Attracting crowds

Sometimes, all it takes is a dog to attract a crowd.

Photograph (Day 3) - 20 Days of Chill

One of the things I love about photography is the freedom to explore different areas where I wouldn't have gone 5 years ago.  In 2011, I joined the 365 Project which challenges photographers to shoot at least one shot every day for 365 consecutive days.

Now, for those of you who know me well, when I dive into something, I dive into it full cannonball mode.  Not only did I do an entire year, I did a second year, not missing a single day of picking up my DSLR camera and taking at least one shot.

Looking back on some of those early shots, I think I would be embarrassed to even show those shots the light of day today.  I can distinctly remember a shot of three different kinds of hotdogs.  Who posts photos of hotdogs anyway?  Yeah, well I did.

One aspect of photography that has intrigued me over the years has been street photography.  When I first started doing the project, I rarely took candid shots just walking down the street.  Over the course of the first year I became bolder and now I find myself enjoying taking street photography.  This particular shot is one of my better street shots I've taken. Because I feel street photography works better in monotones, that's how I usually process them.  Every now and then, I'll post a street photograph in color, but most of the time, I find the black and white aspect of the shot gives it more detail and dramatic effect.

Please check out others interpretations of the theme Photograph here.

The day after last night

I tried to think about what I might be able to use to write about this prompt.  I thought to myself that I wonder what kind of photo I could use with this, so I decided to let the fates decide.  I went to my Flickr account and thought it might be interesting to just post a photo of the last shot that got faved there and write a story around it.

I actually got very lucky since it could have been one of my more recent shots, but someone apparently found the shot of downtown Los Angeles in the archives and faved it today.

I enjoy going to LA, mainly because there's a lot to take photos of there.  I can take the train in from where I live and it drops me off at Union Station, right next to Olivera Street.  A couple of blocks over and I'm in Chinatown.  Three blocks the other way, I'm in Little Tokyo.  Up a couple of blocks a third way and I can then walk all the way around Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It's like you're in a time warp, where the day after last night keeps happening over and over again, you get to see different cultures and yet never really do any kind of traveling.

The other thing I enjoy about this area is it affords me to practice my street photography.  I know not everyone is comfortable taking photos of random people on the street and at times it can feel very intimidating.  But I've found that I can document life on the street in a variety of ways, not all of it nice, but all of it real.  Sometimes I post those shots in color, but most of the time, I'll post them in monotone.  For whatever reason, I feel that the monotone gives the shot a more authentic look to it, almost like something out of the past.

Street photography has its own rewards and it can present problems.  Most people don't like other people taking photos of them.  I understand that, but if no one took any photos how could we document what's happening out there?  I've tried a technique with a varying degree of success.  I'll see a shot, compose it in my mind, then walk by it with my camera in my hand upside down and fire off shots as I walk away.  With the zoom lens and the auto focus, I can sometimes get some very interesting shots that way.

Other times, I'll just take a shot, because it looks interesting.  Many people don't really notice when you're taking your shot, especially if you don't get in somebody's face about it.  That's another reason to carry a zoom lens along.  It makes for a less intimidation factor when you're in a crowd taking shots.

No matter what day I go, whether it's yesterday, tomorrow or the day after last night, I find the subject matter in the downtown area has always changed, so there's always new shots.  But at the same time, the subject matter is also constant and doesn't change.  I hope that makes sense.

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2015): Spring

Here is is, the end of the month already and P.J.'s monthly challenge is upon us.  This month, the theme is spring.  I will be the first to admit that I didn't use my camera very much this month, nor did I even use the cell phone camera, but I did take enough shots that I think I can come up with five shots that pretty much epitomize springtime.  That being said, here are my entries into this month's challenge.

1.  Fiesta

Every Mother's Day weekend, our church has its annual fiesta.  This fiesta is likely the second or third largest event in the city of Claremont every year, so a lot of people attend and there were good crowds even though there was a large threat of rain in the air most of Friday night when this shot was taken.  For the past couple of years, I've usually set up my camera on a tripod somewhere around here and get some light streak shots.  This year, I walked down to the fiesta, only to turn my camera on and find out I had a dead battery.  I knew it was low, but wasn't aware it was that low and so I was totally unprepared for this circumstance.

However, this year, because I'm now part of the 21st century and I have my own smartphone now, I used the camera in the phone for some shots.  Not quite the same thing, but since I have several shots for the past couple of years with light streaks, this is a little different from my normal shots at this time.  It worked out well, mainly because the sight angles this year for the various rides weren't the greatest in the world and the best angles were right in the middle of high pedestrian traffic, which is not good for a long exposure with a camera on a tripod, so it probably worked out better that I did have a dead battery.  Still, that's just a rookie mistake, one that will not be repeated again.

2.  New hobbies?

For whatever reason, it seems like springtime is the time when new hobbies can be explored, that is unless you have a hobby that involves winter gear.  Most hobbies tend to be warm weather hobbies however and so I've got anew interest, one that might not come to fruition for a couple of years, but there's a large spark of interest here.  

One of many photo projects that I've participated in over the last couple of years is the 100 Strangers project.  I haven't taken a stranger photo in over a year, but when I saw Stephen here piloting a drone over the fiesta, I figured I wanted to know more about the drone, how it worked, etc.  Push came to shove and I walked over and starting talking with him about the drone.  Eventually, Stephen said the magic words, "Would you like to fly it?"

