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

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.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Never visited the Mission before, so it seemed like a good reason to snap a few photos. The Mission was more interesting than expected, and larger than it looked from outside the perimeter walls. They give you a player and head phones so you know what you’re looking at.

Mission Chapel

  

The Mission was founded in 1776. Constructed a few years later, the Mission Chapel is the oldest building in California that’s still in use.

 

Built about 20 years later, the Great Church was leveled during the first Sunday service by a 7.0 earthquake, killing 40. (How do they know the size of an earthquake that happened 200 years ago)? They constructed the Great church from large sandstone blocks…probably not the best building material. You could probably carve it with a spoon.                 

 

 

This wall was built the year after the earthquake. They recovered the bells from the rubble of the Great Church bell tower.  

   Koi pond in the main court-yard.

 I took a lot of pictures of the Koi. This is the pose I wanted, like a Japanese water-color. Only one fish would coöperate.

Well, that wasn’t as boring as I imagined, but I had the added benefit of doing something I enjoy…photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a Cloud in the Sky

I’ve heard it said “It’s a picture perfect day, not a cloud in the sky”…whoever coined the phrase wasn’t a photographer.

I was on my way home the other day, it was cloudy with scattered rain, so I headed to Corona Del Mar.

Tokina 12-24mm       16mm   1/10s  ISO320  f22

Handheld at one sixth of a second? That’s impossible, he must have hands of steel?

1/6s 12mm ISO 500  f22That’s the Newport Harbor entrance in the distance.

19mm 1/60s ISO 320 f22

 12mm 1/60s ISO 500 f22 …Nice clouds!

I’ve Had My Fill of Car Shows!

Two car shows in one month? OK, that’s enough! This show was huge, they say 3,000 plus cars. I didn’t count ‘em, but it seemed less, maybe I missed a few? It’s a charity event with proceeds going to prostate cancer research. They have one for breast cancer in May, so I guess this was an equal opportunity event. Either way it was for a good cause and it was definitely better than the Labor Day Cruise.

These motorized bicycles were cool, you’d look great on one with a leather aviators cap and old style goggles. Very nice!

 Nice Cobra, this looked authentic, the badges and interior all looked original, I don’t think it was a replica car, but I’m not an expert and their was no one to ask. Either way I would love to own this car.

How could something so rusty be so cool. I thought this was a very photographic car, check out the bamboo headliner.  I don’t know, maybe my personal taste, no one else paid much attention? 

It feels good to take a rest! For some reason it’s very popular to have hydraulics that lower your car to the pavement, I guess to prevent the car from getting tired.

Things that make you say, “Wow!”.

  Well, it was a little hot, but I got to visit with a couple of friends who had cars in the show and took some worthwhile photos. Maybe I’ll go again next year?

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Hurley Pro Surf Contest at Trestles

 The Hurley Pro surf contest held at Trestles (the premier Southern California surf spot) concluded this Saturday with veteran Kelly Slater the winner.  This the only North American stop on the pro tour after a stop in Tahiti (I wish I was at the Tahiti contest instead) is now on it’s way to the south coast of France. The waves magically appeared for the contest, they had been small this summer, not a good summer for beach goers, the weather and water have been cool and the waves scarce.  The waves make or break a surf contest and this year was a real winner.                                                

Bede Durbidge, above, lost in the finals, four years ago it was the reverse, he beat Slater to win the championship. The day was cloudy and hazy, making it tough for photos…a lot of post work to get contrast and color out of the images, but in all, a very nice day! I was using a 300mm lens with a 2x converter, I was jealous of the 600mm lenses around me, some with converters. What were they shooting at 840 mm or 1,020 mm? 

Film and Scanners

Here’s a photo I took in 1984 with a Canon AE-1 , a marvel of modern technology, no auto focus, but there’s a little meter in the viewfinder, tweak the aperture and shutter until the needle centers and click, you have a good exposure…in theory. It really was a great and very popular camera, almost everyone had one.

I purchased an Epson V500 scanner and it works so well I’m tempted to shoot some film, but I’m sure the novelty would soon wear off… I wonder how much to develop a roll of film these days?

 

Seven Sacred Pools, Maui, framed as taken, no crop. Back then if you wanted to crop a photo, you printed it and got out the scissors. Twenty-six years ago I couldn’t even imagine the cameras and photo editing software we have today.

I went back to this spot in 2000 and there were hundreds of people and a parking area full of tour buses. What a difference, but still beautiful!

Bolsa Chica Wildlife Preserve

I’m lucky there’s the Bolsa Chica Wildlife Preserve nearby, when ever I’m in the area I try to stop by for an hour or two. You’d think it would be easy to take a meaningful photo of such beautiful wildlife, but honestly they all start to look the same after a while. I think that’s when you have to challenge yourself and get creative. A little different angle, lower through the reeds, flash or aperture. Ok, lower through the reeds is maybe a little weak, but you get the idea. I do like the photo. 

Looks like I used a flash, but I didn’t. The sun was over my shoulder (perfect!),  The wind was blowing pretty hard , the ruffled feathers were the result.

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Labor Day Cruise Car Show

Went to the Labor Day Cruise car show at the Orange County Fairgrounds, usually this time of year would be miserable hot, but this year has been very mild, nice day! The main reason for my visit was to take pictures of the Reyes family and their cars.Lisa and her Camaro, bright sunny day, but able to tone down the ambient light with flash.Eddie with his wife Carol.Eddie Jr. with his (soon to be) Nova. This is going to leave Eddie Sr. without a classic car to show, I think I see a project in his future.

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