Gardens & Art
The week of July 4th we stayed in LA. As we always seem to do when we're down there, we visited a beautiful garden and saw some amazing art & architecture. I think something about them just calls to our cameras and we can't stay away. This time it was the LA Arboretum and the Getty Villa.
I had not been to the Arboretum in years... probably since High School. Mae was fascinated by the peacocks & geese. They weren't shy either, a peacock got about 18 inches from my face and gave me a look like "who are you?".
Check out that super lens!! I'll be dreaming about getting one myself for a *long* time. My cheap little Tamron telephoto did ok at capturing a dragonfly.
The Getty Villa in Malibu is someplace I want to go back to when I have a chance to actually stand still for a bit. Laura is finally old enough to "do" museums but Mae has gotten to the age where she won't sit still in a carrier or stroller that long. I made the best of it and got a few pictures of the Villa and a few of the girls.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
3rd Place
I almost forgot... I won 3rd place at the county fair for my lotus picture. Yay!! I also got an honorable mention for my LA skyline at night image. Here they are:
A day in San Francisco
Heat wave... well at least it was the weekend of the summer solstice. Autumn had a dance performance at Pier 39 in San Francisco and we thought we were going to get lucky and escape the heat. I guess that was somewhat true since it was 105 degrees at home and only 95 degrees in San Francisco that day. The idea of 95 degrees in San Francisco still makes me shake my head.
It was an beautiful day in SF. I think everyone in the city was out enjoying it too. I know we did.
The dance performance was great too. Autumn tried to avoid the camera all day but once she started dancing, I got her. She had to look my way and be smiling! Sneaky me!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Smoke-filled sunsets
The wildfires this summer were not near us but they did send us lots of smoke and ash. They also gave us some stunning sunsets. I spent a couple evenings at the Baywood Pier trying to capture the amazing colors.
June 10th:
June 11th:
Saturday, August 02, 2008
She sells sea shells...
Has it really been since June 9th that I posted. Oops! I guess summer has been moving faster than I thought. I am going to try to play catch-up in August. The pictures may come out of order, but who can tell besides me anyway?
Here are some seashore images from June.
And last, my three girls at the beach (yes, in sweaters... love that CA June gloom):
Monday, June 09, 2008
Auto salvage yard
Visiting the auto salvage yard was not what I expected. I knew there would be really interesting photo opportunities, and there were, but at the same time, I did not want to stay too long either. I've been to salvage yards before and I never remember it bothering me. Maybe it was because the man running it told me he wanted to look over all my images before I left. I didn't ask why but he told me that some of the cars were involved in fatal accidents and they didn't want any images that might upset family/friends of those people to get out there. I know that made me a bit wary to peer too close into any of the cars with deployed airbags, collapsed roofs, and really smashed in fronts. Maybe it was that so many of the cars looked newer than my own two cars (and ours are not that old). Maybe it was knowing that every one of those cars, now slowly being stripped and decaying, was once something so exciting so someone, somewhere.
Despite the weird vibe I had the whole time I was there, I did get some pictures I like.
I really liked finding the handful of truly old cars. I found a couple of 1960s Thunderbirds at the very back of the yard.
I was amazed to find the chrome headlight of this old car still so shiny after 30+ years.
Then there were car parts you do not usually get to see on a working car.
I only spent a little over an hour at the yard. I hope to find another one with more 1970s and earlier cars.
Friday, June 06, 2008
The beauty of rust
I drive by the auto salvage yard several times a week and last week the idea came to me that it would be such a great photo opportunity. I love old and rusted things as photographic subjects. I finally got my chance to go to the salvage yard this week.
The only picture I really had in mind that I wanted to get when I walked in to the yard was a close up of something rusted. I think rust patterns are so interesting. At first, I was worried I might not actually find what I was looking for. The cars near the entrance were almost all newer than the two we own (which was a weird thought because our cars are not that old). A little deeper in to the yard and I found it.
Here are a few shots:
What could be better than rust? How about rust plus fire damage.
I thought it was ironic that one of the most beautiful rust patterns I found was on one of the handful of operational vehicles in the yard. This is from the back of the yard's fork lift.
See them all plus the rest of the images from the yard (as soon as I upload them) here.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The Huntington Library
While visiting LA recently, we decided to spend the day at The Huntington Library... well actually the Botanical Gardens. The Art Gallery was closed and it was too nice a day to spend inside. Plus we had 3 small children with us, which is no fun for being in anything called a Library.
I have always loved the Japanese Garden at The Huntington. I think it is the bridge that always catches my attention.
I have always wished I would have a garden that looked like this. I just need that $10 million invention to give me enough money to do it.
This time I took some pictures of some lotus flowers in a pond. I have looked at them many times but never really tried to capture them. I am glad I did because I got my favorite shot of the day there.
After the lotus we went to the cactus garden. I had never spent much time in this part of the garden before and again we caught it at the end of our day and had to rush through. It is too bad because there were so many amazing views.
Next time we'll have to start with the cactus garden and make it to the new Chinese garden as well.
Friday, May 30, 2008
L.A. on a Sunday night
The theme for this year's fair is "County Days & City Nights". The girls and I plan to enter photos in the fair again this year. They do not require them to be in the theme, but there are additional awards for entries that are in the theme. The "country days" half I have plenty of pictures of... but "city nights" are pretty sleepy around here. It is a joke around here that downtown shuts down at 9pm, but it is 99% true. So, while in Los Angeles recently, I took the opportunity to borrow my dad's tripod and do some long-exposure night images.
I knew I wanted a picture of downtown. I also wanted an iconic piece of architecture. The best place to do both of those at the same time is Griffith Observatory. We got there, found a great view, got the tripod and camera ll ready, and were told by a security guard that we cannot have a tripod. We can use it as a monopod. Hmm... ok... it is not exactly stable that way so I leaned it against a low wall and crossed my fingers.
I was so amazed it actually came out clear with this 25 second exposure. We moved away from the main observatory and were able to use the tripod again.
On the way home, we stopped to try getting a shot of one of the freeways. The trick was working around the chain-link fence on every freeway overpass. I managed to get the camera close enough you can't see the fence but I was not able to get rid of the light artifacts.
I really need to get a tripod... I had too much fun taking these pictures.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
SLO Creek
One of my favorite places to take pictures is the creek in downtown SLO. It just makes for incredible backgrounds.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Pt. Buchon Trail
One of my favorite local places is Montana De Oro State Park. It seems like we've been there so many times yet we've only scratched the surface of everything there is to see. Most of these places I do not even know exist. There was one trail that we were aware of and have always wanted to explore. It has been closed since before I moved to the area. It is finally open again and we were excited to spend a beautiful Sunday taking a walk.
After passing the guard station (the land is controlled by PG&E and is right next to a nuclear power plant), the first view is amazing.
Next we came to a great cove beach complete with cool sea caves.
The most amazing thing was the wildflowers.
Notice those funny white poles in the ground. They hold up the electric fence... yikes!! There are so many more flowers here than along the bluff trail just north in the state park. I wonder if the electric fence keeps animals (especially two-legged ones) from trampling them. Whatever the reason, I was in flower-photography heaven.
The only downside to the walk was the length. The whole loop is 5 miles and after 3 the girls were ready to stop, by 4 miles we were nearly dragging them back. Ah well, it was worth it.
