| Photos taken in 2008 |
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Ashland Creek in Lithia Park (Ashland,
Oregon) over Memorial Day Weekend. This area received above average
rainfall this year. The recent hot weather has accelerated the snow
melt, and the creek was running full throttle. Ashland Creek (as you
might imagine) runs through the town of Ashland and is exceptionally
beautiful. |
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My Digital Imaging instructor (Betty
Sederquist - her web site) showed
me where to photograph the spectacular wildflower show near Coloma.
This area was hit by a wildfire last year, and as a result gave the
wildflowers a head start this year. |
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Looking downhill across the field of poppies
to an Oak Tree (just starting to bloom out). |
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A very wide angle view of the Poppies... the
ones in the foreground have good detail... then it gently flows off in the
distance. |
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A Barn amidst a field of Daffodils (taken at
Daffodil Hill). It was really misty this day, giving a soft
(diffused) lighting on everything. |
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The front of another Barn at Daffodil
Hill... more of a study of life gone by. This photo is a
popular one with friends. |
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One of my favorite photos (to date) taken
from the house deck in March. There is definitely a magical mood in
this photo! |
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Agi and I took a trip to the Southern Oregon coast (near
Brookings) in early March. The waves were still large at the time...
in this case you're seeing two waves collide with each other after
rounding a large offshore rock. |
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A charismatic seagull at Harris Beach (near
Brookings)... very interesting to note the detail in the seagull's eye in
this photo. |
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Someone called this photo the "translucent"
wave... which seems to fit appropriately. Certainly a fraction
of a second frozen in time... |
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The seagulls at Harris Beach were amazing... they were pretty much
everywhere you looked. In this case it's a single seagull... but in
the perfect position for this photo. |
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Three seagulls and an incoming wave at Harris Beach. |
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An old Shipwreck near the mouth of the Rogue River (Gold
Beach). The tide was out at the time, and it allowed more of the
vessel to be shown. The different colors on the ship in this photo
are really interesting! |
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Typical scenery of the exquisitely beautiful southern
Oregon Coastline between Port Orford and Brookings. One could spend
weeks here and not capture everything along the way. |
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Towards the end of the day, we visited Lone Ranch Beach
between Gold Beach and Brookings. This is an absolutely wonderful
spot to spend some time... the beach is fantastic - and the rock
formations even more so. The wave action here highlights the
scenery. |
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A recent side-trip on my way up to Ashland brought me to
the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge near Willows. Though most of the
migrating birds had already left, the incoming storm clouds more than made
up for their absence. |
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An incoming thunderstorm over the Sacramento Wildlife
Refuge. |
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A White Egret patiently waits for dinner at the
Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. |
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One last look at the fantastic cloud formations over the
Sacramento Wildlife Refuge before leaving. |
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We had a series of major storms in January through the
beginning of February. It was pretty wild with wind, snow, rain, hail for
weeks on end. This photo was taken from my house as the last storm
was leaving. |
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Kind of an unusual photo... this was taken in Color but
then converted to Black and White as the imagery is very strong. The
birds in the lower left complete the perspective of how miraculous this
world can be. |
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On returning from a friend's winery, I detoured to Happy
Valley Creek to shoot some photos of the rock formations there (especially
with higher water from the storm runoff). The rock formations there
are really wonderful. |
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Early in the morning, as the storm was clearing, I took
this photo focusing in on the sun's rays filtering through the trees. The photo definitely has an ethereal
quality to it... especially with the birds. An amazing photo - and
one of my favorites. |
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These are called Lenticular Clouds... they
form due to very high winds
at high altitudes. The setting sun (behind me) added a nice
evening touch of color to them. |
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| Photos taken in 2007 |
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A second sunrise - similar in view to the one below -
but is completely different in mood and beauty. This is another
example of HDR photography, and I think one of the better ones at that. |
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Sunrise from my house on December 1... this is a good
example of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography... three exposures were
taken (one on clouds, one on sun's rays, and one on land) and then all
three were blended together taking the best of each. |
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Mount Shasta taken at Sunset on my way up to
Oregon. The lighting on the mountain was spectacular as the sun was
just above the horizon behind me. I had to exit the freeway at a
rest stop (just in time) to grab this photo. |
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Bike path at Fort Stevens State Park (near
Astoria). This is a wonderful place to spend some time (great bike
paths!), and get to know the history of the area. It's also the
starting place if you plan to bike the entire Oregon coastline. |
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At the southern end of the Oregon coast is Humbug
Mountain State Park. The park has some spectacular hikes, and (as
you can see) a very rugged coast. This is another park worth
spending some time to explore. |
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Early morning at Bandon Beach in Oregon... about 25
miles south of Coos Bay. A very spectacular beach. |
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This is in Bolinas (California)... taken on the beach
early morning in June as the sun was filtering through the morning fog
along the coast. A very difficult lighting shot... but it came out
really well! |
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In Ashland, there is a free "Green Show" just
before the other (mostly Shakespeare) shows start. The dancers here
as you can see are fantastic... the music (and themes) can vary
dramatically from show to show... or song to song. |
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Standing on Arch Rock (Point Reyes) and looking south
along the coast towards Double Point. The seagull was very kind to
pose for me in this photo (he got a reward afterwards). |
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A little Hummingbird getting breakfast at the feeder...
