Nov 10 - Napa Fall Colors, My Beautiful Wife and Fill Flash

Another beautiful view of Napa in the fall, only to be enhanced by my beautiful wife. Most people don't think of using flash in the sun because you figure it's already bright enough. The problem with the sun is it can be too bright and cause shadows where you don't want them. This is why a lot of photographers like taking pictures early in the morning or just before sunset. The light is softer and the shadows aren't as harsh.

Another problem with the sun is if you put the sun behind you as a photographer, you only get your subject squinting. If you put the sun in front of you, it is just so bright that your subject looks like they are too dark. One way to fix that is by using fill flash. Basically you turn on the flash on your camera. If you just use the flash on your camera instead of an external flash, you'll have to stand fairly close. Also, if you use an external flash, you can power it down a little, you want it to be similar or a little darker than the light around it, otherwise, the person will look "superimposed" like you photoshopped them into the picture. Here I have the flash a little darker than Apryl, you can still the the sun's light on the left side of her body (right side in the picture) and the flash isn't so harsh that she looks like she was added in photoshop.

If that bored you, then just enjoy the picture!

Nov 9 - Napa Fall Colors

I was amazed this weekend. You've heard of the fall colors in New England and the fall colors in Colorado and the fall colors in Washington.. But what about NAPA?!?!? I've been to Temecula during the fall and the vine leaves just kind of turn brown, plus there isn't a whole lot of other greenery in Temecula except orange groves, which stay green.

Back to Napa (and Sonoma of course), we were driving up the 101 to get into the Russian River area of Sonoma and I just couldn't believe the color. Green upon yellow upon orange upon red. It was absolutely STUNNING! The next day in Napa, I was finally ready to get out my camera (we were too concerned over wine in Sonoma) and my camera decides to give me an error, the shutter wouldn't close! I was in some of the most beautiful fall colors I've ever seen (Aspens still win, but this was a very close second) and my camera FAILS! After messing with it for a bit, it decided to start working again, so I don't have the quantity of pictures, but I do have some quality ones. This is the first, this was driving up to Sterling Vineyards and the trees just draped the driveway into the vineyard.

More to come!

Nov 4 - Great White Shark

I've done a lot of silly things. Walking with lions, bungy jumping, sky diving, falling down a waterfall and going on vacation during a class 5 hurricane. This one is probably one of the silliest. Get in a car, drive two hours to a Great White Shark feeding ground, take a bout out into the middle and dress up in all black, looking exactly like a seal. Yea, that sounds like a perfectly sane thing to do, right? Did I mention that the water was about 55 deg and that we were told there were 4 or 5 sharks hanging out in the area? How about that once inside the cage, you can't get out and your limbs can float outside of the cage if you aren't paying 100% attention?

So after getting in the water for 30 minutes, starting to freeze, dunking into the water and holding my breath when we are told a shark is headed our way, brace myself when the shark runs into the cage because he is following chub on a stick, I got out, and relaxed to take some photos. This is one of my favorite, especially when I can imagine that I was just in that cage and sharks were coming at me in the exact same way. They can't see all that well, so when the captain takes the bait out of the water, the shark tends to keep going and run into the cage. Perfectly sane right? I'd do it again!

Oct 30 - Costa Rica

This is a photo from Costa Rica. We were traveling from Arenal volcano to the Pacific coast and stopped off here for a break and a view. Any time I go back to these photos, I can't believe how green it is. I know its tropical and all, but it is just sooooo green. We didn't even have any rain issues when I was there (thank god after the fact I was in the most intense hurricane in the history of the gulf). It was just beautiful and tranquil.

Happy Friday!

Oct 28 - Harvest Time

It's harvest time in California. Wineries are in full swing starting to make 2009 vintages. Chile, due to the fact that they are South of the equator, starts 6 months sooner. These fermination tanks were at Veramonte Vineyards, a sister company to a winery in Napa. They are known for their Pinot Noirs, which were really yummy. In fact, just last night, Apryl and I had a bottle from Veramonte and it was really good.

Even though we go to Temecula every couple of months, we already miss the big vineyard country that we spent 5 days in Chile and Argentina. Next weekend we are headed back up to Napa to enjoy wine country once again, and see harvest time in full swing. I'm sure you'll be seeing photos here in a couple of weeks.

