Settling In

I shot this out in Shell Beach a few days before the move. I was trying to get in as much beach time as possible before I found myself stuck in the city again. I actually got too much sun at the beach on friday and ended up with a nice sunburn on my back. Just what you want when you’re going to be moving the next day.

So far, the hardest part about being in Santa Clara is the painfully slow internet at my grandma’s house. It definitely has to be upgraded if I’m going to keep my sanity. The second hardest part is living with someone who is losing their memory. She keeps telling people I’m only here for a few days (I’m not) and each morning she gets startled when I join her in the kitchen because she forgets I’m here.

Another thing I’m not loving is all of the people and the pace of life. I’m definitely a small town guy that appreciates nature and open spaces after 9 years of living in small towns. I’m having a bit of culture shock again, just like I did when I first left the city. Fun stuff…

Bye Bye Beach

Last night I went for a nice walk on the beach with a new friend. She wanted to hang out because it looks like I’ll be moving next week. I thought a walk on the beach would be nice because I won’t be able to visit as often as I do now.

I was asked to move in with my grandma in the bay area because her health is declining. I never wanted to move back there, but never say never, I guess. She has dementia or possibly Alzheimer’s. Nobody wants to give a diagnosis for some reason. The doctor did say she shouldn’t be living alone, so I’m going to suck it up so she can still live at home.

I don’t know how this will affect my photography. It’s probably going to be harder to find the landscapes I love. In the meantime, I’ll be doing some real estate photography for work, as well as the usual portraiture, weddings, and anything you can think of. If you know anyone around the Santa Clara/San Jose area that needs photos, spread the word that I’m available

Shot with TrueHDR. Edited wtih Snapseed.

Secret Arch

In a funny coincidence, I have a photo featured on photobotos today. The one featured was actually shot up on top of the rock in this photo here.

This cave/arch thing is just a short drive from where I live. I didn’t even know about it until I saw another photographer post a photo of it recently. All I had to do was walk down a mountain of stairs to get to it. Maybe thats why I didn’t find it sooner.

The great thing about this beach is its at a hotel, so the crowds don’t know about it. I had the beach to myself most of the time until a couple came down to watch the sunset. I’m happy to have found another secret beach that the tourists don’t know about

This time out, I was mostly just scouting the location and observing the light at sunset. I don’t think the sun will ever rise or set through the arch, which is too bad. I’m still trying to figure out what time of day will give me the best lighting. I guess I’ll just have to do sunrise, sunset, and stormy. My guess is storm clouds will make the best scene.

Shot with ProHDR because TrueHDR was making the sky grey. Edited with Snapseed.

Rise and Shoot

This was shot the same morning of my recent sunrise photo that I posted from my Nikon. I can’t quite figure out what that little cloud is. Maybe a hornet? I though it made the scene a little more interesting, along with the colors.

I hope you’re enjoying this photo from the comfort of your desk as you sip your coffee today. Good morning!

Pismo Sunrise & Nik Announcement

This is a sunrise I shot last week with my Nikon. It seemed uneventful and I wasn’t too excited about the location. The beach gets old when you live by it! Luckily, the colors turned out really nice and brought the photo to life.

When editing my Nikon shots in Photoshop, I like to use Nik Software’s plugins (along with other plugins.) The reason I bring this up today is it was just announced that the entire collection has dropped in price from $499 to $149. That seems like a steal and probably wouldn’t have happened had Google not bought Nik. There’s a free trial if you don’t already have the collection.

If you’re worried that these plugins might be too complicated, there are lots of training videos on their website to help you out.

Tangled Clouds

The clouds were pretty interesting the other evening. Just for a few moments, the light and the colors of the scene were awesome. I was lucky enough to be there to witness it. Stupid me didn’t wait around for the sunset though. I drove to another part of the coast, chasing a cloud that I was hoping would make for a great shot at sunset. Unfortunately, it evaporated before the sun went down and I was left in the middle of agriculture fields with nothing too exciting going on.

This was shot with TrueHDR. Edited with Snapseed, Tangled FX, and ImageBlender. I liked the Tangled FX version, but wanted to dial it back a bit by using ImageBlender to reduce the opacity of the effect to about 70% just to bring back a hint of realism.

Shannon Shooting at Sunset

Since this one was well received on 500px, I thought I would share it with you all here. I’m sure the popularity has nothing to do with adding a girl to a landscape, or in this case a seascape. I will admit that its an idea I’ve had for a while now, girls and landscapes, but just hasn’t materialized yet. Models tend to be flaky, you know.

Lucky for me, I had Shannon (Seeing Spots Photography) with me out at Sand Dollar Beach near Big Sur, so I was able to snap a few shots of her during the beautiful sunset.

If you’re on 500px, please add me and I’ll be happy to do the same . My page is here. If you’re not familiar with 500px, its the photo sharing site photographers use when they’ve evolved beyond Flickr. I don’t mean that in a bad way, or an I’m better than Flickr way. Flickr is great for what it is, which is more for hobbyists and people just beginning to explore photography. 500px is a more experienced community inhabited by a stunning amount of talented photographers. Go check it out and see for yourself.

