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Through a friend at work I got hooked up with another friend at work who's really into photography. I thought I was into photography but Willie is *really* into it, and I might be a little jealous. He's the guy who figures out the best light, the best time of day, the best day, and does all the calculations to figure out where to be and when. I went to Yosemite with him last month to shoot Horsetail Falls and I was able to make it over to Half Moon Bay with him to shoot sunset at Gray Whale Cove on Friday. The photoshoot almost got cancelled because of the (sad) earthquake in Japan. The tsunami hit California in the morning 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. His shot (see Flickr) came out great, but mine, with my less wide lens, is what it is. I'm not too happy with it and I had to do some fancy post-processing to get this to work but the final product isn't too bad. 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. Willie really taught me how useful it is to have a good set of filters (graduated filters) with a filter holder. Time to go spend some of that good hard earned cash (hey, maybe I'll win the lottery and buy some gear and donate the rest to charity?). I liked this photo because the moving water shows some movement through the photo that draws your eye through this.
Bee in Flower Taken on January 15, 2011 in Menlo Park, CA
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
Through a friend at work I got hooked up with another friend at work who's really into photography. I thought I was into photography but Willie is *really* into it, and I might be a little jealous. He's the guy who figures out the best light, the best time of day, the best day, and does all the calculations to figure out where to be and when. I went to Yosemite with him last month to shoot Horsetail Falls and I was able to make it over to Half Moon Bay with him to shoot sunset at Gray Whale Cove on Friday. The photoshoot almost got cancelled because of the (sad) earthquake in Japan. The tsunami hit California in the morning 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. His shot (see Flickr) came out great, but mine, with my less wide lens, is what it is. I'm not too happy with it and I had to do some fancy post-processing to get this to work but the final product isn't too bad. 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. Willie really taught me how useful it is to have a good set of filters (graduated filters) with a filter holder. Time to go spend some of that good hard earned cash (hey, maybe I'll win the lottery and buy some gear and donate the rest to charity?). After taking the photos by the rock 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 turned this HDR (I hate doing HDR's these days but this photo needed it … to get the sky and the movement in the water). I liked the finished product. This one is kinda boring since you can't see the sunset at all, but i liked the movement in the water. See the next photo for the zoomed in water movement/water-falls.
My friend that I've been shooting a lot with lately had taken some pictures of sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge in which he "Threaded the Needle" -- using the right angle from the Golden Gate Bridge you can position the Transamerica building to be right in the center of one of the towers! There's room for 2 photographers at once. It was pretty windy so I had to bump my ISO up to get the shot, although this one was taken when the wind had stopped and I was able to get a little longer shutter. I want to come back here during Christmas time, when the Transamerica building has a light on the top (a star light) and when it's sunset and not the-sun-is-already-down.
Night's Tail Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, via Moonlight Yosemite National Park, CA Many photographers know about Horsetail Falls in Yosemite and that every February it lights up into a "Fire Falls." In fact, I photographed this exact event in February of this year and it was spectacular. Many photographers, however, do not know that the same phenomenon occurs via moonlight on some rare occasions! On Saturday, April 16th 2011 I woke up at 3am and headed over to the Picnic Grounds at Yosemite National Park. When I arrived the moon was really lighting up the falls but the angle wasn't quite right to turn the falls red. After a couple minutes of setting up and figuring out my camera settings all of a sudden the photos started turning orange! It lasted for about 10 minutes before the falls were completely dark. Note that to the human eye the falls appeared white but to the camera it appeared red! The human eye has 2 photo-receptors: rods and cones. Cones are really good at detail and color but require a lot of light. They don't work so well in low light (night). Rods on the other hand, are really good at low light but they can't detect color. So at night, in this scene, our eye only saw the brightness of the falls but the camera sensor saw the beautiful color! There is NO saturation change to this. The only thing I did after taking this photo was a small white balance adjustment, some sharpening, and some noise reduction! I'd also like to note the difficulties in taking this photo. It was nearly pitch black and the camera cannot focus at all. Additionally, using LiveMode, as I did during the sunset Fire Falls, doesn't work either since the LiveMode displayed a completely black view. I had to set the camera to focus at infinity, took a photo, and then tweaked the focus. I continued this until I got a shot that was in focus. Additionally, since there's so little light I had to bump the ISO wayyyyyy up. Additionally, I had to turn "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" off or I would have missed out on taking photos of the event. I did the noise reduction later on in Photoshop. Lastly, I had to keep the shutter short just to try to keep the star trails to a minimum. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR: 112mm, f/4.8, 30 sec, ISO 2000, Tripod
