Gates of the Valley at Dawn, Yosemite National Park

5 min at f/22, focal length: 18mm, ISO 100 - December 4, 2006, 7:25am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, Tamron AF 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II, hand held


This image was made a couple of years ago. It was winter and cold. Very cold. I slipped and stepped in the river before I made this image. Instead of going to my car and changing my socks (or warming up), I decided to stick it out. I don't know if that was the smart thing to do, but I did make an image that I'm very happy with.
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Sunset and Sunrise from Home

Pine Trees, Sunset over Crooks Mtn, Sierra Nevada Foothills

1/6 sec at f/16, focal length: 131mm, ISO 100 - September 9, 2008, 7:21pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted


These images were both made from my yard, on different days. The sunset is from my driveway looking at a ridge on Crooks Mountain, which is directly behind my house. The sunrise, which is after the jump, was taken from on top of my roof looking over my front yard. I feel blessed every time I look out the window.

Sunrise image after the jump...

Sunrise, Sierra Nevada Foothills

1/60 sec at f/32, focal length: 131mm, ISO 100 - August 31, 2008, 7:03am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted
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Sourberry (Rhus integrifolia), Sierra Nevada Foothills

1/500 sec at f/8, focal length: 200mm, ISO 400 - September 3, 2008, 4:54pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, hand held


I was walking out my front door to let the kids play in the yard when I saw that this plant was back lit beautifully by the soon to be setting sun. I immediately turned around to grab my camera and set off to work.

More after the jump...

This proved to be a challenging situation. First I needed to find a composition with good rhythm and balance of the leaves and branches. Next was getting an aperture that provided enough depth but not so much that the background would become distracting. In this case, f/8 was my golden ticket. I would have liked a bit more depth, but the amount that I got is definitely usable. Plus, f/8 gave the background a nice pattern without becoming too distracting. If I opened or closed my aperture 1 stop either way, the composition did not work. Not enough depth or too distracting. The last thing to take care of was the flare. Even with the lens hood on, the sun was at a low enough angle to cause flare. My left hand proved to be the best tool to combat this. The only problem with that being that I was too lazy to get out the tripod. I bumped up the ISO to 400 so that I could hand hold the camera with one hand at a fast enough shutter speed to not get camera blur (bad, bad, bad technique...but it worked).
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Sojourn of Light I

1/15 sec at f/8, focal length: 100-200mm, ISO 100 - September 9, 2008, 7:07pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, hand held


I'm not going to say what this is, at least not at first. I'd like to get some feedback as to your reactions/responses to this image before you are influenced by knowing what the subject really is. So please leave your comments and hopefully this will spark some interesting discussions.


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Rock and Water Flow, Montana de Oro State Park

1.3 sec at f/22, focal length: 40mm, ISO 100 - September 6, 2008, 11:49am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 17-40mm f/4L, Singh-Ray Mor-Slo ND filter, tripod mounted


Here are another three images from my trip to Montana de Oro. This is most likely my final posting of images from this session. I hope you enjoyed them.

More images after the jump...

Rocks and Receding Surf, Montana de Oro State Park

1.3 sec at f/22, focal length: 36mm, ISO 100 - September 6, 2008, 11:40am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 17-40mm f/4L, Singh-Ray Mor-Slo ND filter, tripod mounted

Two Birds on Rock, Montana de Oro State Park

1/80 sec at f/16, focal length: 200mm, ISO 100 - September 6, 2008, 11:33am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted


If anyone knows the name of this species of bird, please let me know in the comments.
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Rocks and Surf, Montana de Oro State Park

2 sec at f/32, focal length: 200mm, ISO 100 - September 6, 2008, 11:17am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, Singh-Ray Mor-Slo ND filter, tripod mounted


Here is another image from my recent trip to Montana de Oro State Park. This was made late morning on a bright overcast day. Thanks to the Singh-Ray Mor-Slo ND filter, coupled with an f-stop of f/32, I was able to "drag" my shutter speed an extra 5 stops to get a two second exposure. (Also, thanks to Bill for letting me borrow the filter)



*UPDATE*
RAW-unprocessed image and layers for master .psd included after the jump...

