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Sunrise over Lake Michigan lights up the trees all red and glowy
Going back into the archives and editing some older photos. I'm giving Nik Software's Silver Efex software a try and thought I'd find a couple water photos to make into B&W's. I liked how the B&W brought out the shape/texture of the water in this. Every year I head to Yosemite in May or a weekend of camping. Usually the weather is perfect: 80 degrees F, clear skies and very pleasant to hike in. Unfortunately in 2010 (and the again in 2011) the cold weather stuck around for extra long. In fact, in 2010 when I took this photo it was SNOWING on us … in May … in California! Although it was freezing out, the hike was actually pretty spectacular. On our way up to Nevada Falls (pictured here) there was TONS of water everywhere -- you'll notice there's all these little "extra" waterfalls that are gushing over the side of the cliff and the river was *movin*. The snow storm also made for some really neat cloud shapes. On the downside, I think my girlfriend froze and now refuses to join me on my trips to Yosemite in May. Oh well. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 20mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 320, Handheld
Whale's Last Touch Gray Whale Cove Half Moon Bay, California While digging through my archives the other day I came upon some of my Gray Whale Cove photos that I hadn't posted. I also noticed I had this photo which I had dismissed but a couple months later, I'm starting to digg. I've really been trying to get away from HDR now that I bought a set of ND Grad Filters but this shot became an HDR due to the fact that I *didn't* have filters during this photo shoot and I was going to miss the sunset in the sky if I didn't exposure blend. I love the movement of the water in this shot, but in my original version of this I thought the rocks had a little bit too much HDR feel. I went back and re-edited this to blend in the normal exposure rocks and make it more life-like. Back in March I went on over to Gray Whale Cove in Half Moon Bay to shoot sunset. The photoshoot almost got cancelled because of the (sad) earthquake in Japan that had happened a couple days prior. The tsunami hit California in the morning of our photoshoot and most of the beaches were closed, but by sunset we were able to hit the coast and catch some big waves. I arrived at Gray Whale Cove and Willie was already setup with his super wide lens for the perfect photo. This is a blend of 2 photos (not an HDR): I took an under-exposed photo to get the sunset, and took a normal photo to get the water motion. During this photo shoot I realized how useful a filter holder and set of graduated filters really was. Willie got some great shots and all I got was a blown out sky! It was this photoshoot that convinced me to go buy my set of soft ND grads. After taking the photos by a set of rock outcroppings at sunset I decided I wanted to try a different spot with water going over the rocks. You couldn't really see much of the colorful sunset, since there wasn't much color in the sky, but I did take a couple photos and came out with this one. I liked the finished product. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 28mm, f/10, 0.6 sec, ISO 200, Tripod
One of my jobs at work is to run the Summer Intern Committee that puts on a program for the 70 or so interns this summer. Amongst the many events that we planned, we decided to take 25 interns to Yosemite for the weekend! We did not have work on Friday and we piled into cars and drove the 3.5 hours over to Yosemite. Once everyone arrived we grabbed lunch in Curry Village and then hiked up Vernal Falls. Due to the massive amount of water and the number of deaths on this trail (including 3 this week!) several of us didn't want to take the Mist Trail back down. Instead we took a trail that lead up for about 0.75 miles, met up with the John Muir trail and then headed back down to the base of the Valley. On the connector trail was this *gorgeous* view-point that I never knew existed! I love how this point has a high vantage -- you can see the entire falls and get a sense of the scale of how much water and how big this waterfall is! Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 20mm, f/11, 1/320 sec, ISO 250, Handheld
Chateau Montelena Picnic Grounds Taken on January 23, 2011 in Calistoga, CA
Every time I drive through Portola Valley at night I get a glimpse of the old Alpine Inn building all lit up with the neon lights but cars are always parked out front. When the bar closes for the night they usually turn off the neon lights. Occasionally they leave the lights on after they close but I never have my camera with me. Finally, on the way home from celebrating a wonderful Boxing Day evening at the Nuttals I had my camera and the lights were left on and I was able to snap this photo!
Close up of the neat wood, granite, moss and brick of Chateau Montelena Chateau Montelena -- the winery that got napa on the map for Chardonnay. We didn't really like their wine, but their Chateau was pretty cool lookin'
The back-side wall of the cool Prager Winery -- here you can see al the dollar bills stuck all over!
The great hall at Castello di Amorosa is a very eleborate room. The great hall features frescoes painted by two Italian artists who took about a year and a half to complete and showcases a 500 year old fireplace. I had to wait several minutes for people to clear out before I could capture this photo. The folks behind me were kind enough to wait for me to get my 5 shots before coming in to explore themselves. The castle interiors, which include 107 rooms on 8 levels above and below ground, cover approximately 121,000 square feet (11,200 m2). Among many other features it has: a moat; a drawbridge; defensive towers; an interior courtyard; a torture chamber; a chapel/church; a knights' chamber; and a 72 by 30 feet (9.1 m) great hall with a 22-foot (6.7 m)-high coffered ceiling. The masonry, ironwork and woodwork was fashioned by hand using old world crafting techniques. Building materials included 8,000 tons of locally quarried stone, in addition to paving stones, terra cotta roofing tiles and some 850,000 bricks imported from Europe. Extending into the hillside adjacent to the castle lies a labyrinth of caves some 900 feet (270 m) in length. Beneath the castle are a 2-acre (8,100 m2) barrel cellar and tasting rooms where visitors can sample the wines-all sold only at the Castle.
Sunrise over Lake Michigan lights up the trees all red and glowy
Sunrise over Lake Michigan lights up the trees all red and glowy
Sunrise over Lake Michigan lights up the trees all red and glowy
See photo in original gallery.
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