Just being Koi

Still in San Francisco.  I know there are million cool things I can shoot today but I am just too busy and too tired.  As I was leaving the Embassay Suites this morning while waiting for Paul I saw the target so I shot it.  Plus I know Jamie's loves Koi Fish.  She lets them nibble on her fingers.  Kinda weird but it works for her.

My mind is full of Crab(say it fast 3 times)

I am in San Francisco for customer meetings.  My buddies are in town for MacWorld.  When in San Francisco the must stop is Hunan Homes on Jackson Street, the Ginger Crab is the draw, it is the must have. 

I knew the picture for the day would be the crab, but you see there was this fire hydrant right next to where I was standing and the G11 has a timer.  The boys were all full of crab... after dinner standing around talking, before they knew what was happening we had 10 seconds to pose.

So the picture had to be the boys!!! But the boys had Crab still on their minds as you can see from the picture.

Snow in the Desert?

Yes, for all my NJ friends that think anything past Pittsburgh is the West Coast, the Desert can actually get cold and because there are mountains with elevation they get snow.  Here is a shot of a mountain in Southern California, yes the same Southern California  with the Pacific Ocean and the Kardasians.

This is on the way home from Vegas in Apple Valley, and yes that is an actual Catus in the foreground, we put it there on purpose.  The reason the mountains look blue is called Smog, with the exception of High Taxes and Traffic this will conclude your California lesson for today.

On the Way to Vegas

For those of you on the West Coast, you know what the drive to Vegas is like, boring Desert.  From Southern California you know that can mean only one thing "stop at Baker, Gas Up, Pee, and or get a Milk Shake from The Mad Greek".  Plus it means one more thing, a landmark: the Worlds Largest Thermometer!  Gentlemen, feel free to insert Mother-in-Law Joke here.

For a little history:  it is was built in 1991 it stands 134-ft.-tall, symbolic of the record high temperature in the US, in Death Valley -- 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913.

Every Girl Deserves Roses

I realized Friday that I haven't bought Jamie flowers in way too long.  She doesn't ask for them but, I know she does love them.  Plus every girl deserves Roses every so often.  Jamie probably deserves them more than most, just for putting up with me...and now this photoblog. 

I was out shopping Friday evening and I saw them and thought "they would make a great subject for the photoblog"....I mean "Jamie really deserves Roses".  She was the one that suggested I shoot them for the blog.  I told her that "would be a great idea! I should have thought of that."

I set them up just like my January 3rd. holiday gift shot.  On my desk in total darkness.  This subject got 4 flashes from the Speedlite.  I have to come up with a new way to shot flowers in a vase next time.  But for this, now Jamie has a gift to remember.

By the way a couple of you have told me that some of the photos don't look very bright on your IPhone or other handheld device.  Here is a hint, Use a real computer with a real Monitor to experience bright colors and Images.  The pictures look great on my HP 2509M High Def monitor.

 

Camera Info:

Canon EOS 5d

ef 24-105mm f/4L Series Lens

Focal length 35 mm, shot from 3 feet away

ISO 100

8.0 sec at f/22

Speedlite set at 1/2 power 4 pops from <2 feet

Lights are on

The crappy weather continued today in Southern California.  It mean inside chores days.  I love my house, but like I said before there are a couple of those "what was the builder thinking" or "what were the (previous owners) thinking" items in the house.  One of them, and I am so pissed that I didn't take the before picture this morning, were these hideous hall lights that use those new bulbs that save energy but suck when it comes to lighting anything.  Not only do they not light the second floor landing where they are located, the hallway stairs heading down are completely dark.  It's a joke.

Today my project was light the landing and the stairs.  Find something that will look cool and/or modern and light the landing as well as the stairway.  Side note, the previous owner also used the stairway as a family photo gallery, I HAVE ALL THE SCREWS IN THE WALL AS PROOF.  I always thought it was odd, a photo gallery in a dark hallway.  They actually were a good looking family so a little lighting wouldn't have hurt.

Anyway taking a picture outside would have been a waste today as everything was packed in with a fog.  So my picture today is of my new lights.

