June 1, 2008 – A Fistful of Dollars

            Today I brought a group of Asians to the Airport.  What part of Asia they were from, that I’ll never know.   They looked like they were from Japan perhaps?  They were talking amongst themselves on the way there, I have no idea what about.  They were most likely here for the biotech convention.  Our convention center is enormous, sometimes we get conventions upwards of 120,000 people.  That’s our biggest one at least.  It’s called “Comic Con.”

This is a photo I shot from the San Diego Convention Center a while back.  I'm facing Northeast.  Truthfully I'd wished that it had turned out a little better, you don't get those rich dark skies when there are clouds.  They seem to trap the light which gives everything an orangish glow, and a warmer color temperature.  This is also due in large part to sodium vapor light typically found in street lamps.  Tungsten bulbs give off a whiter/cooler look (the lights inside of the railing) and are, in my opinion, much more pleasing for night photography.  These color casts can be minimized by shooting in black and white at night.  The same photo is pictured below, in black and white.  I used photoshop and bumped up the brightness a bit and toned down the highlights (the lights on the staircase).  There are like four huge staircases going up to the top.

            When we got to the airport they were frantically digging around I their pockets.  They just gave me a handful of money, probably $25 or so.  The fare was $23.60.  Then they gave me another handful, and another, and another.  They thanked me over and over and scurried out of the car.  It took me a minute to straighten out all of the crumpled bills.  When it was over I came away with $63.   It was a good day.