Carefree
My youngest daughter was playing at the beach in Santa Barbara in her sun dress and I grabbed this photo. Everything about her pose, expression, the long grasses, sand and hill behind her screamed for a vintage look. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro to get the look I was going for. Some have said I need to crop it, and I can see why from a composition perspective, but I’ll be leaving it just as it is since I like the environment.
Enjoying the Setting Sun
A bit of daydreaming while riding a bicycle as the sun gets low in the horizon. I love the lighting in this.
Irritated
A few months ago, I rented some lights and messed around with learning how they work. I took a few photos of my family. Here is one I really liked that came out of my little experiment. My daughter had been upset about something that little kids get upset about. She had also just gotten out of the bath. Needless to say, she wasn’t impressed by my setup. The upside is an awesome photo! 
USS Iowa – BB-61
I ended 2011 with another trip to the USS Iowa. This time I was able to get on board! The ship is finally getting restored and prepped for its voyage to Southern California. In the meantime, they are letting people check out the foredeck. I took the opportunity to push the 10-22mm lens. Close quarters, huge structures lots of people make for a challenging shooting environment. On a positive note, the morning clouds & sun were extremely cooperative. This shot is one of my favorites of the day. I’ll post a few more and I plan to visit again in a couple weeks. Maybe there will be additional areas we can look at. I’d love to capture more of the ship before it’s fully restored.
Happy New Year everyone! This year, I want to at least get an image a week posted. Despite shooting well over 25k images last year, I only managed to post a couple. This year should be better.
w00t! Fifth Place!
If everyone remembers, I asked a while back about some images that I should enter into the Fotoclave, a photography competition of 3 Northern California camera club councils. I was able to get 4 acceptances and I won fifth-place in the Digital Photojournalism category with Terror of Happy Hollow – San Jose, CA. The Fotoclave competition includes 3 different Northern California Camera Club Councils, representing about 23 photo clubs. Each council was allowed to submit 20 images per category. There were many, many incredible photographs in the competition and I don’t envy the judges that have to make the decisions on winners. I am very excited that one of my images was able to stand alongside of the others. Additionally, thanks to my family for making the photograph possible.
Terror of Happy Hollow - San Jose, CA
Family Portrait
While hanging out at the beach, I took a few photos of my lovely wife. I noticed that my reflection in her sunglasses was rather interesting with the blue sky and other features clearly visible. I called the kids over and had each one wave to create his “family portrait”. I think this will make a great print since there is quite a bit of detail in the reflection.
Maui Madness
Okay, to come clean, work wasn’t the only reason I haven’t been posting. Earlier this month we took a week-long vacation to Maui to enjoy the nice warm weather, water and relax. Photography on a family vacation isn’t the easiest thing to get out and do, but I did manage to get a few decent images from the trip. We’ll start with my daughter having a blast on the boogie board at Ulua State Beach. In the background you can see the West Maui Mountains. The vacation was a blast and the family had a great time.
I love this shot since it just freezes the excitement perfectly and has a decent amount of location orientation included.
Beach Day with Grams
What to do with summer? The beach! And to do that with Grams, even better! Some craziness and fun. Gotta love the hat, too!
Cleanup
After the games were played in the street, it was necessary to clean up all the broken eggs and other mess. What better way to do that than with a fire hose?
Standing Proud
How does one 6 year old look near the end of a good day before the fireworks start? Quite happy and proud of course! I love her expression, and the warmth from the sun. I’m considering removing the kids on the right if I print this out for home-use, or just cropping it tighter.
Independence Day
I’ve been away from the camera for awhile and at the computer quite a bit. The holiday weekend provided just right setup to resume shooting. On the morning of the 4th, my daughter (on left) was more excited than she has been in a long time. She kept going on-and-on about how she loved the 4th of July. I couldn’t fully understand it until we got to the block-party. She had the whole street where she could do just about whatever she wanted for as long as she wanted to do it. Little parental oversight, lots of independence.
