Some pictures from Patrick's Point, CA

Everybody keeps asking me where the heck we went for the week. The answer is Patrick's Point State Park which is located about 45 minutes North of Eureka, CA. We have gone up there numerous times and it is a fun place to hang out for a week. It is also a fun place to take photos. The skies are almost never blue, due to the constant fog, but this gave me an opportunity to photograph the smaller details.


For some reason this bee was very content with me hanging out and shooting pictures of it. I was using a 90mm Macro lens so the barrel of the lens was just about stuck into his face. He was totally cool with that. :)
You can't go to Patrick's Point without driving the half hour to Fern Canyon (where they filmed part of Jurassic Park). The hike is really beautiful and fun for the kids too.

On the drive back from Fern Canyon we stopped by one of the lagoons to check it out. We didn't see much of interest until we were driving out and my wife spotted this seal hanging out in the lagoon and not too far from the edge of the water. I pulled out the 400mm lens and captured this picture of our friend.

First I shot my sister - Now I shot my niece!

We are up in Patrick's Point State Park which is just North of Trinidad, CA and we are here for my niece's wedding. Many of the 80 attendees are camping but we decided to rent a great home right on the coast (which we have rented before). And of course, being a photographer...I was asked to shoot the wedding.

While the SF Bay Area is suffering a heat wave, up here the weather ranges between 50 and 65 degrees during the summer. My kind of weather - and a very cool environment to shoot photos. The fogs rolls in all day long and provides a perfect diffuser for me. And as you can see from the pictures, the fog made a really cool backdrop too.

This last shot (taken with the Sigma Fish Eye lens) shows the entire wedding scene. Although the background is all white, that is the beach which was covered in fog.

A cool shot at the park

So...here I was at a park at 5pm yesterday and I was teaching a co-worker how to shoot pictures with her DSLR. And damn it was hot! I was explaining the concept of shooting with a fast shutter speed in order to get a clear shot and also mentioned that there are times when you want to use a slow shutter speed. She looked at me and said "When would you want to do that?" So I set the camera for 1/25 of a second and went over to the swings in the park (asking the parents first) to shoot some pictures of a little boy having a great time swingin' high. I took a couple of shots and knew that I needed a flash to do it right, so I ran back to my car, grabbed my 580EX II flash and got this shot. I love the motion blur in the background with the boy crystal clear in the shot. Too bad he didn't have that huge smile on his face when I grabbed this one!

Fourth of July on the Lake

We spent a couple of days at our friend's cabin near Nevada City and took a short break from the city life. They have all kinds of toys for the kids and adults; motorcycles, boats, air guns (yike - keep these away from the 14 year old boys!)... We spent Saturday on the nearby lake and relaxed and played in the water. As always, I broke out the 5D Mark II and 100-400 lens to grab some shots of everyone riding the wake of their boat.
There is nothing better than seeing your kids having a blast! I am amazed at how many hours the kids could play on this raft, getting bounced around like rag dolls. I lasted about 30 minutes and I was done. But, I think I was smiling and laughing like this too. It is good to be a grown up kid!
Who is this hot babe on the single ski? Oh yeah, that's my wife showing the kids how it is done!
And here is the "Con Man" chillin' out on the wake board. He makes it look so easy out there.