Low Clouds

Before we get started today, someone please tell my mom that the whole "depression" comment yesterday was an exaggeration, no need for additional therapy.  With that said, it is still raining and I am still depressed, worse now my friend Mindi in the Bay area is getting depressed too about the weather.

 Let's hope for sun tomorrow.

Sometimes in Southern California the weather while crappy might also look awesome especially around hills and mountains which fortunately we have in Rancho Santa Margarita.  I was in my office finishing up my day on the phone with one of my teammates Jeff who had to brave Zero degree weather in upstate New York all week(so Mindi you and I are not allow to complain...but we can taunt).  From the view out my office window I could see that the clouds were lower than the peaks of the mountains.  So before it started to rain too hard I grabbed the camera and an umbrella and drove to the top of our hill.

Next time I wear a coat and cover the camera...I almost fell off the cliff I was shooting from, which would have sucked.  But I did get the shot.  Obviously with a sky like this we have to do a bit of HDR work or it would be too much fun.  I also posted the original untouched photo below.

 

Camera Info: 

Canon EOS 5D

Lens 16-35 Wide Angle L-series

ISO 250

1/60 sec at f/11



Second Happiest Place on Earth

I am an Aries, so when it rains I get depressed.  That's why I moved to Southern California.  I was so happy all last week because it was 75 and sunny.  But do you think any of my friends took me golfing...no.  But I digress.  It was raining today so I was very sad.  I had to go to San Diego for a customer Demo, the customer and Kash even took me to Hooters(I know why the hell didn't I have my Camera with me at lunch!).  Do you think that cheered me up?  NO.

After the Demo I sat at my friend Rudy's cube, because, well no one actually goes to the offices any more.  The theme of the afternoon was not really very positive.  Upset Partners, unhappy customer, even my teammate's emails weren't positive.  Not to mention my boss, now ex-friend, who was in town in the office didn't even come say "hello".

Plus, I have to tell you this Manti Te'o thing has me broken hearted, I mean who among us hasn't fallen in love with a beautiful woman online to later find out that they are actually a middle aged man in his boxer shorts with his beer gut hanging out.  Did I every tell you Jamie and I met on Match.com?  Again I digress.

For the lousy afternoon I was having, I was surprisingly in a very happy mood and yes it was still raining.  I couldn't figure out why I was in such a good mood.

At about 5 o'clock I decide it was time to get up and head North.  Then I realized why I was in such a  good mood.  I have my friend Sandy to Thank for it!

 

This is Sandy's cube(next to Rudy's)



Baxter Bug Eyes

So you know I can't resist, I have to continue with the fish eye lens and theme.  Now is the time to add "Bug Eye"  but on a dog.  Not  to be out done by the bird or the kid.  Baxter had to make his return to the blog.  I have a couple better fish eye pictures of the boy where his snout was total grabbed by the fish eye effect.  But when I saw this image I couldn't resist.  I have to thank Photoshop's bloat tool for this one.

I also posted the original file below the enhanced one.  Enjoy.

 

Bird's Eye View

With the Fish Eye lens still on the camera yesterday, I knew that it would be just a question of the bird or the dog.  So I tried both, at first not flashing them because I needed to be very close to get right effect and didn't need feathers flying.  I got a couple of "ok" shots with Baxter.  But trying to get him above my lens just proved to hard for me today.  It has been a long day, that started with Baxter needing to go out last night at 2:30, and me never really falling back to sleep. So Baxter doesn't get to be on the blog today.

Maya, who is pretty much locked in on her perch was the easy subject for today.  Plus she didn't wake me up at 2:30 in the morning.   The shot is pretty much out of the camera except for a Lightroom vignette and some color work because there wasn't much light to work with without flashing her.  The noise is because of the high ISO.

Then she leaned in perfectly for me giving me the one eye.

 

Camera Info: Canon EOS 7d

EF15mm f2.8 Fisheye

ISO 800

Exposure 1/125 sec at f/2.8(hence the blur on her body)

Photo from about 1 foot from her beak.

