Fort Point, Garin Park & The American River...

Hello again everyone.
I've been on a couple of photography outings since I last wrote.
The Bay Area Photography & Exploration Society Meetup group
I belong to decided on Fort Point as a venue.
Lots of beautiful architecture to play around with,
with arches being the predominant feature.

Here is one of my fellow photographers back lit in one of the aforementioned arches.

On the way up from Fort Point, I stopped and took some shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I like the 1950's feel of this photo.

A couple of blocks from home, I caught sight of these cactus flowers.
It's a rare day that they are in bloom.
The sky behind them definitely lent a little something extra to these shots.

These next shots were taken out at Garin Park in the Hayward hills.
They have a lot of antique farm equipment displayed around the grounds.

This next shot is my favorite photo from that session.

This shot was taken on a hike at the Hayward Shoreline.

Here are a couple of shots of my kid at one of his skate sessions.
I have an inexpensive Tokina screw on .22 Fisheye Lens that I used on these.

These last shots were taken while on a bike ride up along the American River in Sacramento.

This last shot was taken with my little Pentax Optio camera mid spin.

Well, that's all for this post.
See you again soon.

A Little Of This & A Little Of That...

Not so long since my last post for a change.
I've been shooting a little of this and a little of that, hence the title of this post.
These first few shots were taken up at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga.
I was there with a hiking club I belong to and I brought my camera along in case there were some photo opportunities.
The club members hike along at a pretty good pace,
so I didn't have enough time to shoot as many photos as I would have liked to,
but I did sneak in few of good ones.
The first one is a gate leading up to the Love Temple in the arboretum area of the park.

The next couple of shots are of some statues at the Love Temple and around the arboretum.

I liked the way the light was shining through the insect eaten leaves of this plant.

Here are some flowers from out along the trail.

These shots were taken up at Grizzley Island Wildlife Area in Fairfield.
I had read that there is a herd of elk up in the marshlands there.
I was hoping to get some shots of them, but I was never able to locate the herd.
I didn't want the trip to be a total waste, so I drove and hiked around the area a bit and this is what I came up with,
(The last shot was taken with the AWB on my camera set to tungsten to blue up the sky a bit).

These next shots were taken out at the Hayward Shoreline interpretive center.
The second and third shots were taken well after the sun had set.
The color on the structure and flag pole was from the lighting at the Interpretive Center.

This was a spider web my wife pointed out to me at our condo complex.

A couple of nights ago, I hiked out to Pirate's Cove in Marin.
I tagged along with some fellow photography enthusiasts and managed to get a couple of good shots,
(Although, as mentioned before, I still have a lot to learn about low light situations).

I also tried a couple of black and white shots while we were there
and I think I like the way they turned out better than the color shots.

This last shot was taken out in Walnut Creek while my Son & I were scouting out some skate spots.
The march of the phali for lack of a better title.

Well, that's all for this post.
See you again soon.

Black & White...

OK, it's been a long while since my last post.
There has been a lot going on in our lives.
Family issues, a bathroom remodel, work has been nuts, blah, blah, blah.
I know, I know, enough with the excuses and get on with the photos.

An old friend of mine recently bought himself a new digital SLR camera.
He had been wanting to get together to go out and take some shots.
We had recently read about a contest on shutterbudd.com
were they were looking for iconic black and white photos of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our schedules finally allowed us to get together this last weekend
and here are some of the results.

These first few shots were taken at the hillside War Memorial located in Lafayette.

These next shots were taken up in the Berkeley Hills overlooking the Bay.
Unfortunately, even with a polarizer, it was a bit too hazy for that perfect shot.

These were also taken in the Berkeley Hills.
I was trying a slow shutter speed to try and get some "motion" in the pictures.
The second one definitely turned out better.

Next we headed down to Alameda.
You probably recognize some of these spots from earlier posts,
but I thought a couple of the shots might look good re-shot in black & white.

These aren't terribly iconic as far as the San Francisco Bay Area goes,
but I loved the lighting on the spokes.

Some shots of the Port Of Oakland Freight Cranes taken from the Alameda side.

We then headed over to Treasure Island for a few more photos before we called it a day.

Well, that's all for this post.
See you again soon.