Photo by PatrickSmithPhotography

Some background on the shot from the photographer:

I was thinking about some long exposures after I had photographed some big surf so I walked along the haunted concrete walkways crossing over what seem like ancient ruins. I did a couple of long exposures and as I set up for one last shot, a couple decided to plop right down in front. Rather than worry about it, I worked them into the photo by moving to the right far enough to get them separated from the dark background of the offshore rocks. That way they stood out well against the background. They stayed put for the entire time and 4 minutes later, I was finished! Taken February, 2010.

Photo by Emily Hoyer

The Academy of Science’s Love Life Photo Competition is back for a second year. This is your opportunity to enter your favorite photos taken at the Academy for a chance to win prizes.

The Academy is looking for photos in any of these six categories: land life, aquatic life, night life, family life, mobile life, and protect life. Five local judges will choose the winners.

The overall grand prize winner receives a dinner and hotel getaway in San Francisco, including a room at Hotel Vitale and dinner at 54 Mint, a Lytro 16GB Light Field Camera, Adobe Photoshop, and an Academy Conservation Photography Excursion.

The winners in each category receive a Lytro 8GB Light Field Camera, Chronicle photography books, and an Academy Conservation Photography Workshop. The awards presentation will take place at the March 1st Nightlife event. Get all the contest details

To enter, upload your photo to Flickr and then tag it with “lovelife2012″. Just by tagging the photo, it’s automatically entered.

The deadline to enter is February 1. Check out the slideshow above of already submitted entries – there are some great ones in there!

Sarah B.

Photo by ampoda

The photo above and video below is from the 2012 “Post Yule Pyre” event held at Ocean Beach on Sunday night. Put on by Friends of the Rootless Forest, the event utilizes discarded Christmas trees to create a massive bonfire.

Known to draw upwards of 200 people, the group has been holding their roast-o-tannenbaum for the last 20 years. Based on the photo above, last night’s event didn’t draw a giant crowd.

And though the bonfire created by the mass of trees is typically much larger than the allowed fires on Ocean Beach, the GGNRA and Park Police usually look the other way during the fiery event.

Sarah B.

More from Ocean Beach Bulletin
More from the SF Examiner

Photo by The Tens

Here are a few local links to take you into the weekend…

• SFist brought our attention to an unexpectedly interesting photo essay on Outer Richmond District garage doors. Photo blogger The Tens has 34 shots in the series so far, full of contrasting colors and patterns.
• Sigh, another soon to be empty storefront on Geary… SF Eater reports that Thai fusion bistro “Morph”, located at 5344 Geary near the Alexandria, has called it quits. No one’s answering the phone and the lights are off. Never tried it, but we liked the decor when it opened in April, 2010.
• Ever gotten a ticket for not curbing your wheels properly? Beyond aggravating and as this 7×7 article points out, probably contestable. Their parking guru tells a reader how to prove that the ticket she got at 6th & Clement is erroneous. Score one for the citizens.
• If you’ve got a tough stomach and an adventurous appetite, head over to Kowloon Tong Dessert Cafe (393 7th Avenue) and try out their amphibious desserts. Yup, you read that right. NBC Bay Area highlights their “several desserts with snow frog (dried fatty tissue collected near the fallopian tubes) or tortoise jelly (a gelatin-like substance made with herbs and, possibly, ground turtle shell).” Supposedly good for respiratory ailments and better skin.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sarah B.

glennbphoto captured this great pic of the rainbow that sat over the city on Sunday afternoon. The left side of it falls right into Lands End. So did anyone find a pot of gold out there?

Sarah B.

2:31 pm | Posted under Photos, Weather | Add comments

We hope everyone had a great Halloween! We headed down Lake Street last night to take pics of some of the scary sights, and wound our way over to the more-popular-than-ever Haunted House at the Appel & Dietrich Market on the corner of 22nd and California.

This year’s haunted house theme was “Grand Guignol,” named for the theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris that specialized in naturalistic horror shows. And even outside, you got the vibe with a working guillotine (we saw a werewolf get his comeuppance!), scary grim reapers on stilts manning the line, and a shady character sleeping overhead in a hammock. The line was too long for us to make it inside but we hear it was a total fright-fest!

Sarah B.