alpharon's posterous

I really have to post more frequently on this blog.  Project 365 is just a small part of my photography and I feel like I've got so much more to share with everyone.  This is going to be a big update to Project 365 with a lot of pictures to catch up on, so I'm just going to get right to it.

[37/365] :: Happy Birthday Emilia.  Everyone meet Emilia! (AKA: Auntie Mely, Auntie Sis, Mamma Mely, etc.)  I came prepared knowing that I would be getting good lighting for my pictures during the birthday party today.  I was intent on getting this portrait of Auntie Mely with the blurred out bokeh for the background.  My Sigma 85/1.4 was the perfect lens for this shot, so I had it mounted to my 7D for the majority of the day.  This was the first shot I took of her.  I ended up with a lot of great shots that day, but I chose this image because it's the one I had planned to shoot before even clicking the shutter button on my camera.

[38/365] :: Kukui Nuts.  In all honesty, this shot was forced.  It was getting late in the evening and I had not had an opportunity to take any pictures.  I was looking around the house for items to use and found the kakui nut and shell necklaces to use as my subjects for the picture.  This was the first day in Project 365 where I had to really force myself to just take the picture.  I think it ended up being a really sharp, clean image.  The subjects don't exactly call out to the viewer, but that's ok.  I can live with it.

[39/365] :: Pondering Escape.  There is shopping area by where I live that has this awesome pond filled with fat koi fish and turtles.  These guys look like they have it made and I'm not sure they'd ever want to escape this man made environment they all live in.  I had to have some real patience when photographing these animals because they were constantly swimming around looking for food on the surface of the water.  There was a lot of luck involved in snapping this image with only the turtle's head partially breaking through to the water's surface.  Most of my other shots had the fish creating ripples in the water and blurring out anything below the surface.  I was happy to get such a clear image and to capture the interaction between the pond's inhabitants.

[40/365] :: Light Vibrations.  This was very much an experimental shot.  I had no idea how it would turn out whe I was planning it.  I was sitting in the passenger seat of our car.  We were exiting the freeway and headed towards an off ramp.  I set the shutter speed to 5 seconds and held the camera as steady as I could on the car's dashboard.  This was the result of the vibrations from the car and the road.  I was able to capture all the light trails from the cars, streetlights, and road reflectors surrounding the vehicle.  I'm surprised that more than half the image turned out to be complete darkness.  It must have been a very dark night to be driving around.

[41/365] :: The Jewel.  This was my view in the morning from the parking lot near Scripps Pier in La Jolla.  It's looking out towards La Jolla Shores in the foreground and La Jolla Cove in the distance.  I was checking out the surf that morning to see if it was worth paddling out for a session in the water.  That wave might look a little deceiving since there isn't anything around to compare it's size to.  It was actually quite small out that morning and I decided not to get in the water.  I took this quick picture instead and really like how it turned out.  It would have taken me a very long time to clone out that strand of grass in the foreground, so I chose to just leave it since it doesn't really take away anything from the image.  The light was hitting everything right in this photo and I really like the clarity I got from it.  The skies are clean, the scenery is sharp, and the waves look fun.  It's just a classic San Diego morning.

[42/365] :: Board Topper.  Another year, another birthday.  I was happy to celebrate it with a small group of family and friends.  We had a really fun time just hanging out, having some drinks, and getting down with Dance Central on the Kinect.  I was blown away when my cake was brought in and I was able to look over all the details.  I got a kick out of a replica of my Firewire Surfboard on top of the cake.  The shells look like the perfect sea shells we all used to search for on the beach when we were kids.  The "sand" on the beach was actually brown sugar.  Everything on the cake was edible.  It also tasted really good!  Seeing it again in pictures gets me motivated to go out and surf.  I appreciated everything about it and was very thankful to share it with my family and friends that night.

