Opa and Ben

Here's my favorite photo of my my late father and Ben. I took it in February 1992, when Ben was not quite six years old.

What prompted me to get this one out and scan it is that Ben finished his very last day of school this past Thursday (classes, at least - finals are this week.) I asked him to have someone take his photo on campus so that I could pair it with the one Sandy took of him on his first day of kindergarten. While I was looking for that picture, I found this one just a few pages later in Sandy's well-organized photo album.

Back in '92, I had considered myself no longer a photographer, but simply a family snapshooter. I used a succession of auto-focus rangefinders that I bought for Sandy, my "good cameras" having been long before sold off.

But every once in a while, the photographer in me would come out, and this was one of those times. I had visualized this photo earlier in the day, knowing that Grandma and Opa were coming to visit. I got out my dusty, little-used Nikon EM and had Dad and Ben pose for just a few seconds.

I'll take some of the credit for this photo but not by any means all of it - the lion's share is thanks to the loving bond between Dad and his grandson.

Citadel in Halifax Canada

D200

This was taken at the fort in Halifax Canada. These are historians from the local community that put on the uniforms and present the look and feel of the fort over the many years it was in use.

Sunset at Poplar Beach, Half Moon Bay

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

Here's another "Let's Make Dolph Homesick" picture :)

Fences make nice subjects, especially in the late afternoon sunset light. This is at the Bluff Top Trail above Poplar Beach.

--Warren

Departure Poem

Detained in this wooden house for several tens of days,

It is all because of the Mexican exclusion law which implicates me,

It's a pity heroes have no way of exercising their prowess.

I can only await the word so that I can snap Zu's whip.

From now on, I am departing far from this building.

All of my fellow villagers are rejoicing with me.

Don't say that everything within is Western styled.

Even if it is built of jade, it has turned into a cage.

-Anonymous

@ Angel Island Immigration Station

For a great multimedia web site about the history and poems at the Angel Island Immigration Station, go here: http://www.poeticwaves.net/

Dude, I am Like Sooooooooooo Bored

I was on Muni (San Francisco's bus and subway system), and I was surreptitiously snapping away. As I was looking at the results, these 2 faces reached out to me. This is why I always carry a book or a camera on the bus or subway with me. I don't want to be bored out of my mind.

Welcome Laurie

I too am relatively new to the Blog. Love Macro Flower shots and look forward to your subjects of Florida species we cannot grow here in Northern California. The experienced folks in the Blog are great resources and very supportive. This is a great place to share your work and gain insight.

Dan

Nikka and Simon

Nikon F2, 50mm f1.4, Fuji 400

We went to visit our friend, Linda, in Pacific Grove a couple of months ago. It was nice to see Nikka and Simon again. As you may remember, I've posted pictures of them here before. Nikka is older now, but she is still the most lovable cat that I've ever known.

--Warren

Morning Stroll

Our resident heron takes a stroll across the Pond.

Inquisitive

Nikon F2, Nikkor-S 50mm f1.4, Fuji Superia Xtra 400

I caught this moment as our Angel Island tour brought us to the room where a poem carved into the wall of the immigration center was discovered underneath layers of paint. The tour guides passed around replicas of poem carvings for us to ponder as we listened to the story of how the discovery of this poem eventually lead to the preservation of this historic place. This young man was taking in all the lessons and information that was presented to us.

--Warren

Early Bird View

I cheated on this one and combined two photos, one for the foreground and one for the sky. It was taken at about 5:45 AM without a tripod. I went through a few shots to get some in focus and matched up so I could combine two shots.

Dan

Pick'n At Seed

I brought some birdseed with me last Sunday morning to the pond and thew some on this fallen log at the edge of the water.

Of all the ducks and geese in the pond, this one was the only one with enough initiative to hop onto the log. I enjoyed watching him chow down.

Six Years and Counting

September 2009 will mark the sixth year anniversary for FPCF! It has been a lot of fun.

What should we do to celebrate?

--Warren

My Friend in Cabo

photo by Gail, w/Canon A570is

I couldn't resist posting this :).

--Warren

p.s. The search feature on Blogger is broken again, in case you haven't noticed.

Little Guy Hanging Around

D200 / 300mm

A couple of months ago we went for a drive down near Miami and I saw this little guy just handing around. Most of the time you can't get near them, before the take off.

