July Full Moon

Click on a photo to enlarge it.I started this moon project (photograph the full moon every month for a year) in September 2009. I plan my calendar around it to make sure nothing interferes with the night of the full moon and the two nights preceding it. I usually get the best light on the night before the 100% full moon, but July was different. The moon rose 45 minutes before sunset, so it was pale against a still very bright sky. For this second shot, I used a wider lens to include water from the reservoir.

On the night of the true full moon, I hiked part way up El Toro so I could include an expanse of the valley in the shot. I had been thinking about this shot for several months, and since the scheduled moon rise was 10 minutes before sunset, I knew there would still be some blue in the sky when the moon cleared the hills. I lugged my camera, tripod, and two lenses up the hill, and then waited patiently. Be sure to click on the photo to see the enlarged view.

Before leaving, I switched to a wider lens, took 3 photos, and then stitched them together in Photoshop to create this panorama. You have to click on it to get the full effect.

I am pretty pleased with my efforts this month.
After 10 months of moon shots,
my lunacy quest continues.

Farmers' Market

Click on a photo to enlarge it.A few photos from the Farmers' Market
in downtown Morgan Hill.

I bought this basket and they were delicious.

I am trying to shoot more people photos,

so when I see someone who looks interesting...

Macro: Practice Practice Practice

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

I love my new macro lens, and I have had plenty of opportunities to shoot with it. The Macro Focus Group within the photography club has held several practice shoots. These are great opportunities to shoot and share techniques & information with other macro photographers. For one session, we each brought small objects. I included this first one so you can see how much the lens can magnify. This looks like twine, but it is sewing thread. My WatchTee Time

Utility Knife

Amethyst Crystals
I propped up a blue file folder for the background.

I have dozens of blooming gladioli in my backyard.
Every day a newly bloomed stem declares,

"I am ready for my close-up."With this last one, I was trying to create an abstract of just color and line. I added an extension tube between the lens and the camera which allowed me to move in even closer to the flower. With a very shallow depth of field, I looked for one diagonal line that I could bring into focus.
This type of photography takes a great deal of patience.
This is the only one out of many that came close to my vision.
Fortunately, the glads continue to bloom.

These final photos were taken in a club member's greenhouse.
Once again, I used colored file folders as backdrops.Flowers are still my favorite photographic subjects.
Their beauty, color, complexity and texture
continue to intrigue me.

Allison in California

Click on a photo to see it enlarged.

Allison is my niece. She flew here from Virginia to see me and to get a California tan. The photography club had a shoot-out scheduled for Natural Bridges State Beach on Saturday, so that's where we headed. We arrived several hours early to spend some quality time on the beach, but as often happens at Northern California beaches, the sun never shown. We hiked around for a bit, shot a few photos, had lunch on the beach, and then settled down to bask in the fog.

Saturday evening we visited a hokey little
parking lot carnival in Morgan Hill.On Monday, we sojourned to San Francisco. Our first stop was the Academy of Sciences, which has a rain forest, aquarium, planetarium, and natural history museum. (I did not enjoy seeing the stuffed African animals.)

The rain forest was way cool (in a hot & humid sort of way), with butterflies flitting around, HUGE spiders spinning webs, geckos, chameleons, frogs, snakes and exotic birds.Leaving the rain forest, we dropped into an undersea world of coral, fish, albino alligators, turtles, sea horses, and jellies.

Our next stop, after leaving the academy around noon, was the Golden Gate Bridge. I missed the turn into the visitor center, so we continued over the bridge and up the turn-off to the Marin headlands.

For this shot, I set the camera on the hood of my car
with the lens propped up on my sunglasses.

We left the bridge and headed east on Lombard Street
(the crookedest street in the world) toward downtown.

We circled Coit Tower and then, after several wrong turns (even with the navigation system), we made our way to Haight/Ashbury, the very center of the Psychedelic 60s, Flower Power, and LSD. Now you sort of feel like you're in Hippyland at Disney World, but the shopping and people watching were good entertainment.We also went out to lunch in MH, ate dinner in San Juan Bautista, and worked out at the rec center. Allison spent enough time in my backyard that when she left this morning, she had a first-rate California tan.

New Macro Lens

My new Nikon 105 Macro lens arrived and the light was perfect this morning for a few test shots. The gladioli in my back garden area are in full bloom. I set up my tripod, attached the camera, moved in very close, and voila...

These next 3 are of a dandelion
that is less than one inch across.

I like this lens.

Fourth of July

To start the day ( & very early) my friend Noella and I photographed the Freedom Run, a 1 mile kids' run and a 5K . This is the 3rd street race that we have photographed as professionals. We take pictures of all the runners, post them on a website, and wait for the runners to place their orders. Then the money comes rolling in. For these two events, I took over 500 photos in about an hour. This first one is of the start of the 5K and it was published in the Morgan Hill Times this morning.

Click on the photo to see it enlarged.I thought this next photo exemplified the spirit of the race.

After the run, the street is cleared for the parade, a classic, small town event with lots of kids (dance & martial arts schools), members of organizations (like Elks & AAUW), city officials, and high school bands. The floats are decorated, flat bed trucks. Elvis & Marilyn Monroe always make an appearance. This is not the Rose Parade, which of course, is the basis of its charm. This parade has been staged every year since 1894. (That's no typo: 1894) This year I focused my photographic efforts on dogs and horses. See the best of the dog/horse photos on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/

My self-portrait. Click to enlarge it,
then look to the right of the white line.

There I am taking a picture of a tuba.That's all, Folks. Hope you had a grand Fourth.