Day 141, Bridal Picture

Day 141, Bridal Picture, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

So this is a little out of order, but Mormon Weddings are a little different then some others. Mormons get married in the place that is most sacred to them, the Temple. There are no pictures in the Temple, it is too sacred to allow for that, so there are pictures outside of the Temple and at the reception. This couple decided to have their wedding on Friday and then their reception on Saturday. So most Brides get a shot like this before the ceremony, this one is after the ceremony, as she was getting ready for the reception.  

A quick word of praise for the Gary Fong Light Orb, It worked magnificently, especially indoors as these nearly unretouched images show.  I probably should have read the instructions better, but I thought that I had it down after the promo videos on the web site.  I set the white balance to Tungsten, and in the outdoor settings from the first day, anything I shot in the shade had a huge blue cast.  Thank goodness my margin of error is fairly good when I shoot in RAW.  I could just push the temp on the slider in Aperture.

Thanks for looking,
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture:	f/2.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 140, Wedding Cake

Day 140, Wedding Cake, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

So I am shooting my first wedding for real. I am going to just swamp you for then next few days with some of the images that I posted on Flickr. This is the cake. I know, you probably guessed as much what with the picture and all. The problem was that this beautiful cake was set up next to a window on a patio. While the home where the reception was at was a lovely home, getting close ups of the cake with a backdrop of a kitchen window and stucco is not so lovely. So I tried a few images from over the top and of details of the cake. I figured that the images with a little vignette would be kind of cool. I think they came out really well.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/2.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 139, Desert Parsley

Day 139, Desert Parsley, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

So I am driving through Moreno Valley trying to cut from the 60 west bound to the which is hammered, to the 215 south bound and I see this huge field of Desert Parsley. So I stop to try to get some pics. As I am trying to shoot Macro, which I am not very good at. Apparently it takes patience, which incidentally is not one of my strong points. Since Macro is a zoom on a tighter scale, the least little breeze can mess it up. Then add the fact that I don't own a macro lens and I think that I have some research to do. I have seen some really great images and I want to produce those. As I am trying and not finding a lot of success I notice that all of these birds are playing tag in the field and landing on top of these 4 foot tall plants. I try to get close and they want no part of me. So I go back and get my 70 - 300 mm lens. Then I am cropping in Aperture and working the image to see what I can save. This is the best of the images. I ended up throwing away about 50 images.

If you are interested, Macro photography research yield? I am going to get some macro extension tubes. I don't need to get a macro lens. I just need to be able to get a closer focusing distance. Hence the magic of extension tubes. They don't add any stops to your imaging since they have no elements themselves. They move the back of the lens further from the imaging element of the camera (film or CCD/CMOS if digital). Of course if you can do this and still have the ETTL, better still. There are a set on Adorama that I am considering. They want about $90 and are set up for the Canon EOS system. Even though they are not original Canon, they are about a third the price. So we will give them a try. The other thing that could be really helpful, and conveniently also on Adorama (they should sponsor me with this much free publicity) is a focusing sled. It attaches to your camera and tripod and gives you the ability to set your focus and then adjust it with micro precision through the knobs that allow you to move the camera closer and further rather then fiddling with the focusing ring on the lens. When you have a wide open aperture, the margin of error is pretty slim.

Well, I will post more tries at macro when I get the Macro set up put together

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	1/3200 sec
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	300 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 138, California Poppies

Day 138, California Poppies, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

If you are not down here in Southern Cal, you have missed one of the better years for wild flowers. We had such a green period out here in the IE owing to the rains this year. The poppies have been out in mass.

I am not that great at the Macro end of photography. I have quite a few images that I have thrown out of late because it just was not clicking for me. I think these images did well though.

I must tell you, I really am liking the interface and strengths of Aperture. I know that I am an Apple fan boy and happily pine over every little thing from Cupertino, but this is really the why. Apple makes great products! I love my iMac, iPhone, iPod, MacBook, Leopard (eats Vista for lunch), and now Aperture 2.0. Their stuff works extremely well, and I can concentrate on what I want to do extremely well.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 137, First Congregational Church Bell Tower and Cross, Riverside, CA

Day 137, First Congregational Church Bell Tower and Cross, Riverside, CA, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

The cross on top of the bell tower for the First Congregational Church in Downtown was glowing. To get this, I went up to the forth floor of the Mission Inn and caught this as the late afternoon sun was almost setting.

This is another example of some of the great architecture in Riverside.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Day 136, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Daytime, Hall of Arches

Day 136, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Daytime, Hall of Arches, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Here is the other entry to the Day and Night comparison shots that I wanted to try. This arched walkway is on the 4th floor and leads to the patio on the north east corner where the moorish style orange dome is. There is a little patio there and a room that is surrounded in all glass that looks out on the main courtyard and the patio. There are rooms along this walkway with beautiful entries and a little stained glass.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,
Day

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	40 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Night

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.5 sec (1/2)
Aperture:	f/4
Focal Length:	30 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 135, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Daytime interior cupola

Day 135, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Daytime interior cupola, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Today, the same shot, just one in daylight and one at night. This little dome is actually on the second floor in the east central part of the hotel. It is a little court area that leads to one of the nicer meeting rooms with a stage and this beautiful old pipe organ.

