Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
A Day in Point Reyes National Seashore
March 7th, 2010 | Author: albert
Linda and I visited Point Reyes today. It was one of these weekends where weather forecasts first predicted 80% chance on rain, then 30% and the day turning out to be beautiful! The whole area is beautiful and scenic views vary from rolling green hills, Eucalypt groves, rugged coastline and sandy beaches with roaring surf. We’ll be returning here in April when the place is awash with spring flowers.
Today’s trip included a stop at the wreck of the Point Reyes, a fishing vessel run aground at Inverness on Tomales Bay. As you can see from the picture below, the tide was out. The light was pretty much perfect. While this shot is not an HDR, I did come back with several bracketed shots and an HDR will follow soon.
The next stop was Drakes Beach. We wanted to to go to the lighthouse, but on weekends the state closes off the road and one has to take a shuttle bus. As we did not have the time, we decided to check out some of the beaches and ended up at Drakes Beach.
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Windmill at Kinderdijk
March 3rd, 2010 | Author: albert
Holland is famous for a number of things, but windmills are perhaps the most iconic of all. Used to pump water out of low lying land, windmills played a vital role in a country of which two fifths lies below sea level. The name “Nederland” literally means “low land”.
No wonder that water has been such an influential force in so many aspects of every day life. After all, this is the country with dykes everywhere and is a nation that plays a dominant role in many water-related sports such as speed skating and swimming.
Today, modern engineering takes care of keeping land dry, but the Dutch are immensely proud of their wind-powered water management legacy. Windmills are a nostalgic icon of those early days and are enthusiastically preserved whenever possible. Nowhere is this more evident that in a place called Kinderdijk, where no less than 17 windmills are clustered together and present just about the most classic view of Dutch country side one can imagine. Needless to say it is a popular tourist spot and a great place to go for a day of photography.
I am hoping to take Linda there in May when we will be in the Netherlands so here is a shot to “get in the mood”. This is one of those 17 windmills at Kinderdijk and is a 3-shot HDR. It was a rainy day (as you can see from the clouds), but I was lucky to get this shot with some great reflections during a break in the rain.
Master Brick Masonry of Fort Point
February 3rd, 2010 | Author: albert
The magnificent Fort Point is located right under the Golden Gate Bridge, on the South side. It was built to protect San Francisco harbor from Confederate and foreign attach during the and after the US Civil War.
While its many arched walkways are considered to be a great showcase for the art of master brick masonry, it is also great for some powerful photography.
Here is a great example of the “feel” of this place. I just LOVE these corridors that disappear into the distance, no distractions or decorations other than the brickwork, arches, faded colors and those wonderful lines. This is agreat place for a weekend visit (the place is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday). There are superb views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the rooftop, which is easily accessible.
This is a 3-shot HDR, each shot is 2 stops apart.
Pow Wow – Indigenous music, dance, food and art
October 17th, 2009 | Author: albert
Attended a PowWow today, held in Auburn, California.
What a colorful event this is! While some tribes do not allow you to photograph them, many do and, with a bit of patience, you can be rewarded with beautifully vibrant pictures of Native Americans in traditional costume.
The music is basic, but with an amazingly catchy beat. It is hard to sit still and before you know it, your feet are tapping in sync and you start moving your head and body to the beat. A look around at the crowds and you see you are not alone with most people moving some part of their body to the beat. The main drummers were “Northern Eagle” and “Red Buffalo”
The event was organized by the Auburn Big Time Pow Wow Committee, celebrating Native American art and Culture.
Tribes represented included: Cree, Choctaw, Blackfeet, Miwok, Apache, Shawnee, Kiowa, Shoshone, Lakota and Aztec.
Mono Lake Sunrise
September 10th, 2009 | Author: albert
I had previously posted about Bodie, the ghost town found on the Eastern sides of the Sierra Nevadas. In the same vicinity lies Mono Lake, one of the oldest lakes in the Western hemisphere.
Mono Lake is especially known for its mineral structures that stick out of the water in many odd shaped formations. These “tufa” towers, as they are called, were created when fresh water springs bubble up through the alkaline waters of the lake. The water is salty and, just like in the Red Sea, makes you float like a cork. The salty water also provides perfect living conditions for brine shrimp, which attract millions of migratory birds.
