Flower Power

During my recent trip to San Francisco, I spent some time walking around the batteries that used to house bunkers which protected the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. Oddly enough they've devolved into late night hang out spots for vagrants and kids. Lots of broken bottles, grafiti, etc. Not too appealing.

This flower happened to be appealing, however. It was eagerly stretching out towards the sun in what seemed like full bloom.

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American Flag

I was on a dinner cruise on the San Francisco Bay and the weather couldn't have been more clear. A bit windy and cold, but I couldn't help but be outside. Everyone else seemed to spend more time inside, but I liked being outside to take in the views.

I was struck at how cool the waving flag was, whipping in the wind behind the boat. After taking the picture I felt like it would be a bit more interesting if I turned it into a black and white shot, darken the overall picture and then colorize the red and white parts of the flag. I think it turned out rather interesting.

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San Francisco Rust

I was in San Francisco recently on business and I challenged myself to get out and shoot as much as I could with the free time that I had. While shooting the well-known sites, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, were cool, I think I had more fun exploring things that were right under my nose - like the rusted links found in this picture. These links act as a guard rail so people don't fall into the bay below. The cracked and rusted metal caught my attention, which I thought would make an interesting subject for my macro lens.

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Swirling water

Our family was in Evansville, Indiana visiting family for the holidays. While we were there we happened upon their really cool children's museum. They had a whirlpool where you could throw in these plastic blue balls and watch them swirl around and around.

This shot was taken without a tripod trying to catch a bit of motion. So it's not incredibly sharp, but it will have to do.

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Sunset at the Beach

This is a pretty simple shot taken at Ocean Park, between Santa Monica and Venice beaches. Nothing really more to add to the shot other than I think it was one of the more peaceful and serene sunsets I had seen in a while. The shadowed, black palm trees offer a nice contrast with the multi-colored sky in the background. This view just screams Southern California to me.

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Another drop of water

So, I love taking macro shots, but this one frustrates me. I like what I'm TRYING to do, but I think my execution is still lacking. I can't get the focusing quite right and so I'll shoot 100 shots and each shot can't quite get the droplet of water in perfect focus. So I have to do some digital manipulation, which is what I did here. It's fine.

But to say something positive about this shot, it's amazing to me that water has as much form as it does. I'm so used to seeing it go anywhere and everywhere, but it's cool to see it nestled on a leaf.

This shot was taken at The Getty Museum. This place is seriously one of my favorite spots in LA. Not only is it the site of my first date with Shelley, but it just has all you could ask for in a museum - great art, cool architecture, beautiful views of the city, and nice landscaped gardens.

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The Santa Monica Ferris Wheel

This is a shot that I've wanted to take for a long, long time. The last time I tried to take it, I brought my camera and my big tripod - only to find that I forgot the flash memory for my camera. Stupid! This time I made sure not to miss out.

The shot is rather easy to take - point and shoot and keep the lens open long enough to capture a long rotation of the ferris wheel. In this shot I left it open for about 10 seconds.

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Stuck and not happy

This picture was taken of Anthon when he was about 3-4 months old in February of 2006. We were on our way home from visiting my grandma in Santa Rosa. Back then, Anthon could sleep for hours upon hours in his rear facing child seat. We didn't want to wake him, but we wanted to know if he was awake. So prior to the shot attached below, I reached back and snapped a random shot with Shelley's digital camera just to see if he was awake. We looked at the shot and the face peering back had eyes open and a concerned look, wondering what in the world was in his face. So funny.

Anyway, I moved to the back seat to calm Anthon down. I love this picture because it really does capture his mood. He was not happy being stuck in his car seat, but he wasn't so unhappy as to really cry about it. His pursed lips was just about all the disapproval he could muster.

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A Butterfly, Up Close and Personal

So, another macro shot while we're on the subject. Shelley and I spent a long weekend in Utah. We were visiting with her grandparents and we spent the morning up at Payson Lakes in the mountains in southern Utah County. Tons of wild flowers, bees, butterflies and other insects. This little guy didn't seem to mind having a macro lens focusing in his face. He was more interested in the flower itself. I'm amazed at the level of detail. You think you have a good view of what a butterfly looks like until you see its nose and weird eyes and the long tongue.

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Translucent Red Leaf

I recently purchased a new macro lens, which allows me to get really close to my subject and take pictures. This is used for things like bugs, flowers, that sort of thing. Last weekend, I was able to use it for the first time while visiting Santa Rosa, California. My entire family was there to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. After the celebration, we took the kids to a park and I found a tree with dark leaves that glowed red in the sunlight. This is where I snapped this shot.

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Panic! in Seattle

This is the first shot I've taken this year that I thought I would throw up on the photo blog. It's quickly growing on me. At the time when I took it I didn't like it. But I'm in this colorizing phase where I'll take turn my color photos into black an white and then selectively add color to various sections of the photo...such as the red lettering above Pike's Market in Seattle.

The colored letters spell "panic" not for any other reason than I could do it easily with the available letters. That, and I really like the song Panic, by The Smiths. In case you're interested, Pete Yorn does a great cover of the song on his "Live at the Roxy" album. But I digress.

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The 18th at Coronado

I'm a horrible golfer, but I'd like to think that golf can be time well spent, especially when you're witness to a spectacular sunset.

In 2002, a group of friends played a round of golf at a public course on Coronado Island in San Diego. We were approaching the green on the 18th hole when I noticed the deep colors of the sunset reflecting off the lake. Everything in the background was shadowed black, including the ducks. The only color was was the sunset and that light which reflected off the water. It was truly a nice moment.

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Disney Hall, another angle

Another shot of Disney Hall, taken on the same day as the one below. Again, the lines of Disney Hall offer so many wonderful photographic opportunities.

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The St. Louis Arch

This picture was taken in December, 2006. Shelley, Anthon, Shelley's sister Rachel and I were driving back to Evansville, Indiana after attending Shelley's sister Diana's wedding. Got all that?

This was my first time to St. Louis and I couldn't leave without stopping to see the Arch. The weather was cloudy and cold, but with a little software manipulation, the shot below actually turned out OK.

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Disney Hall

Disney Hall is the relatively new symphony hall used by the LA Philharmonic, and it is one of my favorite buildings in all of Los Angeles.

This shot was taken after a concert in November of 2003 with my old 3 megapixel Sony CyberShot. I love the lines of this building. While this shot is a bit abstrac, it is one of my favorites.

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