Oh man, that was very cool.  I got to hover, I got it to go straight up over the fiesta and just about the time I was ready to really start watching what the drone was seeing, the app lost contact with it.  Oops.  Fortunately, it didn't just plummet to the ground and Stephen was able to guide it in to a safe landing, but at least I can say that I've now piloted a drone.  Oh, yeah.  I plan on doing that again, sometime I hope in the near future.  Perhaps my children can pool their money together and get their old man a drone for Christmas.  That would be pretty cool.  At least here in California, I wouldn't necessarily have to wait until springtime to try it out.

3.  Walt Disney Family Museum

Springtime usually means the beginning of the traveling season, at least for me.  Early in the season, during my spring break, I went camping in Death Valley, the first time I'd been there in about 20 years.  But I digress, since these photos for this challenge have to be taken in the month of May.

Usually in May, I go visit my older two children over Memorial Day weekend.  This year I traveled up to the Bay Area to visit with my daughter and her fiancé.  My older son drove over from Merced for the weekend and we had a very enjoyable time.  Most of Saturday was spent dealing with little wedding details, mostly finding the right suit for the two dads.  I remember several years ago, when one of my good geocaching friend's daughter got married and he bought a suit for the occasion. If I remember correctly, he hadn't worn a suit in a very long time and probably won't ever after.  My daughter commented that she couldn't really remember ever seeing me in a suit either.  Well, I now own a suit, but once again, I'm digressing a little bit since that story doesn't deal with the photo.

Sunday, we drove up to San Francisco into the Presidio.  Our goal was to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum.  If you are a Disney aficionado, or have next to no knowledge of Walt Disney, you will enjoy yourself at this place.  The entire museum is obviously dedicated to Walt Disney, set up by his daughters and it contains all sorts of memorabilia of the man.  The museum is very interactive and pays attention to all sorts of small details.

At one point we were walking down a hall that had a grand vista view of the Golden Gate Bridge and my daughter commented that she felt that all of a sudden she was in a ride at Disneyland.  Not coincidentally, we turned the corner of the hallway and were in a room that featured everything Disneyland, including a scale model replica of the park.  Having worked at the park for five years in the 80s, this was just fabulous and I could have stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, but there were other things to see.

The photo that I've decided to show here doesn't have anything to do with Disneyland, but with the early pioneering that Disney did with sound cartoons.  This shot shows 348 frame enlargements form the film Steamboat Willie, the first talking cartoon, and the first that featured Mickey Mouse.  The 348 shots represents less than 15 seconds of animation time of the film.  And these were all hand drawn at the time as well, no computers to help them out.  Talk about labor intensive work.  It's no wonder that a feature length film, such as Peter Pan, was only released once every three years or so.

4. Street photography

As most of you know, I enjoy taking street shots of total strangers.  Outside of the Disney Museum, the green between some of the buildings was hosting a massive street fair.  Food booths surrounded all sides of the green and all of us took advantage of the massive amounts of good food.  If any of us went hungry, that was our own fault. 

Springtime in San Francisco is dicey at best.  There's always a good chance that Carl can show up at anytime.  Who's Carl?  Believe it or not, Carl is the fog that shows up in San Francisco.  He even has his own Twitter account.  The day we were at the Presidio, Carl was still off shore, but was threatening to come in at any time.  Still, people came to the street fair prepared for the weather and most everyone was enjoying each other's company, which is why I find this shot so amusing.  All sorts of things are happening all around and this guy was totally absorbed in his phone, probably checking his email or something similar.  Maybe he was checking out the latest tweet from Carl.

5.  Kanka

While we were eating lunch on the green, my daughter told me to turn around and look at this massive Great Dane that was walking around with his owner on the other side of the green.  This dog was the size of a small pony.  After we'd finished eating and they had found a place to park themselves, I walked over and asked if I could take some photos of the dog.  After getting permission, I took several shots before the dog got bored and didn't want to have anything more to do with me.  This shot turned out the best of the bunch. He has a better expression in another shot, but I cut off his ear with some poor composition, so I'm going with this one.

His owner said the dog's name was Kanka, which apparently means best friend in Turkish.  Nothing better than going for a walk with your best friend on a beautiful spring weekend up in the Presidio.

Well, there you have it.  Five shots of spring.  Please stop by P.J.'s post to see his offerings on the theme.  There's also links at the bottom of that page where you can view other blogger's springtime offerings as well.

The morning after - Day 10 of the Chill

It's Friday and with this post I'm halfway through the Chill challenge.  To be perfectly honest, I never expected to see me get this far.  I have had some nice encouragement from different quarters, some bloggers and some friends of mine who have been nice enough to post something, either here or on Facebook, that has helped keep me going.  So I thank you for that.

Besides writing to the prompt, I've also kept in the back of my head that I wanted to tie the prompt in with different photos that I've taken.  Some, I think, I've been pretty successful in tying in, while others (yesterday's post comes to mind) I don't think I've been quite as successful.

Today's prompt, the morning after, can have a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people.  Yeah, that's pretty wishy washy, but it's the best I can come up with.  I have to admit that every time I've seen the prompt, Maureen McGovern's song from the original Poseidon Adventure keeps running through my head.  Look up the video and you'll see a pretty amazing cast in this movie.

The lyrics for the first two verses, written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn speak about love getting through the night and about the journey the people in the Poseidon had to make to get out alive.

