Long Beach Harbor

Long Beach Harbor

One more from the archives. This is the Long Beach harbor very near the Queen Mary.

Ancient Sea Rock #5

Ancient Sea Rock

I am very excited to be finally attending my photo workshop with Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant. I will be gone all week and posting due to the magic of Typepad's future posting feature.

This is another from my visit to Sunol where the landscape did not inspire me but the various rocks did.

Ancient Sea Rock #4

Ancient Sea Rock

I am very excited to be finally attending my photo workshop with Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant. I will be gone all week and posting due to the magic of Typepad's future posting feature.

This is another from my visit to Sunol where the landscape did not inspire me but the various rocks did.

Ancient Sea Rock #3

Ancient Sea Rock

I am very excited to be finally attending my photo workshop with Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant. I will be gone all week and posting due to the magic of Typepad's future posting feature.

This is another from my visit to Sunol where the landscape did not inspire me but the various rocks did.

Ancient Sea Rock #2

Lichen Covered Rock

Another from my visit to Sunol where I found all the rocks and grasses fascinating.
On a different topic, I found a wonderful photographer through the Photo Friday Noteworthy this week. Check out, j a v a j i v e. You can enjoy his blog here.

Photo Friday - The Road

Windshield Abstract

You know the saying that the camera does not take the picture -- it is the photographer? On a rainy nite, I was a passenger in a car at a red light. I had my 50mm lens on and it was wide-open. I focused on a car's tail light. Right then, the light changed green. The auto-focus jumped to the raindrops and I ended with this abstract. I tried to duplicate the effect but no luck.

Ancient Sea Rock #1

Ancient Sea Rock

This morning, I went out to Sunol for a hike. It feels like a long time since I have been out shooting. I intended to take infrared shots but was uninspired in the infrared possibilities. Instead, I became fascinated with the beautiful rocks along the creek bed. These rocks are remnants from an ancient seabed that used to cover the area.

On a different note, I am stilling trying to adjust to my Canon 5D's full-frame sensor. My depth of field seems much more shallow. Most of these macro are not sharp enough for a large print.

Yosemite #16

 

Fog Rolling at Cathedral Beach

Given that I have not been out searching for over a week, I had to go digging into the archives.  This is a shot taken during my recent visit to Yosemite.  This is the view from Cathedral Beach when you do not look at El Capitan.

Filoli #13

Aphra Shooting Tulips

Decided not to leave the slanted tulips on the main page. This is another fun shot from Filoli. I was experimenting with the fisheye lens and Aphra decided to get into the picture.

Filoli #12

Tulip Display

I know that this one is tilted. I knelt down for the shot and must have cocked my head. I decided that I liked the slant.

Yosemite #15

Apple Blossom(?)

This small tree was blooming along the banks of the Merced River. I am not sure what type of tree but it looked like a fruit tree so I will guess an apple tree.

Yosemite #14

Merced River from Swinging Bridge

Another from my Yosemite visit. This view looks down the Merced River from Swinging Bridge. The bridge is misnomer because it is well anchored now. Most of these river shots were a disappointment because I did not capture the green of the water. You can see some of the green along the bottom but it was much more emerald in person.

Grungy Waterlily

Grungy Waterlily

Another take on the grungy flower theme. This is a graffiti shot from Benicia with a waterlily shot from the Conservatory of Flowers.

Alameda Creek

Alameda Creek

Last nite, I went out to Sunol for a quick photo trip. Since I have not taken any infrared shots in a long time, I decided to try out a few. I realized that I am quite rusty with my 'infrared' seeing. All of a sudden, Sunol is very hot and summerlike and the light was too harsh. This is the best shot from the bunch.

Yosemite #13

El Capitan Meadow

This is the very soggy El Capitan Meadow. That is not a lake but a large puddle. Cathedral Rocks are on the right-hand side and Sentinal Rocks are somewhere in the middle. This is stitched HDR image.

Yosemite #12

Yosemite Yeti

Here is Chip taking in the atmosphere under Bridalveil Falls. It was wet and did I already say wet! I could actually hear the water ripping over the rocks. While watching the summer Olympics the announcers for diving talk about a rip entry but this is the first that I have heard it for myself.

New Beginnings

New Beginnings

This is the first of the grungy flower series that I think seems more positive. Even though the tulips are past their prime somehow the open pathway looks hopeful to me.

Filoli #11

Filoli Courtyard

This is a small patio at one end of the Filoli mansion. The house itself is 36000 sqaure feet. Lately, I have been experimenting with shooting into lighting conditions that I would have never attempted before. Again, I am processing the raw multiple times for shadows and highlights into a HDR image. Sometimes the results can look surreal but this one is pretty close to my visual memory.

