SanJose@Night

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In the second of a 3-part series of shoot-outs of city lights (we started in Morgan Hill, a few posts back, then San Jose, this post, and will end in San Francisco, a future post), ten members of the photography club met in downtown San Jose. I have said before that it is fun to play in the dark, so let's go on a short tour of San Jose lights.

First stop: Circle of Palms Plaza.I made the palm lights explode
by twisting the zoom lens during a 4 second exposure.

Paseo de San Antonio Walk

Not sure what the building is on the right.
Might be an edge of the Fairmont Hotel

South Market Street at the edge of Cesar Chavez Plaza
(a 4 second exposure)

The Marriot Hotel through the trees of the plaza
This is my favorite shot of the evening.

Want to see more? Go to my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/

Uvas Canyon County Park

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I created this blog three years ago, and this is my third posting of photos from Uvas Canyon County Park. I'm sure it will not be my last. This park, only 12 miles from my house, is a local treasure. Nine photographers from the club met Sunday morning to hike the Waterfall trail and take a few pictures. Swanson Creek runs all year, but without rain, it is only a trickle. After a storm, the water surges, tumbling through the canyon and swirling over rocks. Our timing was perfect. The waterfalls are not huge (like Yosemite), but they have a certain photographic charm. On this outing, I concentrated on the more intimate details of water & flora, zooming in on interesting combinations. This is one of my favorites, inspired by several of Gary Hart's photographs. It has some flaws, but my overall goal of flora against a blurred background that hints at the context of the scene was achieved.

This is another attempt at the same concept, but the background was so cluttered and busy that the water in the creek hardly showed at all. I turned this unprocessed image into... ... this by over-darkening the background and saturating the green.
Another lesson I learned form Gary is to "work a scene:" bracket the composition (not the exposure) by changing angles, and zooming in or out. This next set of photographs illustrates the concept. The first, a rather bland portrait of side by side waterfalls, shows the whole scene. I moved off to the side and took some angled shots, but didn't see much improvement. Remembering what Gary said, I began looking for smaller compositions within the scene, like that fern growing out of the rock. What if I zoomed in to emphasize it? That's when I really started to have some fun. I ended up with 10 good photographs (meaning I liked them) from "working" this one scene. Thanks Gary.
Sometimes a photographer lucks out by being set up in just the right place when sunlight breaks through that creates a rainbow in the fall of water. Or maybe the photographer held a diffraction filter in front of the lens.

I have more photos from Uvas on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/

Happy St Partick's Day

Don't you know that today's March seventeen?
It's the day for the wearing of the green...........

Begosh and begorragh, every Irish son and daughter
Every good old Irish name and their relation
They come from Tipperary, Donegal and County Kerry,
They are all here to join the celebration..........

It's a great day for the Shamrock, for the flags in full array
And as we go a-swinging, every Irish heart is singing

It's a great, great day........

Morgan Hill@Night

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The photography club has planned a series of 3 shoot-outs of city lights. The first was in Morgan Hill on Leap Day. After walking in the rain in the morning (see previous post), I was looking forward to reflections off the glistening streets. But it was not to be. The rain stopped mid morning and by sunset, the streets were dry. My goal for the shoot was to capture a long trail of tail lights down Monterey Road. The first image is a 6 second exposure taken about 30 minutes after sunset when the sky still held blue.

This is a 2 second exposure with a star filter.

More photos from this shoot are on Flickr:

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

Morgan Hill in the Morning

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My morning jaunts around town are much more fun since I got an iPhone. I get up earlier to catch the sunrise, and if that is not possible, I look for interesting patterns created by the morning sun's low angle, like this study of light and shadow.Sometimes there is no sun light shinning through. On Leap Day the lack of sunlight was no problem because we had rain. Yippee! I considered staying in my toasty warm house, but not for long. I had rain gear and an iPhone. I needed to get out and enjoy it while it lasted. First I walked up a short hill close to home for this view of El Toro surrounded in mist.

And then I headed downtown.Then I saw my reflection....The next morning all was dry again.
With my iPhone in my pocket,
I actively look for compositions that will show off my home town.
I never have to look far.Both of these were taken in HDR Pro

and processed in both Snapseed & Photoforge 2Who is this?
A friend's cat is staying with me for awhile.