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After my first post on Made In USA, a reader sent an email to point me at a local company (local meaning with a shop in San Francisco) making hoodies, vest, and other nice apparel for the same price as the Gap. So I ordered one of their hoodies and I was again pleasantly surprised by the quality, the feel and the softness of the garment. The company is American Giant and has factory in South San Francisco and in North Carolina. There is a level of attention to details that is quite nice, especially for $90 hoodie. The zippers are metal...

Up to this point, we had done a fairly standard Burma trip. Two destinations on our itinerary were off the beaten path. First, on our way to Inke Lake we stopped for one day and one night in Pindaya. The second one was the Kyaiktiyo pagoda also known as Golden Rock, which was an extra two days trip after coming back to Rangoon. Based on my previous post about the food and the lodging you could think it was a luxury trip (and it was) but these two locations were a little to a lot more basic in the food and accommodation. Pindaya The attraction...

Did you see the full moon yesterday? This month, the moon was rising over the Coit Tower in San Francisco. The ideal point was between Lombart St. and Chestnut St. Unfortunately there is no open view between those two streets, buildings are lining up the streets and keeping the view for themselves. I got on top of Lombart right before sunset. The cable car stops right here, with the gold light of the sunset it was great, candid shot. Even the Coit tower was basked in warm light, but I was looking for a better location. I could not find any,...

A couple years ago, I started to be aware of our reliance on cheap, imported products. I was getting concerned that nothing was Made in USA anymore. For me, Made in USA is synonym of quality goods. Remember those Levis jeans Made in USA that would last years. I think I’m part of the problem (or least I as a consumer). Who doesn’t like low prices on any products, and imported products let you stretch those dollars further. That’s a vicious circle, we prefer to buy cheap imported products, the manufacturer notices this,...

Debbie Omariba is a friend and a great actor and model. She has been on commercials for  Starbucks, Luminosity, LinkedIn, Apple and Garmin. I’m her go-to photographer when she needs new images. To be honest, she was one of the first models I photographed in 2011, when I was avoiding humans on my pictures as much as possible. In 2011, I made a conscious effort to be more confortable with shooting people. Several artists (like David Duchemin, Zack Arias or David Hobby) will tell you to get out of your confort zone to be more creative and...

At the beginning of the year, I spent a few days in Nice before going to Ethiopia (more on this in another post). I knew that Monaco has nice fireworks for the New Year celebration and I had enough knowledge where they would be fired from to pick a nice view from a higher elevation as I wanted to capture the harbor, the Monaco Castle and the fireworks. There are only a few places that are public accessible to catch that view. The next evening, I went to the Chateau de Nice (castle). From the Castle, there is only one tower left and the city...

One of the most common questions about Burma I get is about the food and/or the hotel or lodging quality. So let’s talk about our trip and our experience. First we went with a small group and with a very experienced travel agency: Insider Asia. They have been organizing custom trips to Asia for many years. While this trip to Burma was their first one, they did a lot of research and selected a very good local guide. Both of those attributes made our trip amazing. The lodging was always excellent as most hotels were 4-5 stars equivalent....

I wish you an amazing new year that includes a lot of travels and a lot of photography. Last week we had an incredible clear day after a quick rain. The two combined events made the atmosphere exceptionally clear. I drove to the East Bay hills to capture a panorama of the city of San Francisco. The sky was so clear, I was able to see the Farallon Islands from the Berkeley hills. For information, the Farallon islands are 30 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge and I was 14 miles away from the Golden Gate. You can see more of the images of San...

It’s this time of the year when you reflect on what happened to you this year? First and foremost I spent two extraordinary weeks in Burma. Seven of my top ten images are from Burma and I could have easily have more. I have started to find that challenging weather environment can result in unique, more interesting images than fair weather. My last three images illustrate this point: a thunderstorm in Burning Man, a very strong dust storm or a foggy evening on the San Francisco Bay.

Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located 445 miles (716 km) north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region. Mandalay is the economic hub of Upper Burma and considered the center of Burmese culture. Mandalay is also known for its monks. Half of the country’s monks reside in Mandalay and surrounding areas. After our flight from Yangoon, we went directly to “Marble Street”. It’s a street where...