Oct 26 - City of Hope Poster Session

To get experience in taking photos of people in a candid/photojournalist way, Apryl had me attend a poster session event. They had already hired another photographer to do the shoot, but we both figured it would be good experience for me to join in. I really like this photo because it shows the people engaged in the discussion and the environment around them.

What do you think?

Oct 23 - City of Hope Quote

This is a picture of a gate with the City of Hope quote on it. I took it when I photographed a poster session at the hospital. To all those out there with cancer, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Oct 21 - Happy Birthday

This is my beautiful wife. It's her birthday today and I am just wishing her a very happy birthday. As some of you may know, I'm taking a Portrait class at a local community college as I really want to learn and understand lighting techniques and how to take better photographs of people. I think I hit this one out of the ballpark, don't you think? It helps that the subject is absolutely stunning and easy to photograph.

Happy Birthday Apryl, I love you!

Oct 20 - Favella Man

What would you do if you met a woman from another country that completely stole your heart? You'd move there for her right? You'd sell all your belongings, pack up and move to her country to be with her.. Right? Sure, because you love her. But what if you get there, you find out she's pregnant with your child and then runs off to Europe with her manager, never to see her or your child again. What would you do then?

Well, this man that we met in Brazil started living on the streets and in favellas (illegal shanty towns). After this happened to him, he started painting pregnant black women and adding mosaic tiles to an outdoor staircase. When people heard of his story, they started sending him tiles to add. He's now been doing this for over 20 years. He makes money selling his art and taking photographs. He still adds tile to the staircase.

As for me? After some time of obviously being heartbroken and spending time trying to find my newborn kid, I think I'd move on.. I don't think I'd want to live on the streets lookin like a crazy man, but who knows.. It's never happened to me.

Oct 16 - TGIF

Why is it that there are tons of Dunkin Donuts in South America, but none in Southern California? Anyway, why would I put this random "snapshot" on my picture of the day page? A couple of reasons. Even though I just took it quickly, its actually fairly well composed. There's a little bit of rule of thirds withe the donut in the lower left and the coffee cup in the upper right. There is a triangle creating a relationship between the objects in the photo and its a fairly simple photo, not too much going on in the background.

The real reason I posted it? I was looking through my photos and I saw it and it put a smile on my face. It's been a slow week and I'm happy it's Friday. I'm sure you are too. Hopefully this puts a smile on your face.

Oct 15 - Sunset on the Beach

Sometimes when I'm sitting at work and I look out my window and the rain is coming down, I can only think about running away and sitting on the beach. That usually brings me to the thought of this picture. I didn't know much about photography at the time, but I know I wanted this shot. In fact, I tried for 3 nights to get this shot, changing settings, trying it out with and without flash, learning as I go along. By the third night, I finally got it. I was so proud of myself as I had never really played with manual settings or nighttime shots.

Oct 13 - Rain on the Falls

The last time I was in a lot of rain was when we crossed over to Brazil at Iguazu Falls. We had planned to spend about half a day over there, but the downpour flooded our hotel room and kept us up most of the night, so between the rain and the lack of sleep, we still saw the falls from the Brazil side, but we went through it pretty quickly. That gave us a lot of time to hang out at the airport.

Anyway, back to the photo. I actually like the look of it. Most of our photos from the Argentina side are bright and colorful. The rain has taken away a lot of the color, but I think it gives it an entirely different, kind of erie look. Just shows that you don't have to let the rain get in your way of good photos, just change your perspective.

Oct 12 - Sunrise in Africa

I got up early one morning in Etoshia to see if any animals were milling about. They weren't up yet I guess, but I really liked the lighting on this tree. The floodlights the light up the watering hole were giving the tree a fun color and yet the sky's blue was kind of this purplish shade. I like the colors from the bottom of the photo to the top, its just really unique and could only have been taken at this time of day.

Oct 9 - Colorado Fall Colors - Part 2

Thought I'd finish the week with another shot from the Fall colors in Colorado. This is a closeup view of a grove of Aspens and it just shows all the color variations that go into what makes the event so beautiful.

Happy Friday everybody!

Oct 8 -Paris Fall Colors

We went to Paris in mid-Nov 2008, so we missed the peak of fall colors in Europe by quite a bit, but there were still some leaves to be had while wandering the city. Flanked by the Arc de Triumph, this tree was still hanging on dispite the cold rainy weather we experienced while in the City of Lights.

