San Francisco Open Studios 2022

ArtSpan SF Open Studios

Portrait Daniel Leu

Welcome to my San Francisco Open Studios 2022 page. This page is dedicated to my SFOS show where I provide some background information on my recent work as well as some theme based galleries. I hope you enjoy scrolling through them and discover some of my new work.

Please remember to sign-up for my newsletter at the bottom of the page so I can inform you of upcoming events, or follow me on @danielleuphotography and @danielleuphoto. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out!!

Thank you for visiting. Stay well and healthy!

Daniel

Grown up in Switzerland, I have called beautiful San Francisco home since the late nineties. This is where I discovered my passion for photography. I enjoy pointing my camera up and down, and left and right to find new scenes or a new angle that reveals a well known subject like the Golden Gate Bridge from a different point of view.

As can been seen in my portfolio, I love the outdoors and take advantage of the close proximity to the great parks we have here in Northern California, from the rugged Pacific Coast to the granite domes in the Sierra Nevada.

For me, photography is more than just taking an image and sending the digital negative to an external shop to have it printed. I enjoy the process in the digital darkroom to develop the photo, so it represents what I envisioned in the field. Once I'm done on the computer, I print my photos on my medium format professional printer, before matting and framing them.

The best part is handing the print over to a client and seeing their pleasure of having my art on their walls. Priceless!

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Last but not least, here is a short video ArtSpan created as part of their Virtual Artist Studio Tours (VAST) where I talk about my photography. Click on the image to see it:

Some of my followers might be a bit surprised with my new work. Since the Studio Nocturne group doesn't participate in SFOS this year, it opened the door for me to show different types of imagery.

  • I continue exploring long-time exposures of bodies of water I started with the Calmness project. The Horizons series are long time exposures of several seconds including Intentional Camera Movement (ICM).
  • The lipstick palm or red palm has this beautiful contrast between the red stalk and the green leaves. I took these images while being on vacation. At that time, I didn't think too much of them, but now I really love them and wish I had spend more time playing with the colors and the shape of the leaves.
  • I love Yosemite, specially during fall with all the beautiful colors. Walking through the forest from Curry Village to Happy Isles, the ground was covered with leaves. I have been playing with in-camera multiple exposures for a while and I tried different ideas. I really like how these captures turned out. Each photo is created from 10 exposures that are combined in-camera. No photoshop, etc.
  • During the Covid lockdown, I set up the camera pointing at Bernal Heights. Every day around sunset, I took an image. This created a series that I call the The Bernal Heights Project. It is interesting to see how the weather changes over time or stays constant for a few days. For this Open Studios, I'm displaying them arranged in a grid of the same weekday over a 9 week span.

In the gallery below you only see the digital images. But the presentation will be even better! In the last few years I spent more time trying my hand at woodworking. This year, I decided to make my own frames and floater frames. Now the panel mounted prints are constrained in a floater frame while traditional matted prints come with – I have to say – beautiful oak frames. Please come to the Open Studio to see them hanging on the walls.

Projects

For a while now I have been fascinated with capturing images that our naked eye does not perceive the same way. One technique I use is long time exposures. This creates light streaks or star trails from moving stars, or smoothes clouds and bodies of water. These effects can be seen in the Calmness and Statrails albums.

With the project SF Muni Bus Stops I seek Muni bus stops all over San Francisco at night. I specially look for the ones with the illuminated red roof. They provide a great contrast on a foggy night. This project is still in its infancy and I'm curious to see in which direction it develops.

With Calmness I move more into abstract imagery, where the subject matter is not readily identifiable. The images in this album, all taken after sunset, use exposures of several minutes that flatten out the ocean and provide a zen-like feeling.

I love working and playing with the stars in the nightly sky. Using long time exposures, typically at least 20 minutes and sometimes up to more than an hour, the stars' apparent motion creates these trails in the sky, aka star trails. Often I use different colored flashlights to illuminate part of the scene to add or highlight other visual elements. Good examples for that are the service station, the Potrero Point power plan and the house at Sea Ranch.

Another recent project are Sequences. Currently the focus is on the moon, mainly the setting crescent moon. This project started with the view from our balcony where I saw the moon setting over Bernal Heights. This intrigued me and eventually I achieved my first sequence which I was very happy with. While visiting Paris a few months later, I saw a similar scene with the moon setting over the roofs of some adjacent buildings. And this was the start of this series of images, with many more to come.

San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond

I've been calling San Francisco home for many years and I enjoy the city and its surroundings. It still amazes me, how little I have to travel for a completely different scenery.

