Sunol Wilderness

For those of you who have been following the blog, sorry for the lack of new images. Things have been a little crazy lately between summer school and trying to find a place to live in Berkeley. We went up last weekend to look at places and ended up camping in the Sunol backcountry which was a bit of a workout but good practice for the John Muir. I haven't had much time to work on the photos from the trip but here is one that I have so far. Looking west just before sunset from our campsite.

Santa Catalina Flowers

A cool flower/pod arrangement off of the trail between two harbors and the King Harbor Yacht Club campsite.

Catalina Series

It's the first of the month so I want to get some new images out. I've been working on some images from Catalina Island and trying some new processing techniques. I will post the entire series as a slideshow when I am finished and also on the main website. Here are a few I have finished so far.

Tom's Place

Wanted to get a couple pictures posted today so here you go. These two are from back behind Tom's Place a few miles off of the 395. Amazing place and well worth a day of your time if you're ever in the area. For those who don't know Tom's Place is about a half an hour south of Mammoth Mountain on the west side of the highway.

Orchid Series

This was a series of orchid photos I took a while back. They look really sharp matted and framed.

Cuda Fishing

Went fishing this morning and caught a bunch of barracuda and a few calico bass. Only one keeper though, he'll be a taco in a few hours.

Memorial Day

Drove down to the yacht club to walk to Fiesta Hermosa but wound up not making it past first street... probably a good thing. Here is one of the few images from the day.

Governor's Cup Retouch

Having lost all of the edited photos of the 2007 Governor's Cup in Newport Beach, I pulled a late night to redevelop some of the images. My brother Wes was racing for King Harbor Yacht Club with Steven Natvig on the helm and Blake at middle. They finished in second place after an intense final match against Newport. This race is always very competitive with contenders coming in from all over the world - England, Australia, and New Zealand are regular competitors in the event.

"Great is Our Sin"

Took a couple of pictures of Andrea's back so the artist could add it to his portfolio. They came out pretty well and I am even more impressed with Capture One's rendering and ability to keep images from looking digitized. These were just taken in overcast light on the patio but I think some strobist shots would be fun in the future.

Capture One | Yosemite

I just downloaded a trial version of Capture One and wanted to post a couple images that were converted using this software. My initial impressions are that Capture One renders images to appear much more like film than Adobe's Lightroom which I really enjoy. The software also pulls out an impressive amount of detail. In preparation for hiking the John Muir Trail in less than a month, here are a couple images from Yosemite last summer that I reprocessed using Capture One. 

Three Pelicans and a Ship

I just got my Singh Ray "Galen Rowell" graduated neutral density filters so decided to try them out at the beach. Unfortunately I don't have my filter holder yet so I had to hand hold the filters. I didn't get any real keepers with them but the last image shows how they hold back the exposure in the brightest part of the frame.

Three Pelicans and a Ship - One of my favorites from the evening.


These two looked like they should be in a magazine. On Manhattan Beach Blvd.


This image was taken using the GND filters. I only put it up so you can see how the filters work. This was simply converted from RAW using Capture One, mild curves adjustment in photoshop and a tiny bit of sharpening. You can see how the filters hold back the light from the top of the frame allowing the detail in the sand to expose properly.

CSUDH Strategic Communication

Just a note on something cool going on... Sitting in the computer lab right now working with a classmate on a strategic communication plan for California State Dominguez Hills' "Sports Entertainment & Hospitality" Bet you didn't even know that existed! Be on the lookout for new updates to what we come up with.

John Muir Trail Schedule

I know a few people are wondering about the itinerary for the trip so Andrea and I sat down and came up with this preliminary schedule. Each location listed is our proposed camping spot for the night and the bold lines correlate with food drops. If anyone has any comments, questions, or suggestions for the trip feel free to send an email... or I guess you can comment on here (still figuring this all out.)
John Muir Trail Schedule

Pool & Pong

Pool and ping pong have to be a couple of the greatest games ever. Just thought I'd share. Andrea kicked my ass 3-2 at ping pong but I got her 2-1 on the pool table. Here is a photo from the day.

Photo Test

Seeing as how I will be using this blog to post images frequently, I figured I should see what pictures look like in blogger.

When you click on the image you will be taken to my Flickr.com page where you can view a larger version.