[43/365] :: Dragon Parking.  I drove the fam out to downtown for a meet up with some friends to check out the San Diego Padres Fan Fest.  It was a beautiful day and we all decided to walk over and check out a Chinese festival happening just a few blocks away from the park.  As we were walking around, I wanted to see if I could practice some shots on street photography.  I kept an eye out for any interesting subjects to shoot.  We came across this dragon parked on the sidewalk during the Chinese festival.  I like the juxtaposition of the dragon and the "No Parking" street sign just behind it.   Juxtaposition was one of the first things I read about when researching street photography and I was happy to find it in this shot.  I ended up with some really good street photography shots that day, but I chose this image as proof of my learning and progression on the subject.  I will have to start a photoset just for street photography so I can have a place to upload the other photos to.

[44/365] :: Top of the Hill.  These kids are just too cool.  They've become so easy for me to photograph because they've been conditioned to seeing my camera pointed at them whenever we're all together.  HAHA!  I think a lot of it also has to do with me being able to anticipate their next move so I can quickly get in place for the next shot.  This quick 5 minute shoot started off with them staring through the windows of the playground playhouse.  They realized that their faces weren't showing, so they made their way up above the windows and gave me the poses you see in this shot.  It was almost effortless on my part as they did all the work for the shot.  I just sat there and clicked the shutter.

[45/365] :: VDay Moon.  We've been having some beautiful days in San Diego with some clear skies and warm weather.  I've been seeing a lot of the moon during the day, usually on my drive home from work.  Unfortunately, the sun will usually be setting before I can get my gear set up to get a day shot of the moon.  Today was different since I was able to leave work an hour earlier.  I had plenty of time to set up my 400L lens for this daytime moon shot.  I found it to be a little harder shot to take during the day than it is at night.  Nighttime moon shots are easy with their monochrome look.  Daytime moon shots have subtle changes to the blue sky all over the image that sometimes makes the image look unnatural.  I had to be careful to stealthly blend the whole sky together in post processing to make the image look clean and more natural.  I think it worked out for this shot.  The moon ended up being very sharp and well detailed.  I'll have to try this again on a full moon in the daytime to get the whole image.

Aloha!  I'm back from Hawaii with a little tan and a lot of pictures to sort through!  Fortunately, I've already selected and uploaded my daily photos for Project 365 on my Flickr and I can share them all with you here! 

[020/365] :: Waikiki Lights.  Our first night in Hawaii and I desperately needed a shot for the day.  The flight got in later in the day and we spent a lot of time getting checked in and situated with everything.  I didn't remember about having to take a shot until the end of the day.  Luckily, we had a great view of Waikiki from out balcony, so I set up the tripod and shot a few long exposures of the city.  This one came out pretty good with nice colors and contrast.  The light trails from the passing cars was an added bonus to the shot.  I really like how the street lights turn into bright shining stars for long exposure shots.  This was my first real try at this type of shot, so I'm happy I was able to get a good result out of it.

[021/365] :: Broken Board.  We made our way to Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu to check out the huge waves that arrived the day before.  Everyone had anticipated the running of the Quiksilver Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational to run with the previous day's monster swell, but the waves weren't consistent enough to run the event.  The waves were still huge and there were plenty of guys out there paddling into some crazy drops.  Stay tuned to this blog for a separate post of all the surfing shots I took in Hawaii.  I got really lucky with this particular shot.  This shot is straight out of camera with no extra editing done to the image.  I noticed the surfer peddling by on his bike, but didn't notice the broken board until he had passed me by.  I quickly turned my camera to shoot him as he peddled away.  I really like how the shot is framed by the green foliage along each side of the subject. 

[022/365] :: High Five.  Our hotel room in Hawaii had a cool parchment screen between the bathroom and sleeping area.  It created a nice backlit shadow effect for people inside the bathroom standing close to the screen.  I had my wife place her hand on the screen with the backlight on in the bathroom.  The light wasn't completely covered up, so it created a bright spot in the photo, but I was still able to get the effect I was looking for in the shot.

