Disney Music Center

Took a quick trip up to the Disney Music Center in downtown LA yesterday morning with my photo buddy, John.  As you can see in the above photo it was a beautiful morning with clear blue skies.  Best yet, as it was a Sunday and early in the morning, there was hardly any traffic at all!!!  This is one of the many interesting and unusual buildings designed by Frank Gehry.  It is an abstract photographers dream building.  Now I don't consider myself an abstract type of photographer so this type of photography always creates a big challenge for me to find pleasing and interesting compositions.  Above and below are a few of my attempts from yesterday.

This last photo isn't a photo of the Disney Center, but of a nearby building that had an interesting reflection of yet another building.  The reddish colored wall in the foreground was a bonus.

The Golden Gate

Spent a fun evening photographing in the Marin highlands overlooking the Golden Gate.  Unfortunately, no dramatic weather to help the scene out, but still a beautiful view of the city.

Bird's Eye View of Frisco

This is a shot of San Francisco taken in the morning hours. The contrast between the water and the thin layer of fog, as well as, between the city skyline and the sky made it a good choice for B&W. 

Hooray.....Photos Recovered!

I had a pleasant surprise earlier this past week.  As I posted back in April, I lost a bunch of photos I had taken on my trip to the San Francisco Bay area when a memory card died on me.  Well, I got a call from LC Technologies, who I had sent my memory card to and they said they were finally able to recover the photos.  Apparently, they had been waiting to receive some new equipment that allowed them to finally be successful.  So big cudos out to LC Technologies.  They were very helpful and persistent.  Of course they had the incentive that they only got paid if they were successful.  But none the less, if anybody ever has a memory card go bad on them I would highly recommend this company.  They can be found at www.lc-tech.com.


The above photo is one of my recovered photos from that trip.  Obviously the Golden Gate taken from the Sausolito side of the bridge.

Old Cabins

These old cabins are located just south of Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra's.  I'm sure they were pretty comfortable back in the day, but today they look a little too well ventilated for comfort. 

Huntington Library Staircase

We visited the Huntington Library yesterday.  It was a fun day with great weather.  There are endless photo opportunities here.  In addition to all of the gardens they have, there is some great old architecture.  The above photos were taken in one of the art buildings.  These staircases really caught my attention.  The old style architecture really called for a black & white treatment. 

Golden Gate View

I took this shot on the last day of our trip while I was trying to re-create some of the shots I lost when my memory card went kaput.  Had an okay sky but the wind was howling, so it was hard to keep the flowers nice and sharp. 

San Fran Trip

My wife and I just got back from a long weekend trip to San Francisco and Marin County.  We met up with cousins,  John and Jeri and had a great time visiting, seeing the sights and of course taking a few photos.

I also had an opportunity to learn a big lesson regarding the safe keeping my photographs.  Our first night up there, we had a fun evening capturing some sunset and night time shots of the Golden Gate bridge with the lights of SF in the background.  The next morning we had an equally rewarding session in Sausolito.  We had wonderful warm light and got some nice compositions of the wharf area, some wildflowers and of course the skyline of San Francisco.  I took over 300 pictures.  I continued using my camera the rest of that day as we drove into SF and got to experience the unique citizenry of that city.  I finally got around to backing up my photos the next morning.  But when I went to import my photos into Lightroom my memory card failed.  It just went dead!  First time that ever happened to me.  I lost all of the photographs.  By then the weather had changed from sunny to foggy.  There was no way I was going to recapture the shots I had taken the previous two days.   I can't begin to tell you the disappointment I was feeling.


Now there may be some good news on the horizon.  I did some research and found a place that may be able to recover the photos from my broken memory card.  So I have sent the card to them and I am now waiting to find out if I have good news or bad.  So the lesson I learned was to back up my photos at every opportunity, but at least once a day.

The photo above was taken in Golden Gate Park on our last day of the trip, using a new memory card.  I hope to have more photos of this trip to post if I receive good news later this week.  Wish me luck.

Wave Motion

Photographing waves and making them look unique or interesting can be challenging, at least for me.  This was a swipe, where I was moving the camera along the movement of the wave. 

Looking South

Went to the beach last weekend.  A storm had just hit the previous day and the waves were churning and the wind was blowing.  It made for a pretty scene.  There's nothing like the salt air and the sound of the crashing waves to relax you.  This was taken from the pier looking south.

Juxtopositioned Rectangles

Here's another take on the Disney Concert Hall in LA.  The reflective colors, patterns and textures of this building make it a wonderful subject for photography.  There is no end to the possibilities when you walk around this building.

Muscles on the beach

You've heard of "Muscle Beach", here are muscles on the beach.  Low tide at San Clemente pier at sunset.  

It's been awhile since I posted mostly because I haven't been out photographing.  I'm hoping to change that in the coming weeks.  With it being the dead of winter here in SoCal (80 degrees today) I'm hoping for some rain and storms to get some dramatic skies. Unfortunately, nothing in the forecast about rain. 

Bye Bye Autumn

Well, winter is on the horizon as autumn fades away.  Here in SoCal autumn doesn't really kick in (i.e. leaves changing color) until late November on into December.  The photo above was taken in my backyard of the leaf of a liquid amber tree.  As you can see, there is a little glare on the leaf in the upper left.  Had I not been so lazy, all I had to do was to go get my polarizer and that glare would have been history.  Either way, I like the detail in the leaf.  

Laguna View

Canon 5D Mark II, EF 24-105 F/4, 1/10 sec F22  ISO 100

This was taken in Laguna Beach behind the Montage Hotel.  There was a wedding taking place and this ship (boat?) seemed to be part of the wedding.  At the prescribed time in the wedding (the bride and groom being pronounced husband and wife) the ship shot off a few rounds from its cannon and then began moving away.  I'm sure a wedding at the Montage isn't cheap, but I wonder how much extra it was for the cannon blasts?  I'm sure the added memories it caused was well worth it.

Old West Kitchen

Canon 5D Mark II,  EF 24-105  0.7 sec  F8  ISO 400

I have finally found a little time to put up a new post.  Although I haven't had any time to actually go out and take any new photos.  So I thought I would put up another one from my trip to Bodie.  This was taken in one of the only buildings that you can actually enter.  It gives you an interesting perspective on how life really was back in the day.

Sunflower

There's something about sunflowers that makes you want to smile.  I think it is because they look like big "Happy Faces".  This one I spied peeking over the wall from my neighbors yard.

Evening Surf

This was shot off of the San Clemente Pier just before sunset.  I wanted to blur the surf a little to convey the feeling of the incoming surf so I used a small aperture (f22) in order to get a shutter speed of 1/4 second.   

Pfeiffer Beach

Took this at Pfeiffer Beach last year.  One of many beautiful scenes found all along the Big Sur coast of California.  This was taken in the late morning hours and thus the light was very contrasty.  I used my Singh Ray Vari-n-duo filter to slow the shutter speed and make the surf  look misty. 

More Mono Lake

This photo was taken in the afternoon of an overcast day.  The original color version was very flat looking.  In order to try to make it an acceptable photo lighting wise, I converted it to B&W.  As a result, I think it looks very moody and more interesting.  I liked the way the shoreline leads your eye back to the tufa formation in the back left of the photo.

Crystal Cove

We went over to Crystal Cove to have a nice lunch at the Beachcomber the other day.  As you can see in the above photo it was a classic, beautiful sunny California day.  Lunch was good too.