Bye Bye STI

It was cool and rainy, proper for such a sad day. Why a sad day? This is the day I sell my Subaru. A 2005 Subaru STI, 0-60 in 4.6 seconds, 300 hp, and 300 ft lbs of gut wrenching torque.

I took one last ride in the rain, perfect conditions for all wheel drive. I had this car almost 7 years, I just couldn’t let it go…I usually keep a car 3 or 4 years.

The car was great, but I’ve decided to go with something newer and better on gas. I put 110,000 miles on the car, but if you can find one with low miles…buy it. I guess you must like the styling, kinda funky looking car. Upgrade the rear sway bar to something big to take out the under steer and enjoy.

When I bought the car it cost 30k (probably not a lot of money for some people) and now they’re 35k, I had a hard time spending 30k on a car. I feel a big automotive downgrade coming on. Probably for the best, I’m getting a little too old for a kids car. I had a lot less gray hair when I bought it 7 years ago .

Lights, Camera…Flash (update)

I was looking through old files and came across this one.  I didn’t use it at the time (taken 4 months ago) because there were stray hairs that would have taken too much time to clean up…I was being lazy, so I put it aside and forgot about it.

I did a black and white conversion and gave the eyes a little punch.

It’s a nice photo. I’m glad I went back and fixed it.

Escaping Huntington Beach

Escaping Huntington Beach…that’s the way I felt leaving the US Open of Surfing. It was Saturday and by the time I left (2:00pm) it was getting crowded and more people were pouring in. I was glad I had somewhere else to go.

This was before the crowds arrived.

It was a beautiful Southern California day and the waves were decent. What would they do if the waves didn’t show and the surfers just sat there on big glassy pool… it would be very, very sucky and I hope that never happens.

I went a little crazy and tried some abstract photos. This is shooting through the  giant graphic on the back of the bleachers .

The plastic on one of the sponsor tents, the reflections are of the sand and the people. A potted palm is visible through the plastic.

Chasing Fire Trucks

DWJohnson on 500px

href=”http://www.donjohnsonphotography.com/”>http://www.donjohnsonphotography.com/

OK, here’s my chance to play editorial photographer. You always think you could do better than the photo in the newspaper. (One thing for sure…I’m not a writer)

I was chasing fire trucks, not something I would normally do, but it didn’t look too far out of my way. You never know what you’re going to find, maybe a good photo…where there’s smoke there’s fire.

I always carry a camera, for some reach I have a spare (older) 80-200 under my car seat.

The Irvine police had blocked the street access. I parked a couple of buildings away and squeezed through a hedge, I arrived early, the show hadn’t even started, by the time the fire department could lay their hoses the flames were thirty feet high… Big fire!

Trantronics at  1822 Langley in Irvine.

 Three fire fighters on the roof didn’t last long, it appeared the roof would soon give way so there was a lot of shouting and a quick retreat… No water yet.

I couldn’t believe they were on that roof, I could feel the heat from across the street. It was probably 160 degrees up there.

I was directly in the line of smoke and it completely blocked out the sun, great for a photo, not so much for breathing. Kept moving to stay out of the smoke, no telling what toxins mixed in.

After they laid a mile of hose and checked for occupants, finally some water.

It’s hot work!

 I was glad they stopped the rain of  hot ashes and debris.

 

I was glad I had the long lens, I’ve driving around with it under my car seat for a year and finally used it.

 

I heard there were sixty fire fighters from the Irvine, Santa Ana and Newport Beach Fire Departments.

It’s a tough job, but I think most of these guys love what they do.

My car was a couple hundred yards away and still collected pieces of roofing material.

Totally worth it!

Singh Ray Gold n-Blue Polarizer

Laguna Beach Palm tree, Singh Ray Gold n-Blue and a touch of topaz. This looks good in Photoshop, I wish there was blog software that displayed a photo better.

This Singh Ray filter gives a boost to gold and blue.  You can spin the polarizer (looks like 2 polarizers attached together) and change from gold to blue bias. I’m not completely happy, as it seems to change some shades of green to gold, eliminating the green. Just my first impression, I will continue the experiment.

 This the original straight out of the camera, no topaz.

Don’t know how, maybe with multiple exposures to mix the green in, maybe you could end up with something that looks like Kodachrome on steroids.

Prom 2011

My Niece Madison and her boyfriend Andrew on their way to Prom Night, I used 2 SB800′s, stands, and umbrellas. A simple setup pulled out of my trunk in minutes.

Jennifer

My daughter Jennifer was nice enough to pose for a few photos. I bought 2 new monolights and was very happy to try them out.

 

Ecological Reserve

Beautiful day Sunday, went to Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. Take some pictures of birds, a little exercise and fresh air.

Lights, Camera…Flash

Nicole

My friend Kerry invited me to his home to do a studio shoot. His home studio is a very nice 4 car garage with an office and restroom just in side the house, very nice…wish I had a setup like that.

 Erica 

  Kerry had meticulously arranged for models, hair and makeup and a clothing designer through Model Mayhem (a website where photographers, models, makeup artists and others collaborate). The goal of this shoot was head shots and portfolio building. I forgot my white backdrop, black dresses and black hair… I really could have used it.

 

 Nicole

Kerry uses the left half of the garage for his studio and was nice enough to allow me to set up on the right side. So up went the backdrop, a few monolights, flash radios, softboxes and I was ready. I made that sound too easy, my car was so full of gear I don’t think I could have fit anymore.

 

As a photographer, how can you go wrong?

 

We had a no-show model. Erica was the hair and makeup artist who also volunteered to model. She did a fantastic job at both.

 

 

Wardrobe by Zeplo Designs

A special thanks to Kerry at Light and Sand Studios.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Light-Sand-Studios/202025006493894

I was thinking about the last time Kerry invited me to shoot, it was last December. A charity event called Help portrait. I had started writing a post about it, saved a draft and never published. I’m just going to add it to the end of this post…  

 

First of all I’d like to say this is a late post of something that took place in December, better late than not at all.

 

My friend Kerry talked me into this… He said, ” How’d you like to take some portraits of homeless people.”  Say what?…I had visions of a downtown skid row side-walk.

Thankfully, I was wrong! I soon learned that this is a very well-organized project called Help Portrait.

Orange County Help Portrait committed to 4 locations, we volunteered for the Orange County Rescue Mission, Hair and makeup started while we setup our equipment. There were more families than individuals, these did not look like homeless people.

 Each family received one 8 x 10 and two 5 x 7 professional lab printed photos, It was amazing what a holiday family portrait meant to most of the families. They do some really good work at the mission.

The second annual Help-Portrait world-wide event included over 10,000 photographers, make-up artists, hair stylists and volunteers who delivered more than 50,000 photos in 46 countries. 

The 2011 Help-Portrait will take place on the 10th of December.

Joshua Tree National Park

Road trip. I needed a couple of more photos for my calendar (Christmas gifts), last years seemed to get a positive reception, but this year I’ve lost the element of surprise.   

I made the long drive to Joshua Tree National Park, the land of giant boulders and squiggly bottle brush trees. A beautiful area with a surreal quality.

That’s a person standing on top of that rock, Joshua Tree is a popular rock climbing area.

 A baby cactus attacked me, I took a photo in case it needed to be identified later. 

If you ever visit the park…watch your back.