There's got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on looking for the light.

Oh, can't you see the morning after
It's waiting right outside the storm.
Why don't we cross the bridge together
And find a place that's safe and warm.

Originally, the song's title was called, Why must there be a morning after?  Either way, reading the words, or thinking about either title, I think the song takes on an entirely different meaning when juxtaposed along with the photo I've chosen to tie in to this prompt.

Comments as always are welcome.

Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2014) - Photographer's Choice

So this month, PJ, in his infinite wisdom decided to have the challenge be a photographer's choice.  Now he's gone and done it.  I can post anything I want this month and don't have to worry about whether it's following the them or not.  Or at least I don't have to try and justify whether it's following the theme or not.  Yeah, like I do that anyway.

Usually what happens is I take photos with little regard for the theme (sorry PJ).  Well, I take that back.  I'll usually have the theme in the back of my mind and if something comes to mind, I'll take a photo in that direction, but I've found in the past that when I force myself a certain way into photography, I tend to get stuck.  So in the long run, it's easier to just take photos and see if any fit the theme.  Very rarely do I not get five that fit the theme.

With this month being photographer's choice, I just decided to pick, what I consider, my five best shots.  And so, without a whole lot of extra fanfare, I give you my five shots for this month's theme.

1.  76 trombones
Nope, there weren't 76 trombones in this parade, nor were there 110 cornets either, but this is our town's intermediate school marching band walking down our city streets the last weekend of October during the annual Village Venture Arts and Crafts Faire.  The band usually leads the Halloween parade that opens up the day-long event.  I was standing on the curb and saw the trombones coming and took several shots, hoping to get a good one.  Because of the angle, I actually got a bonus selfie out of the deal as well.

2.  The Skeleton family
At the Village Venture, there are always a lot of people dressed up for Halloween and it's a great spot for people watching.  Anyone who's followed this blog for any length of time knows that I enjoy street photography and an event like this is right up my alley.  I spotted this entire family of skeletons hanging out after the parade and just couldn't resist taking a shot.  I have several other street shots that aren't quite as good as this one, but I may post a couple more on my Flickerstream sometime later on.  This one just worked really well.

3.  Black and White Sunflower
I took this shot in the middle of the month down near the downtown area of Anaheim, just north of Disneyland.  I had met a very good friend for lunch and before and afterwards, we'd walked around the area geocaching.

While walking toward where we were going to eat lunch, we ended up in this city garden.  The entire area is undergoing some urban renewal and this particular garden was nearing peak fall harvest.  My sunflowers tend to blossom out in July, but this one was in full bloom in the middle of October, suggesting that it had been planted later in the year.

It was about a day after I took this shot that I had been challenged on Facebook by another geocaching friend of mine to a five day B&W challenge where I was supposed to post five B&W photos over five successive days.  The nice part of that kind of challenge is I didn't have to take them five days in a row.  This particular shot  ended up being day four or five of my challenge.  

Although I like color, especially when I'm taking flower shots I decided to process this one in black and white.  There was such a riot of color in the shot, the yellow sunflower, the green of the rest of the plant and the plant behind it, the purple flowers on the left hand side and the deep blue of the sky accentuated by the white clouds that I felt the color would actually district from the beauty of the flower.

4.  Butterfly
Another one of my favorite subjects to photograph are butterflies.  I haven't seen a whole lot of butterflies this season, so I haven't been able to post many butterfly shots, so I was rather fortunate when this one started sipping nectar on flowers that I happened to be walking by on my way home from somewhere.

It was also fortunate, because I had my zoom lens on at the time, so it was easier to get this guy in the shot without having to tromp through someone's plants, something that I wouldn't do anyway.  I ended up with a couple dozen shots or so, of which this one ended up being the best of the bunch.

This is a gulf fritilary.  We have plants on which they thrive growing in planter boxes next to a parking structure in the downtown area.  Last summer I'd go down there quite often to get shots, but this year, I never made it down for various reasons.  I don't know whether this one is from that area and was straying a little far from its home base or whether it was just out enjoying the nectar that its neighborhood had to offer, but whatever the reason, it gave me a pretty good shot.

5.  The owl
Last, but certainly not least, is this photo of an owl that I took at the Village Venture.  I posted a couple of shots of this owl and this one was by far and away the best one I took.  Something about the shot just screamed that I needed to process it in black and white.

This particular owl was being displayed as part of an educational program.  The birds are rehabilitated after being found injured by Wild Wings of California, a local organization based in nearby San Dimas.  The particular owl couldn't be released back into the wild because of the damage that had been done.

It had been found lying on the ground.  I didn't hear what caused the initial injury, but while it had been lying on the ground, several ground crawling insects had crawled into its ears and laid eggs.  The hatched larva caused significant damage to its ears that its hearing was very much impaired.  An owl relies on its hearing almost as much as its eyesight and with almost 50% of its hunting prowess impaired, it wouldn't have fared well in the wild, so it has become one of Wild Wings educational pieces.

And there you have it. My five selections for this month's photographer's choice blogging theme.  Please stop by PJ's blog to see what the other bloggers in this challenge posted.  I think you'll enjoy the photography.

Photo Blogging Challenge (November 2013): People

It's that time of the month again when P.J.'s monthly blogging challenge comes around.  This month's challenge was people.  The hardest problem I had with this theme was narrowing it down to just 5 photos.  Here's my take on the theme for this month.

