Bed & Breakfast
This little bed & breakfast in Vallejo, which has obviously seen much better days, was in the final process of being moved to its current location from somewhere else. This had the feel of sitting around for many years without anything being done to it, but I don’t know what the full story is. I can imagine that once it gets done, it will be pretty nice. It is in an interesting location with the views behind me being the Richmond Bridge, the end of the Suisun bay and some scrapyard. I didn’t get the sense that the scrapyard would ever go away.
Stored Memories – The John Muir House Attic
In the attic of the John Muir house, there is this cool, old baby carriage. This shot was challenging since it was really dark. As you can see there are some harsh shadows from the light bulbs off-frame. Again, this is a 3 exposure HDR image, with the longest being 30 seconds. In PP, I tried to create a very dusty, old feel that was the modern lighting attempted to steal from the scene.
Construction
Back to the construction images. While not quite as nifty-cool as good-ol’ urbex type shooting, this was still pretty fun to do. How do you make something cool to look at with a very plain space. This image is what will become the lunch room / large meeting room. It will look nicer once the wood floors are in I’m sure. 
New Corporate Headquarters
The company I work for is in the process of a buildout of our new corporate headquarters. I took the evening to go in during the buildout and get some photos, both documentary ones and art ones. Next week they are going to run cables so I may stop by to get some more. I’m hoping to catch a really messy moment. I’ll share a few of these as I work on them.
This one is one of the folding chairs that was in the space caught by the sunset coming through the windows. The flooring was removed and I loved the textures, lines and shadows.
Abandoned Shack
Just outside the suburban areas of San Jose you’ll find lots of farmland that provides several possibilities for shooting rustic images. One such opportunity, just at daybreak was a shack along the side of the road filled with all kinds of junk. There was some gang tagging on the walls and weeds growing up between all the clutter. All the windows were broken out and water damage was very apparent.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love images of gritty scenes. I’ve always been a fan abandoned places. This image, with the nasty mattress, cracked walls and trash contrasted with the soft, warm morning light, hills and trees has it all. I really like this one. It may even move to my favorites page next time I update it.
Market Post Tower
A gorgeous day with scattered showers opened up a fabulous blue sky, very white clouds that enhanced the tinted glass on the Market Post Tower. This shot is a single exposure. I tried a few, and a couple bracketed series. The single shot worked better than what I came up with as an HDR version. Not to mention, as single-exposure it will qualify for an entry into the travel category in tomorrow night’s competition.
Some Photo Club Success
Last night I had some successes in the Light & Shadow Camera Club in Pictorial, Travel and Photojournalism. A couple first places and thirds. I’m excited since I still feel pretty new to photography and I have only had a DSLR since September of ’09. Yes, I have had other point-and-shoot cameras, but I never took them too seriously. The other photographers in the club are very experienced and constantly put out amazing photographs and I learn quite a bit from their work, techniques and criticisms. Placing in competition could be a bad thing however, it will just encourage me which will likely lead to wanting more lenses, filters, flashes, etc etc.
Here are the images I submitted that did well.
 Sunset at the Dumbarton Bridge - Travel |
 Return Flight to Kansas - Color Pictorial |
 Power Hit - U6 Girls Softball San Jose - Photojournalism |
 Four Generations of San Jose - Travel |
- Winter Beckons – Color Pictorial
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First Church of Christ, Scientist
The Historical Landmark Commission of San Jose is holding the first “Historical San Jose” photography contest to celebrate Historic Preservation month in May. I’ve been taking photos of various buildings in the downtown area which I will be posting soon. I am not sure if these will be judged from an artistic or documentary perspective so I’ll try several varieties and submit the three shots I like most.
This shot is of the Fist Church of Christ, Scientist which was built around 1904 or 1905 (depending on where you look). It is in poor shape and fenced off. It has a great dome at the top that looked wonderful in the evening light. This particular shot is a hand-held HDR shot to bring out the weathered detail.
Golden Glass
Downtown San Jose, taken on the same trip as yesterday’s golden clouds. The building was lit up wonderfully from the clouds and sun from the east with the nice pastel colors on the clouds to the north. The negative space adds to this one so I am using this as my Daily Shoot submission for DS102.
#ds102 - Negative space can be just as important to a composition as your primary subject. Explore negative space in a photograph.
Silicon Valley Medical Center – Daily Shoot 76
#ds76 “Get up close and personal with a building today. Make a photo of an architectural detail.”
The detail here didn’t look great too close, but with the glass and reflections, I thought the architecture really worked here.
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