Since the property was built a little bit at a time, there seems to be always something new to see. And it is always a little different in each part. There are Spanish, Moorish, European, Oriental, and Pueblo influences through out the property. No two towers or domes are alike. The rooms in different areas have different styles of entries, different layouts and different architectural styles. Some rooms are unique to that particular room for architectural style and decoration. Some rooms have huge amounts of stained glass, windows and grand entrances, while others have only a little entrance and a single window.

Every time I come back to shoot, even though I have lived in Riverside for almost my whole life, I notice something a little different that I missed before.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Daylight

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	48 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Night

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	2 sec (2)
Aperture:	f/5
Focal Length:	42 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 134, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Dome

Day 134, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Dome, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Just before the dinner that after which I took those night pictures, I walked around the roof a little to take some pictures. I will soon post some day/night shots of a few spots. But for now, a late afternoon shot of the dome on the north east corner.  I have always thought that if you did not know you were in Riverside, you could very well think that you were somewhere else. Some other country or exotic city, maybe Islamabad or Istanbul. But Riverside? Yes, Riverside. That is our smog imported directly from Los Angeles and Orange County! It all gets trapped up against the San Bernardino Mountains.  Maybe there will be a clear day that will afford another opportunity.

The Bench and Boganvillas are from the roof terrace of the Mission Inn on the south side looking east over the entrance.  It was beautiful.  But I had to rush off and meet my clients for dinner.

Thanks for looking.

EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture:	f/10
Focal Length:	80 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 133, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Terrace Patio, Night Time

Day 133, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Terrace Patio, Night Time, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

More from the Mission Inn. This terrace is on the second floor and over looks the courtyard that you come into as you come out of the main entrance. There is a little dinning court to look over. On this floor from here there are some meeting rooms and then you are just below the clock. The church is up a level and two to the top floor. It is probably one of the more peaceful of many peaceful places in the Inn. Especially at night.  This church is where a few of my friends have been married.  There is a flyers wall dedicated to the flyers from and who flew out in the IE.  The courtyard is so serene, a little to lit, but serene.  Maybe one day I will get in again and have the chance to shoot inside.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	1 sec (1)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	24 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 132, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Rotunda Stairway, Night Time

Day 132, Mission Inn, Riverside, CA, Rotunda Stairway, Night Time, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is an image that I have wanted to take for a while. After dinner at Marios with some of my clients, I walked through the Mission Inn and had a chance to just walk through with little to no people around. The last few times that I have been by with time to walk for a little bit, there have been a lot of people around. This time I was mostly on my own. The only thing that has ever been said to me about photography there was no tripods. This is then all handheld. I did lean against posts, walls and whatever to steady the long exposure time. This rotunda is really cool, but it does not seem that I have enough wide angle to get all that I want of it. I will try again some time, with a tripod and see if I can't get wider then the 18 mm that I have now.

Did I mention that I am really digging Aperture 2.0?  These shots are a great example of why.  The controls are great.  Since different types of artificial light have different color casts to them, it can be hard to get the shot that you want at night.  Our eye does not always note the difference.  But florescent is a little green and incandescent can be very yellow.  These were very yellow and I could reduce the saturation of the yellow and green (some bulbs have been changed to the compact florescent and so there is a mix) and increase the reds and magentas to get a more true to my eye pic.  In iPhoto all I can do is increase or decrease the saturation.  I also have control over the white balance and can move the black point to save blown highlights and rescue shadow.  

Hope you can live through a few days of Mission Inn posts.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 131, Garden, Adobe House of Dr Harry Smiley, Indio California

Day 131, Garden, Adobe House of Dr Harry Smiley, Indio California, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

One more from the Smiley house, the garden of Dr Smileys wife, Nell.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 130, Bogenvilla

Day 130, Bogenvilla, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

One of the most common flowering plants that we see out in the desert is the Boganvilla. It is one of my favorite plants. It flourishes here in the heat. I love the color. I love the fact that the plants that grow, they flourish. Also below, on of the trees from the park. The cool shade and pretty green break up the heat of the desert. I have been trying to get into the whole macro thing, but I am just not patient enough to get it just right. The errors are magnified so quickly. I just have not quite got the hang of it yet.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 129, Tractor Seat, Old Farm Tools, Coachella Valley, CA

Day 129, Tractor Seat, Old Farm Tools, Coachella Valley, CA, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

More from the Coachella Valley Museum and a little work with Aperture. I shot these planning to work them in Black and White. I am using a Canon 50 mm 1.4 lens. I love this lens. I was going to buy it from my friend, but then he saw what a great lens it was and changed his mind. It is still in my bag though, hopefully he won't take it away soon. The depth of field with this lens is great.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture:	f/2
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 128, Bell, Adobe House of Dr Harry Smiley, Indio California

Day 128, Bell, Adobe House of Dr Harry Smiley, Indio California, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

My family is from California on my Mom's side for 6 or 7 generations now. They farmed Westminster, Fontana, and then Indio. As the wars happened in the countries history, taxes would force families to sell their land (to pay the taxes) then they would move out to where the land was cheaper and start again. My Great Uncle Mac, my Grandfathers brother, was the last in our line to farm. And he with my Great Aunt Katie farmed in Indio. When I was working in Indio this past week, I went to a clinic to and the folks I was there to see were in a meeting. So I had a little time to kill and I had noticed the signs for this museum and thought that I would go see what they had.

