Red Rock Canyon Day 3...Early Morning Sun and Sport Climbing

This morning I woke up early to try to catch the sunrise and failed, but I was able to catch the early morning sun on the mountains so I got some great shots. I love the lighting on this one, too bad I'm not much of a morning person. The little white camper in the bottom of the photo is our campsite. The shot below is sort of a self portrait. I was hiking along and noticed my really long shadow, so naturally I took a photo.

After breakfast, some of us went sport climbing at one of our favorite walls: Panty Wall. Below is a nice perspective shot of Nell belaying Paul on one of his lead climbs, and yes that's the color of the rock, I did not alter the photo. Oh, and Paul rocks.

Below is the same photo as the first one, just cropped differently. You may have noticed that I like these long and narrow cropped photos.

Just as a warning, I took a mega butt load of photos the next day and quite a lot of them turned out awesome so tomorrow's post will be rather large.

Red Rock Canyon Day 2...Burros, Tarantulas, and Colorful Rocks

Today started off with a tarantula joining us for breakfast, though I think he was just passing through. Nell and Ritwik went off to climb an 11 pitch route, so the rest of us decided to hike the canyon where their climb was. On the hike into the canyon a curious wild burro decided to come up to us and say hi. I think he thought that we'd feed him, so once he figured out that we had no food for him, he casually walked away. But, not before I got some great shots of him. As I was crouched down to take his photo, he kept moving closer. I think that if I'd let him move any closer he'd have tried to eat my camera. I think the shot of him might be my favorite photo of the trip. 

Below is a view of the canyon where we hiked and Nell and Ritwik climbed. The route they did is somewhere just to the left of the very middle of the photograph. 

Once we got into the canyon, the trail turned into boulder hopping and it was full of beautiful colored rocks. I took so many photos of colorful rocks that I had a hard time choosing what to post. 

Below is a shot of what most of the trail looked like in the canyon. All three of these boulders are the size of a small car, and you can see the variance of color. It really was a gorgeous hike.

The sun was pretty low, once we finally made our way out of the canyon, and it was lighting up the opposite side of Red Rocks perfectly, so I snapped off several great shots. Oh, and just an FYI, I took over 1000 photos over 4 days in Red Rocks. 

Red Rock Canyon Day 1

Today we woke up to the desert sun of Red Rock Canyon, NV. I will admit that I might have been a little cranky, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do the kind of climbing that I love to do at Red Rocks. There'll be other days. We spent the first day just outside of the park in Calico Basin. I like the rock feature in the first photo, I just wish I could keep the horizon level. I tried a lower perspective in the bottom photo, but I kind of wish I would have gotten more of the background in the shot. 

Vegas Glow

Today we drove to Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas for some climbing and hiking over a 4 day weekend. We got there after sunset and I noticed how the glow from Vegas was illuminating the mountains, so I got my camera and tripod out and took some long exposure shots. The biggest challenge was getting the shots in focus, it's hard to focus on things in the dark. I'm pretty happy with how the photo came out though. This is the view from our campsite looking towards Red Rock Canyon. I kept the photo dark to give a more accurate view of how it looked in person. Lots, lots more photos of Red Rocks to come.

New Ceramic Piece

First off, let me admit that I've gotten behind on this blog. I hope to get caught up this weekend. Today I got a new ceramic piece out of the kiln and I love it. I tried a different background on this and several different perspectives, and I tried to keep it simple and not get too creative. 

Flutterbies!!

The monarch butterflies are back this season, and lucky for me they like to congregate just down the hill from where I work. There are thousands of them! So I spent my entire lunch break trying to take good photos of them. This turned out to be pretty challenging because it was really bright out and they are pretty skittish. But I got a few good ones. Just out of curiosity, I made the above photo black and white. I kind of like it, so I posted it as well. 

The next photo I really like just for the composition. 

The photo below was my best one of a group of them. This does not come close to showing how many butterflies were there, they kept scattering whenever I got even remotely close. 