1.  Grocery Shopping
As most of you know, I enjoy street photography.  That doesn't mean it comes easy to me.  It just means that I enjoy it and when I come across a good opportunity, I'll take it.  Street photography is easier when the area is busy.  The likelihood of a bad encounter lowers, I think when there's more people around, but that doesn't mean it's not with some risks.  I've never had anyone give me the evil eye, but then again, most of the time, I usually shoot from behind or the side.  Here's one I took that I included in another blog entry a couple of days ago.  I was walking from our auto mechanic's after dropping a car off to be serviced when I saw this guy riding his bicycle.  It was clear that he was coming from the grocery store based upon the several items in his basket.  Just something about him made me want to take his photo. It was a quick decision and this was one of only two shots I got of him.

2.  Shoes
At my school, I run a photo club.  We have weekly meetings where I will discuss a particular photographic technique, show them examples of what I'm trying to get across to them and then take them out on a photo walk on campus where they can practice the technique.  As of this moment I have upwards of 35 students in the club, so they are a handful at times, but it's also enjoyable to watch them experiment.  I don't have any set requirements on the type of gear they can use, so many of them are using tablets or their phones as their main camera.  In my opinion, that's fine.  The purpose of the club is to get them comfortable using their equipment, not limit it to just those who have full-fledged DSLR cameras.  While out on a photo walk a couple of weeks ago, I noticed several kids standing in a group.  Obviously, the variety of styles of their shoes is what struck me and I set this shot up.  Back in the day, we had white Converses and Black Converses, either high top or low top with white shoelaces, and that was it.  I like the new colors.

3.  Family
Since this post comes one day after Thanksgiving, this entry wouldn't be complete without a photo of some members of my family.  Veteran's Day weekend, I drove up to the Bay Area to visit with my daughter.  My older son came along as well.  I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that my daughter is a Northern California resident from now on.  She has a job teaching fourth grade in Milpitas, California and I don't see her jumping ship to find a job closer to home down here.  My son graduated this past June from college and has been looking for work over most of the summer.  He has found employment just this week with a firm located in Whittier, CA, close to home, but still a bit of a commute.  If this pans out into a long term type of employment, I can see where sometime in the future he'll move out into his own place, probably closer to his employment.  My youngest son is soon to be attending college and getting his life choices in order.  The nest is slowly emptying out.  I took this photo of the two older ones while we were walking toward an amazing sandwich shop in Santa Clara.  The visit up there that weekend was all too short, but she will be coming down here for Christmas, so I'll see her again shortly.

4.  Cool
As noted above, I enjoy street photography.  I kind of wish I'd actually stopped and talked with this guy as I really liked his style and I think he would have made a nice addition to my 100 Stranger project.  It seems like hats of this type are coming back into style again after an almost 50 hiatus away from men wearing stylish hats in public.  President John F. Kennedy is supposedly to blame for the decline in men wearing hats as it was reported that he didn't like wearing hats.  It appears as if that's just an urban legend.  However, as I read that article, I think he looks very odd wearing that top hat.  Although those photos show he wore a hat, most photos of the President show him without a hat.  The hat was just in decline for some time and it's easy to blame a young man with immense power for its demise.  President Eisenhower, Kennedy's predecessor very rarely wore hats during his administration.   Either way, it's kind of nice to see hats making a comeback.  Where it used to be difficult to find a hat outside of specialty millinery stores, now it's common to find them in everyday stores such as Target.  I found this guy soaking up some rays in front of a restaurant earlier this week.  I later saw him after he'd taken off his jacket.  He didn't look as cool then.  The combination of hat and jacket made the shot.

5.  Farmer's Market
I drove into Pasadena on Tuesday to do some geocaching and to also go on a photo walk with a friend of mine.  We walked around Pasadena's City Hall and several other places.  Around the corner from her house was this small farmer's market lined up on the sidewalk.  It wasn't a very large farmer's market, but it did have a lot of photo ops and we spent close to a half an hour then taking shots.  I'd taken a shot similar to this one looking over some onions and potatoes, but it was all an endless line of browns leading off into the distance, so after walking down the entire length of the market, we walked back and I spotted this shot that had a little more color in it.

And that pretty much wraps up another month of the photo blogging challenge.  Once again, here's a link to P.J.'s page where, if you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see a list of all the other bloggers who are participating in this month's challenge.  Check them out as there's a lot of really nice shots in there.

When worlds collide

While geocaching in Pasadena yesterday, I got to the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado Blvds.  This is the big turn at the beginning of the Rose Parade where all the TV cameras are set up to give us the best view of the Rose Parade.

The grandstands are almost completely set up now in preparation for New Year's Day only 36 days away.  Lots of money gets spent every year.  Several streets yesterday were closed down as one company that builds floats was transferring those floats from where ever they were built to where ever they will be decorated.

And yet as we see all this money being spent on one parade, just across the street I was reminded that many people in this country are still wanting for basic necessities.

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2013): Night

I've been out of commission for a couple of weeks mainly because the last two to three weeks of school are just incredibly busy that I don't have much time for anything else.  This is only my 3rd post this month, by far and away, my lowest monthly total for this year.  Now that vacation time is hear, I have more free time to explore other things and that also includes blogging more frequently than I have been this month.  

As noted in the title, the photo blogging challenge for this week was night.  I have several different shots, but some that are very similar as I did a lot of night time photography this month.

