The Newest National Park: Pinnacles National Park

Bear Gulch Resevoir

Pinnacles had been on my radar at least a couple of years before becoming America’s newest National Park.  It’s rhynolitic lava spires, talus caves, condors and remarkable proximity had been singing their Siren song for quite a while.  But now that it had become part of the National Park system, it was time to act upon it before it became too popular and inevitably too crowded.  The National Park status is important because they are set apart by Congress for the use of the people of the United States as opposed to National Monument status which are areas reserved by the National Government because they contain objects of historic, prehistoric, or scientific interest.

The park is known for its astonishing geology. About 23 million years ago a massive volcano spewed lava in massive molten chunks in what is now the Los Angeles County. It was then transported to its current location (just 80 miles south of San Jose) via the San Andreas fault on a geologic time line. The lava cooled and years of erosion created tall pink spires while allowing huge boulders to fall and wedge themselves into the narrow canyons forming tenuous roofs for the talus caves.

Last April, a friend and I finally heeded that Siren call and set out for an over nighter in the park. It didn’t disappoint; we hiked the caves at Bear Gulch the afternoon of the day we arrived and did the climbs of the High Peaks Trail in the coolness of the next morning.  Although the camping areas are a little exposed, they are quite reasonable for a stay of a couple of nights. Although we never saw the much vaunted condors, the magnificent scenery of the hikes more than made up for it.

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The New Green Screen

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I had shot on green screen years ago and had a very negative experience.  The process of removing or matte background is called Keying and the earlier versions of this function in Premiere Pro were less than flawless. I had a terrible time cleaning up the matte and had an almost impossible task of cleaning up the Spill. The Spill is those parts of your image that reflect the color of the background and although green is a very good background to remove, it’s not a flattering color on people. I did manage to get it done but not without a great deal of work. From that point on I shied away from green screen processing.

I recently had a client that was very interested in a hero video that we could shoot in a short time period, in the limited confines of my small studio.  He stressed the importance that although the content was just him talking, that he didn’t want it to be just another boring talking head video against a static background.

I discovered that the team for Premiere Pro had added a new tool to the keying suite called Ultra Keying.  It does as it is named and created pretty flawless mattes. The new tools that are included in this function includes a Spill Suppression slider which is what was missing from previous editions. This enabled me to finally render a motion background that I had possessed for year and though I may never use.

Both the client and I were very impressed with the results and I’ll not shy away from the green screen again.

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Mexico City

Pyramid of the Sun with the lesser pyramids

I’ve heard all the reasons not to go to Mexico City: the overpopulation, the noise, the smog, the crime, etc. but we were on our way to another Mexican Riviera resort vacation and I felt the need for something more cultural along the way. In my research I found an amazing amount of interesting sites and attractions in and around the city. Although we only spent four days there it would have easily filled seven days of attractions and adventures.  Mexico City is a world class metropolis and deserves more credit than it gets.

We stayed right on the Zocalo (city center) and there were many things to see within walking distance -which was good because the inner city traffic rivals a Bangkok rush hour. We stayed at a very posh, French Style hotel called the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico for a mere $70 a night. There was never a time that we felt as if we may be assaulted and everyone was very warm and friendly. We did take a tour excursion to the Pyramids and although we did stop at a few curio shops along the way, it was still good. The culture is ever present in the city from the unbelievably stunning modern art to the ballet and symphonies. There was even a book fair that occupied the complete main square the entire time we were there.

Detail of the Dream of a Sunday afternoon in the Alameda, Diego Rivera

Highlights were the Temple Mayor museum, the Diego Rivera museum, the Palace of Fine Arts, La Casa Azul and of course the pyramids at Teotihuacán. If you are traveling through for any reason and can do so, spend some time in Mexico’s capitol -it just may surprise you.

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Fall Leaf Time Lapse

Time lapses can be tricky to capture. Even when you control all the lighting and environment, as I did here in my studio, you can still get annoying flicker. This can be caused by micro changes in lighting and kelvin temperature as well as shutter inconsistencies. See the below video for the “out of the camera” (mostly) results.

However, there is software GB Deflicker that averages the frames out the luminance and inconsistencies. I was fortunate enough to try a Beta 3 release from Granite Bay Software.

As you can see the results are spot on. I highly recommend this software to anyone who is dabbling in time lapse.

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Fall Colors in the Eastern Sierra

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For more than two decades, I was hoping to go up to the Eastern Sierra to photograph the fall foliage. Either I was too busy or I just missed the narrow 2-3 week window out of neglect. This season, a photo buddy and I just marked it in the calendar and preplanned the trip –novel idea. The weather and the advance of Winter cooperated and we spent 3 full days traveling the Highway 395 corridor for all the great colors.

We stayed in Mammoth Lakes because it offered the most choice in accommodations and was about central to the travels. We used the guide provided by the Mono County Tourism board and talked with locals to find what was most turned at the time.

I brought along my dedicated IR point and shoot which rendered some interesting images especially in Bodie.

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The complete gallery can be seen here:

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Why is Las Vegas a Popular Place for Shutterbugs?

