The Heavens Shine Down

One of the most popular places in San Diego, to have a wedding, or a wedding reception, or after wedding photos taken is the historic Presidio, in Old Town.

One of the area you might miss, when you drive up that way is this statue of Father Junipero Serra. (Father Serra was a famous for the California missions. I am not here to give a history lesson, There is Wikipedia for you all to read up on him. Gotta love Wiki!) Anyways, you probably will notice the brick cross on your drive up to the Presidio, but as you see, you will not notice the statue of Father Serra, unless you walk back that way from the parking lot.

Now, I sought out to capture a different perspective on the cross, initially. Then, I started thinking of lining up Father Serra and juxtaposition the cross. Then, I have my Zeiss 21mm ZE lens on and knew it handles flare really well and can just about shoot start at the sun, with minimum flare. I also know this lens gives great starbursts, when you have the aperture at f8 or smaller.

So, the feel I gave this photo should be very clear. A beam of light shining down from the heavens is a common theme, when dealing with religious figures. I didn't care about blowing out the background. Again, bright, white, glaring light from the heavens fits that feel. Also, the background would possibly show interstate 8. I am sure that would not work with this photo.

I took this photo a the right time. I tried switching to landscape feel, but the sun had just moved enough to where the starburst wasn't lining up right anymore.

Anyways, it's a Monday and I hope someone is looking down upon you, from up above.

Rocks and Mountains

Well, for the first time in almost 3 months, I had the weekend all to myself. I finished up another great year of winterguard photography. It actually felt strange, to have the weekend all to myself. After shooting weeks of thousands of performers, I thought getting out and doing some landscape photography was a great way to decompress. Not to mention, I got this nice Carl Zeiss 21mm f2.8 ZE lens for my Canon camera. I had not used it really since I bought it a few months ago. Today was a great day for it.

I must say, I love my new Zeiss lens! The color and details from it are great. It also really controls flare great and seems to give me better dynamic range, for whatever reason. Anyways, if you want to know more about this lens, leave me a comment or send me an email.

Now, for this photo, this was taken along the Pacific Crest trail, along Sunrise Highway, in east San Diego county. It's less than 10 miles from the town of Julian, which is known for their great homemade appliepies. But, enough about food.

There was pretty good visibility today and that mountain in the backdrop, in the upper right, really popped. Then I saw all these rocks, which looked like oversized arrowheads, stuck in the ground, at an angle. You can see these slanted rocks in the middle of the image, in the far background, off to the right, and of course, in the very foreground. I believe this is actually a part of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The desert floor would be below those mountains in the background.

Anyways, i just thought it was neat how this relatively plain ground had these interesting slanted rocks. that's about it. I know. Rocks can be sooooo exciting!

Aspens in Ahwahnee Meadow

Now, anyone who has been to Yosemite or has just casually looked at photos from Yosemite National Park, are very familiar with these aspens, which are located in the Ahwahnee Meadow, in Yosemite Valley. Now, most people who take photos of this take them with perhaps Half-Dome in the background or just the cliffs in that direction. I thought I would try something different.

I decided to shoot towards Yosemite Falls. I was aiming for a sort of juxtaposition here. I like that the falls are in the shade. Everything pretty much is, besides the meadow and in particular, these aspens. I think many avoid this photo, because the houses and the road are in the background. Take a look? You can barely see them in the shade. I chose a black-n-white conversion, even though this was taken on November 1st. The aspens just really popped in the black-n-white. True, the aspens popped in the color version, as well. I believe though that the black-n-white conversion really minimizes the distractions in the background and really make you look at the aspens and trail back to Yosemite Falls. Your eyes never really want to go anywhere else. That was my objective.

Hope you enjoy this slightly different perspective of a smaller Yosemite icon.

Busting out

Another Saturday and another day of photographing the pageantry art known as winterguard (indoor colorguard).

This is the start of this winterguard's show. It has an amazon feel and they are breaking out from their cage. Now this might seem like an easy photo to take. Looks can be deceiving. The key is to sit where I can get decent depth of field as well as proper composition.

Now, I saw this show like a week earlier. So I had an idea of how the show starts. That helps quite a bit. Still, it's a challenge on my memory, when I photograph over 300 guards during only a couple months. Knowing between which bars she would come out is vital. A smaller detail is they start lifting another girl in the background up. I did not want her getting chopped off.

Anyways, I got fortunate because the performer busting out has the perfect look. I can only do so much making the photo. The performer has to do their part, as well. This photo certainly draws an emotional response. I think this is a photo that would be perfect for a program cover or poster.

Well, next weekend is championships and that will conclude my weekends of winterguard photography until next February. It's always fun, but at the same time, I am ready for the rest. So are my cameras. I certainly wear them out, as well. But photos like these and seeing the kids loving them makes it all the worthwhile.

Masquerade

Well, another winterguard season is just about over. 2 more weekends to go and the season is over with.

Here is a photo from a very fun and entertaining show, performed this past weekend in Riverside county. They start off the show in this formation and this is like a few seconds after the show starts. I really like the facial expression, where the mask is at this point, and I really like all the arms over to the right side. When the performers have as much fun as the show portrays, it makes for some really great images. This was one of my favorites from the weekend.