I've found that a simple solution of natural brown sugar and water (1:4
ratio) works best. The downside is that the solution ferments and
has to be replaced every other day. |
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Sunrise over the Sierra Foothills. This photo was take
from the house deck during Winter, and is actually comprised of two
identical photos with different exposures (allows some detail in the fog
and land without washing out the sun). |
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The Crystal Range with some light snowfall near the top
(Pyramid Peak is on the right side). |
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Early morning sunrise creates some very unique shadows
through the mist... this is a great mood photo... very serene. |
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I love this photo... this is an early Spring shower
moving over the Sierra Foothills near the Fairplay region. This was
taken at sunset, and low sun's light highlights the mixture of rain and
hail below. |
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Agi and I took a weekend trip to Yosemite the last
weekend of March / first day of April. The weather couldn't have
been better! Warm days, cool nights... and no rain or snow. The
waterfalls were especially beautiful with the Spring melt. |
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Yosemite Falls... hard to describe how spectacular it
is. |
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The Merced River in Yosemite Valley. This is
looking east (upriver). |
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Another view of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley...
this is looking west. The doe adds a nice touch to the photo. |
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Below Yosemite Falls. This is actually three
photos taken in very rapid succession at different exposures. They
are then combined to bring out all the detail ...its known as High Dynamic
Range (HDR) photography. Note all the details are still present in
the shadows... and yes, that's snow in the background. |
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Mirror Lake at Yosemite... although it isn't much of a
lake anymore, no one can question it's beauty. |
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Just as we were leaving Yosemite early Sunday morning (Agi
had a long drive back to Oregon), we saw this sight at the Upper Yosemite
Falls. The early morning sun's rays were hitting the mist from the
falls and creating this absolutely beautiful rainbow effect parallel to
the waterfall. The rainbow would come and go in different shapes and
forms. Amazing. |
Photos taken in 2006 |
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In early September I visited Agi in southern Oregon, and
she took me on a day trip to the coast (near Brookings). One of the
stops was Harris Beach State Park, just north of the town. This is
an absolutely beautiful place to go. |
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After driving up the coast a ways, we wandered back down
to Harris Beach just in time to capture the ocean sunset. Golden
sand, beautiful waves, spectacular sunset... what more could you ask for? |
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This was a pure luck shot as it was handheld using a
telephoto lens at dusk. I saw this cute little guy at the
Hummingbird feeder just as I was walking indoors. He (she?) managed
to stay still long enough for me to take this photo. |
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Slab Creek Reservoir on an early October morning.