 

 

Kobe goes Fish Eye

As today is MLK day the schools and work were closed.  I spent the day cleaning windows and blinds, almost took the sunset through the amazingly clear windows.  Toni got to hang out all day with Kobe and Chloe two awesome kids from next door.  When I got back from Costco, there were bikes and scooters scattered all over.

They also had Toni's Ipad mini out and were doing "projects" with slow motion replay.  Seeing that they got Kobe to take a pass with a nerf ball where us guys don't want to "take a ball".  I figured Kobe was up for anything.  So I grabbed the 7d and the 70-200 and just in case the fish eye.  I talked Kobe into "learning to jump the curb" with the Razor.  The kid is awesome and we got a couple great action shots.  They we threw on the Fish Eye and gave it a shot.  By the way I posted 2 pictures, the second was the "after" shot.

Thanks Kobe, you are the man!

 

So many to choose from, but I couldn't top this Picture

This weekend was the Copa Real Soccer Tournament (http://www.realsocal.org/schedules/43442605/43442699.html) up in the Valley.  About 80 miles away.  I didn't feel like shooting as today was the Semi Finals and if the girls won, the Finals would follow.  I wanted to be a fan.  So I only grabbed the G11, took some really fun shots of Grayson's dog sleeping on its back in a chair, a real "awww" moment.  I even took some great sun flare shots of Toni in the goal.

On a side note, this has been a pretty trying season.   The girls moved to the big field, combining team, new players, injuries, and losing our friend Lolo to an ACL injury.  The girls have struggled a bit.  That was until this weekend.

Ladies and Gentleman, your Defending 2012 Copa Real Tournament Champions from Girls U10 and now your 2013 COPA REAL TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS FOR GIRLS U11!!!!

Congratulations WEST COAST FOOTBALL CLUB!

OH look it is the Goodrich Blimp!

Ok if you are old, you get the joke in the title.  If not, don't worry, it is not important.

According to my vast research; one google search where I didn't even look past the first page of results, I learned there are probably less than 20 blimps in the US.  A couple of years back according to Yahoo there were only 13, so I figure they didn't build that many more since, so I am calling it less than 20.

Let's just say for sake of argument, there aren't a lot of Blimps. 

Yeah sure you get  to see Blimps flying above stadiums, but how many people get to see them in their natural habitat, their nests.  Kind of like how we are have all seen Eagles or Hawks or Falcons flying(well I guess after tomorrow we probably won't be seeing Falcons for a while) but few of us get to see them in their nests.  This is sort of the same thing....come on people I am trying here!

In Southern California near LAX there is a blimp nest, you see it when you are stuck on the 405 in traffic.  On my way to Toni's soccer tournament today, I shoot the Goodyear blimp in it nest.

I thought it would make a unique picture for today.  Unique in that, how many people have actually shot one and blogged about it?  Sorry all I had was the G11 so I was limited in zoom and clarity.

You Cancan have fun with the Speedlite

Thank God it is Friday.  Knowing that it is Friday and we don't have to get up so early tomorrow.  I figure I might be able to do a bit of experimenting, along with Toni's help.  I think she knows she is in a competition...to show up on the blog more times then the Dog.  The simple Idea tonight was to write her name in lights using the Canon Speedlite's modeling light capability.  If you are not sure what that is you can set the test button to continuous fire.  Well continuous in Canon's dictionary means about 4 seconds. 

We got the name down in one take...well one take and help from Photoshop to flip it horizontally.  I know that was a cheat moment, forgive my laziness.

Well once we got that down the kid wanted to know what else we could do with the speedlite.  After I explained I could have her show up more than one time on a single frame by opening the shutter and popping the strobe a couple times.  She came up with the idea to do the Cancan.

After about 5 takes, we said, "ok last one, if it doesn't work this time, we only post the speedlite writing Toni.  I am happy to say we are posting both, maybe a third.  Enjoy.

Camera info:

Canon EOS 5d

EF 24-105mm F/4.0 Lseries Lens

Focal length 28mm

Exposure 15.0 seconds at f/20

ISO 200

 

Yes this is a photo, bright light pitched black room.  15 second exposure...notice the backward Pittsburgh Steelers logo.

