I Am Officially Published

I am published in the book America's Greatest Pumpkin Patches by Randy Schmitz my image is on the back cover. The image is in my post at the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm 2012. Like Randy one of my favorite times of the year is Halloween I love the cool weather, fall colors and watching my children trick or treat.You can purchase America's Greatest Pumpkin Patches from Amazon.com.

Concord High Carnival

A few weeks back a Concord High School had a carnival. I went with my son and wife with the intention of doing some photography, but my camera was on strike because I had ignored it for so long (both batteries were dead). So I went the next night which was the last night in the third image you can see a ladder being used to take down the lighted sign that says Rising Waters. In fact while I shot the series for the HDR image they had taken the sign almost all the way down. I was lucky to have most of the images shot by that time. On the booth that the fourth image is of (Fun and Games) there was a sign on top that I had intended to shoot but it was already down when I arrived so I changed my plan and shot the counter with the games going on. I arrived late with the intention of playing low light and light trails. The last two images are from the same series of shots with a different ghost image chosen. This is the first post I have used Photomatix I have been experimenting with it for quite some time and finally purchased the program. You can use it for free, but it water marks the images until you buy the program. I have been unhappy HDR Efex Pro  I explain the problem in post 37 Nash LaFayette. So far I have been happy with Photomatix I do not think I will completely quit using HDR Efex Pro but will choose depending on the image I am processing. What I like about Photomatix is that it allows you to circle parts of the image and use different images for the ghost image. For example lets say I was shooting a series of images like in this post and there were two rides and I wanted them both to be moving like the last three images in this post and the rides never were running at the same time I have control over that in Photomatix. In HDR Efex Pro I have to settle for one image or process the image twice and use layers and layer masks in Photoshop to achieve the same result.

Main Street Disneyland At Night

I like the store fronts on Main Street in Disneyland and how different they look at night with the interior lights coming from the inside out to the sidewalk. Also being able to see the exterior lights that are supposed to get your attention to make you want to go inside. One of my favorite things is the Coca Cola light that is hanging at the entrance of the refreshment stand in the first image. These were all taken around midnight just as the park was closing.

Enchanted Tiki Room Disneyland

Enchanted Tiki Room opened June 23, 1963 and was the first to feature Audio-Animatronics. The show was originally going to be a restaurant featuring Audio-animatronic birds serenading guests as they dined. Since computers have played a central role in the attraction since its inception, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room was also Disneyland's first fully air-conditioned building. Since ownership of the attraction was separate from the rest of the park originally there was a nominal admission charge of $0.75.

The presentation features a "cast" of over 150 talking, singing and dancing birds, flowers, a magic fountain, tiki drummers and tiki totem poles that perform the attraction's signature tunes, "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room" by the Sherman Brothers and "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing". The finale has every Audio-Animatronics figure performing a rousing version of "Hawaiian War Chant". The choice of exit music is somewhat unusual, namely an arrangement of "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with lyrics thanking guests for watching the show and hurrying them to the exit.

Disney's Haunted Mansion

I planned on posting this in December but time got away from me. During Halloween and Christmas the Haunted Mansion is decorated with the characters from Nightmare Before Christmas. They call it the Haunted Mansion Holiday. I like shooting at night for the different light sources (sodium vapor, incandescent, florescent and in this case the blue and purple laser) and shadows cast from them. I wanted a clean shot (no people passing through or standing in line) I shot quite a few shots before I gave up and sat down and just waited. Once the crowd had died down I was able to re-position my tripod without worrying about creating a trip hazard and got a better composition. I had security guard's slowly following me out of the park but I made friends with two of them and they actually blocked the traffic for me.

   

Photo Supply Co. Disneyland

This is the photo store in Disneyland while shooting the bracketed series I noticed the employees mugging for the camera. I was shooting a wide angle of the building and was hoping they would show up in the final image. I had to composite (pick a images and adjust the exposure, color and saturation to match the HDR image) the employees because they were moving between exposures. To see the employees inside the building the print would have to be pretty large, so I have included a closeup of the inside of the building.

Cars Land California Adventure

This is Cars Land at California Adventure my favorite thing about Cars Land is the details like the flowers that are made out of taillights and the pots are tires in the first image. Disney did a good job making you feel like you are in Cars Land everything down to the traffic light blinking slower every third time.

George Carlin played Fillmore in the Cars movie and I still regret not taking the time to go see his comedy act. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year these are a few shots I took at the Bishop Ranch Business Ranch in San Ramon.