Orangy Goodness Rodeo Beach Marin Headlands, California Last week my buddy and I grabbed our cameras, left work a bit early, and drove up to the Marin Headlands to take photos at Rodeo Beach. We knew these rock pillars were here and had seen some great photos of it and wanted to make our go. I've posted a couple other photos from this photoshoot but several of my friends really liked this photo so I had to throw this one up too! As soon as I threw on the my circular polarizer and the Graduated Filters the sky LIT UP! It was like an explosion of color! These photos are NOT HDR and have had very little saturation edits (in fact, I had to lower the saturation a bit so that you wouldn't think it was fake)! The clouds kept the sun hidden so I didn't have any clipping from a bright sun. The soft graduated filters worked great -- gave me some great color in the sky and let me slow the shutter for some neat wave movements. I'm quite pleased with how these came out! I've found that the motion of the outgoing wave makes for much nicer photos. I found a nice spot along the beach that wasn't getting too wet and used the rocks to create a line through the photo. I then used the fleeting water to create another line, away from it … trying to draw your eye in and to the right, then back and to the left. The awesome reflection of the sunset off the sand/water made this photo even nicer. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/8, 8 sec, ISO 125, Tripod B+W F-Pro Circular Polarizer + Hitech 0.9 soft Reverse ND grad filter, Hitech 0.6 soft ND grad filter, and Lee FK Filter holder NO HDR. Decreased saturation in some areas (sky), added sharpening and some dodge/burning.
Last week my Lee Filter Holder and HiTek Graduated ND Filters arrived. I grabbed em from the Post Office and went down to Davenport, CA to take photos at Hole-in-the-Wall Beach. Unfortunately the sky didn't light up at all and it was disappointing (not to mention I almost died/drowned on my way in from the beach…. that's a whole 'nother story). The weather forecast for Wed, April 6th predicted that clouds would be rolling in towards the afternoon. My buddy and I grabbed our cameras, left work a bit early, and drove up to the Marin Headlands to take photos at Rodeo Beach. We knew these rock pillars were here and had seen some great photos of it and wanted to make our go. I must say, after my experience at Hole-in-the-Wall Beach I was a little scared when I noticed the tide was REALLY high and almost blocked us in again. Fortunately the tied never became difficult and we got in, did our shoot, and got home safely. Unlike last week, Mother Nature did not disappoint! As soon as I threw on the my circular polarizer and the Graduated Filters the sky LIT UP! It was like an explosion of color! These photos are NOT HDR and have had very little saturation edits (in fact, I had to lower the saturation a bit so that you wouldn't think it was fake)! The clouds kept the sun hidden so I didn't have any clipping from a bright sun. It also stayed behind the big rock monolith that you see in the center. The soft graduated filters worked great -- gave me some great color in the sky and let me slow the shutter for some neat wave movements. I'm quite pleased with how these came out! When we first got to the beach I wanted to slow my shutter down more than the camera was letting me so I threw on my circular polarizer. Near the end of the sunset the polarizer was starting to make things *too* dark and the exposure times were getting pretty long. I decided to make one really long exposure so that I could gave a fog like look to the water. I knew I had to keep the photo simple so I zoomed into the rocks and let them frame the photo with the gorgeous sunset. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 30mm, f/22, 30 sec, ISO 200, Tripod B+W F-Pro Circular Polarizer + Hitech 0.9 soft Reverse ND grad filter, Hitech 0.6 soft ND grad filter, and Lee FK Filter holder
Purple Ecstasy Rodeo Beach Marin Headlands, California Last week my Lee Filter Holder and HiTek Graduated ND Filters arrived. I grabbed em from the Post Office and went down to Davenport, CA to take photos at Hole-in-the-Wall Beach. Unfortunately the sky didn't light up at all and it was disappointing (not to mention I almost died/drowned on my way in from the beach…. that's a whole 'nother story). The weather forecast for Wed, April 6th predicted that clouds would be rolling in towards the afternoon. My buddy and I grabbed our cameras, left work a bit early, and drove up to the Marin Headlands to take photos at Rodeo Beach. We knew these rock pillars were here and had seen some great photos of it and wanted to make our go. I must say, after my experience at Hole-in-the-Wall Beach I was a little scared when I noticed the