Oct 7 - Argentina Fall Colors

The Fall Colors were in full swing when we hopped over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina, where we were closer to the mountains and at a higher elevation. This photo was taken at Salentien winery as has one of the coolest arhitectures of any winery we've been to. This pathway leads down to their church where you can get married if you wish. I love that the trees have all shades of colors in this photo, greens, yellows, oranges and reds. It was a beautiful area, especially with the Andes as a backdrop (they are behind me in this photo).

Oct 6 - Chilean Fall Colors

We arrived in Chile at the beginning of April. Just in time for Fall (in the southern hemisphere). I went looking through my photos for some Fall Colors and this was one of the only ones I found. It seems we were just a little early for the leaves to change. This is the grounds of Concha y Toro, which I've posted photos of before. The grounds were absolutely beautiful and right in the middle of all this green, was this lone tree that decided to change a little early. You can see the leaves on the bigger trees that are framing the image start to change as well.

Oct 5 - Colorado Fall Colors

Sorry I took the week off last week. We went to Denver 2 weekends ago and then I was just busy with work, so I just decided to take the week off from photos. This photo is from said Denver trip. We took the Peak to Peak Highway from Blackhawk to Nederland, then Nederland back to Denver. We stopped along the side of the road anytime we found something pretty.

Living in SoCal, I hadn't seen fall colors in a long time. They were really pretty and I'm glad we got to see them near the peak. They weren't quite perfect due to the snow the week before, but it did make for a nice backdrop with the mountains covered in snow (I'll show more later). I like this picture because it has all the colors in it, from the dark green of the ever greens to the orange-red of the final leaves. The Red house and barn add to it as well.

Happy Monday!!

Sep 25 - Typical Peruvian Hairless Dog, Intact with sweater

I don't know how much more I need to say about this photo.. Happy Friday!

Sep 24 - Iguazu Monkey

We watched this little monkey for quite a while. He found himself some fruit and was just happy as can be. We found him in the rainforest that surrounds Iguazu Falls. Not much else to say about him. Enjoy!

Sep 23 - Black Rhino and her Baby

No, this was not a telephoto lens. Yes, I really was that close. About 6-8 feet to be exact. No, they aren't tame Rhinos. This was a wildlife preserve. Are they used to humans? Probably. Our entire goal when walking the land was to crouch and look like deer. Rhinos are herbivores, so they aren't going to eat us, but they certainly don't like things in their territory.

Their eyes are kind of beady and can't see well, so as long as we look like deer, we must be deer. No fast movements, we don't want to look like lions or cheetahs. They were walking towards us, just looking for grass to eat. What you don't see in this photo is the male rhino that was definitely keeping track of us and our movements. Not because we were a threat to anyone's life, but because he wanted to mate with her and he wanted to make sure we weren't moving in on his woman. At least that's what the guide told us.

Sep 22 - Zebra

I've showcased a few of my animal pictures from Africa, but this is one of my favorites. They just look so happy and in love don't they? They certainly didn't even care that we were there. I don't have any other exciting information about Zebras, so enjoy.

Sep 21 - Emu

This week I decided would be animal week. I had people, then buildings, so why not animals. It makes it a lot easier for me to decide on a photo if I have a topic in my head. This guy comes to us all the way from Australia. He's an Emu. I love this photo for a few reasons. The first of which is I didn't really know how to take photos in 2004 except for to point and shoot. I didn't know anything about depth of field, aperture, etc. I just think there is a great expression on his face and he pops because the background is blurry. He looks like he's ready to have a conversation with you. So, enjoy! More animals coming this week from Africa and South America.

Sep 18 - Colonial Cathedral, Cusco

This is the Colonial Cathedral in Cusco, Peru. It is considered one of the most beautiful Cathedrals in the Western Hemisphere (ie North and South America). This is not necessarily because of what is on the outside, but more so, what is inside.

The Incas loved gold, but not as a monetary value, they just thought it was pretty and they put it on all their buildings. The top of all their walls would be covered in it. The friendly neighborhood Spaniards thought that was a waste of the gold and melted it all down and put it inside of their church. So, all the full sized wall murals and alters and pretty much everything inside this church is gold. There was one wall that was all silver and that looked pretty cool too.