1.  Jellyfish

A couple of weeks ago, I made a quick trip down to San Diego to go to Sea World.  They had a deal for teachers that if you went to the park on a voucher they provided for you, you'd get in free, plus get a year pass good for the rest of the year.  I couldn't pass that up.  

Most of the jellyfish exhibits I've seen at aquariums are always in simulated night environments, probably because jellyfish are more deepwater creatures so they don't need or get a whole lot of light in the first place.  If you ever get to one of these exhibits, you can get mesmerized by these floating disks of jelly very easily.  It's a very peaceful and calming thing to view if you crowd out of your mind the stinging tentacles that most jellyfish tend to have.

2.  Evolution

In the town where I live, we have a new shopping area completed just a couple of years ago, including a very nice movie theater.  In the center of the square, opposite the theater's entrance is this nice fountain, complete with stair step waterfalls cascading down to different tiers in the fountain.  At night there are lights under the water that illuminate it.

Included in the fountain are what look like salamanders, eels and fish, slowly evolving and coming out of the early "primordial sea" of Earth.  Several of these creatures are also reading books.  I chose to process this one in B&W.  I liked the flowing water, but I wanted the attention to also focus on the salamander reading its book.  With the light in orange and red, I think that would have drawn the viewer's eye away from the salamander and to the lights and the water.

3.  Heavenly bodies


I had about 20 seconds to set this shot up.  Our church fiesta was in full swing and I had been walking around taking shots of the various amusement rides at the fiesta, when I spotted the crescent moon just about to drop behind the trees.

I had the camera on the tripod already, so it was just a matter of setting it up, composing the shot and triggering the shutter.  The ride was slowing down, so I had one chance to get the light trails before the moon disappeared behind the trees.  As a bonus, I also got Jupiter shining brightly above the moon.

4.  The movie theater

This is the marquee for our movie theater.  To get to the theater, you have to walk under the marquee, between several restaurants and past the fountain I described above.  I've taken shots similar to this before, but that was back when I didn't have as good a working knowledge of my camera like I feel I have now.

This shot was a matter of timing.  I had to watch down the street and wait for cars to come by.  Just leaving the shutter on washed the shot out very quickly as the lit marquee is surprisingly bright.  Just a couple of seconds of open shutter was enough to get a good image on this shot.  I would have preferred to have continuous streaks of both headlights and taillights, but traffic was light last night when I was taking those shots, so I had to take what was given to me.

5.  The Statue

There's not a statue in this shot, but if you look in the lower right hand corner, you'll see a man in an orange shirt who is remarkably in focus.  This photo is an 8 second exposure, which is why I call this shot the statue.  

I've actually used this particular shot in another challenge set up by P.J. earlier this month, but I wanted to include it in this five shot set, because of this guy.  During photography's infancy, it was common to have most people's photos taken when they were sitting down so it would be easier to control movement.  Most exposures lasted 30 seconds or longer, so many of the chairs they sat in actually had neck braces to help the subject hold their heads still.  A photo of a Civil War battle is incredibly rare although I know at least one does exist.  Most of the Civil War photos were taken after the battles were done, mainly because dead bodies tend not to move.

I think the reason why this guy is actually so still is he wasn't aware I was taking his photo.  He probably would have been self conscious had he known and swayed slightly, making him a blur much like the other guy standing in front of the ride.  Looking over some of my other shots taken with this one, I'm still amazed at how many people really do stay fairly still over long exposures.

Once you're done, head on over to PJs place to see other bloggers interpretation of the night.

Lastly, I would like to apologize to the other bloggers who posted photos last month.  I never was able to get around and look at your shots and I will make that up over the next couple of days.  I look forward to seeing your interpretations of the night.

Fiesta

Our church has its annual fiesta every year over Mother's Day weekend.  The past couple of years, we've been attending all three days since my wife works one of the booths.  I end up walking around quite a bit taking photos of all of the different things that happen at the fiesta.

One of the things that I've practiced over the last couple of years since starting my 365 project is long exposures.  I've had varying degrees of success catching the different amusement rides with all of there colored lights.  Some that look very interesting don't turn out as well once they've been shot with a long exposure.

I think part of the reason is most of the rides now have long fluorescent light tubes as opposed to individual lights.  If they don't have a constant movement, like this ferris wheel did, the light becomes a very large blob and doesn't look very appealing.  It becomes very experimental while you're trying out different angles for shots.  

Yesterday, during the day, I scouted out spots where I wanted to take shots, then forgot to place my tripod at one of the spots I'd scouted out.   Not much to worry in the long run because the ride I wanted to take a shot of didn't work very well in other shots, so I'm pretty sure it would have turned out quite similar from that spot as well.

Because I've also started the 100 Strangers project, I was looking for possible stranger shots as well as general "Street Photography" type shots to take.  I think I did well with both aspects as I was able to take a photo of one of the concessioners talking with someone.  The tattoos on his arm, spelling out the word Knoxville worked really well in this shot.  He was very successful in plying money out of patrons' hands most of the evening.  The lure of winning a stuffed animal was big in a lot of people's minds and he played right into the lure very easily.

Overall, I was very pleased with many of the shots I took this weekend.  I have several other light trail shots on my Flicker account.  I also met Curtis, one of the concessioners at the fiesta.  He became my 37th stranger yesterday.  If you'd like to check out some of the other night time shots I took this weekend, check out my Night Photography album at Flicker.  I'm hoping for one more nighttime excursion before the end of the month to possible get some star trails as I'm in a blog challenge to take photos with the theme Night for the month of May.  I have a pretty good start on that challenge after this weekend.