Yosemite #11

Tenaya Creek

Another from Yosemite hiking upt o Mirror Lake. The water in the creek had this beautiful color and the rocks were very orange. It may appearthat the color is fiddled but it is accurate to that day.

Cave Painting

Cave Painting

It has been a while since I have put up a new grungy flower. I feel inspired today after seeing German Herrara's work at the BAPC event. After spending more time with his 'Book of Mirrors' portfolio, I was shocked to see the similarities that my recent work has with his. I thought that my grungy series was a little weird but unique. Not true. German has been working on his composites for over 5 years. I guess I just have to keep to my own path.

On another front, I thought that I had broken my new Canon 5D. I had been plagued with dust and now hair in the viewfinder and even on the sensor. I felt like the camera is a Hoover sucking in all the gunk outdoors. I kept cleaning and cleaning but seemed to make matters worse. There was a small hair in the viewfinder that was making me crazy. I tried to blow it out and wipe it out with a sensor brush. After my efforts, the viewfinder now appeared to have a semi-circular crack. Since I was down in Long Beach last week, I dropped into the Canon repair facility in Irvine. They took one look and said it is just a big piece of har and you need it cleaned. It can be ready in a few hours and is covered by my warranty. WOOHOO! Finally, a clean camera again. I just hope I can keep it that way.

Filoli #10

Filoli Formal Gardens

Another fisheye shot from my visit to Filoli. I have been on a bit of a lark using my fisheye lens. Of course given the harsh lighting, this image was tone mapped using Photomatix HDR software which could retrieve all of the highlights.

Yosemite #10

Tenaya Creek

This is Tenaya Creek in Yosemite. I was struck by the unusual water color repeated by the cedar stump. This shot represents an experiment with water texture. I had read that if you combine different exposures of flowing water with a fast, medium and slow shutter speed that it gave a more realistic look to water. Some folks (not me actually) do not like when flowing water shots become very soft and blurred. If that is you, you may want to combine multiple shots for a more 'textured' look to your water. For sure, the water in this shot looks very different from most other flowing water shots.

For this image, I used 5 shots with shutter speeds starting at 1 sec going as long as 3.2 seconds. Because none of my shutter speeds is fast enough to freeze water, I still have some blurred water effect. I used the Photomatix software to build a HDR but you could just combine the images as 5 layers in Photoshop each with 20% Opacity.

Back from Road Trip

Long Beach Hyatt

I am back from my road trip to Southern California. Chip and I stayed at the Long Beach Hyatt right along the waterfront in downtown Long Beach. The area as really changed since I lived in Southern California and is a fun place to visit. These palms and the orange glow from all the sodium vapor street lights really remind me of LA. Boy, am glad that I now live in San Francisco.

Yosemite #9

Merced River

Taken near the South entrance to Yosemite along the Merced River.

Filoli #9

Filoli Formal Gardens

This is another shot taken with my fisheye. AFiloli Formal Gardens This is another shot taken with my fisheye.gain, this is a single raw image processed using Photomatix HDR software. I know the colors seem 'fantastic' but I do like the effect. I thought this scene looked like a movie set where a dream sequence is happening.

Filoli #7

Anemone

This one reminds me a little of Georgia O'Keefe painting. I visited Santa Fe last year and toured the Georgia O'Keefe museum. Taken from a floral arrangement in the visitor center at Filoli.

Going on a Road Trip

Floral Arrangment at Filoli

I am heading down south to LA for 4 days. I am driving down on I-5 so I do not know if I will see any wildflowers along the way. Through the magic of Typepad, I should be having daily posts of my Yosemite and Filoli images while I am gone.

Filoli #6

Tulips and Birdbath

Filoli has a tough policy for photographers. They are only open from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. Plus, no tripods or monopods allowed. They do offer a special evening for photographers one nite a month but this month is already filled. So, I had fun playing with the fisheye lens. Again, I used the Photomatix HDR tool to do tonal mapping which it really needed.

Filoli #5

Floral Impression

Although this is a 'straight shot', I did use the Photomatix HDR tool to do tonal mapping. I then played even more with the curves to exagerate the blue and pink colors. I wish that I had not used such a high ISO (1000) but like the effect.

Filoli #4

Tulips and Blue Forget Me Nots

Another from Filoli. These gorgeous plantings were from the sunken gardens.

Yosemite #8

Wildcat Falls

A small second of Wildcat Falls in Yosemite. Another HDR image.

Filoli #3

Tulip Basket at Poolside

Another flower shot from Filoli. These tulips were is baskets around the pool area.

Filoli #2

Tulip Explosion

There were literally thousands of tulips in full bloom at Filoli during my last visit.

Yosemite #7

Upper Yosemite Falls

This is a classic Yosemite shot taken from the Swinging Bridge. You cannot see the lower falls because they are obscured by trees. If you look closely, you can see a block of ice below the upper falls.