 

One shot, 6 flashes, notice my face in the bottom left corner.



Stonehouse

Fortunately, I have customers all over Southern California.  One of them is in Temecula and I needed to go there today.  Well in Temecula, there is the Temecula Creek Inn.  On the grounds there sits a wedding chapel called Stonehouse.  Of course I had to shoot it.

I did a bit of Lightroom work.  I am not exactly sure which one I like best.  I know the black and white looks creepy, scary, dangerous, a place most guys would try to avoid....perfect for a Wedding Chapel. 

The photo was taken with the G11, sorry that is all I had.  The work was done in Lightroom.  I will let you guys decide which one you like best.

Fit Bird! (sounds better if you say it with an English Accent)

The title is for my friend Kash!

In many houses the kids run the house.  In our house the bird definitely rules the roost, yes pun intended.  Introducing Maya our 7 year old African Grey Parrot. 
If you are not familiar with the breed, imagine having a 3 year old child that stays at the age of 3 for 70 years.  That is an African Grey.   They talk, they learn, they repeat....usually what you don't want them to.  As was the "Moth-- Fu---r!" case in our house.  I blame it on Jamie....

I am sure we will see more of Maya throughout the year.  Especially if she see many more pictures of Baxter on the blog and learns to say "w--- t--- f---"!

 

Camera info:

Canon EOS 5d

Lens EF24-105 F4.0 Lseries

Focal Length 105m

1/160 sec at f11

ISO 200

flash at 1/2...yes that pissed off bird too. 

Recycle and ReUse

I had a long day today, actually is seem to run in to yesterday.  I didn't get too much sleep, I kept waking up throughout the night.  So I started my day around 5am.  By around 4pm I was spent.  I decided to take about a 20 minute nap.  The girls had to run to Target to pick up a new homework folder, as the last one didn't make it.  Toni is not the most genteel young lady so the folder didn't stand a chance!

Toni is starting to get into the photoblog and thought it was time she got back on the blog.  She decided to put her ex-homework folder to good use.  The timing could have been better, walking into my room while I was napping and waking me up wearing her folder might not have been the best idea....

When my heart jumped back into my chest, I decided she could be the topic today.

Hand Ball - Introducing Baxter

I think by now you might realize that soccer is pretty big in this house.  Trust me that is pretty hard for me to admit, as I coached football for 11 years and coached and played hockey for another 11.  Plus as the other parents on Toni's team will admit, I clearly don't know the game.  However, the one call I know is "hand ball". This is a complete violation of the rule.

But it makes for a great submission to my blog.  I can't believe it has taken me 14 days to say this, but "allow me to introduce Baxter".  He is our 13 month old American  Pitbull Terrier.   The dog actually enjoys having his picture taken, but on his terms. 

I didn't really have an idea for a photo today.  I was relaxing after a busy day in the office, the girls were at soccer practice.  I have been avoiding team practices, as a team sports coach for 22 years, these practices have been tough to sit through and I try not to be "that parent".

The whole evening the boy has been in my face for a bit of love, then he found an old soccer ball and taunted me with it.  Bingo there was my shot!  I would have him sit with the ball dangling from his mouth, he would look tough but pitiful.  But as you know as a photographer, "Avoid working with pets"!

But as you also know from working with pets, sometimes the dog's idea is better than yours. 

Hence "Hand Ball".

 

The Camera Info:

Canon EOS 5d

24 - 105 L series lens (focal length 73mm)

ISO 200

1/160 sec at f 9.0

Flash set at 1/2

 



Last shot of the day

Today was Sunday, so it was get things done day, especially because I couldn't handle watching Tom Brady and Bill Belichick win. 

It was still cold here in Southern California, Jamie woke up to more frost and 32 degrees.  I stayed in bed until it was a bit warmer.  I spent the day taking the Christmas lights down and re-weather stripping the front door. More later on the fact that we basically live in the money pit, I ask often, "what was the builder thinking".

Needless to say with as many chores as I was doing I didn't think about my picture today.  I thought about taking a picture of the amazing Baked Ziti I made but I was using a tin pan and it would have ruined the photo.  But the day was almost over and needed something to shoot.  Well Mother Nature delivered for me.

