220 Steps, Not Thousand Steps.

So today I learned the value of looking at the forecast before planning a Photo shoot. So I had planned all week to go out today and take some pictures of the waves and sunset at Thousand Steps beach. I checked the tides, I checked what time sunset was, but I didn't check the weather forecast and it was cloudy and no pretty colors at sunset. But I did have fun with the waves and I did take a few pictures of the point and what not.


Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/14, 18mm, 30 sec

Pacific Wheel

I know that I said that I would not post any more pictures of the pier, but this is of the Pacific Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. I do wish that people would show some manners and not walk in front of a camera when people are taking pictures. I swear... Some people's children..

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/7.1, 20mm, 1/30 sec

This Pier is getting tiring, why don't I post other things?

OK, so I promise this is the last picture of the Pier that I will post. I just really liked the colors in this one. I pushed the detail and saturation as high as I could go without making it look like crap. I think that this is going to be the last picture from the PhotoWalk last month. I am going to be travelling around orange county this weekend looking for pictures. I may even hit up sunken city with my nephew and chica to get some pics there. Hej, that's a great idea. I think that I will actually do that.

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/4.5, 18mm, 1/25 sec.

Hot and Dry! Hot and Dry!

Last time I checked, deserts are supposed to be hot and dry. Our first day was rainy and it snowed not far up in elevation from us. We did move down the mountain the second night, but we also spent the evenings in the cars the second night because it was too windy to get a fire started to stay warm. It finally settled down, and that is when I snapped this picture of one of the mountains in the park. I was an amazing view but the wind was furious from the perch where I took this so I was only able to get one picture. Next time I am hoping for better weather, but the trade off is if I go when it's warmer, it will be over 100 degrees. Well, great picture none the less.

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/4.5, 18mm, 1/800 sec.

Don't run backwards here naked at midnight

So this is at the edge of the Devil's Cornfield. I'm actually looking away from the cornfield and only getting a few of the desert wildlife that gives this area it's name. And although it's not like a regular cornfield, I wouldn't run through this one naked either. There isn't much to say about this picture, there were damn cars and tourists blocking my other shots so I had to take one looking away from the cornfield. I'm not upset though, I love how it came out. The mix of clouds, mountains, and distant desert work for me. I've also included another style of signature that I am thinking of. I stole this style from Lucky Bastard since he is moving onto a new style. I like it because it leaves my photo untouched.

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/4.5, 30mm, 1/1600 sec.

Chemical weathering and hydrothermal alteration

So the cause of all of the colors on the rock at Artist Drive is Chemical Weathering and hydrothermal alteration. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle. I've also made a little change to this image. A friend of mine recommended that I make myself a watermark/signature. I'm playing around with a few ideas, one of which is the one in this image. It's my family crest with JDA III 2012 © underneath. I's still working on it, but feedback = awesome. I did my best to make it unassuming, and I'm not even sure that I want to compromise my picture with anything. Maybe I can do a bottom border like Lucky does. We shall see.

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/9, 33mm, 1/250 sec.

Chip off a slab and make me a kitchen counter

So during our Death Valley trip, we visited the mosaic canyon. Without giving you a full geological history, the walls of the canyon are marble. Now the lower part of the canyon is very tight, only a foot wide foot path at some points. This is higher up in the canyon where we decided to hike. There was a sign that said that the first part of the canyon was 1.4 mile in. So we obviously went there, but the sign at the parking lot said that 2 miles up there was more to see. We hiked the two miles and it was not as awesome as the first 1/4 mile. It was awe inspiring though. I took a number of pictures there, but I will only be posting a few.

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/5.6, 50mm, 1/320sec.

Igor, I think we should call an electrician.

So, from the nail picture, I have already explained my personal enjoyment of antique tools. So I will probably be corrected by a friend who was there since I wasn't paying much attention to this equipment, but I think that this was an old 1920's arc welder. The handle just reminded me of something that would be found in Frankenstein's lab. We were all bouncing around the workshop checking out the equipment. We were like kids in candy stores. My friends also share my like for vintage and antique technology. It usually sparks conversation and if we drink enough, they may get a rant from dear old J.D. about what life was like in the olden days when I used to walk to school barefoot in the snow uphill both ways. PS: I lived in los angeles as a kid. Not a lot of snow.

