to my personal blog. Here I post examples of my photography and writing. I specialize in making unique and highly detailed photographs. Notice I said making and not taking. Yes I take photos but a lot of time and work is involved in pushing and punishing the pixels in my images to achieve the look I like.
Please feel free make comments about any of my words or photos. I enjoy constructive critiques, learning about locations to shoot or photography techniques. Click on the "Share Article" link to share any of my photos via Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Want to use one of my posts in your own blog? No problem, but please make sure it links back to the original post here and do the right thing and give me credit. Don't copy my words, crop the images, remove the watermarks or claim my work as your own. This has happened more times than I can count so I've had to report copyright violations to ISP's and regrettably the violators blog is usually taken down.
Can't we all just get along?
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 10:07PM | in California, HDR, San Francisco Who needs to pay for a bay view room? Kathy shoots a night HDR sequence of San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The view from the 20th floor was spectacular!
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 10:05PM | in California, San Francisco Kathy and I were staying at the Hilton Financial District right on the edge of San Francisco's China Town. We had been out shooting and decided to head back to our room. On the ride up to the 20th floor, the elevator suddenly slammed to a stop with a loud bang. There were about 5 other people in the elevator but we were the only ones that decided it was time to exit. Kathy got the door open on 19 and out we went. Since we were on the wrong floor we headed for the fire exit. We opened the door and this is the scene we saw. Needless to say we setup our tripods and started shooting.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 10:04PM | in California, HDR, Pasadena Lunch at Johnny Rockets in Pasadena. I always like to take HDR's of reflective objects. I did kind of freak out the counter staff. They didn't know what to make of my big camera and gorilla pod.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 12:11AM | in California, Cars, HDR, Whittier Slammed 1957 Chevy Nomad Station Wagon - This was the 2nd year in a row that I have had the good fortune of seeing this amazing car at the Uptown Whittier Car Show. I have yet to meet the owner but I think I'll leave a few photos with the car this year. The paint on this car is not be believed.
Friday, February 26, 2010 at 10:24AM | in California, Chinatown, HDR, San Francisco, Travel Kathy and I were walking around Chinatown during Chinese New Year and were shooting HDR sequences of a cable car where the California Street line crosses Grant when we noticed that all the lights on Grant were off. In a few minutes we heard sirens and several fire trucks drove by at high speed. While walking up Kearny we were crossing Commercial Street and saw that the fire trucks were at the end of the street which was only being illuminated by their red flashing lights. We decided to investigate and I spoke to this group of people who said they were all sleeping when they heard a loud bang and the ground shook. Then all the lights went out.
Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7:44AM | in Bokeh, California, Chinatown, HDR, San Francisco, Travel This was taken on Commercial Street near the intersection of Grant. Kathy and I took a bunch of photos this night. The lighting was really interesting! We could smell something burning. Maybe a transformer exploded or something like that.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 10:00PM | in California, Chinatown, HDR, San Francisco Kathy and I were walking through Portsmouth Square Plaza and noticed a large crowd gathered around a table. Being a tall person, I could peer over the shoulders of the crowd and glimpsed a calligrapher creating some beautiful artwork. After a while we were able to get a little closer and we both got a few shots though I think Kathy's were better.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 6:53AM | in California, Chinatown, HDR, San Francisco Once during a photography class I attended, legendary shooter Joe McNally said "whenever you are setup for your shot, look behind you because what's back there may be more interesting". He was right. I did look behind me when framing a shot down Grant Street and saw a tour group momentarily paused quite improbably in front of this touched up American flag. Several of them were looking toward the left side of the scene at this old Chinese man standing on a short ladder, holding up a sign with a lot of small text on it. He was shouting "Say hi to your mommy, Dalai Lama is bad" over and over. I only had time to take 6 exposures before they walked away.
I really like how the flag is reflecting on the roof of the car in the foreground. Kinda interesting.
Lesson learned. Check your six o'clock every now and then or you might miss something.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 10:27PM | in California, HDR, Whittier I had just served myself some dinner and was walking into the living room with an idea of watching a DVD while I ate. When I looked out my front window I saw this amazing scene. It was raining fairly hard but the light and the reflections on the street were too beautiful to pass up. I ran back to my bedroom to get a camera, tripod and umbrella. By the time I got the tripod setup, mounting plate attached to the camera and umbrella ready to open I looked back out the window and the sky had turned a pinkish orange. I knew I had to get the shot quickly and in fact 5 minutes later, the sun had set and all color in the sky was gone.
I wish I had collapsed the tripod so the camera was 5" above street level. I have always found that a low angle view adds interest and reflections are enhanced. Next time.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 10:24PM | in California, Cars, HDR, Whittier It was raining pretty hard on the way home from work tonight, and once again some people were driving way too fast. I counted three accidents. I always wonder if these drivers think that they are exempt from the laws of physics. Regardless of what kind of fancy car they drive, they may find that Sir Issac Newton is actually in the driver's seat.
How I got this shot: I set my camera on my dashboard and triggered the shutter with my wireless remote. I couldn't see what I was shooting but most of the shots turned out ok.
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