Golden Gate Park

Today, I took a trip to Golden Gate National Recreation Area to shot the Golden Gate bridge. I set my alarm for 3:40 AM so that I could get to Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise. Unfortunately, I got there a bit late. The sun was just rising as I got to San Francisco - the best time to drive around San Francisco, by the way. Here's one of the shots I got.

Vietnam War Memorial

The California Vietnam War Memorial sits on the State Capital grounds near the rose garden. According to "The California Vietnam Veterans Memorial" website, it honors the 5,822 dead and missing Californians. The sculptures show nurses, soldiers and POWs. The building of the memorial was financed through donations and cost $2.5 million.

Swiss Cows

Here's another blast from the past. This picture was taken near Gimmelwald, Switzerland during my sabbatical in 2002.

I went on a hike through a local dairy farmer's land, stopping along the way to buy some wonderful Alpenkase cheese. I can still hear the bonging of the cow bells.

Whispy Clouds

Around lunch time at work, I happened to look outside and see some really cool clouds (cirrus?) in the sky. At this time of the year in Folsom, the skys are usually cloud-free (or as I think of it, "cloud-poor").

Luckily, I took my camera to work with me, so I hopped on down to a nearby park to do some shooting.

Normally, I wouldn't bother at this time of the day, because the sunlight is so harsh, but those clouds.

Here's the result.

American River

Here's a shot from the point where the American River turns into Lake Natoma with the American River Bridge in the foreground and the old Folsom bridge in the background.

The shot feels likes looming over you - which I like. I can really feel the bulk of the bridge. But, it also seems like the bridge is twisting. Off balance maybe?

What do you think?

Lost and Found

I was looking thru a couple of old flash cards, and I came across one that still had a bunch of pictures on it, including this one of Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods. It was taken back in November 2002. Can't wait to get back there...

Tower Bridge

I walked around on the east bank of the Sacramento River for a couple of hours looking for a good vantage point with which to take a shot of the Tower Bridge. I never quite find what I was looking for, although this shot isn't bad.

It was hopping in Old Sac tonight. Lot's of people, music spilling out of doors and off of boats.

Foot Bridge

Here's a photo of a foot bridge across the American River just west of Sunrise. This spot is also where local Raft companies put in.

While I was shooting this area, a overhead a little kid ask his mom "what is that man taking pictures of?" To which she responded: "he's probably taking pictures for a magazine."

In my dreams kid.

Three Oaks

While walking this evening, along the American River near the Old Fair Oaks bridge, I came across these three oaks growing on a cliff on the far bank.

There was a group of people jumping off the bridge into the river while another group on the bank near by banged on their drums (bongos, that is).  Lively area.

Pecos Wilderness

Here's a shot from a backpack trip Kelly and I did in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico that we did in June.

Although the weather looks good in the picture, we got a huge amount of rain.

Which is ironic because we originally planned on a trip to the Grand Tetons National park. We changed our plans because the Tetons were snowed in.

Nimbus Lake Overlook at Night

I stopped by the Nimbus Lake overlook to scout a somewhere to shoot the sunset.  Its about a mile from where I'm currently living.  From up there, one has a great view of Nimbus lake, the damn and the fisheries.

Sadly, when I returned for the sunset I found that the spot where I thought the sun would go down was totally wrong!  Should have taken a compass. 

I waited awhile until it was dark to play around with some more night shots. 

There was a great blood-red moon rise, but I messed it up.  I didn't take it seriously, because I don't have a telephoto, so I figured the moon would show up as a small indistinct light.  So, I didn't change the shutter speed - I just took the shoot.  In a 30s shoot, the moon can move a significant amount, which results in oblong blur of a moon.

Once I got back to the computer and examined the shot on a bigger screen, I realized that the shot would've worked - if the shutter speed had been correct!  There's a lesson in there.

Burn

Here's a version of the Bronze in B&W with some of the highlights burned.

I left the light from the main lamp alone.

I also "removed" a light that has float above the girls head. If I re-take the picture, I'll try to recompose to avoid that.

Whaddya think? Better?

Feedback

I got some great feedback on this photo from Photographica. VegasStan suggested that I retake the shot to include the feet of the statue, and then burn in (town done the brightness) of the lights as they are distracting.

Great feedback.

I'll have to head to downtown Sac again before I move back to Colorado. In the meantime, I'll upload a new version of this photo with the distracting lights burned in a bit.

Tell me what you think...

Bridgeport

I took the long windy road to the South Yuba State Park - the home of the Bridgeport bridge. It's on of the few covered bridges left in California and one of the longest in the world.

I got there early enough to scout out the area for some shoot late afternoon shots.

Unfortunately, the bridge, being down in a valley, had a hills to the west that would block the late afternoon sun.

Boy was it hot! I forgot to bring any water with me. The visitor center had a water fountain outside. The water coming out of it was also hot! But at least it was wet. Don't forget the water!

Downtown Sac on a Friday Night

It's Friday night, and I'm walking around the California capital building in downtown.
Another wonderful sunset out in on the west coast. I guess all the fires and pollution are good for something.

Lot's of great shots. I think I got a few, but missed a lot.

This photo shows the Tower Bridge off in the distance, silhouetted against the last dregs of sunlight.