You Are Feeling Very Sleepy

Tonight my friend Maxine and I were at a loss as to what to photograph. Luckily she's brilliant and came up with the idea of photographing a pocket watch swinging back and forth. I knew this would be quite challenging, so I agreed. It was very challenging. We had to set the camera up for a long exposure to catch the arc, and we had to use the flash to freeze the motion of the watch. Fortunately it was even more complicated than that, because we also had to sort out lighting and mach the exposure to the lighting. Oh, and we had to time the flash to catch the watch at a good spot, preferably a spot in the frame. Needless to say, this took a while and we took a ton of pics. But it was a lot of fun and I'm happy with the outcome. 

Prickly Succulent

Another good day here in cloudy Santa Barbara. So yeah, another cloudy day. But cloudy means nice even lighting, which can be good. This is a succulent outside work. I've been trying to take a good photo of this for a while, but nothing looked good after processing. But today I got in closer and at a different angle. The photo is a bit busy, but I like the effect, and the detail. 

Mushroom

Another cloudy day in SB. I noticed these mushrooms in the grass field in front of our apartment, so I grabbed my macro lens and had some fun. Now I smell like grass. I played around with the depth of field a lot, but not as much as I should have because only about 5 or 6 of the 40 shots I took were very good as far as depth of field. Also,  the best shots were those where I was the lowest to the ground, from a bug's perspective. The depth of field, or depth of focus, could have been a little better in this one, but I like it.

Kill the Pumpkin!

Today we got to watch our friend Brett and his high school students shoot their potato guns which they built. Yay science! First they put up a metal and wood target to hit. After quite a few near and far misses, they moved the target closer, and bam, direct hit.

Then they put a pumpkin in front of the target to try to hit it. There were several very near misses:

Finally after all the kids had their shots, Brett took one last shot and killed the pumpkin!!!

I had a lot of fun with this. It was a challenge. Setting the camera at the fastest shutter speed I could get with the available light, and not to mention the timing. All of these shots were total luck, but I'm pretty happy with them. 

Another Red Leaf

It's been really foggy here for the last few days, but today the sun decided to pop out just after noon so I headed out on my lunch break and found one of the few trees in Santa Barbara with leaves that change color in the fall. I noticed the sun lighting up this leaf so I focused on that. I had to wriggle my way into the branches a bit to get the shot, but I'm happy with it. 

Pink Flowers

It was a bit foggy and cloudy today so I took advantage of the even lighting and walked around work in search of flowers. I found these pretty pink ones up against one of the unused buildings. I was trying for a nice soft focus and I think I got it. 

Abstract Succulent

The sun decided to come out from the fog today just before lunch. I did a quick walk around work and took some close up shots of this succulent. I love the color on the edges and how it contrasts so much with the green. 

Spooky Palm Tree

Since the sun sets way early now, my friend Maxine and I decided to head to downtown Santa Barbara to get some good night photography practice. Since it was pretty foggy, we had to mostly stay at street level, and there's not many interesting things in Santa Barbara to photograph at night. This palm tree next to the court house was lit up nicely though, and so was the fog behind it. I like the color and the kind of eerie effect.

Red Leaf 2

While out on my lunch break today, I noticed this red leaf perched on the edge of a concrete step. So I took a few shots of it. I really like this one because of the color and the line, and the black void from the shadow of the step.

Oil Rig

My photo buddy Maxine and I went out right after sunset to get some shots of the offshore oil rig near us. It was a bit hazy out, but the color from the lingering sunset was nice. 

Playing With The Dogs

Today we took the two dogs we are dog sitting to the dog park. (hmmm, lots of dogs in that sentence) My back is still unhappy, so I sat on a bench and tried to get some action shots of Nell playing with them. This was the best I could do apparently. 

Rose

I needed a quick photo today, so on my lunch break I visited the little rose garden and noticed this one rose not yet bloomed, but still very colorful. So there, another flower photo. 