Canon 600D, ISO-800, f/5.6, 47mm, 1/60sec.

Where is the concession stand?

One of my favorite things about National Parks is the lack of commercialization. Yes the general store and gas stations bend you over and have their way with your wallet, but they are limited to one small area inside the park. If this were anything but a national park, there would be a concession stand selling Artist's Drive T-shirts, mugs, playing cards, and artist's drive smoothies. The reason the guys and I do these camping trips is not to purposely damage our livers beyond repair, but to get away from the trappings of modern society. We DON'T want starbucks, we don't want a 10 item or less line or electric carts for fat people. We want to rough it, enjoy nature and focus on life instead of all of us sitting around the boob tube watching reruns of It's Always Sunny. So there was a nice rant because I have nothing to say about taking this picture besides I got out of the car, clicked a few pictures, then got back in the car and took a nap. I will post my other Artist Drive pictures separately.

Canon 600D, ISO-100, f/4.5, 18mm, 1/1250sec.

Dune, the sequel

So at first, this was my favorite dunes picture, but I had missed the first one I posted. This one has a tumultuous sky, but it lacks the bright definition of the dunes in the other picture. I eventually chose that one to post first and for this one to follow. This one had the sand storm which I though took away from the detail of the mountains. I'm not sure if I got this one level mostly because there were dunes going every which way and it was too windy to sit there and watch my level. I wish that I had gotten the mountains on the left side a little better.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 34mm, f/5.6, 1/500 second

Stop and smell these...

So everywhere I go, I end up taking pictures of the wild flowers. We had hoped to match up our trip to Death Valley a week after it rained, however we made it the day that it rained. These were the only wildflowers we really found. They are pretty and yellow, but I had hoped for a lot more flowers on our trip. Not complaining, great trip, but next time, more flowers. Gee, that sounds manly. Maybe if I say it in a lower register. More flowers please. Nope, didn't help.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 46mm, f/10, 1/320 second

More Pier Please!

So another Picture of the sun setting on the Pier in Santa Monica. Now first I should say that I really enjoyed the photowalk, however. You know that the first part of that sentence is now null and void once I add the qualifier 'however'. No, really I did learn from it and hearing Trey speak, but there wasn't much to shoot where you could still hear him without shooting the crowd and you may have noticed that I don't shoot people. I may explore that in the future but for now, I only do landscapes and what not. So, another picture of the pier because it was the only direction where there were not hoards of people. I like the stray stream of orange sunlight coming out from under the pier.

Canon 600D, ISO 125, 27mm, f/4.5, 1/250 second

Like a scar across the skin of the desert.

So, yet another road going through Death Valley. There were so many roads with so many views that Christian and I took hundreds of pictures from the roads. I have to say that I only appreciate the roads for making it easy for us to explore the national park. But from a conservationist point of view, they are like scars gouged into the skin of the desert. You have this wilderness and you lay down an asphalt track across it. What sense does that make to conserve our national parks? Well, I don't want to start a rant, I'm sounding like Edward Abbey instead of J.D. Abbey. I find the flat never ending roads boring, I needed a bit of character and the dips in the road give just that.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/500 second

I've got a sandstorm blowin' in my head

So the little dust devils and sand storms we saw in Death Valley were not that impressive, but you would tell a different story if you saw Christian driving through them in his new car while listening to the sand slowly eat away the paint job. The wind was starting to die down when I took this picture, but I love how bright the valley floor is while the ominous looming clouds slink through the skies.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 37mm, f/5, 1/640 second

I to the world am like a drop of water

So in 2005 I took a trip to Maui with Eva to explore and visit family. We were exploring the beaches and I saw these waves breaking on the rocks and the sight was epic. I grabbed her camera and started shooting away. I think I took 20 pictures just to get this one exactly right with the waves and the mist coming off of it. The lens was a little damp at this point so please excuse the blurry sections. I also ran this through a few plugins in photoshop in order to get some more detail out of the flying sea water. Point and shoots aren't the best, but her old Sony was pretty good for taking these pictures. Well, I would have sat there all day if Eva hadn't dragged me away kicking and screaming, but it's ok, I got loco moco right after that so I didn't complain much after we hit the restaurant.

