Notes To My Mother

It has been foggy in the mornings and I wanted to see if I could get above the fog by going up Pine Flat Road. I want to shoot the Lyrid Meteor Shower Thursday and I thought that road might get me above the fog where we would have a clear view. But on the way up through the fog I was so taken by the light that I had to stop and shoot. This tree brought me to a stop as the light was almost making it glow.  This was close to the upper limit of the fog and the light was coming through nicely.  You can actually play with the light by going to higher or lower elevations, the fog will lighten or darken. Aside from the atmosphere fog provides, it also evens out the light so that you do not have to deal with the high contrast between lights and darks. I found these flowers growing around the dead wood with the foggy background intriguing. When I got to the top of the mountain I was indeed above the fog and in full sunlight. To shoot these poppies I shaded them by sp...

Buddies are priceless. I have a good buddy, Jerry Huffaker. He rides his bike around Sonoma County traversing a innumerable back roads. He is also a budding photographer so he has been noticing certain things on his rides. Like wild flowers. Today he treated me to an excursion with our cameras, to one of the roads on which he has been enjoying wild flowers for the past few years. Our first stop was this little farm located along the road with a sweet patch of California Poppies in their pasture. We had to shoot through the fence to get some images and wished we had access to get in closer to the flowers. This was taken with a Sony 55-210mm lens at a 114mm 35mm equivalent focal length. Driving a bit farther down the road we came to wild flowers growing between the road and the vineyards.  This was taken with a wide angle lens at a 35mm equivalent 15mm. We spent the rest of our time shooting these flowers, experimenting with different apertures, lenses, fo...

We were in search of wild flowers and word on the internet was the Paso Robles area was in full bloom. So we loaded up and headed south. You might think that wild flowers would be easy to find, after all they are bright and showy and hopefully right along the road where they cannot be missed. We had seen pictures of them, carpets of yellow and white flowers, blues, orange, white. All lounging next to each other in wonderful arrays of color. As we discovered on this trip they are not everywhere. As we drove to the area where we heard they were blooming there were no wildflowers in sight. None. It wasn’t until we found our way to the exact spot where Shell Creek Road and Highway 58 meet,  that we final found carpets of color.  This is where the reports of an excellent bloom directed searchers to go.  And it was true, this was the place were the flowers were.   Unfortunately, as pretty as these flowers were, we missed the real bloom. It turns out that ...

I have been to Bowling Ball Beach three times. The first time I went it must have been high tide because there were no bowling ball to be seen anywhere. The next time I went a buddy and I researched when to be there and discovered it was to be a low tide, preferably a minus tide. So we timed a low tide with sunset and made our way to the beach. The bowling balls were so high up out of the water they were not worth photographing – they are not pretty at all when they are completely dry. So we did some more research, now having a little more insight into the situation. The best tide level to photograph the bowling balls is between a 1.5 to 3 level tide, preferably receding. Now timing this to happen at just the right time to take advantage of the golden hour and blue hour is no easy fete. And of course it would be best to be a week day so there aren’t so many tourists. And throw in a few clouds for some interest in the sky. Not asking much, just a confluence of ab...