So far you have seen the photo toward my house.  Here is the first of many looking away from my house!

 

Camera info:

Canon EOS 5D

16-35 IS wide angle lens

1/50 sec at f/6.3

ISO 200

Soccer Saturday

Another Saturday, another Soccer game.... or two.  Obviously it made today's photo topic easy.  Toni's games were part of a Friendly in San Diego at 9am.  When we showed up the fields had a layer of frost on them.  I thought that might be the picture.  But is actually turned out to be boring.

So I decided to go with the old standby...the Soccer shots.  Since it is my blog, I will post 3 of my favorites. 

All about Water and Sun

Southern California is experiencing winter....or at least our version.  We are getting Rain.  Plus someone left the freezer door open.  We are actually hitting temps in the 30s in the mornings.  The afternoons are even under 60, for us that is considered "freakin cold"!  However, the great part about rain and cold in Southern California is it seems that when the rain stops and the wind blows as we had today, the skis are clear, bright and blue.  Perfect for Photography.

I had a lunch meeting with a customer late this afternoon so, I figure as long as I was on a roll with the whole sun over the ocean shots, I might see if we can get as lucky with sun and a lake.  Fortunately for me, I have two very photographic lakes within 2 miles of my house.  I am sure this is the first of several appearances for these lakes in my blog.  So I planned the lunch meeting at Mission Viejo Lake.

I finished lunch just in time for the sun to hide behind the only cloud in the sky.

 

 

Camera Information:  Canon Powershot G11

ISO 200, 1/800sec at f/8.0

On the Drive Home

I took a bunch of photos over the last couple days at the Dealer meeting.  However, I am sure posting pictures of my friends and co-workers will get boring.  I figured I hit a bit of a home run with the sunset on the drive down to San Diego.  The sky was even more ominous from the rain we had in the morning, so stopping by San Clemente on the way home made sense.

Two of My Buddies Being Buds

No, this is not a picture of 2 beer bottles.  As I said, I am in San Diego at a Partner meeting. I am lucky enough to be around my friends from work and have 2 of my resellers....who I consider good friends attending the meeting for me.  When my boss Frank, also a good friend, realized I had my cameras with me for this crazy photoblog I am doing, he said "you are shooting the event for me".  Well after the second day of the event and shooting boring meeting shots, I said to Frank "crap, I have been taking pictures all day and I still need to figure out something to shoot to post on the blog".  I figured let me download the pictures from the event so at least that was done.

I had to take some individual photos for an org chart project we are doing from this event.  The individual shots I took were done at Bernard O's restaurant in Rancho Bernardo, which I highly recommend by the way.  Get the Lobster Bisque, not as good as mine, but still pretty good.  And apparently the wine was pretty good and Frank got my buddy Doug to drink just enough of it that every picture  I took of the members of  the org chart when they sat down had to take a picture with Doug as well.

When I saw the picture of my friends Doug and Sy together(who by the way are competitors of each other) I knew I had the right picture for the blog, not the best photo technique, but I felt to me the subject of the day wouldn't get much better....after I flipped it to black and white.

Camera info:  Does it matter? Not if you shoot the right subject. 

On my GPS it says "Amazing Photo Spot"

About 2 years ago while dropping my Toni off at her Dad's in San Clemente I stumbled across this little park over looking the cliffs and the Pacific Ocean.  I saved in on my GPS as "Amazing Photo Spot".  When my dog and his brothers were puppies we did a photo shoot there.  As they always say never work with Dogs or Children, we ended up taking the picture on the steps leading down to the ocean because we couldn't get the dogs to pose.

I never removed that spot from the GPS as someday I know I would take a great Pacific Ocean shot there.  Today was that day.  I have to go to San Diego for a couple of days of reseller meetings, I was driving down about 3pm.  I drive right through Camp Pendelton Marine base and was hoping to get a cool shot of a Marine Helicopter.  I never had to make it that far before I got my great photo for the day.  As I was driving through San Clemente I noticed the sun was so hot an bright that it was lighting the Ocean.  I changed my GPS to "Amazing Photo Spot" and this was what I saw.(There are two shots, the first was the Lightroom enhanced, we named the effect after our friend Hien as he taught us how to do it.  The second is the untouched out of the camera image I captured with a little help with some throw flash.)