Mad T Party California Adventure

This is the Mad T Party at California Adventure, it is like a outdoor nightclub for both kids and adults. Although it is not my type of thing I knew it would some great images. I had to help the software with the use of layer masks and adding images on top and painting in portions of the image. The movement of the people created semi transparent people along with the changing images on the huge monitors displaying the constantly changing graphics confused the software. 

I had shot about 60 shots trying to get different lighting effects, when The man, woman and their daughter walked up and looked at my camera on a tripod and decided to stand directly in front of it. It irritated me at the time but, at least I had plenty of shots. I liked the black and yellow checker board that are spinning into a vortex and how the red seems to be shining on the left side making it look three dimensional. I decided to leave the family in the shot the girl actually appears twice in the image once with dad front center and once with mom on the right.


This is the main stage and a DJ with rabbit ears was scratching records when I was photographing the Mad T Party. I could not get a shot of the main stage because there were too many people and my tripod would have created a trip hazzard. I'm sure there was a way but it had been a long day.


This is the stage located under the arch in the House of Cards.

The New Bay Bridge

I set out to walk the new Bay Bridge after walking a mile and a half CHP turned me around. They close the bridge to pedestrians at 4pm and lock the gates at 5:30pm. If you are on a bike you can ride later just as long as you are off the bridge by 5:30pm. When the walkway is finished it will be open 24hrs. a day, it is estimated to be finished in 2015.  

The traffic on the bridge was heavy and I had planned to blur the traffic like I did in the post Bay Bridge at Night (New and Old). The traffic was just a little faster than stop and go.

The sun had just set to the right of this image and I had a light just over my left shoulder. I am not sure if it was sodium vapor or incandescent. That is what made the lower left hand corner a warmer color. I had the same kind of light over my right shoulder, but I was shooting at an angle. In this shot you can see the first stars starting to come out. I don't know what the bright one is, but I am sure it was not the north star.

Disneyland Halloween 2013

I've always wanted to see Disneyland when it was decorated for Halloween. I have been many times but this is the first time during Halloween. My kids had a chance to trick or treat during Micky's Halloween Party. During the night we had a chance to see the barber shop quartet sing special Halloween songs while painted like ghosts drifting on a raft on smoke cover water. We also had a chance to see a special parade and fireworks show. The night shot of the front gate I did not get shot of the side that had Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck. I don't know how I missed but, it must of been all the excitement there was so much to see. 

Teapot Gas Station @ Night

The Teapot Gas Station was built in 1922 by Jack Ainsworth on what later became U.S. Route 12 in Zillah Washington. The station was intended to be a reminder of the Teapot Dome Scandal that rocked the presidency of Warren G. Harding and sent Interior Secretary Albert Fall to prison for his role in leasing government oil reserves in, among other places, Teapot Dome, Wyoming and the Elk Hills Oil Field of California.

I started to process this shot in HDR and did not like the results. I did not like the starbursts on the pumps and the gas sign. I also did not like the glow of the light on the roof of the teapot. I wanted a crisp edges because I thought the starbursts were distracting. I could have shot with a wider aperture(shot at f/11) like f/4 or so, I will have to experiment. I used scripts to stack the images that I shot for HDR. Here is a great video to explain scripts and layer stacking for star trails. I also liked the control of the tone and saturation of the lights on the domes on the gas pumps and other parts of the image.

The result of stacking and masking in Photoshop.

The result of processing through HDR software.

Lake Chelan at Night (Winter)

I have been going to Lake Chelan in Washington for almost all of my life. I decided to take a shot of it at night. The first attempt was overcast and I had to wait until the next night. The moon was three quarters (full moon would be the best) so it could light the landscape. I took it from the south side of the lake (hoping to get the north star in the shot) where the legend of the lake turnout is. I wanted to shoot north and make circular star trails. The lake is about a mile wide at this point. So it was hard to make the hills on the other side of the lake big enough in the composition and still get the north star in the shot. The shot is made up of 14 four minute exposures. I had taken 31 but the lens fogged it was 22 degrees outside. It is hard to tell when the lens fogs on from the LCD screen on the back of the camera and you don't want to interupt the sequence. On warmer nights fogging will not be a problem. I was able to sit comfortably and take a nap in my truck right next to the camera.

Monterey Inn's at Night

Here are a couple inns along the shore line in Monterey that my wife always comments about when we pass them. We stayed at the Lovers Point Inn not as pretty but you can't beat the view. I shot the inn's a lot later than I would usually shoot. It was an experiment I boosted the ISO up to 1600 and shot a series bracket shots for HDR. I was worried about the noise because HDR images usually have noise even at lower ISO's. I was pleasantly surprised. You don't know if you don't try. One thing I love about night time photography is the surprises like the light on the trees in the first image.