Dolph

Flowers at the Maple Farm

D200

These little flowers were in the same maple farm we visited. The light broke through the trees and these little guys stood out. I'm still not getting the loading of the images right, but I'll continue to work on it.. until then enjoy the images.

The Mayor

This Great Dane is the official "Mayor" of Orcas Island. He is a huge dog, about the size of a small pony.

Patriotic Fish

Another "warm-up" photo from Virginia Beach in mid-July.

The more I look at "Fishy Abstract" (I posted it last week or so,) the more I agree with Warren - the shapes are OK, but the colors aren't quite right and clash. This one is more unified in color, but I don't think the shapes are as interesting. What do you think?

Little Red Boat at Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove, MA

D200

This place has more potential for taking pictures! On one side is the Atlantic ocean and the other is this nice quite cove. The red little boat and the green grass, with all the grey of the storm just made the picture.

Storm over Peggy's Cove

D200

The sunrise over the Atlantic, with smooth storm clouds and the cracked rocks drew me into these people that looked like they were touching the clouds.

The cove was not named after my wife who's name is Peggy.

Dolph

Rebirth of a Maple Tree

Rebirth of a Maple Tree

We were Canada and had taken a trip to a maple farm to taste maple sugar. One of the trees had been cut down near the house, and it just wanted to produce some more maple sugar. Comments? I tried sizing this correctly Warren, is this what you were looking for?

Gettn some AIR

no crash.



no crash.



no crash.


This was a spectacular event -- the Monster Energy Slalom. Riders from all over the globe. The sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds, making for some great shots with the dark clouds in the background. Even the texture of the clouds was great for more depth and colour.

Pikes place market

big fish!

Slalom Mountain Bike Racing

At Whistler Crankworx last week.. Super amazing. Tricks were awesome, races were FAST...

dunno how they do it! herooooooooes XD

Newport Beach Back Bay

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

Back Bay around sunset time. We took a walk along the loop trail. I'm just now catching up on some photos that I took on our recent Southern CA trip.

--Warren

Classic SF View at Alamo Square

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

Believe it or not, this was the first time that I took any pictures at this classic picture location!

There's always room for another take, right?

We took Ima and Fernando there, so naturally I had to take my own pictures here too.

--Warren

Ima and Fernando at Stow Lake

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

Eric, now you can see what Ima & Fernando look like :).

Ima is the bride's best friend. Cristina and David originally planned to be in SF to show them around, but they were tied up in Southern CA, so Gail and I had the pleasure of showing them SF.

--Warren

Concord House

I was in a national park in Concord, MA which is a memorial and a tribute to the soldiers who fought against the British during the American Revolution. Here was a beautiful home across the a lake.

Photo Eye

Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm

This is Fernando from Spain, we met a few weeks ago at his friends' wedding in Newport. We took Fernando and his wife Ima around SF. This shot was taken in Chinatown while Ima was shopping in this store.

I thought the lights behind Fernando made an interesting pattern above his head :).

I wondered what he saw across the street that prompted him to take a picture.

--Warren

Bridge in Carlisle, MA

While in Massachusetts this past July, I got a shot of a small bridge near my sister and brother-in-law's place in the town of Carlisle. It was right after a rain.

Low Tide

This kind of reminded me of flying over the Midwest farm belt. In actuality it is a boat ramp at low tide with seaweed.

Fishy Abstract

Last month, we had a wonderful time visiting our cousins in Virginia Beach. We stayed with cousins Marcy and Paul Terkeltaub and also we all got together with cousins Lisa and Murray Rosenbach, who live nearby.

Marcy and Lisa are enthusiastic photographers (and pretty good, too!) so we decided to head out to the actual beach at Virginia Beach early Saturday morning for some picture-taking. Cousin Murray came along, and proved to be a first-rate picture spotter, gull-chaser and cheerful companion.

Since I've gone all-digital-all-the-time, one of the things I've found useful when I go out to purposely take photos is to just start taking them right away, even if I don't see a strikingly "keeper" image. I find that I need to warm-up my photo-eye, just like I would need to warm up before exercizing (if I were to ever exercize.)

