-800-BEAR-DENTIST??

I returned to the San Francisco Zoo a few days ago -- my first trip back since the escape of Tatiana the tiger on Christmas 2007, which resulted in her death.

[Full story of Tatiana here]

I'm sad to report that the big cat enclosures, that used to be so great for viewing and photography, are now nothing more than big glass and steel prisons. It's really very sad.

(TIP: If you're a photographer and want to photograph the big cats, the only option is to use a 300mm+ and shoot through the chain link fence...if you distance yourself just right from the fense and the subject is at the right distance on the opposite side, you can in fact focus out the fense. I had my 500mm with me that day and was able to accomplish this but it's not easy. Manual focus is the best bet.)

Anyway, I did spend a bit of time with the bears given they were being playful after feeding time. These two grizzly bears are sisters and were orphaned when their mother was shot and killed in Montana. They were cared for by Montana wildlife officials before being released to the wild. Used to human-induced food rewards, they were considered "problem" bears (rolls eyes, their bears!!) after invading the ranch of some Montana residents. After several attempts to relocate them away from human development and numerous phone calls to find the bears a new home, Montana wildlife officials were forced to make the agonizing decision to euthanize them, when the Zoo agreed to take them in. Poor bears, just being bears...maybe we should relocate the humans! After all, there are 6.5 BILLION of us running around.