Sony DSC-P100, ISO 100, 24mm, f/5.2, 1/160 second

Don't Bogart That Joint!

So, I took this back in 2007 on a trip to the states while living abroad. In 2007, I was living in Sweden and Eva and I took a trip to visit my family in the states for a month or so. On our trip I got to act as a tourist since I didn't get to live in a US city. I got to revel in a double-double, drink piss water american beer and enjoy it's low cost. A bottle of Budweiser at the "liquor store" in Sweden was $2, and that is ONE normal long neck bottle. Eva was not very familiar with drug culture in america nor was she very interested, but I took her for a tour of the Haight and after we grabbed a pint at the Magnolia brewing company, I snapped this shot. Mind you there are more colors at that intersection, but I was feeling artsy fartsy to I removed all colors except blue from the image. I like how it came out. BTW, I did the color editing in Gimp which is what I used up until last week.

Sony DSC-P100, ISO 100, 24mm, f/10, 1/125 second

Nailed It!

Well, I don't know about you, but I love to explore antique workshops. I am fascinated by antique tools. I just love to see how we got from a rock and a stick to a Skilsaw. So over at Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, we checked out his garage (nothing very impressive) but there were a few tools in the back. And sitting under the table holding 500 lbs of vintage electrical equipment was this board with nails in it completely looked over for years. So I got a mouse's view of it. I look at this and my mind imagination runs wild as to how the cement or plaster got on the nails. These are a strange shaped nail, when were those used. Could they have been part of the antique cars, maybe part of a truck bed? Well, that is just some fun with DoF and Nails. Again, not an HDR image and coincidentally Liz's favorite.

Canon 600D, ISO 200, 44mm, f/5, 1/60 second
Desaturated to monochrome.

You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.

A sunset sandstorm to welcome us to the valley floor. After we had the extreme weather at the Wildrose campsite, we decided to move closer to the valley floor from the hills. We ended up at mesquite springs campsite. It was more like a parking lot than Wildrose, but it wasn't that bad after the first night when everyone left for home. We had 5 or 6 neighbors that day and it was great. So back to this image, I took this from the road on the way to our new campsite. I had to get a sunset picture and this is a very unique one for me. I finally figured out how to fix my off kilter images and adjusted this one counter-clockwise, then I took out the colors from everywhere but around the sun. I really wanted to give a good idea of what we saw. The sun was colorful, but there was no color anywhere but around the sun.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 53mm, f/5.6, 1/3200 second

Campsite #1

So, on our death valley trip, we chose the camp ground on the internet based on the lowest number of sites in the area. We don't like a crowded campground. So we chose Wildrose up in the hills of Death Valley National Park. We got there at night and it was an adventure from the first hour of setting camp. Christian's tent pole snapped from the wind and it was getting pretty frustrating setting up in the wind. We got to sleep and when we woke up, this is the view up the canyon. Could you imagine being the ranger that gets to live in that little cabin? I wish that there was some more blue skies for some contrast, but the detail in the clouds was great.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 27mm, f/5, 1/60 second

Kelp! I Need somebody! Kelp! Not Just Anybody! Kelp!

So I took a few different directions with this one. I've done five different versions of this image and I'm torn for my favorite between two. This is the more colorful version. I will post the other one later. This was on the Photowalk yet again, but I really enjoyed working on this one. The clouds were a bit tough to work with, but the colors and shadows made it a blast to manipulate and learn with. It was just fun. BTW: I also rpotated the image 3.8 degrees clockwise to get a flat horizon. I will be coming through all my photos fixing this since I found the functionality in Photoshop.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/100 second

Not Frank Herbert's Dune

The Dunes in Death Valley are a pretty strange thing. They seem to stay in their own local area and there does not seem to be any differences in geography with the land surrounding the dunes. Well, this is one of my favorite pictures of the dunes, but I was really out of luck with the clouds that day. The pictures from the day before had better clouds, but there was massive amounts of winds so there were sand storms. Liz says that I pulled too much green out of the bushes and I agree, but it was necessary to pull out the color of the dunes.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/800 second

Anyone Up For a Game of Skee Ball?