 Camera info: Canon 5d(yeah I needed full frame)

Canon16-35 Lseries wide angle lens at 29mm

ISO 100  1/200 at f/22 Manual flash at 1/2

In your face...almost

I guess I am starting get into this a bit.  I am starting to get the itch to shoot sports again.  The girls came back from a soccer tournament this weekend.  Jamie found this cool soccer ball retrieving contraption.  It has an elastic band on it where the player kicks the ball it flies out about 25 feet and snaps back to the player.  Toni had these before, but kicks the ball right through them or snaps the band.  This one seemed much stronger....hopefully.  It gave me a safe idea, hoping she might not snap this band and bonk me right in the head.

It wasn't the easiest shot to get perfect as it was getting dark and I was still trying to use a lower ISO to reduce noise and I didn't want to flash the shot.  After 15 kicks where either I missed the focal point or Toni missed the mark.... we got one.    

 

The camera information: As per usual the Canon EOS 7D with the 70-200mm f2.8L series lens.  Focal length at 73mm 1/1600 sec at f2.8 ISO 1600.

I Can See My House from Here

Finally after 9 years of trying I bought a house last year.  It is your typical way over priced Orange County California house.  However, the view and the sunsets tend to be amazing.  Our backyard faces the Pacific Ocean, except there is a freaking mountain in the way.  I have shot some great sunsets over the first year.  I am sure with this project I will shoot many more to show you.  But today I figured I would turn the tide...or the camera as was this case.

I was driving home this morning from running an errand.  I was coming down the hill toward Mission Viejo Lake.  Smartly, I had my camera with me when I realized I had the view back toward my house.  So here it is, the reverse view if you will of our house.  The picture was taken with the G11 from about a 2 miles away.  I will someday go back with the 5d and Toni's Telescope and shot it again.

Mel Blanc joined Salvador Dali in the Grave Rollover Thing

If at first you don't succeed.  Let's face it, the Salvador Dali attempt was pretty weak.  But I was on a roll.  More importantly, in a comediac moment I thought, if the Salvador Dali Image with a standard clock wasn't "looney" enough(Sorry couldn't resist).  How would another clock I have in my office look Dali style?

My apologize to the Great Mel Blanc(the voice of Looney Tunes).

Salvador Dali is Turning Over in His Grave

I am going to Barcelona in April for work with customers.  I am pretty excited; I have been there a couple times before it really is amazing.  I keep telling Jamie my fiance’ that I am excited because she gets to come this time.  But the real reason is, I was crazy enough to come up with this idea to take a photograph a day and post it….. That was supposed to be a joke.  If you have never been, the city is amazing, you step outside and point your camera anywhere and you will take an amazing photo.

Today was another day in the office, one of the things I had to do was take care of a couple of items and agenda for the trip.  Then I started to think…Barcelona…Salvador Dali…that melting clock thing.

So I shot one.  Then tried to melt it in PhotoShop.  I should have melted the idea, instead of the clock.  Here is my feeble attempt at PhotoShop.  The clock is supposed to be melting over the table.  I also posted the original photo unmelted.

 

Camera information: Canon eos 7d

.  24-104 4.0 lens. on a tripod. 1/4 sec at 4.0.  ISO 200.

The speedlight is on firing at 1/4 power and pointed up the the ceiling to avoid glare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Gift that Gave Twice

Today was another day that had me stuck in the office, too much paper work and emails for my liking.  Plus all throughout the day I was trying to figure out what the heck I was going to shoot.  What I want to shoot was my computer…but the whole gun control conversation and all….  Then a UPS package arrived, it was a gift from one of my vendors.  It gave me an idea for later, much to the chagrin of Toni, my soon to be 11 year old step-daughter.  She knows there is Chocolate inside!

So let me explain something first.  In my office I have two bar style tables set up for my desk, they look pretty cool thanks to IKEA.  However, they would be very prone to scratching so I have glass plates cut to cover them.  I knew, someday the glass would make a great reflective surface.