The Spaniards pretty much knew nothing about earthquakes and their architecture took a hit. This church has been rebuilt 3 times since the 1600s. The Incan buildings that weren't destroyed by the Spainards to build their own buildings are still standing because they understood the science of Siesmology.

Sep 17 - Concha y Toro

This is the Concha y Toro house at the largest winery in South America. Originally built as the owners homestead, it is now used for events. Beautiful Spanish sytle building is about all I know about it.. Sorry.. It is pretty though, don't cha think?

Sep 16 - Blue Mosque

This is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. Known as a Blue Mosque because of the blue tials that are attached to the ceiling inside. Random note: 6 months after I visited, the Pope visited, only the second time in history that a pope has visited a Muslim place of worship. Anyway, I was enjoying the architecture here and took a break to sit on a curb in the square. I really liked the angle that I had and decided to snap this shot. I have other pictures of the Blue Mosque that are fairly "standard" but this is one of my favorites because of the angle and lines of the shot.

Sep 15 - Monte Carlo

Continuing on my building theme this week, this is the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. I'm not sure why I'm partial to the evening/night time pictures right now, but I think there is just more color and contrast to them. I love the blue of the fountain and the lighting of the building.

Monaco was pretty cool to go to. I won 100 Euro at blackjack and then decided to be fun and bet it all on one hand.. The dealer had a 9 showing I think and I got two 8's. Crap.. I wasn't willing to spend another 100 Euro to split them, so I just hit.. and I bust. Oh well, it was a lot of fun. Although you can't see it here, there really are a lot of ultra expensive cars parked up front, just like you see at the movies. The casino inside actually wasn't all that amazing, but as I said, it was fun.

Sep 14 - Looking out the Louvre

When Apryl and I were in Paris, we spent two days at the Louvre. We stayed until the evening on this day and as we were walking through, I saw that the sun had set outside (we didn't realize how late it was) but it wasn't yet dark. I really like the color of the dark blue sky and the light on the building. I even think the lines from the window add to the photo. This week is going to be building week I just decided, so I'll post some of the architecture that I've visited over the years.

Happy Monday!

Sep 11 - Girls in St Marks Square

To round out the week (and the world, as this is the 4th continent in 4 days) I'm posting one of my favorite environmental portraits. In fact, I even entered this into the Orange County Fair a couple of years ago (no, it didn't win anything). I just really like it because they just seem to be having a lot of fun in the picture. I sat there and waited until they both had a pigeon at the same time. (Too bad the pigeons don't know there's birth control in that bird seed). Finally it happened and I took the shot.

On a different note, I too will never forget where I was on Sep 11 and hope that the families of the victims are at peace. Have a great weekend everyone!

Sept 10 - Singing Girls in the Sacred Valley

Continuing on my Environmental Portraits theme, these two little girls met up with us while we were touring the ruins in the Sacred Valley near Machu Picchu. The come from the Highlands and wear their traditional garb. Most of the people that dress this way in Peru will allow you to take photos for a "tip", these girls went above and beyond and tried to sing for us. I stress the "try". We gave them a little tip, took a few photos and went on our way.

Sep 9 - Boys in Africa

These boys in Africa are destined for a short hard life, but for now they are enjoying the day and the visitors (that's us). I visited these natives of Namibia as part of my African tour and the same day that our truck broke down for two days. There is very little water here and the people never bathe, but that doesn't mean they are dirty. They actually cover themselves in a local red clay and because they put it on every day, they actually remove any of the old dirt by exfoliation, so luckily, they don't smell.

These little boy were running around the village, trying to get in our shots, just hamming it up. This was their home as we were about to go inside to see how they prepared meals and the boys were right there to greet us. In the future they will have to travel 5 miles each way to gather water and learn to hunt with their dads. For now, boys will be boys.

Sep 8 - Cancun Bar Waitress

I decided to take a Portrait class at my local community college because I wanted to get better at taking photos of people. I consider that one of my weaknesses with my photography. One of the first "homework" assignments was to find examples of Environmental Portraits, ie, people in their environment. I was looking through my pictures and found this one. I laughed out loud because I had completely forgotten about it. Here we are in a bar in Cancun and this waitress goes walking by with 4 levels of drinks on here head.