[023/365] :: Vanishing Horizon.  The sun happened to be setting as we were walking along Waikiki beach, so we decided to post up and take some pictures.  I had to shoot this with the huge sky and very low horizon line to eliminate a lot of the tourists that were standing in the foreground.  I like how it turned out as it really draws your attention to the sunset without too many silhouettes distracting from the subject.  One thing that I do find distracting is the watermark I have placed just below the horizon line.  I'll have to remember to move that watermark or get rid of it altogether for these type of shots.

[024/365] :: Hanauma Bay.  This is a shot of the famous snorkeling location just past the entrance to the bay.  The vivid blue water and the green foliage really add a lot of color to the image.  I'm not really a huge fan of snorkeling here because a lot of the coral reef has been trampled on by tourists making for a mostly dull time in the water.  My friend Brian and I decided to make it a little interesting by swimming out just past the shallow reef safe zone and into the deeper waters of the bay.  It was a pretty sketchy experience as we were getting tossed around by waves close to some hard coral formations.  We were able to find some larger schools of fish not normally seen in the calmer waters.  There was also a healthy population of corals that were untouched by tourists in this portion of the bay.  It's definitely worth a swim out there if you feel confident swimming in the open ocean.  Just make sure you use the buddy system and watch your backs for large shadows coming towards you in the water.

[025/365] :: Turtles Attack.  Our group decided to check out a Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center in the North Shore.  It was our first time at the center and we had a good time checking out some shows and learning about the South Pacific Islands and their people.  This shot was taken at the gift shop while we were waiting for their finale show to start.  My son was playing with a couple stuffed turtles next to a display.  I rolled him over closer to the display and dumped a bunch of the stuffed toys on top of him and snapped this shot before he got overwhelmed.  We all had a pretty good time at the PCC and I would recommend it to people wanting to learn a thing or two about Polynesian Culture.  The new finale show they have is called 'Ha - The Breath of Life'.  We all were impressed by the performances and left well fed and well entertained.

[026/365] :: Pineapple.  This is a shot of a pineapple growing in the garden of the Dole Plantation near the North Shore.  I'm not sure what variety pineapple this is (I should have taken a shot of the label), but I like how it almost gets lost in the leaves surrounding it.  It's probably fully mature and ready to be eaten on the spot.  I learned that you could plant your own pineapples by taking the crown and placing it in a jar of water, not unlike planting a potato in a jar.  I'll have to try it the next time I have a pineapple around.

[027/365] :: Wipeout.  Day 27 was the last day of the Volcom Pipeline Pro competition at the Banzai Pipeline in the North Shore.  This is one of the scariest places in the world to surf.  Period.  We started the day with a big breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe and desserts from Ted's Bakery.  Then we drove on over to Ehukai Beach Park to check out the contest.  It was sick.  Pro surfers really know how to negotiate that wave and get themselves into the perfect position for a nice barrel ride.  The poor guy that fell off his board in this shot was a free surfer that was surfing at Off The Wall, just a few meters south of Pipeline.  I have other shots of him before he hit the water, but I decided to post the one not showing his face to save him from embarrassment.  HAHA!  You can pretty much tell from this shot that it was a bad wipeout.  He's falling into just a couple feet of water with a sharp coral reef below.  Luckily, he made it back up unharmed and quickly paddled back into the lineup before the next wave broke over him.  I've got a lot of respect for any surfer that paddles into these dangerous conditions. 

[028/365] :: Flight.  Sadly, all vacations must come to an end.  The family hopped back onto a plane and headed back to the mainland.  Hawaiian Airlines treated us good and we'll be looking forward to flying with them again for another trip to the islands.  This is a shot out our window seat during blue period.  The sun was setting faster since we were flying east, so I had to remember to get this shot before the sky turned completely dark.  Mahalo Hawaii for another good time.  Stay tuned for all the other pictures I took of the trip.  Aloha!