Shot with my Nikon D7000. Edited with magic dust

All Smiles

Our campsite at Limekiln was maybe 250 feet from the ocean. The night we checked in, we had hoped to do some night photography on the little beach there. That idea was quickly squashed by a group of drunks with flashlights that wanted to know what we were doing. Drunks + Flashlights + Long Exposures = Ruined photos. Now that I think about it, we were probably the only sober people in the camp. If you ever go to Big Sur, be prepared to cross paths with foreigners and weirdos.

The next morning, I think we all spent a little alone time on this peaceful beach. My friend pointed out that there was a face in the rocks so I had to go back to camp and grab my gear for a few photos. When some large waves crashed against the rocks, the ocean spray looked like smoke being blown out of the mouth. It was pretty cool, but it only happened a few times before I got my camera.

From this spot, the stream is flowing into the ocean from the bottom left corner. There were lots of cool rocks of various colors. They probably don’t show up too well in this iphone shot, however.

Shot with camera+ and a simple edit with Snapseed. There wasn’t much to do with this one.

Shell Beach Sunset

After a long day of editing wedding photos and finishing up a 5th day of Sal Cincotta’s wedding photography business workshop on creative live, I was ready for some fun. I looked out the window and saw a bunch of cool clouds that were part of a passing storm. I knew this was going to be a good sunset, so I ran out the door with my camera and headed to the beach.

Btw, Sal’s workshop was amazing. I highly recommend it for wedding photographers, or anyone that wants their photography business to be more profitable.

Worth the Trouble?

I haven’t been shooting much lately because of my health. Being even slightly active causes more pain than its worth. Yesterday, I went for a really mellow stroll along the beach for 10-15 minutes. By the time I got home, it felt like something inside of me was swelling up and causing quite a bit of discomfort.

I’m thinking I’ll have to finally get to the doctor today, so I can figure out whats wrong, and fix it so I can shoot again.

The Oregon Coast

We made it out to the coast yesterday. Its a lot farther than the 10 minute drive I’ve been use to the past 8 years. It was foggy and cool without being too cold. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take low 60s over low 90s any day.

I like all of the large rocks on the coast here. It makes for more interesting images.

Shot with ProHDR, edited with Snapseed and ShockMyPic.

Hearst Pier

This is the pier at WR Hearst Memorial State Beach. I think its pretty photogenic as far as piers go. There were 2 other photographers out there with their tripods shooting it from the other side.

I sold another iPhone print today at a garage sale. Its always funny seeing people’s reactions when I tell them its from my phone. She also took my card for her daughter who is an event planner. That would be great if I wasn’t moving.

I finally found time to sit down and create some new stuff with LensLight while manning the garage sale today, so I’m going to work on that review now. Keep an eye out for it either today or tomorrow.
Shot with ProHDR and edited with PhotoToaster.

McWay Falls

I haven’t had this problem in a while, I have too many good pictures to share. I took something like 700 pictures between the Nikon and iPhone yesterday. I left the house at 10am and got home at 11:30pm. I saw quite a few things and have a few stories to share from the road, starting with….I hit a bird. It was flying with another bird who dodged my windshield a couple seconds before. He must not have been paying attention because he didn’t try to pull up until it was too late. That makes 2 birds I’ve hit mid flight now.

I was thinking of building up to this picture of McWay Falls because its one of my favorites, but I’ll lead off with it. I’ve never been a fan of dumping all of your images at once. I know you can tell a story and let your viewer come along with you on your journey, but I’d rather have you enjoy the pictures one at a time.

This was probably one of the best sunset shoots I’ve had. The light was changing colors quickly just before the sun went down. Even if I didn’t catch the purple or gold hues with my cameras, I still got to see it in person.

Shot with ProHDR and edited with Snapseed. I suggest clicking to see it larger.

Montaña de Oro

Yeterday I went out to Montaña de Oro state park in Los Osos, CA to catch the sunset. I ended up getting there long before the sunrise because I had to drop my dad off to pick up his car. Having all that extra time allowed me to walk along the bluffs and pick out my perfect spot.

I set up the tripod on the edge of a cliff and sat there for over 2 hours waiting for the perfect light, hoping there wouldn’t be an earthquake. Mostly because I didn’t want to see my gear go over the edge…who cares if I did haha. As I waited, I tried to shoot with my iphone a number of times, and the camera just couldn’t handle the wide dynamic range of the scene no matter what I did. It wasn’t until the sun was about to disappear that I got something useable.

One thing I noticed while sitting in the same spot for a couple of hours was I became much more aware of my surroundings. I was picking up on little details that I hadn’t noticed at first. It certainly helped that the cell phone service was very spotty. That forced me to be present instead of messing around online.

Deception

This was tonight’s sunset and although it may look warm, my hands are frozen. I didn’t even wait for them to defrost before I edited this shot in snapseed because I liked it that much. I hope you all enjoy this while I put my heater on full blast and drive back to my warm bed.