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2013): Transportation

A friend of mine who writes several blogs has put out a photo challenge for bloggers, so I thought I might give this one a whirl.  As usual, I forgot about it until the very last moment, but since it's still April, I'm good to go on this one.  The challenge was to take five photos throughout the month centered around a certain theme.  The theme for this month was Transportation.  Here are my five photos.

1.  Space travel
OK.  This one may be cheating since this isn't the actual space shuttle, but it fits the theme and I'm going to use it.  This is the Ellison Onizuka Challenger Memorial in Little Tokyo near downtown Los Angeles.

As President Ronald Reagan spoke in one of his eulogies following the Challenge disaster back in 1986, "The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.  We will never forgert them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."  

I didn't have enough years of teaching experience at the time to apply for the Teacher in Space program.  If offered a chance today, I'd go in a millisecond.

2.  Walking
These people were just cool.  I took several shots of them and in reality, what I should have done was call out to them to get a better shot, or possibly a strangers photo of one or several of them.  Each of them had their own style, from the two tone yellow and red pants, to the two toned hair style of the guy leading the group.  It's hard to see, but each side of his head, left and right, was a different color.

I've come to appreciate walking much more as I've gotten older.  I've never been a runner, but I enjoy hiking and I get out and walk the neighborhood as much as I can to get some exercise.  It's becoming more of a habit for me the older I get, which I view as a good thing (the habit of walking, not the getting older part).

3.  Traffic
Not much transporting going on here, at least on the westbound side of the freeway.  Traffic was pretty much stopped with only cars getting by on the right shoulder of the freeway when I took this shot.

I had been on my way home when I spotted the smoke from what I assumed was a brush fire.  I calculated where the fire was based upon my position and decided to get off one off ramp beyond my usual off ramp.  That was a big mistake because as soon as I got around a curve in the freeway, traffic stopped dead and I realized the fire wasn't up in the hills, but right in the middle of the freeway.  

I was able to get off at the next exit, but it took upwards of 30 minutes to get there and I didn't think I would have gotten a really good shot, but I parked my car, walked over the bridge overlooking the freeway and just about the time I got there, this flare up happened.  It must have been really burning earlier while I saw in traffic.  Had I gotten off at my normal exit, I think I would have gotten more flames, but I'm pretty satisfied with this shot.  

Los Angeles freeways are our life blood.  They get us where we want to go, but when some kind of "cholesterol" clogs those arteries, things tend to break down, as witnessed here.

4.  Scooter
I spotted this scooter parked in front of a garage door in our neighborhood this week.  It represents a cheaper form of motorized transportation, something that can get you around those kinds of jams depicted in the photo above.  I wouldn't take something like this on the freeway though.  It's way too small.

I rode a Honda Supersport back in the summer of 1983.  I took it many places, gave many friends lifts to different things.  It's amazing how many girls just want to ride a motorcycle.  I always carried a second helmet just "in case."  I took that motorcycle to and from my summer job at Disneyland on city streets most days during that summer.  I made the mistake of taking the freeway late one night home instead of city streets.  Riding next to a tall truck, I suddenly realized how vulnerable I was next to it and realized that if the truck came over, even though I was wearing all of the proper safety equipment, I would be hamburger.  I took a break from riding.  A couple of weeks later, my dad got into an accident, destroyed his knee in the process and neither one of us ever rode a motorcycle again.

5.  Bicycle
When I lived closer to work, I used to ride my bicycle.  It was only a mile and a half ride.  I still have that bicycle, but I haven't ridden it in years and I know it needs an overhaul.  I think one of the things I do during my summer break will be to get the bike safety checked, buy a new helmet and get back into riding.

It's funny, that although I enjoy riding my bike, I prefer walking and hiking for the simple reason that it's hard to take photos when you're riding.  Walking, if you see something, you can stop, compose your shot and fire away.  Riding would be a little more cumbersome to take photos, because the camera would be strapped away, so I'd have to stop, get the gear out, compose the shot and hope the shot I wanted was still there.  So in a way, I think I'm trying to talk myself out of riding a bike.

Now that you've read all of this, here's a link to others who have participated in the challenge for this month.

It goes in waves

Yesterday, I ended up taking two different stranger's portraits.  A month ago, I speculated that a change of scenery and travel was all that I'd really need to break out of a little slump I'd been in as far as taking good stranger's photos.  I figured that once I got up to San Francisco, I'd be able to get a lot of strangers shots.  Well, yes and no.

Doing this project, I realize that you have to pick your moments.  A lot of time, I'm on the move and it doesn't always work really well to just stop, turn around and then approach someone you just saw to take their photo.  I've actually found that it's easier if I've already engaged them in a little conversation before asking them for a photo.  Some people work differently, but for me that seems to work the best.

Saturday, I was walking around the village area in Claremont looking for some interesting people of which to take photos.  I wasn't actually looking for a stranger shot, but more for some street photography and I ended up getting a fairly decent shot.  One of the groups I belong to on Flicker is a weekly challenge group.  The Sunday of each week, a weekly theme is posted and you're supposed to go out and take a photo for that theme.

