Friday, May 29, 2009

Yosemite's Mirror Lake

(click to enlarge)

First trip to Yosemite. I looked at all my options and settled for focusing on Mirror Lake. That meant having to end up there at sunset for good light. Thunder storms came and went, clouds covered the sky, then the sun would shine etc etc... Mild rain came back during the trail to the lake. Knowing that it could get dramatically worse in a matter of minutes, I came up with a plan to stake out possible shelters along the way. Sure enough half ways to the lake the rain came in harder. Following the plan we retreated back to a small utility wooden cabin, with an even smaller porch like cover. The rain came harder and harder and so did the thunder. We waited for almost 20 mins. The rain slowed down and we decided to continue. Meanwhile we are still looking out for more potential shelters just incase the harder rain returned. The shelter look out included anything from under a large rock to just the side of the mountain. The rain slowly diminished as we got to our destination. Flat ugly white clouds cover the sky and large droplets of rain water from the trees hit the lake surface making it not so mirror-y. The sun was relatively high still so I decided to wait. I waited and waited. The clouds started clearing out and the sun came down as the day went on. Finally like magic, the clouds mostly cleared and the lake surface was calm. By then the sun was low enough and an unexpected mist was rising behind the trees. At last I could shot some images.

Bonus: The trail had only a few people on it to begin with. We stayed late for the picture, so people that were there had left already. We walked the trail back to the road in mid light. We get to the end to wait for the bus/shuttle. There we find this one lady that was at the lake earlier. She was alone and with a frightened/exited look on her face she speaks in her european accent. "I just saw a bear!". No one else there but us, a lonely road and the darkness of the day falling. She goes on to explain on how she saw a black bear just off the trail. Braving her fear she reached for her camera, but the bear approached. The black bear walked on to the trail and stood just 8 ft away according to her. She stood motionless and in a few seconds the bear headed back. A large size animal according to her calculations. She raised her hand well above her head and said "this big".

Feel free to leave comments below.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

A challenge for you! (solved, congrats to James C)


Now that we are in the no photoshop/no computerized image topic (look below at "Gilroy near phantom curve" post). I decided to post a challenge. This picture you see here is also a 35mm black and white photograph. It was taken with a 1970s Cannon AE1 SLR camera. It is one single shot, and there is no darkroom trickery. The challenge; is to figure out how is it that the wine is almost jumping out of the bottle and landing right in to one of the the glasses (look at the angles). I'll give you a few tips: the bottle is a regular bottle (meaning it's not rigged with some contraption), the shot was taken as the wine was actually pouring and all the elements you see were present when the shot was taken. Remember no photoshop or any other computer program was used to crate the effect. Please comment with your ingenious theories.

In fact, if someone gets it compltley right, I will give you a price. A free print of any of the already posted images.

Disclaimer ( you do not qualify, if I've already told you how it was done).

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Gilroy, near phantom curve

If I remember correctly, I was on my way to a Deftones show in Northern California. Driving on a favorite route of mine (152 pacheco pass- usually boring for most people). Near Gilroy I caught a glimpse of some flower plantations on the side of the hill. I stop to see If I could frame a good picture. I was armed with a 35mm film camera and a few rolls of black and white film. I tried finding a safe place to pull over, but it took almost 1/2 a mile. I pulled in to a small dirt driveway that lead to nowhere and looked back to find this scene.
At the time I had access to a dark room. I ended up adding the clouds from a different picture I had shot on higway 63 near Visalia (if you look close you can see some graininess on the clouds). It took a few tries to get the two exposures right and I also managed not to have any visible overlapping. The technique is basic, but you don't know the results until you run the light sensitive paper trough the developing process. So there you have it, two pictures in one with out computers or photoshop.

Back from Moonhill


So I set out to go shoot some landscapes. I headed towards Moonhill right before sunset. I found a spot near Vispilio (that is a whole different conversation, I will explain later) I have visited times before. I shot for close to one hour and once the sun was only visible by it's reflection on the clouds, I decided to pack up and head back home. As I drive away I noticed the blue tint of the clouds was changing by the minute. I realize that in only a few moments the lighting on the sky could be great for a photograph, but how to shoot it? I left the small bridge coming up as my only opportunity. Now this ain't no fancy bridge, but a mere cross-over for a current of water used mostly for irrigation. I get there in less than 10 minutes after leaving the hill. The sky was even richer in color than I expected. The water was calm and the reflection of the clouds was almost that of a mirror. I stopped, did a few test shots added a subject (Crystal, who earlier entertained herself by doing dance routines on the road while I shot) then took the last shot for the day. That ended up being The shot to keep. It is not uncommon for photographers to end up in situations like this. Sometimes nature decides what you are going to shoot.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Brianna on mothers day



Brianna from Mammoth Lakes outside a casino. Don't worry she wasn't gambling.
If you ask your self "why is there only 2 post and one picture posted?" Well that is because I have only started and the rest will come soon.

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Photos coming soon

I know this is mostly a photography page. The photos will be coming very soon