Capturing photos in Mammoth Lakes, CA

Even a broken jaw can't keep me from shooting. I had a chance to go out shooting with my good friend Moose Peterson, who lives in Mammoth (www.moosepeterson.com) and I wasn't going to miss that opportunity. He is such a great photographer and an even better person. We drove out to a small "town" called Benton, which basically has one building standing, and shot pictures of the old remaining structures. The sky was overcast which was perfect for us.
The great thing about the snow is that I can take pictures of our dog, Bailey. Since he is all black, it is difficult to take good pictures of him, but the snow acts as a giant reflector and helps me out. He loves the snow and I love taking pictures of him. What a funny dog he is.The kids enjoy the snow as much, or more, than the dog. Since I had a broken jaw, I wasn't about to go sledding, but I always enjoy photographing them doing their thing.

Back to Natural Bridges (to get the shot!)

I really liked the butterfly clusters but was not very happy with the "quick shot before the family complains" image. So, I went back to the same spot, this time with a tripod and a Canon 1Ds Mark III camera and captured this image. I used a 100-400mm L lens and a 580EX flash to light the shadows. Even though I took 30 or 40 images, I was happy to come home with this one. Who would have known that I was going to break my jaw playing ice hockey the next night. :)

San Francisco Bay after sunset

It helps to be at the right place at the right time. I was shooting a Bar Mitzvah in the Berkeley Hills (across from San Francisco) and had a break in between shooting the service and the reception. Instead of eating (which I should have done since I was starving) I drove high into the Berkeley hills to capture this shot. I really love the clouds, the deep sunset colors, the deep clue of the water all mixed with the lights of the city. Since this was taken in December, many of the building in San Francisco were lit up for the holidays.

Moncarch Butterflies at Natural Bridges

The family make a quick trip to Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, CA yesterday. We checked out the area known for Monarch butterfly clusters in the trees. Pretty cool stuff.

Shooting the San Jose Sharks Game

There is nothing cooler than combining two of my favorite hobbies. I love photography and I love playing and watching hockey. So...tonight I got my press credentials for the San Jose Sharks game and shot "from the glass". For those of you who understand photography...I was able to use the strobe system in the arena and shoot the entire game at 1/250 at f8 which is a dream. Of course, you can only shoot once every 3 seconds so that you don't blow the lights out, but it was great. The Sharks lost the game, but I did capture the moment that Mike Modano (from the Dallas Stars) tied and broke the NHL record for points for an American player. The following picture is his team mates saluting him from the bench while watching the replay.



To see more pictures from the game, you can go to: http://www.jeffcable.com/Sharks_Stars/

Chicago for the weekend

It isn't often that I get to make one of my kids on a business trip, but this was one of those rare chances. So, my daughter and I made the trip to Chicago, mainly because she wanted to go to the American Doll store which is located there. We made a couple of trips to the store and, of course, we made time to shoot some pictures.


First we shot at night and then the next day we had a chance to take some fun pictures downtown before our plane took off to bring us home.

She calls this picture her "World of one person" which makes me laugh. We saw this empty amphitheater and couldn't resist this picture of her cheering alone. :)

New York, New York

As many of you might know, New York City is not my favorite place in the world, but each time that I go there I find something new and different to appreciate. On this trip, myself and a couple of other photographers made time to go to the Cloisters which is uptown. We had good fortune to find Olga walking through the gardens, a nice young woman who was willing to let us take some pictures of her. What started as a "We love the sunlight on your hair, do you mind if we take some pictures of you", turned into a 4 hour modeling session. For someone who had never had her pictures taken like this, she did a great job. It turned out to be a fun day for all of us.
While taking the subway back downtown, towards Time Square, I couldn't resist this little boy who was asleep on his mother's leg. I asked permission (of course) and took some pictures of him which I later emailed to his mother. Kids are so darned cute when they are sleeping.

And then, as I always do, I made sure to get a couple good night shots. New York City is a great place for these shots since the city is full of color, lights and lots of movement.

Hershey, Pennsylvania

Yep, this is a town that knows their chocolate. You really can't go anywhere here without knowing that you are in the town of Hershey. Everything smells like chocolate and they have plenty of places selling the sweet stuff. I wasn't here very long, but long enough to capture a couple of images from the town.
My kids loved the idea that the street lights in the center of town are all decorated like Hershey Kisses. Some look like they are wrapped and others look like chocolate.

