santa teresa park, infrared shot. the exposure was a little short since I didn't have my tripod with me.

the rest of the portraits we shot at sheila and rose's birthday celebration. for me, this was a step into shooting people. overall the lighting was a little low so the exposures were long and there are some instances of blurring and movement, but I think they came out ok and make a nice series.

all the pictures from shooting day one | day two | day three | day four | day five | day six | day seven | day eight | of my trip are now posted

Day two of my ten day photo excursion and workshop is posted. Images cover a visit to Bodie and Big Pine, California. | Day One

Two boulders and half dome

Day one of my 10 day photo trip and workshop is now online. enjoy! | Day two

more umbrellas surrounding us at the jazz festival, san jose jazz festival 2003

paradise park, surrounded by redwoods and hills, this neighborhood/village is an oasis just over the mountain from san jose. if you didn't know about it, you would never know it existed—like brigadoon.
5 days until i am over-the-hill_ack! I am turning 40

the redwood by my driveway stands majestically guarding the house, digital infrared

shooting into the redwood as the sun hits the branches, infrared digital

my fascination with the bee is neverending: the bee on a strand of lavendar

if the bug is yellow green and the spots are black is it a lady bug or man bug?

the edge of a giant poppy

busy bees buzzing around the lavendar on a warm summer afternoon

powdery stamen inside the lily

a brilliant green fern tucked away alongside a creek in the big basin redwoods state park

a single tree lit by the filtered sun

The trunks of the very large redwoods in Big Basin Redwoods State park. The bark of these trees bear the marks of a past fire.

the blood red of the rose against the soft velvet green leaf

another single ant coming out of the center of the flower. i shot this with the extension tube (EF25) on the 28-80mm macro zoom lens. i am still working out if it is possible to hand-hold and get an image without shakes. so far i am about 50-50 successful.

a look into the depths of a nasturtium and we find a visitor.

peruvian lillies have spots and stripes and the most intense colors in the evening.

some of this recent macro work is featured over at 28mm.org. i am very excited to be "showing" this set of work shot in my rose garden.

the color of spring moving into summer—my rose garden is full of this color

tiny hairs along the edge of the rose leaf. amazing what the macro sees

inside the rose the light glows.

interesting article at the NYTimes on photoblogging: Prospecting for Gold Among the Photo Blogs

recently began landscaping in the backyard. last weekend we had all this rock and gravel delivered and proceeded to shovel and move with the wheelbarrow for 3 days straight. of course, I couldn't resist pulling out the camera to capture the feat as well as explore the textures and subtle colors.

rain over the weekend a couple of weeks ago brought out the snails in force. when the ground is wet they can move with some speed. close up of a snail on moving from the patio to the bark.

old bed springs create an interesting contrast to the mountains, rhyolite, death valley

Jackrabbit in the brush and the caretaker’s house in the distance, Rhyolite, Death Valley

old car in rhyolite, death valley

sheds in rhyolite, death valley

dawn over the dunes and the light is golden which causes the dunes to glow with a reddish cast

mines in 20 mule canyon, death valley

lagoon at the oasis hotel in furnace creek, death valley

sunset on the mountains north of rhyolite

dune, death valley, ca 2003

evening light hits the dunes in death valley

signs of life, even fleeting, are everywhere in death valley. even in the dunes.

dawn on the dunes in death valley—we got up at 5 am to get situated for the sunrise

dawn comes overcast and the hills are flat and painterly

view from the top of dante's peak—looking out across the salt river flats in the valley

marble canyon: looking back down the path

rhyolite caboose: sits at the top of the hill

early dawn is blue light on the dunes

panorama spliced together of death valley —looking down on the valley from the mouth of marble canyon

20 mule canyon —raincloud over the valley

another view of the blossoms. unfortunately the squirrels usually get all the nuts.

i've been nominated as a finalist in the photbloggies in two categories: photo essay and pencam blog. Check out the competition and if you like this site, vote for me!

it's spring in california and the almond tree is in bloom.

rose bush thorns seen up close are even scarier than far away.

came out to the garden the other day and noticed that the nasturtiums were collecting really large clusters of dew. so i grabbed the canon with the macro zoom and here is the result - a nice collection of closeups.

fence and sky: shoreline

a small group of geese along the water's edge. i think i unintentionally harassed them a bit.

remnants of pylons in the water

looking east across the water to the east bay hills

walked shoreline today rather than ride. took my camera and spent an hour just "seeing"

after the thanksgiving holiday is over. after the leftovers are all gone. after the throngs of people and all the shopping. what do you do? take pictures. playing with the macro on my camera, I capture these fun, colorful creatures.

last saturday evening, I attended a really terrific performance at works gallery. It was a performance piece by Sara Kraft and Ed Purver - Woods for Trees. They had recently performed this piece at the SF Fringe festival and had been voted best of the festival. The piece is loosely based on Hansel and Gretel but weaves in pointed thoughts about media and story telling. The piece is story, song, video, media. It is haunting, funny, disturbing and beautiful all at the same time. I have attached some shots - they don't begin to capture the piece, but here they are anyway.