I've been doing very well each week with the theme for the week.  I just ended up waiting until the last minute to get a street shot for this week.  But the real story is while I was taking that shot, Mike and Kenneth passed me by and then engaged me in a conversation that led to me being part of Mike's senior thesis and both Mike and Kenneth being part of my stranger project.  

Mike, who is pictured at top, was working on his college senior thesis.  He wants to be a Foursquare minister after getting out of college and so some of the questions were rather intriguing.  I gave him my insight on what I believed and he was satisfied with my answers and then I turned the table and asked him to be part of my project as well.  Mike was a little hesitant, but Kenneth was very enthusiastic (probably because he's a photographer as well), and his enthusiasm swept Mike into the project.

We ended up talking with each other for about 15 to 20 minutes and afterward I had two stranger photos to go along with a stranger photo that I'd gotten up in San Francisco.  Earlier, I'd been worried that I might not get another stranger shot and I've gotten three in the past 9 days or so.  The key is perhaps to not go looking for them as they will come to you.

Strangers

On Sunday, I walked around Claremont Village area looking for a new photo opportunity.  I passed a couple of guys who appeared to have just started singing for their supper.  Just as I passed them I bumped into a fellow teacher from my school.  He was in the Village with his mom and brother shopping and I ended up talking with them for about 15 minutes or so.

My friend asked me whether I was out shooting photos for my 365 project and I told him yes, but I wasn't sure what I was going to take yet as nothing had really struck me as photo worthy, although I kept hearing these two guys behind me and I thought I might at least get some street photography shots out of it.

I took my leave of them and continued my walk, getting some still life shots of a couple of interesting things I saw. When you walk in alleys, you sometimes get all sorts of things you wouldn't normally see just walking on the sidewalks.  By the time I worked my way back around to where these two guys were, I had decided that I was going to introduce myself to them and ask them to be part of my 100 Strangers project.

Both were cool with being part of the project, but neither was very talkative since they were really into their music.  The guy playing the guitar was Ken and the guy in the wheelchair was David.  Ken was a little more hesitant about having his photo shot, saying as I was taking a couple of shots that I wouldn't get anything good because "I'm not photogenic."  In a way, he was right as the photo above was the only shot I got where he had his eyes open, but I feel like I caught his personality with the shot.  I really like that he was not looking at me, but at David as if getting ready to lead David into a harmony, or perhaps to get him to play harmonica.

David was singing harmonies with Ken, but also played the harmonica.  He was non-stop talk, but not really talking about much of anything outside of the music.  I listened to them for a little bit, dropped a couple of bucks into the guitar case and moved on.  I think the only thing that I'm really disappointed about with this shot is you can't really see the cigarette smoke.  It's more pronounced in the original photo, but the smoke seems to have been wiped away when I processed it to black & white.  I need to work on this.

So my worries of not getting another stranger photo were for naught.  I wasn't worried, but this definitely was the longest dry spell for me with the 100 Strangers project.  In a couple of weeks, I'll be heading up to the bay area and San Francisco.  Who knows what or who I'll encounter when I'm up there.

Stranger lag

The 100 Strangers Project that I started back in July seems to be at a standstill at this point.  I pointed out about 10 days ago, that it had been awhile since I took a stranger's portrait for the project.  I think I'll attribute it to the weather and my different style of photography this year.

I've been much more relaxed about what I take photos of this year.  I'm not going to stress out about getting a shot each and every day and I've posted filler shots many days this year.  Monday was the first day I picked up my camera in three days.  This would have been out of the question the last couple of years.  This year, it's a different story.

I went back and critiqued some of my 100 Stranger portraits.  To be honest, many of them should be better.  I won't quibble about this one I've posted as I think it's definitely the best of the bunch, but others either shouldn't have seen the light of day or I should have taken better care to get better lighting or better focus or something.  Perhaps I'm not cut out to take portraits?

That's a distinct possibility.  One of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, Ansel Adams, has been an inspiration to me for as long as I can remember.  Shortly after his passing, there was an exhibit, near where I lived, of his 100 prints, the ones he kept in two distinct galleries for exhibition.  Many of the prints we are all familiar with, while others were brand new to me.  There were also several portraits included in this gallery, including one of Georgia O'Keefe.

It is my opinion, that Ansel Adams was not a portrait photographer at all.  I felt his portrait work was lacking and didn't have his signature quality to them that his landscape photos had.  There seemed to be a lack of tonal definition and high contrast that we had come to expect in his photos.  I found it odd at the time, but now, I seem to relate to this experience.

Hopefully, I'll get my stranger mojo back in the near future.  Maybe I just need a change of scenery.  Next month, I'm heading up to visit my daughter during my spring break for her birthday.  We're planning on visiting San Francisco.  I haven't been to San Francisco, outside a quick drive through one summer, since my honeymoon 25 years ago, so I'm very excited about the photo possibilities there.  The thing that I just need to remember, however, is that it just needs to be relaxed.  The opportunities will come for all sorts of photos, including strangers.  I don't need to push them like I did in years past.  I just need to remind myself this.

A day at the zoo

Yesterday, my son and I decided to do a spur of the moment trip to the Los Angeles Zoo.  We had planned on a trip to the zoo over Christmas break, but the one day when everyone could do the trip, it started to rain, so we didn't go that day.  On Friday of this week, it had been cold and rainy, so I thought perhaps that might keep the crowds down which is why we decided the trip might be a good outing.