Apart from just regular images of San Francisco at night, I enjoy very much playing with moon alignments. One example is the full moon resting on top of Coit Tower.

There is not much more to say about the Golden Gate Bridge, but I thought that this beautiful bridge deserves it's own album! So there we go!

Growing up, the ocean was always associated with vacation. To this day, seeing the ocean evokes a special feeling and many memories.

I love the Sierra Nevada with its mountain chains and enjoy spending time up there. Yosemite National Park is one of the places I frequently visit, as well as the Eastern Sierra with Bodie, the ghost town, and the ancient trees of the Bristlecone Pine National Forest.

Travel

I love to travel the word, visiting familiar places as well as discovering new ones with different cultures.

I love Venice, the old architecture, the culture, the water channels, the small calles (streets), and, last but not least, good food. It is a place I regularly return to and enjoy exploring with my camera. Hence two albums, one in black&white and a second one in color since the imagery is so different.

I love Venice, the old architecture, the culture, the water channels, the small calles (streets), and, last but not least, good food. It is a place I regularly return to and enjoy exploring with my camera. Hence two albums, one in black&white and a second one in color since the imagery is so different.

Paris is the place where my love is from. I enjoy spending time in this photogenic town.

Asia is such a different place compared to the western culture and it is so easy to travel to (at least before Covid-19). I have visited a few countries, but I have barely touched the surface. I'm looking forward to go back to spend more time there exploring and getting to know more of the culture and people.

Prints and Frames

All photo albums show bare images. I sell them matted and framed. Some of the photos are available mounted on wooden panels too, and a few of them are coated with resin. I provide metal prints as custom order and have a big stock of greeting cards available.

Limited edition of 24 fine art giclée prints.

Premium archival paper, signed on the border, dated, numbered, and delivered with a certificate of authenticity.

Unmatted size 16″ x 24″ or 17″ x 22″ print with 1″ or larger border

Limited edition prints can be directly ordered from an image gallery by clicking the shopping cart icon . Other sizes are available on request.

Open edition prints are available in two standard sizes:

  • 7"x10" print with a 11"x14" 4-ply mat
  • 10"x15" print with a 16"x20" 4-ply mat

Both sizes are printed on archival and acid-free paper and are signed on the mat. Other sizes are available on request.

Open edition prints can be directly ordered from an image gallery by clicking the shopping cart icon .

A small selection of my prints is now available mounted on wood panels. These are beautiful handcrafted art objects ready to be displayed on a cabinet, book shelf, or hung on the wall.

The archival prints are mounted on sealed cradled wood panels and varnished for UV protection. On the back are the picture title, year, and signature of the artist (yeah, that would be me :)

A very exclusive set of images are resin coated. Custom orders are available. Please contact me for details.

Metal prints is a method of printing where dyes are directly infused into the metal. This provides a contemporary look where colors are very vibrant with great luminescence. This technique is using UV resistant ink to prevent fading.

Metal prints work really well with night photography and light painting. It provides a very elegant way to display art in your home. If you want a particular print on metal, please talk to me for more details.

A few years ago, I started creating greeting cards. They became very popular and I'm always very happy to learn that my art is sent around the word!

These greeting cards are hand printed using archival inks on acid-free cardstock (200gsm) with matte finish. Each card is accompanied by an envelope and packaged in a protective crystal clear sleeve.

The picture title, location, and date are printed on the backside. Please note that a little bit of cropping might be needed in order to best fit the available space. All images with a 3:2 or 1:1 aspect ratio are available as greeting cards.

Greeting cards can be directly ordered from a gallery by clicking the shopping cart icon . Each greeting card is made to order. Unless I am travelling, I have them ready for you in about a week.

How to Visit and see my Photography

Apart from these embedded online galleries, there are a few other ways for you to see my art.

San Francisco Open Studios is just around the corner and together with Greta & Manu Schnetzler and Paule Merlin, we'll show our work at an.ä.log Gallery. Please mark your calendars!

an.ä.log Gallery

Saturday and Sunday November 5 and 6, 11am – 6pm
Opening reception: Thursday November 3, 6 – 9pm

886 Capp Street @ 24th Street

I'm lucky to be able to use a big wall in my office in the Dogpatch to display some of my art. I'm always happy to welcome visitors, either in person or via zoom for a little tour. I have a selection of my matted prints and greeting cards there as well. So there is plenty to see.

Please use the contact form below to schedule a visit.

Contact

Please contact me with any questions you have, or if you'd like to schedule a visit to my real gallery space in the Dogpatch, or for a Zoom call.

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