While not quite in the millions, the lake also attracts photographers as the tufa formations make interesting subject material, especially at sunrise and sunset. I had two mornings and two evenings to spend there and was up at 4:30 am to be ready for the morning glow as the sun starts to rise. The picture here was taken about 15 minutes before sunrise, you can see the yellow glow behind the hills in the background. Unfortunately, there was some wind, as you can see in the distance and no clouds. Often spectacular skies can be seen here, but no such luck. It was still beautiful though and I hope to go back soon.
Californian Ghost Town
September 7th, 2009 | Author: albert
Spent the Labor Day long weekend among the Eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and visited places such as Bodie, a ghost town, Mono Lake with its tufas and the ancient Bristle-cone pine forest, home of the oldest living tree in the world.
All of these places are found along Hwy 395, which is the most spectacular road I have ever driven. The eastern side of the Sierras are much more spectacular then the Western side. The Western side of the Sierras slope up gradually from the San Joaquin valley, while high, the difference in elevation comes gradually. Not so on the Eastern side where the Sierras rise sharply. The result is spectacular.
I’ll be posting some pictures from this trip.
Here is one from Bodie, a famous mining town, once a bustling mining town in the middle of nowhere, now a ghost town. It is kept in “arrested decay” and is managed by the Sierra State Parks Foundation. Bodie was on the list of park to be closed if California legislators had not been able to agree on the budget. One of the reasons I wanted to get there, just in case. . . .
World wide visits in past 6 months
September 1st, 2009 | Author: albert
Thank you – thank you – thank you!
Since February 2009 (just six months ago) this blog has been visited by people from no less than 112 different countries – WOW, how awesome is that?!?
From Barbados to the Sudan, from The Islamic Republic of Iran to Senegal, from isolated nations such as Mauritius, Mongolia, Iceland and the Maldives, to populous places like the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia and Russia. All that and only 6 months since starting the count. I am humbled and proud all at the same time.
In the map below, each red dot represents a country of origin. The larger the dot, the more people from there visited this site. This cool map is maintained by Clustermaps, who monitor the visits. Have no fear, it cannot track who you are, but it does know where in the world you came from.
Please do not stop coming, I will increase my work on the site, provide more presets and new content.
Thank you all, whoever you are!
Majestic Sequoias
August 24th, 2009 | Author: albert
My son and I spent a long weekend camping and hiking in the Sequoia National Park in California. It was the first time I had ever been there despite living only 4 hours drive from there. For some reason, I always ended up in Yosemite and not going the extra 100 miles or so to this awesome place.
The park, as the name suggests, is home to a large number of Sequoias. Sequoias are a red wood (a pine tree family member) and grow to enormous proportions. The coastal redwoods, that grow near Mendocino are taller than the Sequoias, but not as thick around the trunk. The Sequoias are huge and majestic. The national park is home to a tree called The General Sherman, allegedly the largest tree in the world, by volume. In other words, there are a few trees taller and there are trees that are thicker, but this is the tallest “thick” tree. It was indeed huge. Apparently, when these trees were first seen in the mid-1800s, nobody back east believed the reports, calling them a hoax. The trees are indeed absolutely huge and their color is distinctly different from the other pines in the forest. They are much redder as seen below.
This is an HDR comprised of 3 shots two stops apart. The HDR process does a marvelous job of accentuating the colors and the textures of these magnificent trees. I’ll be sure to post more soon.
Magic Moment above San Francisco
July 13th, 2009 | Author: albert
Spent the afternoon on Alcatraz with a group of photographers. It was a lot of fun. I had been there about 8 years ago and for some reason remember it as being bigger. Not that that really mattered, there are some interesting shots to be made on the island. It was rather cool though. While it was middle of July, it was a only 60 degrees Fahrenheit (about 15 Celsius) so sweaters and layers were in order.
I’ll post some pictures from Alcatraz soon, but wanted to share this one of the Golden Gate Bridge first. After returning from the island, four of us decided to go to the Marin Headlands and see what kind of sunset we’d get. On the way there it started to rain and the sky turned into a really interesting display, a rainbow and awesome colors as you can see here. A beautiful glow above the city, interesting clouds and the red color of the bridge rewarded our detour after the visit to Alcatraz.
Ghost Trees
June 27th, 2009 | Author: albert
Experimentation with Fractalius, a Photoshop Plugin. This application can create some amazing surreal images.
This image is of a eucalyptus forest in the Blue Mountains, Australia. The trees, affectionately referred to as "gum trees" have a white bark and can provide a ghostly appearance anyways (in fact, there is a tree called Ghost Gum). Using this plugin, that effect is accentuated.
Hope you like it.