This photo of the girls playing summed up their mood for the day. Having lots of fun, not a care in the world. Its the only day of the week were nobody says a word that you left your scooter lying in the street.
Deep in Thought
This image pretty much sums up how I’ve been feeling the last couple weeks. Completely wrapped up in what I’m doing and oblivious to the outside world. I think I have caught up, for now, to all I need to get done and can resume posting here.
What we’re looking at is my four-year-old daughter (she would correct me, 4 1/2) painting a mug for Mother’s day. This was a great moment where she paused to figure out what her next move was to trace the outline of what she wanted to paint.
Making the Crossing — With Snacks
Not much time to write today, so I’ll let the image tell its own story.
Splash!
What a moment to capture! The pictured couple was sitting on the coastal rocks and I liked the double recliner nature of the rocks. So of course, up went the camera. Wouldn’t you know that on the first click, fortune struck enough to have a huge wave crash behind our love birds. In post, this took a bit of adjustment to keep the detail of the water spray and the colors but overall I think it turned out well.
Caught
I really like this image. This is a single grab-shot that I got really lucky with. Walking through downtown, I noticed a nice row of benches curling around in the park across the street. Surprisingly, there were no people walking around at the time. Just this one gentleman who was sitting on the center bench watching the world go by. I liked the scene, which was about to vanish as the crosswalk signal was turning green, sending pedestrians scurrying. The scene was about to vanish forever. Thankfully, the camera was already in aperture priority mode so I didn’t have to fuss with it. Rather, just lift, check the corners and shoot. And just as soon as the shutter fired, I lost the scene. No do-overs.
After taking it, I thought it would be nice but nothing special. That changed when I brought it up at home, in Lightroom. As it turns out, he wasn’t the only one in the cross-hairs. I was as well! His expression made this photo!
Day of the Living Goofball
I love dark, gritty images, so lets go dark again and keep up the variety. I’ll opt-out of telling the story behind this one to let your imagination kick in.
Hiding from Attention
Last one from the “dinner series”. From attitude moments prior to shyness. All in protest of the camera. Another monochrome with color eye treatment here. Also, in case you’re wondering, there has been no saturation (or vibrancy) bump in this photo. Those are the real eyes.
Disagreement
Some attitude today for y’all. Another shot from last night’s dinner. Can’t beat the lighting!
The Eyes Have It
Tonight, while out to dinner, the light coming in through the mesh window shades was wonderful. I snapped a few photos of the kids that were really wonderful. The light really brought out the detail in their eyes. I’ll post a some of these over the next few days.
I also used this for my Daily Shoot Entry today. #ds160 – Experiment in the digital darkroom today. Make a photo and post-process it any way you like to unleash your creativity.
The Terror of Happy Hollow
Happy Hollow Park & Zoo has a new kid-sized roller coaster. As much as I tried to encourage my adventurous daughter (guess which one) to ride in the front so I could get a good photo, she declined. She wanted the back since it goes faster. The other, well she didn’t enjoy things quite so much. I love this photo and just how different the everyone’s expressions are!
A Model Spring
The kids were messing around in their new dresses in the evening light so I tried to capture the moment. This particular shot stood out of the series for me. Between the facial expressions, poses and light, this photo called-out to to feel like the recent trendy fashion photography. None of the models in those photos smile after-all, right? Overall, I like like this shot quite a bit, personally.
In PP, I over exposed the shot, did some split toning, added cyan chromatic aberration and added some heavy vignetting to complete the look.
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter everyone! The Easter Bunny made a visit and made his grand-kids very happy.
Grandpa, the Easter Bunny
#ds140 – Sunday challenge: Create a photograph that makes you feel happy looking at it. Don’t stop at good. Go for full on happy.
The Reluctant Gardener
Having a bit of fun with the evening light and water. I’m not sure if the expression here is one of boredom or concentration.
#ds130 – Time to revisit a traditional photographic look. Make a black and white photo with high contrast today.
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