tide was REALLY high and almost blocked us in again. Fortunately the tied never became difficult and we got in, did our shoot, and got home safely. Unlike last week, Mother Nature did not disappoint! As soon as I threw on the my circular polarizer and the Graduated Filters the sky LIT UP! It was like an explosion of color! These photos are NOT HDR and have had very little saturation edits (in fact, I had to lower the saturation a bit so that you wouldn't think it was fake)! The clouds kept the sun hidden so I didn't have any clipping from a bright sun. It also stayed behind the big rock monolith that you see in the center. The soft graduated filters worked great -- gave me some great color in the sky and let me slow the shutter for some neat wave movements. I'm quite pleased with how these came out! For this photo I had to creep around some rocks and get pretty low to the beach. I liked how the rocks made a V shape with the big rock monolith in the center. I also liked the moss on the big rock in the foreground and thought it might add even more color to the photo. Just as I was ready to take this photo a big wave came in and nearly got me wet! I was able to get this shot as the wave departed! Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/8, 8 sec, ISO 125, Tripod B+W F-Pro Circular Polarizer + Hitech 0.9 soft Reverse ND grad filter, Hitech 0.6 soft ND grad filter, and Lee FK Filter holder
Through a friend at work I got hooked up with another friend at work who's really into photography. I thought I was into photography but Willie is *really* into it, and I might be a little jealous. He's the guy who figures out the best light, the best time of day, the best day, and does all the calculations to figure out where to be and when. I went to Yosemite with him last month to shoot Horsetail Falls and I was able to make it over to Half Moon Bay with him to shoot sunset at Gray Whale Cove on Friday. The photoshoot almost got cancelled because of the (sad) earthquake in Japan. The tsunami hit California in the morning 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. His shot (see Flickr) came out great, but mine, with my less wide lens, is what it is. I'm not too happy with it and I had to do some fancy post-processing to get this to work but the final product isn't too bad. 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. Willie really taught me how useful it is to have a good set of filters (graduated filters) with a filter holder. Time to go spend some of that good hard earned cash (hey, maybe I'll win the lottery and buy some gear and donate the rest to charity?).

I liked this photo because the moving water shows some movement through the photo that draws your eye through this.
Through a friend at work I got hooked up with another friend at work who's really into photography. I thought I was into photography but Willie is *really* into it, and I might be a little jealous. He's the guy who figures out the best light, the best time of day, the best day, and does all the calculations to figure out where to be and when. I went to Yosemite with him last month to shoot Horsetail Falls and I was able to make it over to Half Moon Bay with him to shoot sunset at Gray Whale Cove on Friday. The photoshoot almost got cancelled because of the (sad) earthquake in Japan. The tsunami hit California in the morning 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. His shot (see Flickr) came out great, but mine, with my less wide lens, is what it is. I'm not too happy with it and I had to do some fancy post-processing to get this to work but the final product isn't too bad. 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. Willie really taught me how useful it is to have a good set of filters (graduated filters) with a filter holder. Time to go spend some of that good hard earned cash (hey, maybe I'll win the lottery and buy some gear and donate the rest to charity?). I liked this photo because the moving water shows some movement through the photo that draws your eye through this.
Through a friend at work I got hooked up with another friend at work who's really into photography. I thought I was into photography but Willie is *really* into it, and I might be a little jealous. He's the guy who figures out the best light, the best time of day, the best day, and does all the calculations to figure out where to be and when. I went to Yosemite with him last month to shoot Horsetail Falls and I was able to make it over to Half Moon Bay with him to shoot sunset at Gray Whale Cove on Friday. The photoshoot almost got cancelled because of the (sad) earthquake in Japan. The tsunami hit California in the morning 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. His shot (see Flickr) came out great, but mine, with my less wide lens, is what it is. I'm not too happy with it and I had to do some fancy post-processing to get this to work but the final product isn't too bad. 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. Willie really taught me how useful it is to have a good set of filters (graduated filters) with a filter holder. Time to go spend some of that good hard earned cash (hey, maybe I'll win the lottery and buy some gear and donate the rest to charity?).

I liked this photo because the moving water shows some movement through the photo that draws your eye through this.
See photo in original gallery.
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