Casinos, Cosplays, and Circus Shows

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A day in Vegas is always filled with exciting moments. The day to day scene often includes poker tournaments, and casino patrons who frequent the slot machines. The whole Vegas Strip is full of entertainment shows that range from magic shows to stand-up comedies.
Apart from the aforementioned shows, Vegas is also home to a plethora of conventions and magic shows. With plenty of possible material to work for a story, Vegas is frequently visited by photographers. Joe Giron, a popular rock band photographer, is now enthused by unique images captured only in casinos and remains a photographer of tournaments. Another photographer who is a staple in the casinos is Marcello Rostagni, who became popular for his portrait shots.
So what makes Vegas their favorite shooting spot? Here are a few reasons:

The unique architecture of casinos
Every time we mention Las Vegas, we often imagine skyscrapers and neon-lit brick and mortar casinos. These entertainment establishments are always a standout since most of these casinos are carefully designed and built to attract patrons and vacationers alike. The city is home the popular Venetian Casino which is a popular shooting spot for photographers. Aside from this Venice-inspired architecture, Vegas is also home to Caesars Palace and the Bellagio, both of which are renowned for their luxurious aesthetics.

The charming appeal of cosplays
If you find yourself lost in Las Vegas and suddenly meet Naruto walking down the street or perhaps find Cloud of Final Fantasy posing in front of the cameras, then you’re probably at Las Vegas Comic Expo. When people are not playing in casinos, they sometimes visit this famous convention to find their favorite anime or video game character come to life. You may even find cosplayers mimicking the David statue of Caesars Palace. In fact, it’s not just cosplayers who are fond of using famous icons as inspiration, as the Cleopatra and Bruce Lee games featured on bubblebonusbingo.com have also taken to referencing to popular culture to gain a share of the earnings from younger patrons. These cosplayers are then immortalized by photographers in these conventions via blog posts and photos. Thanks to a plethora of photos circulating the web, we are now familiar of popular cosplayers such as Jessica Nigri and Lindsay Elise.

The astounding performance of Cirque du Soleil
With colorful sets, vibrant costumes, and astounding circus performances, Las Vegas’ Cirque du Soleil is a common shooting spot for the shutterbugs. This unique arts and street entertainment show is now known worldwide and remains a favorite for tourists. With its unique theatrical plays and performances that includes Michael Jackson themed or Beatles-like performances, even foreign photographers make an effort to visit the place.

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Vegas Baby!

Some new casinos hotels and shops on the Strip.

Some new casinos hotels and shops on the Strip.

I’ve avoided Las Vegas like the plague for most of my life. The few times I’ve flown in, I’ve usually left from the airport to points south like the Lake Powell area. I’ve always viewed gambling as a form of taxation for the uninformed and the artiface and public drunkenness as massively unappealing. Yet when I had the opportunity recently to spend a short weekend there, I decided to give it another shot.

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Center square in the Venetian.

Much to my surprise, they have abandoned the Disneyesque themes and started building casinos that an adult would not feel silly being dragged into. With its elevated pedestrian walkways and outdoor escalators the Strip made me marvel at the city planning and made for an entertaining stroll up and down it. Although most of the casinos still looked the same on the inside; endless rows of generic slot machines, dizzy lighting and gaming tables, there were a few notable exceptions: The Cosmopolitan, Paris, Paris, The Bellagio and The Venetian.

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Fremont Street

Even old Vegas had its charm and coupled with reasonable temperatures and a lack of crowds, the city proved itself more interesting than I thought. I even found the short weekend too short to fully cover the Vegas I wanted to see and I’ll probably come back for more than just work.

 

 

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SORAA’s New Snap System

SORAA wanted a completely different look for their second video. With a limited amount of time to complete before their big show, they wanted a more graphical, edgy and snappy video to show off their latest addition to the product line. They’ve invented magnetic filters that attach to the front of their new lamps that affect both the shape of the beam and render various color shifts. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time or budget to produce too much-advanced animation and as will all new products, the prototype came in at the last minute. Still, it was fun to do something a little different.

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SORAA at Kwan Hemni

SORAA is an inventor and manufacturer of high end LED lamps. Their lamps are remarkable for their color spectrum and beam pattern. In fact we shot this promo for them using their lamps for fill as well. We were able to shoot this spot at the wonderful Marin home of Sylvia Kwan and Denis Hemni who are the partners at the architecture firm of the same name.

This video was shot entirely with my new Canon 5D MK III.canon-eos-5d-mark-iii-jjc It features a new, low noise, sensor and improved record times of up to 29 minutes.

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Iconic shot of Berkeley

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I  had a client at the beginning of the year who required an iconic shot of Berkeley for the header banner on his website. Initially, I thought that wouldn’t be so difficult but as I began to run through the mental images of having gone to school there and having lived in the area, I was pretty stumped on one that would look good and iconic on such a thin ribbon that he was proposing. Berkeley doesn’t have a remarkable or distinctive skyline. In fact the only image that leaped to mind was of Sather tower with perhaps an overview of Berkeley in the background. I had in mind a shot with the tower to the left from the Tilden Park region but in scouting the area, I found a construction crane just to the right of the tower and just about the same height. After driving the Berkeley hills to about an hour I found a great spot to capture this image just above the Greek Theatre and managed to pull the Golden Gate in as well.

Canon 5D Mk III, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, 120mm at f/10 at 15 seconds

It worked out rather well for his banner:

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