Inside the John Muir House – Piano and Window
Today I was lucky enough to be invited on a photography field trip with the Peninsula Camera Club to go out shooting the mothballed navy ships in Suisun Bay as well as the John Muir house in Martinez, CA. This image is a shot of one of the rooms in the John Muir house looking out to the front. It has a piano and some chairs. Off to the left is a fireplace that my lens was just not wide enough to pick out. I was a bit limited with what I could include in the shots since I can’t get too wide. I will definitely have to visit her again when I get some better gear. Look forward to more shots from the John Muir house as well as some shots of the fleet, including the USS Iowa.
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. 🙂
Almonds
There were a few almond (amond for those of you without your “l’s” 🙂 ) trees on the photowalk. I am not sure if they were wild or not. These are not quite ripe yet, but when they are, I’m sure they will be tasty.
Dried Thistles
There were lots and lots of dry things on our walk. It is after all, California in the summer. Thistles in general are pretty interesting to look at regardless if they are green or brown. The sun was high overhead which made these pretty challenging to shoot and get the interesting detail out of. This is a three exposure HDR image to bring out some of the detail in the center of the front thistle.
Bumblebee & Thistle
Today I participated in the Worldwide Photowalk here in San Jose. About 15 or so photographers got together and walked through the hills looking to capture something interesting. I was able to stick around for about two hours and I ended up with 10 shots that I’m happy with. The first one out-of-the-gate is this nice little bumblebee departing a thistle. These guys move fast, I am excited I was able to capture him so crisp.
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.
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?
Photo Club Competition Night
While I’ve slowed my pace of posting, I still have some favorite images that haven’t made it into competition yet. Tonight my small club had another competition for the categories Monochrome Pictorial, Color Pictorial, Nature and Creative. As usual, some great pieces were presented. The comments from the judge overall were good. I don’t necessarily agree with all of them of course. 🙂 I included some of the takeaways below each image.
Cherries - Digital Color Pictorial
Judge Comment: Could be cropped tighter to lose a bit of the left side to place more emphasis on what is in focus. Either that or stop it down just a bit. The situation may not have made this possible if it was low light.
My thoughts: I agree with the cropping bit, I think there is probably too much on the left. This was taken in extremely bright, direct light. I did lots of work to tone down the harshness. The fact that it was perceived to be low light, I consider a victory. 🙂
Caught! - Monochrome Pictorial - 2nd Place
Judge comment: Love the expression on the man’s face. It makes the image. Also the curve of the benches is nice. However, I would have loved to see this cropped tighter to put more focus on the facial expression.
My thoughts: I agree with everything except the crop. The empty bench row adds just as much as the facial expression. Plus, I like the birds.
Honeybee Swarm (Apis mellifera) - Nature - 1st Place
Judge comment: Eek, I hope you were careful taking this. The bees are crisp, the background tells enough of a story but isn’t important. This is a good nature story. The title could have included the details about the swarm protecting the queen.
My thoughts: I agree.
Recursion Error - Creative - 3rd Place
Judge comments: Not many comments other than general observation and appreciation of the work that went into this.
My thoughts: This has changed quite a bit since I originally made it. I have tried to make it look more like it was done with a cheap toy camera.
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.
Sean Kane 
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