I'm not sure about you folks out there, but ever since I was a kid, the second I walk into an arcade, I make a B-line for the Skee Ball. I suck at it because the only hand-eye coordination I have is touch typing. Well, I lied on a previous post, ot on purpose, I just forgot that I took this picture. This was the last HDR picture that I took on the Photowalk with Tom and Trey. It just reminded me of when I was younger and I would do anything to go to a place called playland.

Canon 600D, ISO 3200, 42mm, f/8, 1/30 second

The Artist's Drive

Those of you who have been to Death Valley knew that this one was coming. It's not the picture that you expect, but it is from the Artist's Drive. There isn't much I can say about this one, the colors just caught me and it seemed like the best picture to take. And it came out better than I could ever have hoped. I could do without the road on this one, but it was there and I wouldn't have gotten such a great picture if I didn't include it. C'est la vie. So I think that I am starting to see the composition of the shots while I am taking them. You can see a difference between the Photowalk ones and the death valley ones. I have a lot to learn, but I'm seeing progress and I like that.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 46mm, f/5, 1/1600 second

Behind Bars?

So this one was Christian's favorite from the pictures I took at the Photowalk last month. Personally, it reminds me of being behind bars, not that I have ever been behind bars. It's dark and gloomy with the promise of a brighter world just past where I can reach and there is no way to see where that light is coming from. Also the red light is pretty cool, but I was trying to wax poetic and all that jazz. Well, this one was a Photowalk picture so it is a very early attempt at HDR. I know that it could use some work, but I like to show how I first interpreted the photo and I will post changes later.

Actually, the image below is the one that Christian liked, but I made a few changes to it and darkened the red, tried to make the ocean outside from under the pier more visible, and darken the image as a whole because the mist was washing out the image and taking away from the dark ambiance that I was going for. This also shows the difference between photomatix below and photoshop above. I am playing around with both applications trying to find my favorite blend between them all.

PS: Let me know if you like me showing multiple versions of the same image. I'm still learning so I'm not quite sure where to go with some of these. I'm trying to figure out which ones look best as realistic and which ones should be cartoony and exaggerated.

PEOPLE! Leave a comment and tell me which one you like better.

Canon 600D, ISO 1250, 55mm, f/6.3, 1/40 second

The Crosses

Another shot from the Photowalk. Another one of the pictures I took before I found the main group. I dropped it down to monochrome because I felt like it. I'm against the war the same as these guys, but we go about it in different ways. Then there is always Jack Handy's thoughts on war, "I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it." Well, on with the post. This is not an HDR shot, but I like it anyway and this is not an HDR only blog.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 20mm, f/9, 1/200 second

My Kind of Road

Now, I am a fan of Edward Abbey for reasons that my friends can guess. And I agree with many of his views about nature. But on this trip to death valley, it was nice to have a road in the desert. Not always, but this time. And this road led us to this curve which was not very special except that there was an amazing view. I decided this once not to cut out the road from my picture and only get nature and I like what came out of it.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 33mm, f/9.9, 1/250 second    

Wanna go for a ride on the Ferris Wheel?

So, when I first arrived at the Santa Monica Pier for the Photowalk with Trey and Tom, I could not find the group on the pier. I met some guys that sent me in the right direction and on my way to the large group that you can kind of see on the left, I took this picture of the rides on the pier. This happens to be one of my mothers favorite pictures. I got a little crazy with the radius, but I like it.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 18mm, f/10, 1/250 second

How Low Can You Go?