We couldn't believe it. We watched her take off the drinks, go back to the bar and get another set. This time we got her to stop her motion and take a picture for us. Crazy right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy today's photos. I should be back on a regular schedule. You'll probably see more "people" from my travels as I begin to look over my photos for them and learn from my good photos and my mistakes.

Enjoy. Hope you had a great long weekend.

Sep 3 - Ica Dunes

Hello my beautiful people. I'm back. The photo takes us back to the Ica Dunes in Peru. We spent two hours on these dunes on a buggy and was able to sandboard down quite a few of them. This picture shows how mountainous the dunes are and makes you feel like they go on and on forever. The sun was just starting to get low in the sky, so the light and shadows aren't too harsh and really create some great detail in the photo.

Sep 1 and Sep 2 - No Photo

Sorry guys.. a couple of days off.. Busy at work and activities at home.. I'll make sure there's something on Thursday!

Aug 31 - Butterfly 88

This butterfly was one of many that we saw while walking the trails in Iguazu. He was one of my favorites because he looked like he was getting ready for a race or something with his 88 plastered on the side of his wing. The little red mark just adds to his uniqueness as well. I used minimum depth of field to really make him stand out. I don't have a macro lens, so I made due with what I had, but I think it turned out really well. During this trip Apryl took some pictures of the butterflies and actually overall I think took some really good ones and had the best butterfly picture of the trip.

Aug 28 - Flower Statue

I took this "flower" picture in the rose garden at the City of Hope where my wife, Apryl works. The statue of the Virgin Mary was just sitting there in the middle waiting for you to take a picture of it as you are walking through the Rose Gardens. I didn't want to just take a picture of it and since I was taking different angles of the roses anyway, I found this one and it came out better than I expected.

Aug 27 - Orange at Night

Wandering in Old Towne Orange brought me to this picture. I didn't have a tripod, so I leaned the camera against a light pole and brought the ISO up so that I could have a quick shutter speed. This did produce some graininess and so putting it in black and white gave it a whole new look.

Aug 26 - Lake Tekapo

You've seen the picture from inside that little church there in the lower part of the picture. Now you see why the church was placed here in the first place. Just a beautiful location on Lake Tekapo on the South Island of New Zealand. Otherwise, I don't have much more to say.

Aug 25 -- 100 Year Bloom

This goes back to Death Valley during the 100-year bloom. In the background the mountains still have their snow, while the yellow flowers in the foreground are at their peak.

Aug 24 - Men in the Mountains

This is a fun picture that was taken in the Sacred Valley in Peru. If you look at the mountain in the shade on the left, you can see a face with a large nose. He is looking out into the valley. Then look across the valley and in the right middle of the page you can see another man looking towards the left. Both of these are just natural occurrances but the Incans took them seriously and felt that these men were overlooking and protecting the Sacred Valley.

Aug 21 - Lake Michigan Lighthouse

My friend Ryan and I hit up Chicago for some baseball a couple of years ago. This photo was taken while on a speed boat on Lake Michigan. I like it because its isolated without a busy background and just seems to have a lot of character. It was a gloomy day that day, didn't know if we were going to get rained on during the game or not (we weren't). So that's why the sky isn't as vibrant as I'd like it.

Aug 20 - Eiffel in Peru?

So, I was trying to decide what to post today and I though, oh, I'll post another Eiffel "masterpiece" that we saw in Peru. I thought I don't remember it being a great photo, but it's an interesting subject, so I'll post and talk about it. Then I got to looking at the photo and I think it's really good actually. It has good composition, no crazy flash glare and the lighting from the sconce on the white stone reminded me of the barrel picture I posted earlier.

Anyway, back to the staircase. This was in an out of the way restaurant called ZigZag in Arequipa, Peru. It was recommended in our guidebook, both for the staircase and the food. The antique staircase was designed by Eiffel (yes, that Eiffel.) and although was one of the reasons we visited, the food and dessert here were amazing.

Aug 19 - Eiffel at Night

Last year Apryl and I went to Paris in November. Although it was cold, it wasn't horrible and all the touristy things were easy to get into. Since we were near the Arc, we decided to go up to the top and wait for the Eiffel Tower light show. This one is a little out of focus, but it's the best one I have and I still think it's pretty cool. It prompted us to get a little travel tripod for our future trips (including our honeymoon).

