My Photos at the Galleria Park Hotel

In 2011, when I became the general manager at the Galleria Park Hotel, one of our goals was to improve the hallways in the hotel by adding more artworks, including the business center and the fitness center.   Rob Delamater, the owner/artist of San Francisco Lost Arts Salon, was hired for this task.

I showed him some of my photos and he liked them for the business center and the fitness studio.   After showing my photographs to Marni Leis, the interior designer of the hotel, they both agreed to showcase my works.

I donated my photographs to Galleria Park Hotel and had them enlarged.  Next time you stay at the Galleria Park, make sure you visit the Business Center or workout at the Fitness Studio!

Here are a couple of photos that are currently on display.

 

REFLECTION

HDR

We were in V Sattui with families and friends when I noticed this truck parked along the highway. I found out that the truck was used by the Sattui family in 1885. The rain just stopped and the sun was shining on St. Helena when I decided to bracket three shots and tried HDR for the first time.

TAKING TIME

To the computer, time passing is just a series of zeros and ones, line after line, after line of them stretching all the way to infinity. The machine is potentially immortal; it could turn numbers into pixels until the end of time. But to our human perceptions, trapped by the finite beating of the heart, the pixels flickering on the monitor screen, are like the ticking of the doomsday clock. Yet these little windows on the world are strangely beautiful in their other worldly way. Take some time, take some more, time is passing, the time of your life, the earth rotates, seasons come and go, the machine sorts zeros from ones, as another thousand tiny bursts of phosphorescent light dance to the rhythm of the wind and the tide. -Chris Welby

This is probably why I love photography. It forces me to slow down and appreciate the things around me that we usually take for granted. A window may seem so ordinary to some, but to an avid photographer, it could be the most beautiful piece of art that needs to be captured at the right moment in time. For me, photography is about appreciating God's creation--whether it's a landscape, a beautiful sunset or perhaps an innocent face of a child. It's also freezing those special moments in other people's lives. I had the pleasure of capturing those moments this past weekend when I attended a wedding and baptism.

B&W

Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black and White in low contrast situations. Ironically the dark or overcast days are considered bad days to take photos in color.

While the family and I were going around Golden Gate Park during a cloudy afternoon, I decided to try shooting in black & white.

Crossing the Bridge to Digital

I love photography since the 90's when I bought my first SLR camera--the Minolta 7000. In February, 2009, I decided to cross the bridge from the manual SLR to DSLR. After reading many camera reviews, I decided to settle with the new Nikon D-90.

I was excited with my new camera and read many D-90 tips online, including the book "D-90 for Dummies." LOL I took several photos the first month. Thanks to digital SLRs, you can take as many photos as you can and delete the ones you don't want to keep. This photo was one of the first ones that I really liked. This was taken in Yerba Buena in San Francisco.