It is a dinky little museum, but it houses some of the history of the area. They try to tell the story of the railroad and water that made the area livable. they have farm tools and other things. They seem to be planning a bigger role for the area by making it into a cultural center as well as a museum.

I remember going out to see Mac and Katie, and playing at their place. Riding on the tractor and wanting to play in what seemed a huge canal. We were not allowed to play there however since Uncle Mac said that there were watermocasins in the canal and it was dangerous. Aunt Katie had a bell like this to call Uncle Mac in for Dinner. I could not get over the great look of the simple bell, the pager of the farmer.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/3.2
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 127, M H Wittier Co. Date Gardens, Old Water Tower, Indio, CA

Day 127, M H Wittier Co. Date Gardens, Old Water Tower, Indio, CA, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Well, I have been playing in Aperture, Apples' competitive answer to Adobe Lightroom. It is a midlevel if you will image editing platform. While it does not have the same volume of tools for manipulation that you would find in Photoshop, it also does not have the price tag that Adobe wants for the Photoshop. If you see the Creative Suite 3 (CS3) package that they bundle with Photoshop it is a wonderful toolbox, that is not only out of my price league, it is out of my ability league. My brother uses these tools to make a good living, I just want to make beautiful images and shoot some weddings and portraits.

Aperture and Lightroom are platforms that allow users to make adjustments in a more sophisticated and less blunt tool sort of way then iPhoto or Photoshop Elements. They also allow more tools for comparison editing, metadata and image organization. I am learning them and have chosen some images to learn on. As you have seen I have gone through some of my older images and restarted the editing process.

This image is new, but I took it with the idea of a sepia filter. The water tower sits above the Coachella Valley Museum in Indio. It is housed in the adobe house of the first doctor to live in Indio, Dr Smiley. They are gathering up some of the areas local history, a one room school house, a submarine (the predisesor to a swamp cooler) farm tools, and soon a date tree exibit. More on this later.

By the way, check out the hawk on top of the tower.  I wish I had enough glass to get a close up of him.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	1/4000 sec
Aperture:	f/9
Focal Length:	125 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 126, Lincoln Memoral Reworked in Aperture

Day 126, Lincoln Memoral Reworked in Aperture, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is a combo post. A reflection of past work, but reworked with Aperture 2.0. I wanted to print some stuff out for framing for a friend and as I went through my catalogue, I came across these images. I had just put on the new Aperture from Apple (I just could not pony up the big bucks for Photoshop but needed a little more then iPhoto offered) and wanted to give it a spin. I am really happy with the results. I tuned the colors on this to give it more pop then what I had done previously with Photoshop Elements on my PC. Now that I am all Apple, and a little more advanced in what I like, I think the second go around came out pretty good. Here are few more from the same trip. I am heading back to attend the American Psychiatric Association meeting in May, hopefully I will get some new stuff to post. I am looking for a folding bike now to have a little more mobility.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure:	10 sec (10)
Aperture:	f/32
Focal Length:	75 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	-4/3 EV

Day 125, Ocean Bubbles Square

Ocean Bubbles Square, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is from a series of pictures that I took in Hawaii a few years ago. I wanted them to fit in a set format but be a little more elemental and a little set snapshot.   I took this on a the assent from the submarine tour that you can do in Maui.  The little sub went down to 100 feet deep and cruised around a little.  I remember being amazed on both the boat ride out to the sub and in the sub at how blue the water was.  This was just one of those cool shots that came out.

Hope you like them.

Thanks for looking.

EXIF Data.

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 124, Rocket Ride

Rocket Ride, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This in fact was a pivotal picture for me. I can not begin to tell you how much I love this shot. I had just bought my first Digital SLR, the Canon Digital Rebel. 6.3 Megapixels and I loved that camera. My Brother Drew has it now. I had really begun to get into this photography thing and was starting to experiment with the camera. This was a short time exposure on the Rocket Ride in Disneyland. There are a few more versions below. This came out so well as far as color and pop that I have been hooked ever since. It went from getting good pics of our kids to a full blown hobby.

I came accross this as I was searching the archives for a picture to put in as a background for the header. I came accross some others that I love as well. So this weekend I will make some posts of my favorite pics from the past.

As for cameras, I am now shooting on a Canon XTi and am looking to move to at least the 40D. I hope to start shooting stock photography, and the minimum standard there is the Canon 40D. Now the hard part, convincing my wife that I need to buy another more expensive camera, That will be fun.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure:	1.6 sec (8/5)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV