Day 144 – Practice

I love this piece -it’s a solid piece of olive wood from Israel, carved into Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.  I wanted to continue my practice with off camera flash and while I still have a long t I’m slowly getting the hang of things.  Anyway, admiring this piece again tonight has me daydreaming of travel.… Read More

Day 143 -Space Shuttle Fuel Tank

http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-you-transport-a-65-000-pound-space-shuttle-1778059655 My older kids and I finally took the long awaited Santa Monica to Downtown LA ‘E’ Blue line.  The train ride was smooth, the ride was comfortable.  We stopped off at Expo Park to have lunch and knock around a bit.  I had no idea this was there, but we got to see the… Read More

Day 142 – Promenade

I still enjoy heading over to the promenade to witness the nuts, homeless, tourists, talent, and locals.  Now that the train comes all the way through (and today’s fares being free), it was quite crowded down there!  But there at the corner was Rock ‘n Roll Jesus, singing terribly but owning it.  The kids and… Read More

Day 139 – Maurice Lacroix

My journey with flash is just beginning.  This was shot with off camera flash (OCF), eTTL, -2 EV with Mag Mod and two grids plus diffuser.  I still have a hot spot on the chrome, I need to practice and learn how to avoid that.  None-the-less, my goal was to ‘dramatically’ light a dark subject… Read More

Day 138 – Bounce Flash

Part 2 of today’s POTD.  As mentioned, I want to work with getting more comfortable with flash (pocket strobes).  Still playing with on camera flash – but bouncing off a reflector.  This is my favorite coffee mug, the 70-200mm mug.  However, the mug design is a little top heavy (narrow bottom) and during a client… Read More

Day 137 – Fill Flash

I missed yesterday, so today has two posts.  As mentioned previously, I’m working towards learning my flash.  Before jumping to a ‘studio 3 point setup’, I want to master the on camera flash first prior to off camera flash.  I’m learning about bouncing the flash so that on camera flash has the same quality light… Read More

Day 129 – Tanker

Today was the last day in Catalina.  We had a great breakfast overlooking the vast Pacific and the shoreline of the mainland, then headed down to the spa for an amazing massage.  Completely relaxed and rubbed down in aromatherapy, back to the Inn for lunch and rest out on the deck for an hour or… Read More

Day 128 – Fox

Today was a great day – we hiked through the botanical gardens up to the top of Catalina, straddling both sides of the island.  While taking in the breath taking views, a small fox crept his way up to us and allowed us to get with a couple feet of him.  He was so adorable!… Read More

Day 127 – Avalon, Catalina

Monday will be my wife’s and I seven year anniversary, so we headed out to Catalina.  We are staying at the ol’ Wrigley Mansion (Inn on Mt. Ada) in Avalon.  The views are fantastic.  We took the helicopter from Island Express out of Long Beach and I thoroughly enjoyed the views coming out of the… Read More

Day 125 – Malibu Pier

I’m starting to dive into the wonderful world of Photoshop.  I was convinced that I would only use SOOC as I didn’t believe “processing” was part of the art.  Then I started learning that the camera’s dynamic range is limited when comparing to that of the human eye, which adjusts based on contrast and for… Read More

Day 124 – Sun

I finally snuck home and decided to shoot the sun.  I’m still working on capturing the sharpest image possible, my telescope is a bit difficult to work with.  To minimize shaking, I set the timer to 10 seconds and used a shutter release.  With the magnification that my telescope brings, any slight movements creates considerable… Read More

Day 123 – Golden Tegu

My son had a game tonight, a fun mixup with the boys baseball team playing the girls softball team.  It was great fun watching the boys dress up in silly garb and have a general overall good time.  While waiting for the game to start, there was a gentleman deep in right had the Golden… Read More

Day 122 – Train

Tonight’s a double header – I missed last night again but any reason I give, whether valid or not given the moment I decided it was time to shoot would just be an excuse.  So, since I delayed my actions, tonight’s image makeup for last night is the train being tested while I sat at a… Read More

Day 120 – San Vicente

I love San Vicente Blvd.  These trees line the center median and shade the runners who run up and down the edges of this greenbelt, from Ocean up to Bundy, it makes for great exercise (I’m not a runner, but I’ve heard it does! 🙂 ).  Today we were driving around with our two year… Read More

Day 118 – Cleaners

Is it too late to drop off my dry cleaning? 🙂  I like this building, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of neon and this place has a lot of it!  The building is yellow with green awnings and a brick building behind with some interesting murals painted on the backside.  Great cleaners,… Read More