San Francisco In Love (Castro Edition)

The idea

The idea came from my sweetheart. Two couples cancelled their shoots last minute and I was down and very disappointed that I won't get to shoot on a wonderful sunny Sunday. My man gave me a warm hug and said: "Why don't you just go out to the streets and shoot people?" And I'm thinking to myself: "Hmmm, if I approach strangers and they agree to it, it automatically means that I won't be stood up or have a last minute cancellation. Perfect." Castro came to my mind immediately and I decided that I will start there. Where else in the city do you get so many cute couples that are holding hands and strutting the streets on a warm Sunday afternoon? And so I waited until the end of the rain season in San Francisco and today I finally decided to walk out and go on my very own street photography adventure.

James and Andy

It was only a month and a half ago. The speed dating session lasted only four minutes but it did not require that long for James and Andy to feel an instant chemistry between each other. As Andy said, talking to James for the first time felt genuine, natural, and effortless. James did not pretend to be someone else, he did not say things he thought others wanted to hear. He just sat there, looking to find real love. And he did. James says that Andy has the most open heart of any men he ever met. He found his true soulmate.

From the left: James and Andy

After talking to James and Andy for a while, we realized that they have seen me before. They watched the video where I asked Lady Gaga a question. The world is very very small.

Alex and Bill

Alex and Bill did not meet online. Well, they kind of did. They met via an iPhone app called Grindr. They are also the first couple I know that met via an iPhone app. :)

Alex is from Chile and perhaps it was his exotic looks that attracted Bill. After a short message exchange, they were at Bill's apartment sealing the deal. The deal was sealed one and a half years ago.

 

Jim and Steve

Twelve and a half years ago. Hot summer night in San Francisco. Airconditioning in Badlands bar on the 18th street is going full throttle. Jim is getting hit on by some crazy guy while Steve is on the other side of the bar talking to his friends. In spite of the distance, their eyes meet. Jim gets the courage to walk over to Steve and gives him his number. Steve never calls back.

One week later, same place, same people. Steve pretends that he is not noticing Jim. That does not sit well with Jim, and so he walks over and taps Steve on the shoulder. That can't be ignored, Jim thinks to himself. Steve acts surprised and gives some excuse for not calling back.

Their first date is in the San Francisco Golden Park and the plan is to attend the annual "Opera in the park". It was Steve's idea to get there on the roller blades. "I had to help him all the way" -- Steve remembers the day he made Jim climb steep San Francisco hills with him for the first time. 

Jim and Steve are not in love. As Jim explains: "We are not in love, but we love each other. If you are in love, you might get out of love. And we don't want that."

Jim, an artistic planner at the San Francisco Sypmhony, introduced Steve into the world of performing arts. Steve never sang before, but had many dreams about singing in the opera. He soon started turning his dreams into reality and is now an opera singer.

 

Tim and Steven

I was getting my energy boost in the form of a Nutella crepe and I noticed a cute couple squatting next to me at the Squat & Gobble. I immediately knew I wanted to photograph them... as soon as I finish my crepe that is. After few minutes of listening to their Australian accent I finally started making sense of what they were saying and learned that Tim and Steven are on a vacation to celebrate their third wedding anniversary.

From the left: Tim and Steve

Tim met Steven twelve years ago on gay.com, a site that still exists on the Internets. But their first real date happened at a much finer establishment -- at McDonalds. Yes, two Australian hotties met at an American junk food joint in Melbourne. McDonalds happened to be right next to Tim's house and had free parking, which was super convenient for Tim. However, Steven had to drive for fifteen minutes to get there. Life is not fair.

Steven was invited to Tim's house for a second date. Tim's mom opened the door and loved Steven from the moment she saw him.

  You can see more pictures of all four couples in this slideshow:

Seeing so much love in one day made this Sunday one of the best days of my life. And then, I went home to a love of my own.

Tango Between Strangers

If you paid attention to few recent blog posts, you might recognize the beautiful lady from this video. Yes, it's Dana, dancing tango with a complete stranger. I absolutely love her acting and her sexy moves! She ends up heartbroken at the end of the video (oops, I think I just spoiled it for you), but worry not! In real life, she is happily married to Phil.

Pair programmers

My husband Bradford is working on a sweet new startup. As with any other project, you always need a second pair of eyes to go over your code. Lucky for him, Fluffy just arrived and was willing to help out. After all, she works at Google, so she's seen it all.

Every laptop should come with a creature

I was at the Starbucks picking up my steamed milk with hazelnut syrup when I looked to the right and saw this amazing parrot sitting on top of an open laptop.

I came over and went into my usual "hello there puppy" mode. Her daddy Walter let me pet Roxy and watch her feathers go up as she was enjoying the rub. She later rolled on her back in Walter's hand. Roxy was extremely bublibicious and made me think of getting my own personal laptop parrot. Too bad Google only allows dogs at the workplace.

Gaga at Google

Lady Gaga visited us at Google last week and we can finally talk about the event. At first, it seemed like it would be one of those days when a celebrity shows up at the Googleplex, gives a talk, takes few pictures with few interested Googlers and rolls out. But this time, it was quite different.

People were hanging out in front of the main door for hours before the scheduled time and our hard working security team had a lot of work on their hands. By the time the main door opened, there was literally a mob of people ready to rush in. In my six years at Google, I have never seen anything like that. We had presidents, Nobel prize winners, and other known people visit the Googleplex, but never were we more excited about a twenty-four-year-old before.

Some fans dressed in creative costumes, some even enrolled into a Gaga fashion contest that had only one judge -- the lady herself. (see minute 58 in the video at the bottom of this post). Here are few fashion forward Googlers who agreed to have their picture taken. Excuse the camera phone quality. :)

I just sat there with my co-worker, working on our laptops, and eating our yummy Google food. We've both felt the area was filling with anticipation, excitement, people, and a ton of laptops. :)

You can watch the full video below. If you go to minute 41:20 of the video, you will see me asking Gaga the first audience question (yes, my voice is trembling but at least I was the first Googler who got the balls to step up to the mic). She gracefully responded with an answer that was little too diplomatic, but got back to me with a better answer few minutes later.

One thing that caught my attention, but I did not ask her was this:

Gaga promotes "Born this way" idea and wants her fans to embrace who they are because that is the way they were born. But what caught my attention was her mentioning the strict diet she is on. I wonder what she would have to say about her diet and how she thinks that affects some of her overweight fans who are being bullied because of their weight.

I'm wishing the young ladylike lady happy 25th birthday and hope to see her continue making the world a better place.