Aug 18 - Elephants at Sunset

So, yes, I have a lot of cool shots of Etoshia. This is another one. The elephants were here just enjoying the day, watching the sunset with a bunch of humans watching them. Although the image is technically underexposed because I had the light meter near the sun instead of the "subjects" I really like the sillouette look. It also brings in more of the sky's colors. I took another photo immediately after this with the light meter on the elephants, but the picture isn't as "cool".

Aug 17 - Cliffs of Moher

This photo was taken in Ireland at the Cliffs of Moher. I'm sure you've seen pictures of them, or been there yourself if you've been to Ireland as they are one of the most popular tourist places. As I've said before, the hardest part about taking pictures of popular tourist places is the tourists.

I took this a little farther away from the standard photos of the cliffs where you see all of them lined up (I have a picture of that, maybe I'll show it another time). This is a picture of one individual cliff and I like it not only because of the action of the waves but also because everything turned out so bright and blue. Most of my Ireland pictures are kind of hazy, because Ireland is kind of hazy. As in, its usually overcast or misty everywhere we went. At this moment, the clouds went away and the humidity hadn't yet climbed. People didn't tend to walk this far, they went to the viewing location, snap pics and headed to the gift shop.

Enjoy!

Aug 14 - Hotel del Coronado

Last weekend we went to a wedding in Coronado. It was a beautiful ceremony right in front of the Hotel del Coronado. While taking pictures of the wedding, I snapped this up. It's one of Apryl's favorite pictures from the wedding. The sky and sand were really bright, so I liked bringing it into B&W as it settled all the colors down and made the hotel really stand out. Apryl says it also looks like it was taken years ago and makes it look historic.

Enjoy your weekend!

Aug 13 - Peruvian Fruit

On our first day in South America, Lima, Peru specifically, we took a Culinary Tour of the city. Our first stop was at a Farmer's Market. Fairly similar to our farmer's market, this place had all the "exotic to us" fruits of Peru. I took a ton of photos here because I just loved all the different colors of the fruits. Some of them tasted pretty good too!

Aug 12 - Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro was an absolutely beautiful city. I really had no idea. The beaches are clean, the water is clear, the topography was a mix of bays, lakes, mountains, hills, islands and jungle. There were skyscrapers next to favellas (illegal little shanty towns)

There are views like this everywhere you go, all you gotta do is walk or drive up one of the many hills. Sugarloaf mountain in the middle has a cable car that takes you to the top where you can see the bay and city from there, but I liked the view from here better, which is about a third of the way down the mountain where Christ the Redeemer sits.

Aug 11 - Whitehaven Beach

Whitehaven Beach is considered one of the Top 10 beaches in the world. It is situated on an uninhabited island in the Whitsundays off the coast of Australia. The only way to get there is by boat. Only a limited number of people are allowed to arrive each day and they must leave by dusk.

The sand is so smooth and the water is so clear. It was a beautiful day, with the clouds slightly overhead to make sure the sun was not too harsh. It is definitely the most beautiful beach that I have ever put my feet on.

Aug 10 - Barrel Room

I don't show off, or really take many indoor shots, but I really like this one. This is in the cellar of Concha y Toro, the largest winery in South America. I really like how the lines of the barrels just lead your eyes to the end of the photo and make you feel like the room goes on forever. I think I did a decent job with the lighting too, which is one of my weaknesses, so I'm always proud of the photos where the indoor lighting turned out well, either by my hands or just how the room is already lit.

Aug 7 - Machu Picchu

The latest New 7 Wonder that I visited with my lovely new wife is Machu Picchu. We spent two days here. The first day we had a tour guide that took us in and out of the facility and showed us all the cool things that were incorporated into the ancient city. After lunch we hiked up the last two miles of the Inca Trail to the Sun Gate. This photo was taken part way up and is the "standard" photo location for Machu Picchu. I have some other more unique angles that I'll post here from time to time, but I thought I'd start with the standard.

So that's it for the New 7 wonders.. We still have the Great Wall of China, Petra and Taj Mahal. Not necessarily places we are planning on visiting in the near future, but places I definitely want to visit in my life time.

Enjoy the weekend!