Well, in my Opinion that would be San Francisco. San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. I am very fortunate living close to it.

Andre

Travel Photography

San Diego is pretty cool too. I like San Diego second best I guess.

Andre

Travel Photography

Whoa Andre i am actually speechless, the San Francesco Bridge pic is amazing. did you use any effects on the San Diego picture.

www.wohoo.co.uk

Callis: I didn't do anything. I usually shoot RAW and process them slightly (sharpening, color enhancement ...) but not that much. Basically I am doing the conversion from RAW to JPG that most people do in their camera by hand and get better results this way.

Andre

Travel Photography

I have to agree with Andre.  Out of all the cities in the US, San Francisco is definitely the most beautiful one.  And it's not only the Golden Gate Bridge or the fact that the city is next to the ocean - it is the mix of old and new, mountains and water, and all the people from different cultures that have settled down, that give it its charme.

Other US cities just can't compete with this, IMHO at least.  

i am just amazed by your photos thats why i was asking if you had done anything to enchanced the photographs. It seems like San Fransico is a popular choice by everyone. THe city looks good but would you live there?. 

www.wohoo.co.uk

Honestly, no.  But the reason is simply that I don't like to live in big cities and deal with traffic, parking issues, etc. on a daily basis.  If it weren't for these issues that you can find in any major city, San Francisco would probably be my first choice.

The rush hour traffic is horrible and I would be afraid of something hitting me on the head during an earthquake. 

Andre

Travel Photography

That would be my main problem earthquakes, san fransico has a bad history of major earthquakes so i would be sacred of living there. i love the look of the city though.

http://www.wohoo.co.uk

I guess the only real danger comes from tall buildings that could collapse. I live on the same fault line, but here it is rather flat. I cannot ge burried underneath rubble or anything else. I imagine the worst place to be would be on one of the bridges. 

The golden gate bridge has undergone major reconstruction to make it earthquake "safe". I don't really know what this means. The bay bridge is also supposed to be safe, but just the stretch from San Francisco to Treasure Island. The stretch on the Oakland side has not seen that kind of reconstruction.

Currently there is reconstruction on the Bay Bridge during weekends. I don't know exactly what they are doing, but traffic all through San Francisco will be impacted during the weekend. When you are visiting SF these days, try to keep that in mind and expect some delays. 

Andre

Travel Photography

I visited New York a couple of weeks ago. I have to say I was blown away by the grand scale of the city. I was very impressed with the size of Manhattan alone and I even made the daring move to drive into Manhattan. Although it was at Night, traffic never seems to slow down here. Here is a picture of Times Square:

It is amazing how tight space has become in Manhattan. We have seen funny things like a house built on top of a skyscraper (yes a House with Garden, Outdoor Grill and everything else). Here are some people taking a sunbath on top of their building:

Andre

New York Photo Gallery

New york reminds me of london they have the same busy Neon effect type feeling more of a NyLon effect if you know what i mean.

www.wohoo.co.uk

Times Square isn't really representative. There is very little Neon in the city. The picture below is better to get an idea. In Downtown Manhattan you will find a lot of old buildings (now protected) next to modern skyscrapers.

Andre

Travel Photography

hello, Andre, I really enjoyed looking at your photos :) and I do believe that there are many cities that I would love to see in the US...

just one thing, can you help me with a little thing i want to know in photoshop? is this what you are using to enhance your pics? ;)

I am currently writing a tutorial : The digital workflow

I just started last week and I am about to write one section every week covering the full range from RAW processing to the final output all through Photoshop. I am sure you can use most of that for Photoshop Elements too.

And yes, I do process my images somewhat. Here is the final output and the original of the image above:

The most noticable differences are the increased dynamic range (notice how the highlights of the skyscraper are brought back to life, it doesn't appear to merge with the sky anymore), improved shadows (first floor of the brick building), straightened perspective (the right is what all cameras see, but it is esthetically not as pleasing, this is due to the point of view) and some color tuning.

Anyways, my tutorial will cover most of that and more. Over the next weeks (months?) I will add a new section (or two) every week.

Thanks for asking

Andre

Other Tutorials on my Site

Great job with the photoshop editing, i will starting editing the photos i takes so they will look a lot more professional like yours.

You should. Check out my tutorials. I am writing about one a week taking you all the way through the editing process to the finished picture. I may even make some actions available for download, so you just have to push a button ;-) 

Andre', you take some of the most amazing pictures.  Makes me want to take a vacation to every location you photograph.  Have you ever had anything published?