Independence Day

Four days ago we celebrated our nation’s birthday.  I took a picture.  Actually, I took a lot of pictures as I was experimenting with the light.  No tripod, no image stabilization, just free hand with a telephoto lens out to 300mm.  I knew I would have movement but that was the point – I approached this similar to my Kinetic Ambiguity Project.  And, of course, there is some post production going on to get the appearance that I want.  I liked this photo quite a bit.  Enjoy.

The Day Before Independence Day Photos

I am at a bit of a loss as to what to say about these photos taken on July 3rd, 2014.  Environmental still life is what I would call this.  But it does not need a name.

Clearly, you can see that there was a bit of post-production work going on.  This is my preferred rendering of the photographs that I create.  Enjoy.

National Orange Show’s Wine and Food Under the Stars, 2011

“Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.”

-- Aristophanes

Another project from that documentary class was doing some coverage for the 24^th Annual Wine and Food Under the Stars fundraiser event at the National Orange Show grounds in San Bernardino.  Of course, this was back in Oct 2011 when I was in that class so these photographs are a bit dated but I’m catching up.  And I liked these.  I liked a lot more of the 200 or so photos I took but this is a good sample of the better ones.  And if you ever go to this event, it is a lot of fun and the food is great.  Not to mention the wine (and beer).  Enjoy.

National Orange Show Quarter Midget Racing

“The best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a few minutes of their time each day.”

-- M. Grundler

Here is a sample another sample of my work done in my documentary photography class.  We had to document this event at the National Orange Show grounds in San Bernardino.  This event was Quarter Midget Racing.  That’s kids racing in cars around a track – like little league for NASCAR.  This was awesome (I even thought about doing it with my kids).  I shot it with my handy Canon PowerShot S5 IS and my Ricoh KR-5 superII 35mm film cameras.  This time the film was loaded correctly (see previous post for explanation).  I’m only showing the digital shots here though as I have yet to scan my film.  These kids were great.  Enjoy.

Disability Sports Festival, CSUSB

In the spring of 2011, I began attending California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB).  I had a major and a minor which was studio art, concentration photography.  By the fall quarter of 2011, I had just a major – studio art, photography.  And I was in my first photography class at CSUSB.  It was documentary photography.  And like the first time I took a photography class (way back in Texas in 2009), I quickly learned how much I didn’t know all over again.  The disability sports festival is an annual event at CSUSB and it was our class’ first assignment.  I took hundreds of frames and the majority were done in the classic documentary style.  But these are among my favorites and they are far more artistic than documentary.  And it was the first time I was experimenting with “the movement blur” (or too slow of a shutter speed for what you’re trying to photograph) as a style.  Enjoy.

This shot is my favorite among the bunch.  It’s so crazily dramatic.

Presidio of San Diego

Hello folks.  It’s San Diego!  Well, it’s the old Presidio of San Diego, actually.  I stumbled on it kind of by accident when we had our last family reunion/vacation kind of thing the summer before last.  I just thought the place was cool looking so I did a few shots of it.  After seeing the place, I wanted to do a photo shoot (and did do a photo shoot) there with a model.  But these are just a few shots the first time I saw the place.  And I always do a little Photoshop: light levels, contrast, lens correction, watermark, etc.  Enjoy.

Joshua Tree and Sky

Hey, Happy New Year!!  So, when should we stop wishing people “Happy New Year”?  Never.  I read somewhere that you should start each day with expectation.  So, let’s wish everyone a happy new year all of the time.  My expectation is that I photograph wonderful things all of the time.  This is one.  I took this photograph of a Joshua tree way back on Sep 2011 not far from my kids’ bus stop.  You’d never know that I was in the middle of Victorville.  Well, if you live here you might.  Just the same – it’s cool, huh?

Poohstock 2011, The Day After

Wow, I am having an insane time of keeping this blog up (among other things).  I think there is an interal conflict going on between what I want to show and what I am showing.  But you’re not Dr. Phil so let me finish up this 2011 Poohstock trip.  Because I can’t help myself, table shots of the morning after.  Enjoy.

Poohstock 2011, My Cousin’s Yard, Part 3

This is just a continuation from part 1 and 2 so I’ll spare you the chatter again.  I “chatted” a lot in part 1.  These shots are vehicles again but shot with my SLR.  Enjoy.

Poohstock 2011, My Cousin’s Yard, Part 2

This is just a continuation from part 1 so I’ll spare you the chatter.  If you’re interested in the chatter, check out part 1.  Oh, these are some of the flowers I found in my cousins yard.  Enjoy.

Poohstock 2011, My Cousin’s Yard, Part 1

Poohstock.  I had to miss it this year and will have to miss it next year only because I will be in Hawaii.  But these photos are cool from last year.  This group was shot with my Powershot.  This was taken in my cousin Shawn’s yard.  He’s a contractor.  This was before anything got started save for setting up.  I was just roaming and taking pictures.  What I did with the post production was play around with shadows and highlights then put a cross processed effect layer over that.  It was done in Photoshop.

Oregon, wow – what a place.  There were so many trees I just knew a pack of werewolves and were-bears were going to jump out of the vegetation and have us for dinner.  Again, this was the summer of 2011 in Grants Pass, Oregon.  It was a lot of fun.  Enjoy.