For those in the bay area, they will be performing the piece again in January at Venue 9.

Sheila's installation piece: Dick Hungry Whore : is currently up and installed as part of the Gen Art SF's 4th annual exhibition of Technology Based work by Bay Area emerging artists. The overall show is pretty interesting and runs for a month. Go see it! We attended the opening reception on Thursday and I shot some photos of her installation as well as some of the other exhibits.

Went to the baseball game Wednesday night. Hoping to see Barry Bonds hit his 600th homerun. Didn't happen unfortunately. He hit it tonight instead. But the game was a lot of fun anyway - and the Giants won 4-3. A bunch of us from work went. Our seats were along the third baseline. Pretty good view. Took the train home after the game. I really love living so close to San Francisco.

in the rose garden, the roses glow. I go out with the camera and try to capture some of it with the infrared filter. The light is the best of the day, I take the filter off and capture the glowing roses and the light filters through petals and leaves. It is summer and it has been a good day...

In celebration of Sheila's graduation and Memorial day, we held a big backyard party barbecue. Lots of people came, some didn't (we missed you all) and Sheila's band played. The band - Lost Chihuahua, was very good and the guests sang and danced. There was a pinata and pool action. Lots of margaritas - can you say tequila! - beer and sodas consumed. Dad played grill meister and old family friends drove into town to celebrate with us too.

Rode the entire Los Gatos Creek trail today. Started at my house and just rode until I hit the big hill up to the dam and Lexington Resevoir past Los Gatos. Then I turned around and rode home - about 24 miles total. It was gorgeous, not too hot and slightly breezy. As usual there were too many people on the trail so there were times when I could have walked faster than I was cycling. But it was still a great ride.

Spent the rest of the day in the garden - working on the beds around the new patio.

Seymour in the garden enjoying the sun. A favorite place of his is in the front yard. I take advantage of his modelling skills and get to know the macro settings on the macro/zoom lens.

Finally the long awaited pictures from the Sluts and Goddesses party are up. See Sheila and Rose celebrate their birthday's with friends and family, check out the dancing action, find out who the biggest slut is, see the winners of the Best Goddess and Best Slut contest. Relive the magic.

Sheila's pre-thesis show was this past week. We busted butt last weekend helping her get ready. I designed her postcard and posters. The reception was a hit - tons of people coming into the gallery. Well - see for yourself.

Playing a bit with the macro lens on the Canon. Caught up with this butterfly checking out the Mexican Sage. It let me get about 6 inches away before flying off. Haven't been able to catch the hummingbirds yet.

This past weekend was spent back east in Virginia (for my hs reunion). While there I spend most of two days wandering around my old stomping ground of Loudoun County (west of DC) and in Washington DC. It was almost peak for the fall leaves and there were a ton of country festivals as well as the Virginia Gold Cup (steeplechase racing) going on while I was there. I shot the fall leaves and country side so I could have a bit of fall out here in California.

Note: this slideshow crashes Netscape 4x on the Mac

Seymour has taken over my red chair. He sleeps here almost every night rather than on my bed. The seat is down so it is very warm. He definitely makes himself comfortable. He looks cuddly, but beware all those toes with claws.

Sheila (my sister) had an opening this week. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, it was obviously postponed. She ended up opening on Wednesday and I shot the gallery space and her performance.

I am always amazed at her work - a combination of really interesting visual, beautiful lighting and always some sort of sound. There was a blend of music going on in the space. The paintings were 4x4 and created the floor, while the small oranges that were tattooed seemed small and somewhat insignificant next to the rich and luscious paintings. In the center of the space, Sheila was tattooing herself (for real) surrounded by a group of onlookers. The squeamish could watch from outside the gallery, as there were 4 video surveillance cameras set up.

I was very impressed with the "experience" and think in some ways, what she does is more experience design than what I do. Check out her site.

Just got one of my new lenses (thanks to an ebay auction) and have been experimenting with the macros setting. The lens is a 28mm - 80mm with Macro settings at the 80mm setting. I shot all these shots late in the evening - 7:30 to 8:15 and used the built in flash. Some of the blasted out ones seemed pretty interesting as well, so they are here too. Roses provide some really interesting texture and form when photographed closeup.

Last weekend while in Phoenix for the AIGA Summit, I took a tour of Taliesin West. This is the Arizona branch of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture school and winter home. He came to Arizona in the 30's after working on some projects there, and bought up 600 acress. He built the buildings and school with his students and they spent winters there - and summers in Wisconsin at the original Taliesin. The school continues today and the buildings are part of the school as well as an active professional architecture firm. These are some of the images I took and they only show the outside, the cabaret theatre and the larger performance hall. Items of interest include the wall sconce in the cabaret theater and the baby grand piano tucked into a cut out in the concrete wall. We did not go into the living quarters of other buildings - although there is a tour where you can.