Day 60, Line at Disneyland Ticket Booth

Day 61, Line at Disneyland Ticket Booth, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

We went to Disneyland tonight to see some of our friends that were visiting So Cal.  I of course cannot find my pass.  That cost me $20.  They give one freebee, but only one per year, and I could not find it last time we went.  So Sophie and I waited in the line to get a replacement pass.  I wanted to shoot a lot here, but that didn't happen, we were busy catching up.  But I did get a few good images.  Watch the next few days for postings.

Thanks for looking,

EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture:	f/4.5
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 53, More Freemont Street

Day 53, More Freemont Street, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Freemont Street has the old Vegas hotels with the lights that started it all. I couldn't resist shoot the lights. Binion's Horseshoe Casino is one of the old dogs of Vegas. Around since 1951 started by Benny Binion. He arrived in Vegas when Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo in 1946. He became a partner in another of casino, but left to open the Horseshoe.
Binion's has contributed such things as the World Series of Poker and The National Finals Rodeo.

I just wanted to shoot the lights. And that is what I did. I love the shot a little down of the white neon lights. Close up, like many things, they just don't look so great. They are connections and they sit outside. They have dirt and the whole does not eat up the actual.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	24 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 38, Traffic at Night

f r e e r i d e, originally uploaded by Toni_V.

I wish that I had taken this shot.  But, I did not.  I tried to do something like this, and it came out horribly.  

I will try again soon. I used a tripod behind me in the middle. I just got a bogen super clamp and a little arm to work with, I have a cable release that helps to take these kinds of shots. But it really came out badly.

Here is the EXIF data for the emaple by Toni V, and for mine. I thought you would enjoy seeing me flub up one.

Thanks for looking

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Freeride by Toni V

Camera:	Nikon D50
Exposure:	8 sec (8)
Aperture:	f/9
Focal Length:	10 mm
Exposure Bias:	0/6 EV
ISO Speed:	200

Mine

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	1.3 sec (13/10)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Mine

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	3.2 sec (16/5)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 24, Christmas Lights, Mission Inn, Riverside

Day 24, Christmas Lights, Mission Inn, Riverside, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

The downtown area of Riverside is dominated by the Mission Inn. When I was in High School, it was mostly abandoned and the city was looking for anyone to take it over. They put up some great financing help to get it going again.

Over the last 10 years, the downtown has come back. The center of this comeback has been the Mission Inn. It really is a unique place. There is a boatload of history and art there. Well, at least by west coast standards. We don't really have many 200 year old buildings or great revolutionary war stories. Until about 80 years ago, this was nothing but scrub and rancheros. The citrus boom really put this on the course to being somewhere. Most of California has a similar history.

Every year now, the big lights that the Mission Inn does are really better and better. If you need to visit Southern California, and you want to stay somewhere that is not just another hotel, stay a night here, you won't be disappointed. I can't tell the difference anymore between Marriott and Hilton. When I travel for work, few places have any quality of their own. That is what is probably unique to the Mission Inn, it really is a place of its own.

Thanks for looking, as always, below are the shots that I did not choose to run with as well as the EXIF data for the lead image.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	5 sec (5)
Aperture:	f/29
Focal Length:	31 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 23, Christmas Lights, Down Town, Riverside

Christmas Lights, Down Town, Riverside, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Every Year the downtown area of Riverside gets a Christmas shot due to and around the Mission Inn.  It is one of my favorite places here in Riverside. In fact, I asked my wife to marry me at a fountain just inside the Mission Inn. There is a restaurant there now, so it is not so quiet and removed as it was. I had a dinner meeting to attend across the street, so I brought my camera to start taking pictures around the area.   I will be post for the next few days some of the shots from there.

One of my favorite restaurants is in the Mission Inn, Duane's.  The steaks there have rivaled anything I have had at any other major steak house in the country, and I have been to a few.  They have this great painting of Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in Cuba.  By great, I mean huge.  It is a captivating piece as well.  In fact, the art in the Mission Inn is really great.  More on that on later posts.

I could not take the picture that I really wanted to take, there was a big event at the Mission Inn and I could not get access to the area that I wanted to shoot, so I worked a little around the outside. The sun was down, but the sky still had a great effect to it and the California Christmas Trees were lit up.

Thanks for looking, as always, below are the shots that I did not choose to run with as well as the EXIF data for the lead image.

A few notes on the shots that I did not choose for the image of the day.  I like the window shopper shot since these are all longer shots and he was still. The arched walkway is cool to stroll through, but tough to shoot since there are about four restaurants here and the service entrance to the Mission Inn. People moving through a long exposure can come out really cool. However when there is so little light, like this walkway, the exposure gets so long that you can not tell that they are people walking through the shot. Hence I shot it without people.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	4 sec (4)
Aperture:	f/9
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 19, Family Portrait

Day 19, Family Portrait, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

What a chaotic night! If you saw my post a few days back on my brother, Andrew, you had the chance to read that I bought a studio light set up and a backdrop. I seem to always aim much higher then I should. For my first song on the guitar, I wanted Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn. Talk about over my head. Clapton has these monster mutant long fingers, and I still haven't got one song down on what are now a collection of 3 guitars. They look great hung on my wall in my office. I have since backed it down a little and I am working on Johnny Cash stuff now.

For my first studio type portrait, I tried to shoot 23 people (half of them are kids) with a brand new set up and next to no time to work out the bugs. Did I say half of them were kids? So I made some big errors and I am not happy with the portraits. I am working out some fixes with photoshop, but just the same, it was as big a let down as not being able to pick up a guitar and drop Claptonesque riffs.

While I had everything set up, I ran each family through and shot some other pics for fun. I like how these came out. For next time, I will move the subjects forward a little and put up a backdrop light or hair light. I will make sure the backdrop is ironed. That was really an easy fix in iPhoto. Just a little of the retouch tool. I will hook up my camera to a laptop and then I will catch lighting problems in the first few shots. I will.... well the list is kinda long. But the individual family groups were not bad. Here is the "funny" shot that I have done some of the editing on. (the backdrop was about 2 feet to small on the sides and about 5 feet too small in the front - a lot of photoshop to fill in and make look natural)

Here below are the shots of my parents, my brothers and their wives and children and my sister and her husband and children. Clicking on any of them will take you to my Flickr photostream and you can see them in larger formats there.
I just can't wait to try again.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	28 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV