D31: Amenities

No real motivation to shoot today. Below is a picture of the toiletries in the hotel where I'm staying in Anahiem.  Long day,  tired. On to Santa Barbara tomorrow.

 

Manual:   Read page 27, mounting and detaching a lens.

Images:    Viewed images on flickr SFBAS group

D30: Looking through the keyhole (or two parking meters)

I was standing in the parking lot of  San Clemente beach taking pictures of the surfers down below on the beach.  I looked up and notice this composition between two parking meters.  frame it as best I could.

Manual:  Read page 46 and 47  "Using Full Auto".    Never used this setting.

Images:  Viewed images by Joe Felzman.  Beautiful work.  Portfolio two is my favorite.

D29: Crystal Balls

I was visiting with a friend and notice this chandelier in the library.  I thought it was pretty interesting.  The bottom is made of all these little crystal balls each hanging by a little string.  

Manual:  Read page 133 and 134 "Printing with Bubble Jet Direct"

Images:  Looked at images by photojournalist  Frederic Larson.  His images are feature on his blog " Mystical Photography" at sfgate.com which is the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle.  Images are of things in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. 

D28: Are you trying to take my picture

It took several shots but I finally got a good image of Kamari. He was making all sorts of faces and hiding behind his hands. I finally put the movie "A Bugs Life" in the dvd player and waited until he was really into it.  I then compose the shot as best I could without getting his attention,  then asked him "what was so funny", when he turn towards me I took the shot.  It's not as sharp as I would have like it to be.

Manual:  Setting the image-recording Quality

Images: Viewed images by Jeremy and Claire Weiss  Interesting portraits.  If you visit check out Portfolio Two.

D27: Sno Balls

Sno balls cupcakes.  I remember buying these when I was in junior high. : )     Have you ever read the ingredients in one of these things?  Too many to list,  yikes!!!!.  One that stood out for me "Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening".  yuck!

Manual: Read page 100 - 101 Flash photography

Images:  Viewed images by Kenneth Willardt .  If you like shooting fashion check this guy out.

D26: Cloudscape

I went out again today hoping for a beautiful sunset. While waiting for sunset, I notice these beautiful cloud formations.  Ten minutes later the clouds turn a nice pink and orange color.  Perfect ending to a long day.    I title this one "The Mark of Zorro".

Manual: Read pages 90 and 91 'Manual Exposure".

Images: View images by local photograher Scott Hargis whose work in currently on display at cafe 504 in Oakland.  Awesome interior shots.

D25: The End of the day

Got a late start today.  I was on my way to Berkeley when I saw these Purple and orange streaks in the sky.  I got off the freeway and search around where I could a get shot of them.  By the time I found this location near Vallejo waterfront the streaks were not as visible. I still mange to get a nice sunset. 

 

Manual: Read Page 126 - 133  "Printing with PictBridge.   I think I read this section before.

Images:  Looked at images by Annie Leibovitz. 

D24: Resting Place

Went for a walk around  mountain view cemetery.  Great place to take photos.   I like  this headstone and   the clouds in the background.  The second image is of tree.  I thought the branches were interesting. They remind me of snakes coiled up. 

Manual:  Read pages 155 - 157  "Custom functions 1 - 9


Images:  Viewed images by   Los Angeles base photographer  Mark Robert Halper.  Very nice portraits, most of them in black and white (or sepia tone) .

D23: Artist Tools

Today's post is about collections.  I looked around the house for a collection of items that I could photograph.  I spotted this set of pencils on the desk.  I wish I had more colors, but oh well you have to work with what you have.

Manual:  Read pages 118 and 119 "Erasing images"  I rarely erase images in camera.  I wait until I view them in lightroom or photoshop.


Images:  I didn't review any one photographer images today.  I view images of my flickr friends and flickr group.

D22: Mushroom Soup

Late Post,  blogger.com site was having problems

Went on photo walk around Mare Island with my friend Karen. Lots of photo opps and amazing evening light. As we were walking around I saw these wild mushrooms and thought of mushroom soup.  Of course I would not eat these but they  made me think of a nice bowl of Crimini, Shitake and Button mushroom soup with udon noodles.

Manual: Read page 114 and 115 "Jump Display"

Images:  looked at images by Greg Funnell,  I like his site design.  He has some interesting documentaries

D21: Chocolate Kiss

Chocolate kisses.  Who could resist a chocolate kiss.  I saw these guys sitting in a bowl on the kitchen table and thought to myself "photo op"  I decided that there should only one star in the bunch.

Manual: Read pages 104 and 105 "Setting the image review time and Auto image rotation"  I leave my image review time set to default, 2 sec.


Images:  I read about Photographer Tim Tadder on Scott Kelby's blog and decided to check out his site. Awesome images. I wish I had his photoshop skills.

D20: With six you get eggroll

I was watching an old Doris Day movie with my mom the other day title "With six you get eggroll" hence, the title.

Manual:  Read pages 70 and 71  " File numbering Methods".  Nothing New.

Images:   Lately I've been wanting to take pictures of food. So I decided to take a look at food images by Jennifer Levy .

D19: Fresh Tomatoes

My neighbor gave me some tomatoes from her garden.  It's been raining off and on since this morning.  Heavy rains at times and very windy.  I decided to stay in see what I could do with these tomatoes.  I didn't want to slice them because I had made a salad yesterday and I prefer to slice them when I'm ready to eat them. I tried  different compositions and used a diffuser to block some of the light.  These were my favorites from the shoot.

Manual:  Read pages 67 and 68 "setting the color space, creating and selecting a folder".

Images:   View images by New York base photographer , Oliver Fluck.  I subscribe to his blog.  He has some beautiful images of New York.  Check him out. 

D18: Suisun Lighthouse

I went for a walk around the Suisun waterfront tonight.  I decided to take a picture of the lighthouse from a different angle.  I wanted to do an HDR of this image but photoshop said I did not have enough hard drive space. 

Manual: Read page 93, "Auto Exposure Bracketing"  I tried it out with the image above.

Images:  No one special  view images from my friends on flickr.

 

D17: Fall Colors

I went on a road trip to Calistoga via Highway 29. I forgot how busy it gets on weekends up there.  The traffic going to  wasn't too bad. Coming home traffic was a bear.  It took me 3 hours to get home when it usually takes me an hour and a half.  The weather was gorgeous.

Manual: Read page 81 and 82 "Select metering the mode and drive mode

Images: Looked at images by David Handschuh. 

D16: Guess

I had no motivation to shoot today, so I started my weekend house cleaning and came across this belt buckle.
couldn't decide if I like color or black and white.

Manual:  Read Page 79 "Focusing an off center subject"

Images: Looked at images by Alain Briot.  I'm thinking about taking one of his workshops next year

D15: Shawn

My nephew Shawn was  laying across the bed reading a book.  I notice the light coming thru the window reflected across his face.  I thought it would make a nice portrait. I took a meter reading and waited for him to look up at me.

Manual:  Read pages 22 thru 25 "How to charge, install and remove the battery"  nothing new.

Images:   Looked at images by Lauren Greenfield.  She has an interesting video on her site called "Money and Kids"  Check it out. 

D14: The Happy Couple

I went to the pumpkin patch this afternoon and found this happy couple. 

Cousin John was there also.

 

Manual:  Read pages 96 and 97  "Bulb exposures and Mirror lockup".  I used mirror lockup when shooting landscape.  Used bulb exposures on a few night shoot.

Images:  Looked at the images submitted to the Tasra 365 group on flicker. 

D13: Christopher Robin Day

It rain non-stop all day up until 4pm.  I can't remember the last time I've seen this much rain in the bay area.  The power was kind of finicking for most of the day so I shut my computer down.  I just relaxed all day.  I Finally decided to shoot something for today's pic of the day.  Cracker Jacks,  The prizes were so much better when I was a kid.  Oh well, sign of the times.

