"Oops"
"Some Gifts May Not Be Delivered"
My brother took this photo. Click on it to enlarge
Merry Christmas
We considered driving back up toward the bridge to find a vantage point above the fog, but sunset was only 25 minutes away so we didn't have much time to explore other options. We stayed put. I learned from Gary Hart that sometimes when the weather is difficult, be patient and wait. It was a good lesson to learn. First we spotted the top of one of the bridge towers, then the top of the Transamerica spire. As we unloaded our gear and set up our tripods, the fog thinned and the city gradually came into view. This was just the beginning. Wait til you see what happened next.
The fog cleared, the sun set, and we were rewarded with the most spectacular sky I have ever seen. Words cannot do it justice, so I will let the photographs tell the story. Please note that these colors are real. I did not increase saturation in the computer. Click on this panorama to get an idea of what we had the privilege of experiencing. Even this photo doesn't show the whole picture. We were quite literally surrounded by a display of color. At one point I stopped looking through my camera so I could just soak in this extraordinary light, go beyond being a witness, and become part of the experience.
As the sky darkened, the city lights began to shine. This is what we came to photograph: the holiday skyline. Only during this season are the buildings along the Embarcadero outlined in lights.
This is the shot I wanted to get and
I wish each one of you who take the time to read/view my blog, the very merriest of days, and may you have many extraordinary experiences in 2011. You can see more photos from this shoot on my Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/
I came to this decision while viewing the photos of this month's full moon. Every one was ordinary and I realized I took them just because I felt I had to take something. The experience and the results were less than satisfying. Both of these were taken from the private road leading up El Toro. (It is still fun to trespass.) In this one, the lights on Dunne Avenue point directly to the moon.
I am now a bit enchanted with the crescent moon,
The clouds created a perfect reflective surface for the colors of the setting sun. This red sky was not created in my computer. I purposefully under exposed the shot to draw out the color and render the distinctive skyline as a silhouette.
There is a time after the sun sets that the sky turns dark blue. For photographers, this is magic light. And fortunately on this night, the clouds thinned enough for the blue sky to make an appearance.
Once the sky was completely black, I started to play with the city lights. I set the camera controls and then twisted the zoom lens during a 2 second exposure to get these exploding effects.
Cool, huh?
The clouds had been hovering all day. I thought they would make for a beautiful sunset so I drove to one of my favorite spots, Chesbro Reservoir, hoping to get gorgeous sunset colors reflected in the sky and water. I wanted to practice a few of the techniques I had learned on the workshop in the Easter Sierras. Alas, it was not to be. By the time the sun was low in the sky, all clouds had vanished. I set up my camera and tripod anyway and took a few shots that I knew were ordinary. Then I shifted my gaze to the left and there was a pretty, little crescent moon just wanting to be photographed. This was so uncanny. I had been thinking about photographing the crescent moon for several months, but had not actively done anything about it. And suddenly it presented itself. If the clouds had held, I wouldn't have seen it.
This may be my new lunatic project.
The first two I took at Moss Landing. 
I used my macro lens to photograph a dahlia
On Halloween the downtown portion of Monterey Road in Morgan Hill is transformed into a pedestrian only thoroughfare of costume-clad trick 'r treaters. Most of the people parading past the candy-dispensing merchants didn't realize that genuine ghosts were striding along with them. Since ghosts are not visible in photographs, I attached a special specter intensifying filter to catch these three postmortem revelers. I like photographing ghosts.
Last Tuesday as I was driving home on Hale, I spotted smoke in the distance. I couldn't tell the exact location, but it appeared to be in the hills just west of Hale. As I drove closer, I spotted 3 airplanes and a helicopter circling overhead. When I was even with the source of the smoke, I pulled off the road, took out my little Lumix camera, and waited for one of the planes to come in low and drop the red retardant. The plane is in this picture (click on it to see a larger view), but it is obscured by the smoke and the tree on the crest of the hill.
I continued to shoot and caught the helicopter as it dropped water on the flames. I thought this was a most excellent action photo and submitted it to the Morgan Hill Times. They published it with their online edition of the story. You can read all about it and see my photo at: http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/269876-wildfire-burns-portion-of-tilton-ranch
Never go anywhere with out a camera.
and this sunflower that looks like it's on fire
and this bee working its magic with pollen
and these sunflower curlicues.
(These upper photos were cropped to enlarge the detail)
You can see more photos from this shoot-out on my Flickr site
As I waited, I turned my camera to the west.
Alas, the clouds thickened to the point that the moon was not visible until it was high in the sky, well above my lovely foreground tree. Such are the vagaries of the weather.
Even though I did not get the shot I was hoping for,
Wednesday morning I was up before dawn, drove up the same road, and pulled over when I saw a potential composition. I was so pleased. The sunlight illuminated the mountain tops. The peak on the left is not Mt Whitney, it is Lone Pine Peak. Mt Whitney is glowing in the distance. Did you know that Mt Whitney is the tallest peak (14,495 ft) in the contiguous US? I didn't.
With this wonderful introduction
Photography is all about light. Other factors matter, but without the right light, a photograph is usually bland. This is why serious photographers are out on location before dawn and after sunset. These are the times when the light can be magical. And if we are lucky enough to have a sky with clouds that reflect the light, well, it just doesn't get much better. The top photo is looking west over Lone Pine Peak and Mt Whitney. The next one was taken from the same spot, looking east. It pays to look around. 
When the grand vista is not available, it is time to search for smaller scenes. On a morning with so much cloud cover that the sky stayed gray, a shaft of sunlight nudged its way through to illuminate this small portion of the Alabama Hills.
We spent two days photographing at Mono Lake, with its unique spires of calcium-carbonate know as tufas. Its a popular spot to photograph and we arrived early enough to catch the glow of the low sun...
and stayed late enough to capture the post sunset color. Most people leave as soon as the sun sets, thinking the show is over, but we were patient and waited for the clouds to lift just enough to display radiant light in both the sky and the lake.
Early the next morning we were back at Mono Lake for the sunrise. These two shots were taken before the sun cleared the horizon, while the sky was still a deep blue and the water was mirror still. Beautiful light.
For the evening shoot, we set out for Olmstead Point, an over-look about 20 miles into Yosemite on Tioga Pass. When we arrived, the valley was completely socked in and rain was falling. Optimists that we were, we set up our tripods, protected our cameras as best we could, and bid our time. Unbelievably, the clouds gradually thinned and revealed what we were waiting for: a view of Half Dome. This is another of my favorite photos. I love the natural gray scale with just a tinge of pink.
Next morning we were back at Mono Lake, but at a spot called Black Point on the north shore. To get here, we hiked through tall grass, over sand & into the muck of the shore... in the dark. 
The tufas on this side of the lake are not tall spires, but low lying mounds. Our trek in paid off. We were rewarded with a fabulous eastern sky full of intense light.
This last photo was taken from the same spot on the same morning looking south. We were quite literally surrounded by beautiful light. Once again, I favored these more muted hues.
Continued...
