Golden Gate Super Moon

Super Moon beneath the Gate!

Truck passing in front of the Super Moon!

Shot the Super moon from Kirby Cove with photographers Bill Taylor & Ken Morgan.

We hiked down to Kirby, since it was a madhouse up in the Marinheadlands. Our intent was to

shoot with a  big zoom lens to get a big moon. There were other photographers at Kirby Cove, but we were able to get just about any spot we wanted.

See more here http://www.pbase.com/cdsims/golden_gate_bridge

Temple of poi 2012

I attended the Temple of Poi 2012 Sunset shoot at the San Francisco Civic. It was a fun but short shoot.The security officer only allowed the photographers to shoot at the Civic center for a little more than a hour. Well we broke up into several groups and started shooting. There were lots of photographers but I think we all were able to get some good shots. This is a shoot of two of the fire dancers spinning. Shooting fire dancers is a challenge because you have to use a long exposuers and they are also moving. You have to get a exposure short enough to get a sharp photo and long enough expose to for the fire also. With enough practice it can be achieved. see more about Temple of Poi here with owner Isa Glittergirl  http://templeofpoi.wordpress.com/

Here is another shot of dancer Kandice Korves- Kaus
see my shots from the Temple of Poi 2012 shoot at the Civic center http://www.pbase.com/cdsims/temple_of_poi_2012

Point Reyes Light Painting

We went out to this old boat in Inverness, Ca. It has been docked there at the Tamales Bay for quite some time. We wanted to shoot the boat at dusk using gels to light up the inside, we set up our camera's on the tripods and used remote triggers to fire our strobes that we set up in the boat. Thanks to Bill Taylor and Don Taylor for  helping setup this shot.  See photos below.

 The man that bulit this boat was named

Merrel S. Rocca Sr.  I found this on a blog from photographer  Julia Wahl

Here is a little history about the boat from his daughter.

"My name is Sandra Racine. This is my father's boat. He built this boat in 1951. His name was Merrel S. Rocca Sr. I think it's amazing how everyone likes's to take pictures of my father's boat. He is long deceased now, almost twenty-one year's. He was a commercial fisherman and I fished with him often. Certain things bother me whenever I see the boat because I knew he was very particular on keeping looking well maintained. My father came a a long line of fisherman and he was born in our house in Marshall. Thanks, Sandra Rocca Racine"

see Julia Wahl's photos here http://www.panoramio.com/user/100907?with_photo_id=2867741

This was shot at sunset! You can see the light from the gel cover flashes we had set up in the boat. We all felt like we had a productive night especially after getting home and seeing our results on our big monitors.

Here is another shot after sunset. One strobe inside the boat and a we used a gel covered flashlight to paint the ouside of the boat. We shot this during a low tide other wise you would have to wade through a few feet of water to get to the boat.

See my light painting gallery  http://www.pbase.com/cdsims/light_paint
See Bill Taylor's light painting gallery  http://www.pbase.com/billphoto/light_painting
See Don Taylor's  gallery http://www.pbase.com/donphotos/northern_california

Finding the light

Good tutorial on using natrual light

10 of my many Favorites from 2011

These are not in any particular order, but they are some of my favorites of 2011!

This is Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park in Washington.

I was on a eight day photo trip with a couple of my friends. We hiked down to the beach and waited until sunset to captured this shot. Lots of nice beaches in the state of Washington!

I did some product shoots for Lisa Scarr. She is the owner of bagsulove.com. She sell good quaility purses. She wanted to to do some single shot product shots and also some shots with a lifesize Mannequin to showcase her purses. This was a diffrent type of shoot for me, but was a great learning expirence for me. See her web site http://www.bagsulove.com/

This is a shot of Seattle's skyline. It was taken from Kerry Park on a beautiful August night. The  conditions were perfect, clear, no wind or pollution. There were lots of other people taking pictures also, but we arrived early to get a good spot.

This is a shot of my grandkids during the Christmas holidays. They did very good during this session. They listened really good and I just  kind of let them pose on theire own and hit the shutter. Used 3 AB800's, one for the background, one meduim softbox to the left and one large soft box right center. This was a fun shoot!

Shot at Rancho Seco former nuclear power plant. Used a two minute exposure and my friend Bill Taylor drove his car up the hiil and came back down with the only his parking likes on. I love photgraphing anything with motion, streaks and light!

Shot of Sol Duc Fall in Olympic Nation Park. This was a easy  one mile walk from the parking lot. We arrived at the falls around 8:30 in the morning, just when the sun was at the right angle. I shot a few perspectives and you can see my friend Bill Taylor on the bridge in the background. These falls are worth the visit.

Baybridge shot from the overlook. When we first arrived at this spot it was dark and the fog did not look very thick, but as dawn rolled around the fog also rolled in. Setup my camera on the tripod and exposed this shot for 15 seconds. I was happy with the outcome and I think the fog added a nice mood to this shot.

Family shot I took of the Tu family on a 100 degree day at William Land Park. Although it was hot it was a fun shoot. There is a lot of nice choice's for a portait shoot within the park.

Shot of Imperial Beach Pier in Imperial Beach, Ca. There was a beauitiful sunset on Imperial Beach and I am glad I drove out to the beach that day on a recent stay in San Diego. I like when being patients pays off!

The Astoria Bridge spans the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon. This shot was taken from the Oregon side. My friend Bill Taylor scouted this location out weeks before we made the trip to Oregon. This was the last day of our Washington and Oregon photo trip. This is a long bridge and there were not very many cars crossing the bridge so I had to use a 90 second exposure to get the car streaks to show up across the entire bridge.

RT #51

This is a shot of the Tower Theatre in Sacramento. While taking this shot an RT bus stopped  for the redlight. This photo was selected for the April exhibition at Beatnik studios , the theme is  “Tower and the Broadway Icons”.  On Friday, March 30, Beatnik Studios will celebrate a new exhibition of original artwork inspired by the Tower Theater and other icons of the Broadway Corridor. I am honored  Beatnik studios selected my photo for the exhibition!

Wedding workshop

I attended a wedding workshop last weekend with the Northern California portrait photographers meet up group. This was my first time attending this type of workshop. I learn a little bit more about preparing to be wedding photographers. I also learned a couple of interesting lighting tips. See the link to view some of the photos that were taken by members of the group.

http://www.meetup.com/Northern-California-Portrait-Photographers/photos/all_photos/?photoAlbumId=6935632