Gas Station 05-30-2005

Realized that I was late for my Granny's birthday. I try to send her an original flower photo for every occasion and she loves pink. I had been noticing a lovely planting of blush roses at the gas station ringing the pump area. I zoom off to our local Shell station, start pumping and ran around with the camera and macro lenses. Unfortunately, the rose blooms were now past peak and I had a -2 exposure compensation, I thought that every shot was a loss. However after a week, I took a peek and think this is a keeper. It is a little grainy for a larger print because of shooting at ISO 800 and having to do severe exposure corrections.

Continue reading for a black and white shot...

Critical Mass Submission

Six Bridges Trail, Butano State Park, CA

I have been considering entering Critical Mass 2005. Critical Mass is a really interesting idea. You submit a portfolio of 10 images and anywhere from 50 to 200 industry "folks" review it. You do not receive any feedback but if your portfolio is highly rated it could become published or go on tour. Maybe more importantly, you may make a contact with someone interested in your work. I am undecided and the deadline is May 31st because I do not have a cohesive portfolio yet nor an artist's statement.

My idea for a portfolio is my landscape work with the title "An Hour's Drive". The portfolio would show all the amazing locations within an hour's drive from my home here in the San Francisco bay area.

Coyote Hills 05-27-2005

Returned to Coyote Hills this evening. I wanted to re-make my earlier photos and see if I could improve them. Again, I like the marsh the best.

For the hillside shot...

Don Edwards 05-25-2005

Took the dogs out for a walk at Don Edwards Wildlife Preserve. I intended to try some color shots but forgot my camera! Instead, took one infrared panorama. This set of shots really shows that my sensor is incredibly dirty and I am unsure how to fix it.

Coyote Hills 05-24-2005

Went with Chip and the girls for a short walk at Coyote Hills. The evening was lovely with a soft breeze blowing off the bay.

Continue reading to see the second choice image...

Sunol - Little Yosemite 05-22-2005

Spent most of the weekend down in bed not feeling well. Finally, arose on Sunday evening and went for a small jaunt out to Sunol. I have decided to explore the Little Yosemite area. It is spectacular and I will return many more times in the future.

Continue reading for my second choice photo...

Alameda & Main County Fairs

Boy after way too much vacillating, I have decided to enter photos into two county fairs this year, Alameda and Marin. I went around polling everyone I could find and received many conflicting opinions. Therefore, I just had to go with my gut feel. After my portfolio review last month with Michael Seewald, I went with his opinons. This bridge image was controversial among reviewers but I like it so it is going to both fairs. Taken on a rainy day at Tilden Park Botanical Gardens on New Year's eve last year.

Keep reading if you want to see more of my image choices...

Uvas Canyon 05-15-2005

Went out twice this weekend to Uvas Canyon. Last week, I had to submit entry forms with a list of images for the Marin and Alameda county fairs. For the Marin county fair, the deadlines were a little later. Therefore, I added a 'Swanson Creek' title in black and white that I do not have yet. So, out I went to get a fair image. On Saturday, the sun was shining (a rare occurance at Uvas Canyon) and this image had blown highlights. However, Sunday was partly cloudy so the light was perfect. At this point, I think this is my final image for the Marin county fair.

On the other hand...

Reviewing Old Images

While attending Michael Seewald's class, Michael mentioned that he waits up to a year(!) to review and select his images. Wow. I can barely wait until the image appears on the back of my camera. Recently, my friend, T, asked for a print. She remembered a picture from Big Sur taken almost precisely a year ago. At the time, I thought the image was OK but it never made it into my mental keeper list. Now looking at the shot with fresh eyes, I think it deserves better.

Kodak National Park Photo Contest 2004

This week had a very nice surprise. I found out that 'Bugling Elk' is a finalist in the Kodak National Park contest. While enjoying my mild conceit session, Chip and I had fun daydreaming about which National Park we would visit if the image wins the grand prize.

Uvas Canyon 05-07-2005

After running a lot of errands today, went out to Uvas Canyon. It has been too long since I visited the park. As usual at Uvas Canyon, I never get far from the parking lot because I keep seeing shots. Even though I wanted more color, I worked exclusively in infrared. It was fun to see the difference that infrared can make to this familiar location.

I had a hard time deciding the cover image...

Michael Seewald Workshop - Part 2

There is a continuation of my earlier entry detailing what I learned at the Michael Seewald Workshop. This section details the magic of cropping.

Once we had practiced how your eye moves, we worked on cropping. I rarely crop my images and have always felt they had to fit in to the dimensions of the standard print sizes. Michael Seewald actually spends a great deal of thought to cropping his images. To me, it was amazing to see how much improvement you can make with cropping. Start with 3 questions.

• What made you take the picture?
• What do you notice first? Is that what you wanted?
• What is strong and weak in the image?

Here is a starting point of an infrared image taken recently in Sunol at the Little Yosemite area. Question 1: Why did I take the picture? Answer: I liked the waterfall with the rock wall as framing. Question 2: Is the waterfall my primary focal point?....