One of the first things we came across along the boardwalk was this set of whimsical fish sculptures. I took a sister-and-brother photo of Marcy and Murray, and then, along with Marcy and Lisa, started to crawl around the fish, looking for interesting angles. This fishy abstract is one of the images I came up with.

St. Michael Redux

Warren was wondering what the whole church looks like, so I went out in 98F, 90% humidity today and shot this one.

Just kidding, Warren ;-) I thought it might be nice to have a "reference" photo, so I took this one last Sunday along with the others.

While I was in Photoshop, I realized that there was a slight "leaning back" to the building, so I went into the Filter|Distort menu - I hadn't used it before (Photoshop Elements has you do this sort of thing through Image|Transformation menu, with more limited options.) I fixed the lean and noticed that there was a Vignetting setting. I think it's there primarily to fix vignetting that most lenses exhibit at wider apertures. Just for the heck of it, I added vignetting to darken around the church and make it stand out. I think I overdid it, but I like the effect.

Whitewalls

If you haven't guessed already, I love repeating patterns.

But somehow, when I was visiting our cousins in Virginia Beach, I walked right past this bike rental place without seeing the dozen or so good repeating-pattern images.

Luckily, Cousin Murray had caught on quickly to my patternmania, and pointed this one out to me.

Thanks, Cuz!

Under the Bridge

At Druid Ridge, a convoy of ducks sails under the old bridge and into the small stream that feeds the pond.

Through a little Googling, I found that the white "AFLAC" ducks are called Pekin Duck or (in the USA) Long Island Duck. They developed in China centuries ago. When you have roast duck or duck eggs, it's most likely that you're eating one of these quackers.

After hanging around these guys, I've really grown to like them. I think I'll stick to chicken.

Ghosts!

Should I have my camera checked out??

St. Michael the Archangel Ukranian Catholic Church

I've seen the golden onion domes of St. Michael from various places elsewhere in Baltimore, but it was only yesterday, as I drove down Eastern Avenue, that I got to see the church close up. In the bright late-afternoon sun, it just knocked me out.

Stonehengesque

Some weathered sandstone boulders on the road to Dillon Beach in Sonoma Co. I thought of Druids and pagan rites when walking in the area.

Abandoned Bunk House

I thought the reflection in the window gave this shot an eerie effect.

Point Reyes National Seashore Ranch

These are my first shots using film in quite some time. I want to thank Warren for re-kindling my interest in using film again.

A few observations and perhaps this will spur some comments on the blog; (a) I used the Ilford Delta 400 film noir blanc and for the subjects and given the weather it seemed to work, but the grain in my opinion seems rather large, on a clear day when you want to clearly depict a subject perhaps this would not be the film to use. (b) The effect b & w film gives vs. digital and converting to grayscale is significantly different. You can achieve a quality with film that cannot be duplicated even with post processing software. I don't know if I would say the same for color film vs digital. (c) Finally hiking around with two bodies (digital and film) and three lenses (wide angle zoom, telephoto zoom, and prime zoom is a lot of weight and gives you a good workout. The challenge is to have the right lens on the right body for spontaneous shots, and needless to say I missed some opportunities.

These photos are from the Point Reyes National Seashore at Pierce Point. This is a permanent exhibit at the Seashore and was a working dairy ranch supplying San Francisco up until the 1960s. Many ranches are still functioning in the area and produce dairy products including incredible cheeses.

Captain James Landing - Canton

I've driven past this unusual restaurant, Captain James Landing, many times before. But today, I had my camera with me, so I parked the car and took some photos.

As I often do with interesting flat vertical areas like this, I framed an image and waited for someone to walk into it. Several people did within the next 15 minutes, but this young woman made for the most compelling photo.

Nightmare Mecanique

Nikon D100

This mechanical arcade dummy was seen at the Musee Mecanique at Fisherman's Wharf.

It was already pretty scary looking, but I decided to make it even more nightmarish. :)

--Warren

Fountain at Levi's Plaza Park

Nikon D100

This was taken on the day of Steve R.'s visit to San Francisco.

We stopped at Levi's Plaza for a rest.

--Warren

p.s. Steve or Martin, you guys took shots of this too. How about posting some?

Church Tower

Nikon D100, Nikkor 28mm f2.8

We were walking in SF near the Union St./Marina District when I noticed the interesting lighting on this church's tower.

--Warren