Some of the shots were overexposed in places. I really need to start using the histogram more - I think that I would've come home with more shots. For example this shot of the capital building. I like the weird perspective, and the motion blurred trees in the foreground. But the overexposed parts of the building - not so much.
Common wisdom has it that one should expose for the highlights, but "develop" for the shadows.

A cop on a bicycle stopped and ask me if I was amateur or professional. Funny. Probably some legal reason (ie, permit required for pros).

Sunset thru Oaks

We had another smoky day here in Folsom - bodes well for a nice sunset. I went walking around for a few hours to find a good spot to shoot the promised sunset. Here's what I found.

Time to dig out the stickers.

Kek Lok Si Temple

Here's a shot of Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang, Malaysia.

The photo has been cropped to make the picture more interesting.

Added Gallery

I've added a link to my SmugMug gallery in the galleries section.

B&W Two

Here's another attempt. I've used some slightly different techniques.

Black & White

There is something about black and white photos. With the loss of color, other elements of the composition become important; the photo becomes a bit more abstract and emphasizes lines, textures and tones.

Creating B&W from color is not just as simple as removing the color and this is a skill I'd like to learn. Here is one attempt.

The first picture is the color photos. The only enhancement done is the application of a 'unsharp mask' (used to sharpen the image). I'll be using this photo is a series of B&W conversion.

The second photo is my first attempt at converting to B&W. I performed the following enhancements: crop, B&W, burn (darkened) the roof, dodged (brightened) the shell signs.

Whaddya think? I think my habit of creating dark images is showing.

Terms of Use

The Terms of Use (perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license) seem pretty standard for the industry (online photo collections). I still own the copyright of the photos and I can still make money off them in the future. However, I cannot grant others exclusive license to the photos. One would typically charge a much higher price for an exclusive license. However, an exclusive license would negate possible future income for that photo.

So, if you're considering posting anything that you'd want to grant an exclusive license on in the future - don't use the service. If you believe that the service will use the license agreement in order to make money off of your work and you don't want them to, don't use the service.

Today's photo is a shot taken in Yellowstone a few years ago:

SmugMug

I signed up for a 14-day trail on SmugMug.com.

I like the look and feel and features. I really like the following:

• Order DVD/CD of my photos. This means I can use the service as a backup.


• Builtin support on Elements - I can upload directly from there. Sweet!


• Supports Google Map (I like Google Map better than the others)


• People can buy prints.


• I can customize the look - why on earth would you display a photo against a white background?

Here is a link to the gallery (ask me for the password)

Here's a cool picture of the results of an exploding water ballon:

Legal Stuff

I'm looking for places online to store my photo.

The first issue to think about is copyrights. If I upload my photos to a web service, what rights do they take on?

For instance, Goggle Picasa's 'Terms of Use' specifies the following:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this licence includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

This license seems to be in rather broad terms. The website Phanfare.com has a similar provision.

I like ImageEvent.com terms of use better:

ImageEvent claims no ownership rights in any image contained in any of your photo albums. For the sole purpose of displaying your images through your Album, and fulfilling any print and gift orders you or your album invitees place, you grant ImageEvent to use such images to fulfill such orders.

Flickr.com also uses the terms "worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license" while professing to no claim of ownership rights.

Currently, I have a bunch of pictures up on ImageEvent.com and Picasa.

I've been an ImageEvent customer for a long time. However, I don't like the features of the service very much when compared to others. I'd like to find a new web 2.0 site, but the "worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive" licenses worry me. Perhaps needlessly.

Hmmm.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium this weekend to see the Jelly Fish exhibit (ending Sept 1st 2008).

Canon 40D, ISO 1600, 1/40s, f/5.6, 17mm

These bizarre creatures are very hypnotic and its a lot fun to watch peoples reactions to them. Here's a some other wierd creatures.

Canon 40D, ISO 3200, 1/50s, f/2.8, 55mm

If you'd like to see more photos from this trip check out my Picasa site.

Tahoe Sunset

Here's a picture I took up in Tahoe a few weeks ago. As you may know, California has had a lot of fires this summer. This usually results in great sunsets.

Canon 40D, ISO 100, 1/5 s, f/9, 17mm
Circular Polarizer

Brightness Experiment

A reader on photoGRAPHICA suggested that I lighten up the Rose photo.

Here is a side-by-side comparison.

Experiment with cropping

Here's the Portland Convention Center, cropped.

Whaddya think?

photoGRAPHICA

I entered a couple of pictures (the rose displayed in the last post, and this one - a favorite of mine) into photoGRAPHICA challenge. I'm bluehiker on that site.


Canon G2, 1/15s, f/5.0, 21mm

Boy, its hard to put them out for public scrutiny. It helps getting positive feedback. Now its my turn to offer comments on others. I find that difficult also!

Portland

During a business trip to Portland, Oregon, I had some free time to walk around and take pictures.




Canon 40D, ISO 400, 1/50, f/11, 33mm

The Portland convention center is cool building. Here's an (abstract?) picture I took outside of the building.



Canon 40D, ISO 400, 1/320s, f/3.50, 55mm

The rose was taken at the Portland International Test Rose gardens.