A friend and I were bike riding at this time, and I remember it being
really cold then (probably why the mist on the lake). |
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I took Agi to Mt. Aukum Winery near Fairplay, and the
vines were showing their Fall colors. These vines are relatively new
(about 3 or 4 years old I think). |
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This Sandpiper was taken on Bolinas Beach in late
October. I hadn't realized how beautiful the feather patterns are on
them until this photo. |
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Few trees have as much color blinding "WOW"
factor as the Japanese Maples in the Fall. This was taken in Lithia
Park in Ashland (Oregon) in early November. |
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I had a presentation to do in Santa Clara (near San
Jose) and on the way back we were flying over the Sacramento Delta
Region. This photo came out surprisingly well for taken quickly out
the plane window. |
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Stinson Beach and the Marin Headlands taken from the
Little Mesa in Bolinas. This was a particularly windy day (the Point
Reyes Lighthouse was closed due to high winds), though by this point the
winds had calmed down. |
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Drakes Beach in November. A storm had passed
through earlier in the morning, and the winds were very strong (40+
mph). The winds were blowing the crests off the tops of the waves,
hence the crowning effect you see here. |
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Very rarely do you see such a colorful sunset on the
Northern California coast! Usually the sunsets are cloudless (or
foggy in the summer)... so this was a vary unusual occurrence. This was
taken from Agate Beach in Bolinas in November. |
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This photo was taken early Thanksgiving morning as the
storm cleared out. The cooler air left behind in it's wake formed a
fine layer of mist in the valley (just below where I live). A very
surreal photograph... |
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Deer on the American River Trail just a few days before
Christmas. There's a section of trail about 1 mile down river from
Sunrise Blvd that always seems to have abundant wildlife... hawks,
turkeys, deer, etc. It's always a pleasure to bicycle through here. |
Photos taken in 2005 |
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This is a larger resolution photo (~590kB) of the view
from Single Leaf Winery in early Spring (May 1, 2005 - yes we had a long
winter this time). This is taken with a new camera (Casio EX-Z750)
which is really small - about the size of a credit card (but 0.9"
thick) - and is 7 Megapixels in resolution. It takes really phenomenal
photos and is super light... in other words... an ideal camera for
bicycling. |
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A study in pastels... this photo was taken looking at
the sunrise towards the Crystal Range. Pyramid Peak (highest mountain in
El Dorado County) is on the right side. |
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Very early spring flowers near Coloma... this photo was
taken in early March - about one month ahead of when the peak wildflower
season arrives. |
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While I was shooting pictures of the wildflowers above,
I noticed this wild turkey not far away from me. The low sunlight at
the time reflected very vivid colors off it's feathers. |
Photos taken in 2004 |
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Tule Fog rolls in though the lower elevations in the
wintertime, and the effects can be rather stunning looking down on it. |
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Lake Tahoe from the air. I was returning on a
flight from Las Vegas when I captured this through the airplane
window. |
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Donkeys in the Apple Hill region... I thought the birds
resting on top of the Donkey in the middle looked way too comfortable. |
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Trees and fog one early morning... this is a great mood
(or texture) photo. |
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View from Single Leaf Winery in the Fall. This is
a wonderful time to visit the region and go wine tasting... make sure you
bring your camera! |
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Bolinas... one of my most favorite places in the world. |
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An early Autumn view from our house (next photo below). |
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The house on the hill... we were very luck to get this
property and build a home on it. The view from the deck is shown
both above and below. |
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Late Fall view from the deck of our house looking
towards the Sierra Nevada Mountains. |
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Near Heceta Head in Oregon. This was taken around
Thanksgiving when we went to visit Terri's family. Pretty stormy as
you can see, though a very spectacular time to visit. |
Photos taken in 2003 |
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A very spectacular sunrise in September. This was
taken from our house deck. |
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October bring in the fall colors. This photo was
taken from Single Leaf Winery looking northward. The hill way in the
distance (on the left side) is the hill we live on. |
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Bolinas from the Bolinas Ridge (near Mt Tam).
Beautiful country... words don't do it justice. |
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This was taken late in the evening on the Bonetti Ride
(in El Dorado National Forest). The ride is documented on this site as Snow
Mill - Cosumnes Ride (Sly Park / Iron Mtn Region). |
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Duxbury Reef in Bolinas. A great place to go tide
pool exploring (at low tide of course). |
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We have a lot of photos taken from our house...
but not too many taken of our house from the valley we
overlook. This is one of the few. |
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Summer Rainbow during a thunderstorm. |
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Harvest moonrise. |
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A very colorful late-summer sunrise. |
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Latrobe in the springtime. Absolutely terrific
area to bicycle in during this time... not so great in the summer (too
hot!). |
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Spring view from our home... the colors look more like
Autumn than they do Spring. |
