Baskets at the Ferry Building

Genie and I were at the Port's Ferry Building this afternoon. It was a beautiful day! While walking around the shop area, I spied some multi-colored baskets in a pile. I thought that the colors and textures made for an interesting shot. Hope you folx do.

Eric

Pier Perspective

D100

I've always liked "under-the-pier" shots. Here's my version taken under Balboa Pier at Newport Beach.

--Warren

Using Color Emphasis

Warren lent me a book on Adobe Photoshop and I thought I'd try their color emphasis technique. Essentially, you use the brush tool to paint what you don't want to stand out in black and white and leave what you do want to stand out in color. Interesting.

Eric

Lulu for a Sunday Morning Drink

Olympus C-720

I was stopping at the local Starbucks to get a cup of coffee, when I saw LuLu and two of her friends. She was having a great time enjoying her morning drink. What I especially like is the drop of water that she seem to be thinking, "that got away, but I'll get it with the next slurp!"

Pink Flowers in Black and White

While at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, I took a picture of what I think were pink cherry blossoms. (See how I know my plants?) I was playing with it in Adobe and decided to see what it was like in B&W. Although pink was nice, I think this B&W version is more interesting.

Eric

Small Town Bridge

I was walking around Natick, MA and saw this bike all by it's lonesome. I thought it was kind of interesting in that the bike and bridge lead you into small town America.

Eric

Birds of a Feather

Saw these 2 little birds sitting outside of the house in Sonoma. Anyone know what kind they are?

Eric

May Project -- Welder

Nikon D100

I saw this scene through a window next to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum. He is one of the workers who maintain the historic narrow gauge railroad works. We took a side trip to Durango, Colorado after Mesa Verde. We only stayed for lunch, and I had a chance to visit the railroad museum.

I liked how the welder was illuminated in the dark work area by the single spotlight, and I wanted to capture the scene through the window without being noticed.

--Warren

Broken Window

Nikon D100

Has anyone heard of the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ?

It was featured in a PBS documentary. It's a motel where you sleep in a teepee shaped motel cabin. The outside of the cabin looks just like a teepee, but the inside looks like a small motel room complete with bed and mini-bathroom.

They parked an antique/vintage car in front of each teepee for ambiance. The old Ford that this window belonged to was a particularly trashed out hulk.

--Warren

May Project -- A Cup of Joe Before the Morning's Work

Nikon D100

While we're on the subject of horses, I caught this candid of a ranch hand at the corral behind our hotel in Williams, AZ during our walk around the grounds before breakfast.

--Warren

Another try at the horses

To reduce some of the overly bright sky, I recropped the horse photo. I had asked Warren what he thought I could do as I tried a few things to cure it. Alas, cropping was the answer.

Thx Warren!

Eric

Kinda of a Strange Sight

In Sonoma Square, there is a building w/a door 2 stories up. As you can see, they have a mannequin in it, too. Makes for a strange sight. It's a little Twilight Zoney even.

Eric

Three Horses

I was walking by the house we rented in Sonoma and snapped a picture of these 3 horses. I sat down on the side of the road and as I was getting ready to take the photo, they wandered on over and seemed to pose for me. Maybe they did. Horses are pretty smart.

Eric

Newport Beach

Nikon D100

I took this while standing on Balboa Pier at Newport Beach.

--Warren

May Project -- Rust Bucket

Nikon D100

I first noticed the droning and smell of a wheezy diesel motor nearby, as we walked on Balboa Island at Newport Beach. Then I saw this rusty barge floating among the multi-mega dollar yachts and homes. I realized that these guys were the buoy repairmen at work.

--Warren

London in State of Decay

Nikon D100

NOT!!!

This is not the "real" London, but rather a neglected facsimile of London at Lake Havasu City, AZ. The double decker bus that you see in the background was used as a snack bar stand, but has since been abandoned.

As you may know, 2 entrepeneurs purchased the London Bridge for $2.5 million in 1968 and had the bridge dismantled and transported to Lake Havasu, then rebuilt brick by brick at a cost of $4.5 million and 4 years of work. The bridge was to be the centerpiece of their new city. It's an odd place because when you see the bridge, you really get the "feeling" if only for a few minutes, of being in London. Then you look further, and see the Lake, and the recreational boating types that go with it.

--Warren

p.s. I am now at Mesa Verde National Park using dial-up access. This is our first stop without wireless Internet.

"282 feet below sea level" in B+W

At Benson's suggestion, I have turned this photo into a black and white photo. I like it alot as a black and white. Now I have to learn a good B+W workflow to do it right for printing. It looked a lot better as a tif but I had to save it as a JPEG to upload it. The JPEG version is a bit lighter with less contrast.

"Miles of NaCl"

My 8 year old son edited and cropped this picture. He used photoshop to adjust the color to his liking, used the burn tool to darken the sky and distant mountains and used unsharp mask to sharpen the image. Finally he used the crop tool and came up with this crop which I like a lot better than the original photo. Hmm... maybe he's got potential...

Devils Golf Course-sunset

Nikon D2X

This was shot at sunset at the "Devils Golf Course" in Death Valley. This place is very strange looking. The foreground is composed of large, jagged salt crystals. This location is just a few miles north of Bad Water.

Astronaut Wall of Fame

Nikon D100

We were at the Meteor Crater near Winslow AZ.

NASA astronauts used to train there so there are exhibits there related to astronauts and space exploration, including a Wall of Fame that lists all the astronauts who ever served.

The Chinese surname and the shadows from the awning caught my eye, so I decided to make a picture out of it.