Manual:  I decided to take a break from my camera  manual and finish reading Joe McNally's Book "Hot Shoe Diaries"

Images:  View  more images by Roman Loranc.  I really like this guy's work.

D12: Tacos for Dinner

Tonight we had tacos for dinner.   Chicken, Beef, and Vegetarian tacos with french fries.  Dessert was strawberries shortcake with whip cream.

 

Manual:  Read page 126 and 127 "Printing with PictBridge"  I've tried this setting before, good feature to use if  you don't need to do any editing or don't have a cf reader handy.

Images:  Looked at images by Roman Loranc.  This guy has some amazing black and white images.  He shoots with a 4X5 Linhof field camera with a Nikkor Lens 210 using Tri-X film. Beautiful images.

D11

May today there be peace within you
May you trust God that you are exactly
where you are meant to be.

I believe that friends are the quiet angels
who lift us to ur feet when
our wings have trouble remembering
how to fly

Author Unknown

Manual:  Read pages 118 and 119 "Erasing images".

Images:  Looked at images by Southern California landscape and nature  photographer Dennis Chamberlain.

D10: Tickle me Elmo

I was over at my sister's house today and spotted this little guy on the chair in my sister's room. I remember riding all over town with my sister, looking for this toy so that my nephew could have it on christmas morning. In case you don't know, its "Tickle me Elmo".  It was the hottest toy on the market that year.  After searching every Toys R' Us and Kaybee toy store from Richmond to Newark, we found the last one at a toy store in Pleasanton. Although my sister thought it would be a great gift, my nephew hated it. The idea of a stuff animal talking did not appeal to him.

Manual:  Read pages 152 and 153 "Register camera settings and Setting custom functions" I have not used the register settings but I do use the custom function settings. I used the mirror lock up (C.Fn-11) and the set my iso to 50 ( C.Fn-08) functions. 

Images:  Looked at images by local photographer and friend Edward Nunez.  Great landscape photographer.  Check him out at www.craftedlight.com

D9: Practice

There are two things that I try to do consistently every day and that is: meditate and read something postitve.  Today was no different. I meditated for hour and decided to read a few pages from one of my favorite books, "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind".  I ran across the following passage and decided to take a picture of it for my picture of the day.  Same rule applies to photography: you have to practice. You may not be able to practice everyday, but you have to practice (regardless of the equipment you own)  in order to get better at it.

Manual: Read Page 72  INFO: Check camera settings

Images: Looked at images by Darwin Wiggett, great landscape photography from Canada. If you visit his website check out his images in the Shadow and Light section.

D8: Tonight's Dinner

I forgot to take my camera with me when I left the house today so I didn't get to shoot any landscape images as planned.  When I got home my nephew was preparing dinner, so I decided to take some images of his meal.  This kid is 15 years old and loves to cook and he is  very good at it.  He’s been cooking since he was 11 years old. Tonight's dinner was Fried Chicken, Garlic Mashed potatoes, Corn and a dinner roll.  Dessert was Pound cake with Vanilla ice cream.  I myself don't eat beef or chicken but the way his older brothers were hovering over me waiting for me to finish taking this picture, I assume it was good.  There were no left overs.  The mashed potatoes and corn was good.

Manual: Read pages 70 and 71 File numbering method.


Images: I looked at images by bay area photographer Bambie Cantrell. She will be giving a talk later this month, so I thought I take a look at her images.

D7: Waterfall

I was on my way to a park my friend Karen told me about call Rockville Hills.  I passed up the off ramp where I was supposed to exit. So I got off at the next exit, went across the ramp to get back on the freeway and saw this waterfall.  It was not the most amazing waterfall but I like the setting especially the purple flowers in the foreground.  I pulled over, got out and took a few shots.  Needless to say I never made it to Rockville Park.  Hey Karen maybe when you get back?  Hopefully there will be some fall colors.

