Moonrise

In the days before I was paid to make the most boring subjects look somewhat interesting my photography was about 80% oriented around a amazing event that occurred everyday, the sunset. Much to my mother's chagrin, I would climb the chimney onto the roof every time it looked like there would be a nice cloud formation to the west. Our neighbor's palm trees would form a nice silhouetted frame for the photo. Even though the clouds would be different each time the routine got a little monotonous. So one morning I decided to shoot the sun on its way up instead of going down. I headed out to the marsh near our old home in Suisun to shoot the sunrise. As far as I can remember this was my first official photo expedition, where I went out and about with the sole intent of taking photos. Just coincidentally there was a full moon that morning that was setting at the same time. A few cattle grazing on a rolling hill in front of the setting moon became one of my favorite all time photos. It turned out to be a major catalyst in my path from a potentially wealthy chemical engineering student to a starving artist.

So when I noticed a few trees set on a very gentle hill (if you can even call it that) on my way to an assignment outside town last saturday I knew I had to come back there for the rising/setting of some celestial bodies. And luckily a full moon was on the horizon a day later. Even better, the current tilt of the earth on its axis lined up the trees to give me easy access to see the sunset on one side of them and the moonrise on the other. And so, about 14 years after my first simple trek outside town I headed out again, just at a more reasonable hour this time.

Sunset behind trees


There was a half hour break between the sunset and moonrise so I showed Miranda the old Stevenson's graffiti bridge. Just south of it was a young walnut orchard. I tried to get her to walk down a row for a photo but heals and mud don't mix. So just the trees


Finally, the moonrise. I ruined what should have been the best shots, when the moon was just peaking over the clouds, by trying to use a monopod instead of the tripod. The moon is also blown out compared to the trees. I might try some HDR blends to see the man in the moon but don't have the time now.



Looks like walnut trees in black and white might become a more frequent subject.

Davis Cemetery Photos Close out 2008

The Ten Commandments, the U.S. Constitution, marriage licenses, and mortgage applications. Putting things in writing is supposed to make them binding and unbreakable. Yet people have broken these contracts time and time again. Unfortunately, putting my new year's resolutions from 2008 in writing did not prevent them from suffering the same fate. As evidenced by the 6 months since my last post part 3 of those resolutions was an epic failure. The other 3 parts were no more successful. I don't really know what happened. It seemed like I was busy and I know I was taking photos but just nothing inspiring enough to wake up this blog.

I did go out for one shoot at the end of 2008, a foggy night at the cemetery. Not the greatest photos but a good way to put 2008 to rest.



Now to start '09 in a more successful but noticeably non-binding fashion.

July 4th Criterium

Eight times in the past eleven years I've had to shoot the Fourth of July Criterium bike race in downtown Davis on what was supposed to be my day off. It gets hard to find new ways to shoot the same old thing, even something as photogenic as this race usually is. This technically isn't a new way to shoot because i had a similar photo of Steve Larson a few years back but I'm still pretty proud of how well this particular shot turned out. I got 17yr old Taylor Kuphaldt of the Davis Bike Club rounding the corner of 2nd and E St in a pack and managed to just have his face and the handlebars as the only crisp elements in the photo.

Day Tripping

These photos are kind of old but Miranda's been bugging me to get them up. Day trips back in May and June to Bodega Bay and Lake Berryessa.

Little snail on a bed of barnacles at Bodega Bay


Mir on a rock near that snail at Bodega


Mir on a peak overlooking Monticello Dam and Lake Berryessa

Senior Portraits, First Attempt

Wanting to be more like my local photographic idols Todd and Barabara I agreed to take some senior photos of Kim's daughter Amanda. I'm not very good a posing people and have discovered that, as useful as they are in everyday life, hands can be a huge distraction that nobody knows what to do with in portraits. Thankfully, having a cute subject is an easy way to hide the flaws in my own photographic abilities.

first shot, cute and simple


next shots, with a prop


Last shot, direct sunlight

Basketball road trip

After finishing 2nd in the regular season the UCD women's basketball team advanced to the conference tournament in Anaheim. Being the aggie fanatic I am I couldn't miss a chance to see the ladies advance to NCAA March Madness. But, of course, a road trip to SoCal wouldn't be the same if I didn't do some sightseeing as well. I headed to my favorite national park, Joshua Tree, before going to the tournament. Although extremely crappy LA traffic added 3 hours to the drive, causing me to miss sunset and not find an open campsite, I still managed to take some nice moonlit night photos, again.

backlit by the moon –


moonlit –


A car drove by and added some nice sidelighting to this one –


And for what it's worth, the ladies won today and will now play tomorrow for the conference championship and a postseason berth.

Project products

So I haven't done much freetime shooting lately. But I have finished a couple other projects.

I took a beginning woodworking class at the ucd craft center and got to build a super exciting cutting board. Now, besides cutting the cheese, I don't do much cutting. But it was simple and I didn't have anywhere near as many problems as all the other folks in the class so it was a decent accomplishment. Here's the finished product in all its oak/walnut glory


At the Enterprise there was a large hedge that used to be trimmed into the shape of an old steam train. Unfortunately the guy who started it died over a year ago after he fell into a lake while ice skating in the sierras. It had gone unfinished and overgrown ever since so I got tired of looking at it and decided to take the matter into my own hands. After cutting a few feet off in most spots it kinda looks like a train again. And now that the smokestack has finally had time to grow out it looks pretty cool.