RAW image (no post capture adjustments applied)

Layers of master .psd

Before and After

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Peacock

1/2500 sec at f/4, focal length: 200mm, ISO 400 - June 8, 2008, 9:41am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, hand held


Bill suggested that I post this image and I must appease the boss, so here it is.


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Inca Tern in flight

1/45 sec at f/16, focal length: 80mm, ISO 200 - March 5, 2006, 1:40m PDT
Photographed with Nikon D100, Nikon 35-80mm f/4-5.6D AF Zoom-Nikkor, hand held


Here's one pulled from the archives. This was made at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in March of 2006. My wife and I had decided to go to the zoo to get in some good walking as she was pregnant with our daughter, Haven, and was one day over due. Walking is supposed to help induce labor. I don't think it really worked for us, since Haven decided not to join us for another three days. But then again, she never really comes when she's supposed to.

Back to the image...These Incan Terns are in an aviary at the zoo, which you can walk through. They were flying all around pretty much non stop. Dipping in and out of the trees, diving into the little stream that runs through the aviary, and splashing about in the waterfall. Trying to photograph them was a bit of a challenge, but good practice for panning. Many, many, many frames later and I got one that I love (I didn't know until they were loaded on the screen though - too much action and no time for chimping on location)


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Pebble, Montana de Oro State Park

1/13 sec at f/32, focal length: 200mm, ISO 100 - September 6, 2008, 11:24am PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted


Here are some more images from my trip to the coast a couple of weekends ago. All of these were made at the same beach in Montana de Oro State Park. This was my first time at Montana de Oro. It's a beautiful place and I plan on making my way back soon...and often.

More images after the jump...

Yarrow, Montana de Oro State Park

1/125 sec at f/16, focal length: 118mm, ISO 400 - September 6, 2008, 12:33pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, hand held

Rock Forms and Algae, Montana de Oro State Park

1/10 sec at f/32, focal length: 104mm, ISO 100 - September 6, 2008, 12:10pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted
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Sunset in Ventura California

8 sec at f/11, focal length: 91mm, ISO 200 - September 5, 2008, 7:49pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted


Last weekend my father and I made a trip down to Valencia to finish up donating my car that had given up the ghost on a trip to southern California the previous weekend with my wife. We figured that we'd make the best of it and drive back up hwy 1 the next day and photograph some of California's beautiful coast.

More images after the jump...

After finishing up the paperwork at the auto shop, and grabbing the rest of my belongings out of the car, we jumped on the 126 and headed for Ventura. I had gone to school in Ventura at Brooks Institute of Photography studying photojournalism so I'm pretty familiar with the town. We decided that clam chowder and fish and chips were in order and headed over to Andrea's in the harbor. Great stuff!

After dinner and a beer we headed across the street for the beach at sunset and the resulting images are below. Enjoy and check back tomorrow for images of the next day further up the coast.

Approaching Surf, Sunset, Ventura California

1.3 sec at f/32, focal length: 78mm, ISO 100 - September 5, 2008, 7:23pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted

Rock and Sand, Ventura California

1/15 sec at f/7.1, focal length: 200mm, ISO 400 - September 5, 2008, 7:27pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted

Rock, Seaweed and Surf, Ventura California

13 sec at f/32, focal length: 87mm, ISO 400 - September 5, 2008, 7:37pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted

Receding Surf, Sunset, Ventura California

1/2 sec at f/5, focal length: 145mm, ISO 100 - September 5, 2008, 7:42pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted

Rock and Receding Surf, Sunset, Ventura California

1 sec at f/5, focal length: 145mm, ISO 100 - September 5, 2008, 7:42pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted

Rock, Reflection and Receding Surf, Sunset, Ventura California

5 sec at f/11, focal length: 140mm, ISO 200 - September 5, 2008, 7:46pm PDT
Photographed with Canon EOS 20D, EF 70-200mm f/4L, tripod mounted
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