 

Manual:  Read page 64 & 65 "White balance correction & White balance auto bracketing. I usually set white balance to auto and adjust in lightroom.  I will have to test white balance bracketing.


Images:  Looked at images by Andrew Hetherington. In addition to his awesome Portfolio, he has a site call whats the jackanory?  Great articles. Check it out

D6: Lighthouse

I took a walk around the Suisun marina. They have a beautiful lighthouse and city hall.  I decided to make this my subject for today's project 365 and practice my night photography. The weather was just right.

Manual:  Read 58 and 59 "Registerin the picture style.  I did a test using the portrait setting but didn't see any real difference.  These settings are also available in lightroom.


Images:  Looked at work by Joey Lawrence.  He does great work and he's only 20 years old.  He did the photography and the art work promo piece for the movie Twilight.

D5: Got Milk?

Didn't cook this weekend so I knew dinner tonight was going to be something quick and simple. As I walked in the front door, I remember that I didn’t go to the grocery store this weekend to re-stock.  So I thought to myself there has to be something in the cup boards that I can whip up for dinner.  I opened the cabinet TA-dahh CHEERIOS!  Got a banana, open the refrigerator AHHHHHH! No milk.  :(   So dinner was a Fuji apple, peanut butter and Jelly sandwich with a glass of lemonade.

Manual:  Read Page 50 and 51 "Setting image recording quality"  I shoot raw + jpeg.

Images:   Looked at images by Elena Elisseeva.  She has gallery called "object photography" that has some interesting images, very nice.  She also have a food gallery with some awesome pics.

D4 : Old Sacramento

Took a trip to old Sacramento with my sister Ann.   The weather was perfect.   We walk around checking out the shops.  I took several images but this one was my favorite.  This was taken from a boat ramp near the delta. I first converted it to B/W but decided I like the color version.

  

Manual: Read page 79 "Focusing an Off-Center subject

Images:  Looked at images by John Paul Caponigro.

D3: Macro

Busy Busy day.  Assisted on a photo shoot with local photographer Antonio Abadia http://antonioabadiastudio.com/.  Had lots fun.   Didn't  have time to shoot anything special for todays post so I decided to practice shooting macros. Posting a color and grayscale image.  I like them both.

 

Manual:  read page 61 and 62 "Setting the white balance"  I played around with changing the white balance but I have to admit I usual leave it on AWB and correct in Lightroom or Photoshop.


Images:  Since I assisted Antonio today I decided to take a look at his images

D2: Zoom Zoom

I was looking for something to photograph for today's image and notice my nephew's toy cars sitting on the table. I took several images using different AF points.

This is my favorite.

My other nephew was previewing the site and he suggested the image would look better in black and white.

Manual :  Read pages 78 and 79 "Selecting the AF Point".  I shot several photographs using a different point for each one.



Images:  Viewed at images by  Tim Wallace.  His website is www.ambientlife.com.uk.  He is a commercial photographer based in the Uk.  I like his "life" collection.

D1: First Light

I was listening to a podcast by Tasra Dawson over at F stop and beyond.  She mention that she was starting a 365 challenge that was encouraged by photographer Scott Bourne.  The challenge is a little different than most challenges, because it requires more than just taking a picture a day.
                      
                                            

                                           Action Items:

                      * Take at least one picture every day.

                      * Read a page in my camera manual every day.

                      * View other professional images every day.

I've decided to take the challenge.

Not one of my best images but I wanted to start the challenge today.   After meditating  I was sitting on my mat trying to decide what I wanted to shoot for my first image.  It was then that I notice the candle and decided this would be perfect.

Manual:   Read page 60 and 61 in the canon 5d manual " ISO setting the iso speed and setting white balance.

Images:  Viewed the images on Jim M Goldstein site.  I love his work.