Fleet Week in San Francisco & The Blue Angels

For the third year in a row, we went to San Francisco to watch the air show during Fleet Week. This time we went right to the front of the show so that we could get a better view of the events. Although there were some really great flight exhibitions, the Blue Angels always steal the show. They are fast, the are loud, they are low and the precision flight is awesome. You can check out all the pictures from the air show at: http://www.jeffcable.com/FleetWeek

San Francisco Zoo

I have been wanting to photograph the zoo for a long time and had a chance to go there with the family yesterday. If you want to see more pictures from the zoo trip, check out: http://www.jeffcable.com/zoo

Great subject - great lighting

I took this photo recently and I am not sure why this hits me the way it does. I am not sure if it is Bridget's eyes, the pose, or the lighting...but either way I really love this image.

Just got back from Colorado Springs

I just returned from Colorado Springs and had a lot of time to photograph landscape and some other cool sites and activities. This was one of the rare trips where my wife was able to come along and join me for some of the fun. Riding a hot air balloon was fun but I think that the filling of the balloon is a better photographic opportunity than the ride itself. We also had a chance to photograph a rodeo from inside the fences and that was very cool. You can check out more of the pictures at: http://www.jeffcable.com/Colorado

A visit to Philadelphia

I just got back from a trip to Philadelphia and did not have much time to photograph during the day but made sure to make a couple of trips downtown in the evening to photograph some of the sites. My favorite area was shooting from the steps of the History Museum (made famous in the Rocky movie). This gave a nice view of the downtown area without a lot of distractions. The weather was perfect, which made it that much easier to hang out and shoot for hours.

I had a good time shooting the fountains and statues in front of the museum. I rarely turn my images to Black & White, but I think this one works better that way.

I saw these boat houses lit up along the side of one of the freeways and I had to get this picture. Unfortunately, there is nowhere (legal) to stop but I parked the car in a turn out and ran to get this shot. Once I set up the tripod, I turned and saw a tow truck pulling up to the rental car. Needless to say, I high-tailed it back to the car and got out of there. But...I got the shot!

Toronto - Another favorite city

I just got back from a quick trip to Toronto. I had two goals on this trip: One was to get some pictures of Niagara Falls at night and the other was to get out to Toronto Island ,which is directly across from downtown, and get a good shot of the city at dusk. I had been out there once before but the weather was not very good and I wanted to get a good clear sky.



Shooting Niagara Falls is tough. It is lit until 11pm but the lighting is constantly changing from white to different colors. After I looked at all my shots, I liked this close up shot the best. The movement of the water and the warm lighting really works for me.

The next night was my chance to get out to Toronto Island and see if the weather would cooperate. It did! Not only was the weather perfect, but they were testing new lights on the CN Tower, changing the colors every couple of minutes (for a total of 20 minutes). The best part of being on Toronto Island at 9pm is that there is nobody out there and I can relax and shoot and enjoy the time by myself. The last ferry heads back to the city at 11pm, so that is my only restriction.

Yike! Just got home from Australia and now I am in South America

I was sitting at the airport in Sydney, Australia when I got an email saying that I was needed in Argentina and Chile. So...here I am in South America and having a hard time keeping my eyes open. It has been a long week and I am almost done here. I managed to sneak away for a couple of hours and take some pictures along the coast of Chile in a town called Vina Del Mar. This is a resort town which has lots of fisherman and vacationers (during the right time of year). I love taking night photos but managed only a couple since it is not safe to take my camera gear out at night. This is one that I took just outside the hotel.

Yet another trip to Australia

I am back in Australia and I have to admit, although the flight is long and tiring, there is no place on Earth that I enjoy more than Sydney, Australia. The people are nice, the city is clean, the weather is usually nice, it is safe...and strangely I feel at home here. I guess after being here 12 times it should seem a little like home. :) If you would like to see all of the pictures from this trip, you can see them at: http://www.jeffcable.com/Australia07.html

Quick trip to Mexico City

Funny...I have been around the world so many times but this was my first trip to Mexico City. It was interesting because there was such disparity between the rich and poor. We would drive through neighborhoods with large, beautiful homes and then minutes later we would drive by areas covered with very modest "houses" which were more like shacks. The air quality is as bad as they say it is and I had a hard time getting used to that. I was thankful to only be there for 2 days. I did get a couple of nice shots during this visit, but like most of South America, I had to be careful shooting at night. I had to hire someone to be with me for safety reasons.