Sunlit Palm Leaves

My back is still bad today, so I went out for a walk with my camera and forced myself to only take photos while standing completely upright, and with only one lens. It was a fun challenge because it forced me to see more options from a narrow point of view. 

California Poppy

The sun was bright today, and the poppies were practically glowing. Unfortunately, they are all near the ground, which isn't the best background. Plus I couldn't get down low enough, so I used a piece of black cloth as the background. I think it worked well, though I failed a bit at getting the flower in proper focus. I blame my back. 

Devil Kittie

I took this shot from the hip, literally. Since my back was bugging me pretty bad I couldn't kneel down to take this, so I set the camera to auto, (which turned the flash on), and held the camera down by my hip. Not the best shot, but it's fun, and the flash gave the cat, Elim, evil eyes. 

More Shadowplay

Today was ceramics, and I got a new piece out of the kiln! I was extremely happy with how it came out, so I decided to take some pictures of it. One of the main things I like about my ceramics is the form, so I'm really liking using shadow in my photo to emphasize the shape. Let me know what you think. Oh, and in this one I used my flash to get a sharp shadow. I also tried using a white blanket as the background, but in the end I decided on the plane white wall because I liked the harshness of it, and it makes me feel like the piece is a thief caught in the cop's spotlight in a deserted building...or something.

Blue Dragonfly...er, Damselfly

Today Nell and I went for a hike, because it seemed the only thing that my back could take. Unfortunately it could hardly take that. But, we saw plenty of these blue damselflies along the way and I managed to get a few shots of one. 

Shadows

As I was looking at my ceramics and trying to come up with different ways to photograph them, I noticed the shadow one piece was casting. Naturally, I then spent the next hour or so playing with shadows and photographing the results. I should have come up with this idea a long time ago. It makes me want to play more with shadows and has given me several new ideas. More to come.

Green Leaf

Today I took a walk through the garden area to look for things to photograph that didn't require me to bend over, because my back is still bugging me. The sun was a bit low and I noticed the light shining through several leaves. I took several close up shots, but failed to get them in focus very well. Luckily not all of the shots I took were close up. I like how the shadows add extra texture and  a little design to this leaf. 

More Ceramics

I'm trying to come up with interesting ways to photograph my ceramics to show more detail. Not sure I got it on this one. It does show the glaze nicely though.

Fun Sculpture

Well, not really a sculpture, actually just a little rubber band. I came up with this idea the other day when I saw a rubber band in the parking lot. I should make a sculpture like this but the size of a house and sell it for millions of dollars. Millions.

More of My Ceramics

As it turns out, this is how Nell pictured her idea of photographing my ceramics, not what I posted a few days ago. I love both photos. I really like the idea of framing one of my pieces using more of my pieces.

Red Leaf

So what do you do when your back hurts and it's hard to bend over or kneel to take pictures? You lie down. I actually had this idea last week, but it was too windy to try. Today was windy also, I just tried harder. Next time, I need to try harder on getting the horizon level. I think the leaf looks like it's trying to run away to the left.

Too Bright Lights

Oiy, today my back is still bugging me, so I tried to let it rest most of the day. I knew we had to walk the dogs tonight, (yes we are dog sitting too), so I came up with the idea of photographing the offshore oil rig near us while we were out. Lucky for me, the moon was sitting low in the sky just above the oil rig. Unlucky for me, it was too dark out, and both the oil rig and the moon were very bright. This is the best I could come up with. Next time I'll aim for just after sunset so the sky isn't so dark.

Bored Kitty

Today was a good day, rough, but good. We went climbing with our friend Paul, and I strained my back a bit. After dinner Nell gave me a back rub and I fell asleep. Then I woke up about 11 pm and realized that I hadn't taken a photo. Since we were cat sitting, I took advantage of that and hobbled around the apartment looking for cats. As it was, they were both as lazy and sleepy as me.