A California road trip | Part one: San Francisco and Muir Woods

From San Francisco to Muir Woods

Hi there!

We finished the first blog post about our trip to California! A couple of years ago we drove the Highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and because we have fond memories of that road trip we wanted to go back, but then drive it the other way around. People always say that's the best way to do it, because there's nothing else between you and the ocean than coastline, rocks and vegetation. And now and then some sea lions! 

We flew from Amsterdam to San Francisco, where we picked up our car and drove to Oakland, the location of our first accommodation. Oakland is a nice alternative for San Francisco, because it can be tricky to find a nice and affordable place to stay in the city that became one of the most expensive in the US over the last years. From Oakland you can easily take the BART (metro) to San Francisco, which is just a 20 minute ride to downtown. 

We stayed in the Bay Area for three full days, and this is our top 10 of favourites:

  1. Muir Woods (and Equator coffee at Proof Lab in Mill Valley on the way)
  2. The Mill, close to Alamo Square. The toast with almond butter and honey is a must try! Check out #hipstertoast on Instagram.
  3. Wise and sons in The Mission. Challah French Toast, yes!
  4. General Store in Outer Sunset. Think Bohemian treasures, natural beauty products, and the greenhouse in the garden is fabulous!
  5. The Scarlet Sage Herb Co. in The Mission. A Wonderful store with herbs, mineral stones, Tarot decks, books and more.
  6. Little Paper Planes. Beautiful curated collections from upcoming artists and designers. Mission is a fantastic area for more original shops, bars and restaurants.
  7. Blue Bottle & Heath Ceramics in The Mission for the perfect coffee and some shopping. 
  8. Four Barrel Coffee. The slow brew bar in their Valencia Street store is great! 
  9. Sightglass Coffee in SoMA; check out the amazing interior! 
  10. Outer Sunset. Lovely quiet 'hood, close to the beach. Don't forget 3 Fish Studios for nice affordable art, and Hollow Coffee. 

As you can imagine; three days is waaay to short for this amazing city. In our next post about California we'll continue our trip along the stunning Pacific coast, so stay tuned! 

Andres & Joyce

 

Canon x on a hazy morning

Do you remember our trip to Istanbul in December? The project that was all covered in mystery and which we have been so excited about? 

Well, we are thrilled to finally reveal what we’ve been secretly working on over the last few months… We’ve been working with Canon; On a hazy morning is part of the advertising campaign for the new camera EOS M3!! 

For this campaign we went to beautiful Istanbul for almost a week where we had the chance to photograph and film with this camera, while we were exploring the colourful streets of this interesting Turkish metropole. During our explorations we were followed by a film- and photography crew and today we can finally share the video and imagery with you!

Photo by Henrik Knudsen

But first of all a little bit more about the camera; the Canon EOS M3 is a compact system camera and can be paired with a range of changeable lenses. With a special mount adapter you can even use other Canon lenses. In our work as photographers we shoot with 5D cameras and lenses of the L-series, which we could also use on the EOS M3. For example; we’ve tried the 50mm f/1.2 lens on the EOS M3 camera while filming and we were so impressed with the results; super crisp quality with a beautiful and dreamy depth of field. We like that!

Photo by Henrik Knudsen

As lifestyle and travel photographers we are often shooting pretty street scenes. Architecture, details of a city, but also people and their styles. With this compact camera it’s easy to take candid shots, especially because of it’s size, the fact that you can tilt the screen up and down and control several functions using the touch screen. 

Photo by Henrik Knudsen

 

Of course we can easily write for another hour about all great features, but it’s much more fun to watch the video and check out the photos of our trip! Enjoy!

On the Canon website you can find more about our trip to Istanbul, as well as the camera specs.

Also, did you know about the Canon's Come and See initiative? Come and See is all about capturing stories that unfold around us, every day. Here you can find inspiration and learn about techniques. 

We really enjoyed working with Canon and the amazing crew on this project. It was a great experience to explore the streets of Istanbul, we'll definitely go back one day!  

Andres & Joyce

Exploring Marche | part three

Today I would like to share my third and last post of my recent trip to Marche, Italy. 

In my previous posts I showed our adventures of day one and two. On the third day we explored the stunning towns Montecarotto and Matelica, where we visited their historic theaters and strolled around in the narrow streets lined with colourful houses. We went to a couple of wineries and an 'enoteca' to try the region's beautiful wines. Very interesting to taste the different Verdicchio wines from this region. And at the end of the day we had a delicious dinner in our hotel in Genga, where we were all a little sad because we actually didn't want to leave already!

Dear Italian friends, thank you for this fantastic experience! You showed us Marche in the most perfect way; authentic and truly wonderful. There's really so much to explore and to enjoy, and I can't wait to go back for another adventure. A presto!

Love, Joyce