I hadn't looked closely at the zoo's website.  The past two days had been advertised as "snow days."  They trucked in a lot of snow and deposited it in several of the exhibits.  The snow leopards were in their element as were the river otters.  Siberian tigers and the American Black bear had snow in their pens as well.  Needless to say, the zoo had lots of people there, but really no more than usual.

The zoo, over the past 5 years or so, has been undergoing some major renovations, including expanding their elephant facilities.  When they expanded the elephant grounds, the reptile house was taken down.  The past year or so has seen construction on a new reptile house called the Lair.  Yesterday was the first time we were able to walk through that exhibit.  They did a good job in there, although I think they could have made the aisles a little wider to allow a less claustrophobic feel to the place.

My wife hates zoos and her opinion has rubbed off on me to a degree.  I don't hate them, but I tend to have mixed feelings about them.  Looking at them one way, they are viewing pens for people who don't have the wherewithal to take a trip to the different continents to see the animals in their native habitat.  In essence, they are a kind of prison.  They do, however, help educate many people, some of which would never be able to see them any other way.  And they do perform a necessary function by keeping species alive that would probably be extinct due to shrinking habitat which is mainly the cause of our actions.  Zoo are like a double edged sword.

The shot of the desert bighorn sheep above is one of the shots I took yesterday.  My son and I went to Zion National Park this past summer and saw some bighorn sheep in the park.  That was the first time I'd ever seen the sheep in their native habitat.  We saw yearlings and females but didn't see any males like the one above.

I had a great amount of success taking shots at both the orangutan and gorilla exhibits.  I think their particular exhibits bother me the most.  You can't help but see their human-like behavior and wonder about our common ancestry.  Looking at the shots I took, I chose this one of Evelyn, mainly because it made me wonder what she was thinking as she watched us watching her.  Evelyn has known nothing but the zoo as she was born there in 1976.  She knows nothing about the outside world, or what it was like in the wilds of Africa.  This has been her entire existence.  

Knowing the laws of our country, you know she's been treated well, has had the best medical care and has been fed a balanced diet, probably much healthier than any of us have had over the last 37 years.  And yet, you can't help but look into those eyes and wonder what she's thinking about all this.

Irony

As I walked through Little Tokyo in Los Angeles on Saturday with my friend, I spotted these two guys on a bench.  Based upon their proximity, it's obvious they know each other, yet they were so absorbed in their own worlds on their small screens there didn't seem to be any kind of interaction between the two of them.  As someone pointed out on the 365 project, they could most likely be texting each other.

Maybe, or maybe not, but I don't think they would have noticed me had I snuck up to get a closer shot. It's really too bad though because it seems like our society is getting more and more like this and it's not just the young age group either.  I spotted many older people on their phones seemingly oblivious to the world around them.  Perhaps these two guys were waiting for their girlfriends to come out of a store but still, couldn't they have had a conversation with each other as opposed to with other people somewhere in cyberspace?

This particular shot had all sorts of lighting problems with lots of shadows playing in the bright sunlight.  I felt the B&W was the best way to go with this shot.

Street Photography

This past Saturday, I boarded the Metrolink to ride it into Union Station in Los Angeles.  I was meeting a friend there and our purpose was to find some of the local geocaches there, but the primary objective was to do a photo walk together.  Union Station is located just southeast of Dodger Stadium near downtown and it's in walking distance of several ethnic neighborhoods, so the photo opportunities were almost endless.

We ended up walking first through Olvera St., a Hispanic shopping district just outside the entrance of Union Station.  Unfortunately, most of the shops, at 10:00 in the morning were still boarded up so the place wasn't really hopping yet, we we walked up and then over to Chinatown which was only slightly busier.  

As we walked along the streets, I convinced myself that I was going to push myself to take some street shots today.  Just aim the camera and see what I could take.  Hopefully, I could get some interesting shots.  I think I got more than just some.  One of the things this area of Los Angeles is not lacking and that's homeless or down and out people, not necessarily homeless, but basically hurting for many creature comforts most of us consider commonplace.

Chinatown is a bustling area with many people coming and going and yet you could still see people trying to make do with what little they had.  I saw more than one person trying to catch a short nap on a bench before someone wearing a security badge rousted them and had them move along.

Street photography is very much different than taking a landscape photo.  It's easy to take a photo of a deer in the woods, or a mountain stream.  It's quite another thing to take shots of complete strangers, most going about their daily business.  This is sort of one step down from the 100 Strangers project which I've written about in the past.  With that project, you actually have to go up and ask the person's permission before taking the photo.  With street photography, you just take the shot.  Sometimes they come out OK, and other times they don't look so good.  

Many times I was literally shooting from the hip because I didn't want the person to know I was taking their photo.  There was nothing really clandestine about that, I just saw something that looked interesting and wanted to get the shot.  If the person knows they're being photographed, they will change their expression or possibly their posture.  I wanted a raw image of what I saw.

With street photography, there's somewhat of an ethical question about whether people are being exploited by photographers in general.  I'm sure I will get a variety of responses regarding that issue, but I look at it this way.  If photographers don't take these shots, how are we ever going to know about certain situations?  Do we not show it because people are uncomfortable about certain aspects of what was seen?

When I take photos, I feel like I'm telling a story of my day or hour, depending upon how much time I used my camera that day.  This was my story for most of Saturday. I don't see this every day, but I did see it on Saturday and I'd like to share it with you.