Gene X Hwang

The Secretary General of the United Nations made a visit to San Francisco last week, finding time to sample some fine cheeses during a tour of the Ferry Building. He seemed humble and gentle in person.

Last month was a blur. One of the neat things that I was reminded of was the great views we get out here of our city as well as the Bay Area. I took a ferry over from Oakland/Alameda towards San Francisco and got to go by the piers where all the giant shipping cranes were. I’ve heard that they inspired George Lucas’ interpretation of the Death Star so it was neat to get so close and [...]

I remember reading about NYC considering requiring permitting for photography anywhere in the city (even on regular streets) and although it’s not something that’s been implemented yet, myself and many other photographers here to cover the Figure Nationals were accosted by security and told that permits were required. I was shooting Jennifer Cowan here when we got stopped… I guess that was my only Friday the 13th experience though!

So we’ve been doing a lot of on-site printing gigs especially with the All-Star Game happening today and all this week. We were on a cruise on the Bay this morning where Dave Campbell and Dusty Baker were speaking and posing for photos. We got this shot of these two by themselves and they were amped to get the prints so quickly while they were still smiling for photos with others. Ask us about our on-site printing [...]

So Tony Gwynn was in attendance at the Home Run Derby after party we were shooting and I got to grab a quick shot for our friend Stano. The party was pretty fun although most of the time I was printing on-site. However, one of our photographers Liz as well as the other photographer Misty were both hit on by one of the soap opera actors on hand.

So I smelled smoke walking into the studio tonight which is never a good thing. After sniffing around to see where it was coming from, I heard noises from the back and peeked out the window where I saw the reflections of lights and peered down to see firemen sifting through a commercial dumpster that was right behind the studio. It looked as if they doused a fire in it because there was water running out of [...]

I got to make it back to Millennium Park this afternoon where I shot a different model about a year ago. The Bean of course is one of the signature art pieces in the park and is nearby the Frank Gehry designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion. This was just a ‘where’s waldo’ style shot I took underneath since I really love the flow of how the scene shifts as you walk and stare upwards. Since I had a [...]

This is a work by David Fambrough who used to live in Reno, where it is installed on a rooftop next door to the SPCA. I was shooting with Lindsey Cope nearby when I noticed it. If you’re interested, apparently you can buy his other similar piece in the :bug car: series: Tarantula.

Today our Governor was in town as a guest of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He was introduced by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and the Democratic Brown headed praise upon our Republican Governator. Here are the two of them after the speech and Q&A session back stage.