--Warren

Laguna Beach Vista Point

Nikon D100, Sigma 15-30mm

This was taken at one of the many viewing points along the walking path at Laguna Beach.

The chronology of my photos are lagging a bit from where we actually are :).

Tonight, we're in Chinle, AZ, and we're going to see the Canyon de Chelley tomorrow. We're in Navajo Country.

Amazingly, I've been able to get free wireless Internet access at every place we stayed so far.

--Warren

A Better Ad for Wine Country

What is so nice about Sonoma is that it is more rural than Napa. Although Napa has it's share of rural land and beauty, I am of the opinion that Sonoma has more of each. Just my opinion.

Eric

A Bad Ad for Wine Country

While walking down a dirt road in Sonoma, I took this photo. The bare tree and the phone lines make wine country look very unhospitable. It doesn't even look like wine country. This reminds me of land I saw while driving through eastern Colorado during my college days.

Eric

Reflections On A Motorcycle

While walking around Sonoma Square, there was a Harley that was all shined up. I caught a photo of the engine section. The shininess of the engine section on that sunny afternoon just really caught my eye.

Eric

Sonoma Horse

Caught a picture of this horse next door to the house we rented a couple of weeks back.

Eric

What's Happening Outside?

While on the trip to New England, Genie and I headed up to New Hampshire one day to see my brother and sister-in-law. I was playing with their cat, Maggie, and caught this picture of her gazing out the door. She doesn't go outside and so she's probably wondering what all that stuff is out there.

Eric

Sonoma Countryside

Here's a scene outside of the house that my wife, Genie, Warren, Gail (Warren's wife), 3 other couples, and I rented a couple of weekends back up on Sonoma. What a beautiful spot. Getting away from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco was absolutely wonderful!

Eric

Lunchtime at the Construction Site

Here was an interesting scene I encountered when walking around during lunch. There's a construction site near my office, and all of the guys were on their lunch hour. They apparently had a lunch table set up in the area where they were digging. I wanted to catch the surroundings to show how little they looked when I saw them from the street.

Eric

Two Working Guys in SF

Well,this is my first posting of some working folks. Here are 2 brothers who run a store named Nick's on Market and Gough in San Francisco. I work in this neighborhood and it can be a pretty rough place, but these guys are cool. They treat their customers well. They've run this place for years, and Ed, the one on the left, worked here as a short order cook when it first opened back in the late 50's/early 60's. He was a young man from what was then known as Palestine.

Eric

May Project: Drumming for Tips

This talented young drummer attracted a good-size crowd, and with good reason, as he drummed away on his collection of cast-off junk.

Starting the past few weeks and until fall, there is usually one or more of these kind of free entertainment acts each evening at the Inner Harbor. The place was built with a small amphitheater for just such purpose.

They are usually good enough that I stop for a while, causing me to miss the train I intended to take home, and making my wife wonder why I'm getting home so late.

He Said, "Cheese!"

Nikon D100

We met this boy while walking around Balboa Island. He insisted that I take his picture, so I obliged. I told him to say "Cheese".

We're leaving Newport this morning, heading for Kingman, AZ. I don't know if I'll have consistent access to the Internet, but I'll try posting more stuff along the way. Tune into my personal blog for other pictures and updates.

--Warren

The Dunes of Death Valley

This was shot at the Death Valley Dunes near Stovewell Pipes. The tallest dunes in North America live here. The tallest dune is over 600 feet (not in my picture).

May Project -- Artist at Laguna Beach

Nikon D100

We took a short drive south to Laguna Beach yesterday, and walked along the beach path for a while.

--Warren

"The Road is Long"

Nikon D2X, Tamron 14mm F2.8

This was shot at the "Race Track" in Death Valley. These rocks mysteriously move long distances across the lakebed leaving long trails in the dried lakebed. I think the Aliens do it myself... Theories include high winds on a icy wet and very slippery lake bed in the middle of winter, but some of these rocks weigh several hundred pounds.

"282 feet below"

Nikon D2X, Tamron 14mm F2.8

I took this shot last week while in Death Valley. I got lucky with the rays of light shinning through. As a kid photographer, I always thought it looked like God coming through the clouds in a ray of light.

Not Exactly A Photo of a Working Person

This is kind of a follow-up on Warren's photo of his lizards. One took off and I caught an image of this one. The expression on it's face is pretty funny. It was taken at Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen, CA.

Eric

p.s. 5/3/06, 844 pm - Just replaced the previous photo of the lizard. It was too bright.

May 1 Immigration March

I went to Civic Center yesterday to take a look at the immigration protest. Shot this with a Canon A310. Looks ok but the shutter lag time was a problem for me. I guess it may be time for a better digital camera.

May Project: People at Work...

Well, I'm cheating a bit - I took this late last week, but when I got home, I realized it would be a good first submittal for this month's project.

I don't know much about sailing or sailing vessels except that they require a lot of upkeep.

This young lady, a member of the crew that brought the schooner Virginia to the Inner Harbor, was already hard at work early in the morning. But it didn't keep her from cheerfully greeting me as I walked by her ship.

A Fine Pair

Nikon D100

We were touring the ruins of Jack London's Wolf House in Jack London State Park at Glen Ellen where I saw this pair of fence lizards sitting on top of a wooden post.

--Warren

New Monthly Projects

The votes are in for the monthly project themes for the next 3 months.

May - People at Work, in honor of May Day
June - Joy vs. Sorrow, June is traditionally a big wedding month.
July - Decisive Moment

Happy Shooting!

-Warren