After yesterdays lame picture I felt today I had to do it up a bit differently or my photographer friends certainly would mock me.  So the shot below was taken in absolute darkness in my office.  I put the timer on and set the shutter to stay open for 6 seconds and fired the strobe at the stack from the top then each of the front facing 3 sides to get the right amount of reflection on the glass.  This picture is RAW OUT OF THE CAMERA, ZERO WORK IN PHOTOSHOP OR LIGHTROOM.  There is hope for me yet.

 

Now the Camera information: Canon 7d on a tripod. Focal length at 20mm on the 16-35 wide angle lens.  ISO 200 6.0 sec at f/20. The speedlite was set at 1/2 power and I fired it 4 times in the 6 seconds.

 

Otter in a Bottle- Never Left the office

OK I am assuming this will happen to my photo blog from time to time, not leaving the office.  I guess that will limit me to what pictures I can take that day.  I am assuming that will lead to lots of pictures of the dog or the bird.  Trust me when I start taking shots of the dog, you will see why people stop us during walks to tell us "your dog is beautiful".

With that said I have been drinking Smart water for about 3 months now probably because the gas station has them 2- 1liter bottles for $3.  Then I usually refill the bottles and leave them in the fridge.  The first time I looked through the bottle I saw a goldfish on the backside of the label through the clear bottle.  I thought, "OK a goldfish" and I never thought about it again.  Well about 2 weeks ago I realized the are many different "water animals" . Sometimes I am not the most perceptive guy in the world.

Well today stuck in the office, it was either photograph my phone or my keyboard.  Then I saw a new animal in the bottle.  Thought I would shoot it, plus it is late and I am tired.  The interesting part was it would photograph easily so I tried something.  I set up the tripod put the camera on it.  Slowed the shutter to about 2 seconds and hand held the flash above the bottle and popped it. Something I will do a lot later in the blog I am sure.

 

The Camer info- Canon EOS 7D - 100mm Macro lens. ISO 200 2.0sec at F11.

Hand held flash about 1 foot above with setting at 1/2 power/

Day One- Tried to shot a birdie, got a Coyote

On New Year’s Day like any Southern California resident should do I decided to commune with nature. So I went golfing with my buddies. Knowing that this was the first day of my photo blog, I charged up my Camera battery and put it in my golf bag. We have been getting a lot of rain lately and the snow levels were down in the 2000-3000 foot level and I knew on the course we were playing that I could get the shot I wanted. An awesome golf green with a snow covered mountain in the background.

However, as we were walking up to the green on the 16th to putt for birdie on the (Par 3 160yard) a freakin Coyote walked out of the marsh through the sand trap and across the green. My friend Brian was still up at the cart(for the record he too was with 11 feet of a birdie...yeah the only good shots we had all day), I scream whispered, you know that moment, to grab my camera. The Coyote slowly moseyed his way up the hill, Brian got out his Iphone(no comment) and we both got him about half way up the hill.

Just to rub it in on the east coasters, I also posted the green and the mountain shot on this 63 degree day in January. 

Not bad for the first day of the photo blog.    

 

For those tracking the camera was Canon G11 1/1600 at f/4.5 ISO 200…

the photo is cropped and a tiny bit of saturation in lightroom.

 

 

 

Trying to see the world differently

I have been looking for a New Years resolution that I would actually be able to keep.  As well, a project that takes my mind off the daily grind and would cost me any money to keep.  I thought about making the resolution to learn how to putt, but for those of you that have golfed with me, well you know I wouldn't keep that resolution.  So low and behold I looked in my office closet and found a camera...or several.

So my plan is to take at least one picture per day. 

The only other rule I have made is to take no more than 1 picture per week with my cell phone because whether you want to believe it or not...IPHONE pictures really do suck...and my Driod is not better.

For those friends of mine that are Photographers, I am not necessarily going for the most impressive photo or the most technically sound image.  However, I am sure I might try a couple of tricks.

I hope you enjoy.

Gregg Bonfiglio
greggbon@sbcglobal.net