So I just posted a picture of the international truck that we found in the hills behind Scotty's Castle. I thought that I would post one of Diego and I messing around on abandoned tetanus delivery systems. This is Diego acting like a Low Rider in the truck. He got nice and low since the seat rusted out on the truck a few decades ago. So in case you were wondering about the exposure information below, this is an HDR image and the application I use gets an average, otherwise I would be posting 3 different lines of exposure information. If there is a more proper way to give this info on HDR images, please comment and let me know.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 25mm, f/9.1, 1/166 second

I think your car is totaled

So on our trip to Death Valley, we visited a tourist trap called Scotty's Castle. There is a trail up to the gravesite of Scotty and the trail had signs every 20 feet telling us to stay on the road. Did we do that? I think not. Back behind the hill with the gravesite, there is a bit of a car graveyard. With the colors and the rust, I had to get some pictures. This one is of an old International pickup. It just spoke to me. It kept saying, "Photograph me you sexy beast." OK so I added the sexy beast part. But after what had to be 50 years of sitting out in a desert graveyard, this pickup has picked up some amazing colors. I hope that you enjoy.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 20mm, f/8, 1/200 second

Restaurant at the end of the universe

So this is another photo from the Photowalk with Tom and Trey. This HDR image had a wide range, I went from Cartoony to just a few white dots on a black background. With some input from friends, this seems to have been the best outcome of the images. This is also when I got the hang of using aperture priority mode on my camera. You can imagine what it was like getting it to just the right balance where I get the lights in the sky and the lights reflected off the water without having the lights completely wash out the image. I wish that I would have had a wide angle lens for this, but I will have to go back once I get one.

Canon 600D, ISO 3200, 28mm, f/8, 1/2 second

The Road

You will hear me talk about the Death Valley Trip that I took this last weekend. This is mostly because every which way you look, there is an amazing picture with big blue skies and a changing landscape from sand dunes, to purple and green rocks, and through the middle of it all is this road. The road goes for a hundred miles right down the national park. And I decided to be all artsy while we waited for the sand storm in from of us to pass. I almost got run over by a car coming up behind me, but I think that it was worth it for this picture. You can see that I am getting a little closer to a flat horizon. That new bubble level is tiny, guards my hotshoe, and it's very helpful.

Canon 600D, ISO 100, 46mm, f/5.6, 1/640 second

A hobo's view

So this was the second image that I tried with HDR. I took it while standing under the Santa Monica Pier and this homeless guy was rambling on about how he should charge me for taking pictures in his home. This wouldn't be a terrible view to have from one's living room. I chose to go a bit washed out on the colors and kind of make it dreamy since the homeless guy ranting at me was quite a bit out of it. I could smell the cheap vodka from 10 feet away. This is also before I realized that I needed to pay attention to how level I was. After this shoot, I went out and bought a bubble level from my local Camera shop Jack's Cameras in Lake Forest.

First Post: Under the Pier

Well, not so much my first post, really my second, but my first one with one of my photos. It's really tough to choose which one to post first. I chose this one because it was one of the first HDR pictures that I took and processed. Now this was not the first iteration of this HDR image, but I wanted to get more detail and I wanted some detail of the ocean through the posts to come through. The colors came out a little Cartoony, but I love the greens.

I took this while on a Photowalk with Trey Ratcliff and Tom Anderson at the Santa Monica Pier. I took this with my T3i. I must tell you now that I may not always post my exposure details since doing so with HDR is a lie, but I will tell you what windows says that it is.

Canon 600D, ISO 320, 53mm, f/5.6, 1/15 second

Välkommen to my photo blog.

My new Canon EOS Rebel T3i 600D

So I have had this blog for years. Every once in a while, I delete everything and start over with a new theme. This Spring Cleaning will start my photography blog. My goal is to post one photo everyday. But please bear with me if I skip a week or so, I have only had my camera for a few weeks so I don't have many pictures yet.

About my photography, I just got a new camera and I am trying out some regular landscape shots and I'm blending in some HDR images. Please comment and let me know which ones you like and which ones you do not. At this time, I do not put anything on my images to identify them as mine, but I'm working on a watermark for my shots. They is all copy-written but I don't think there is a problem if you print them up for your own use. I can print them up for you and send them to you for a small fee, just let me know. I have had to start posting my pictures here since picasaweb is cutting me off. I already hit their 1GB limit after having my camera for less than a month.

And now I start with a blurry picture of my camera because well, duh, I can't take a picture of the camera with itself.