Today is Saturday and I am feeling nostalgia......

Up in the state of Washington for a few months now and I am definitely missing the California beaches. Going through my beach photography collection a little while ago and I picked out a few photos from the album.

On a typical Saturday morning at this hour, I would already be in Santa Monica checking out the scenery and having the best R&R money cannot buy.

and on every Veterans Day the scene in Santa Monica beach

I will be back.... just not soon enough.

A day of creative fun with Photoshop Elements and Canon Digital Professional Software

The day started with me trying to figure out how to make a nice looking copyright watermark for my photos using the software I already have in my possession: Photoshop Element 2.0 among other freebies that came with the camera and scanner (yes, I know I really should get a copy of Element 8.0 which has many more features but I am cheap) (wink). While searching on the web hoping to find an update for the Canon EOS Viewer Utility I have, I came across a download for Canon Digital Professional Software on Canon Australia site (link here). It was a fruitful discovery as the EOS Viewer Utility update was nowhere to be found and the Canon Digital Professional Software turned out to be far most powerful. It works like a charm and is rather similar to Lightroom Beta 3.0.

"Santa Monice pier boardwalk at dusk"
I ended up making quite a few copyright layers for future use; grey, faded white, embossed etc. The faded white © was used here as you can see. It is not clearly visible yet it is there in the center of the image so it does not interfere with aesthetics of the image. The process is a breeze once you have done a few and you will be able to make many variations to suit each image. The "©" symbol can be found in Character Map in Windows (My Program -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character Map). Copy and paste that onto a new layer. Make sure you select transparent for the layer. Once you are happy with the placement of the symbol, adjust the opacity to 15-22% save the file in psd format. Voila, your copyright layer is ready to use. To add to your image, just move or drag it to the image, move it to the position you want (center is the choice), adjust its size with Free Transform. Remember to lock the aspect ratio so it does not turn into some strange looking oblong C.


The above image of three apples came from an uninspiring photo I shot a while back. Despite it being a really flat and boring shot, I thought it has the potential as a starting image for my art. First I tweaked the levels a touch to make it look more dramatic, then a pass with an artistic filter. I also adjusted the stroke width to make it look more impressionist. I then added a little noise to arrive at the resulting antique look. Now it is looking like the old Parisian serving tray I shot the image in. When I get it printed, I shall don an old classic wooden frame around it before it goes up the wall next to my book collection :)


"Three peaches"
Moral of the story? It always helps to have a decent photo to start with. I know that is highly subjective but after a while you will be able to spot one that holds promise and one that is going to be a disaster no matter what you do to it. The above photo was a shot I almost deleted. My camera was set on a tripod but the peach in front swayed just as I clicked the shutter resulting in a distracting fleeting shadow. Here I tweaked the RGB colors individually and adjusted the hues which produced a rather pleasing image in the end.

I had a day of creative fun. I am going to print at least one of them in a poster size format using an online print shop, which will really be the test if my rendition is any good......I shall post a follow up blog then.

Here is the link to Canon Digital Professional Software in case someone is interested.

Mother and Child at the Beach

I remember this day vividly. It was a gorgeous summer day in southern California. I was up early that day, my camera backpack was there all packed ready to go. I always enjoy spending a few hours on weekend driving along the beautiful coast, stopping to take pictures. A peaceful quiet morning on Pacific Coast Highway (fondly called PCH), only bright jersey clad cyclists and a few fancy cars on the road. It was still early, traffic usually does not pick up on PCH on a Sunday morning until after 10 o'clock. My Sunday routine would conclude with a stroll on the boardwalk at the pier in Santa Monica, a cuppa of morning latte in my hand.

It was indeed a glorious day at the pier. Southern California is blessed with many days like this. It was a refreshing morning walk and one that rejuvenates my soul. As I walk along the boardwalk, I saw a mother and child, beach towels in hand, ready to spend a blissful day together. It was a beautiful scene, a series of shots which I would later capture with my Canon 10D and 70-200 f/4L zoom. Below is one of them available for sale on BigStock


Buy this image of mine at Bigstock

It was a very endearing picture that warms my heart....a young girl and her mommy enjoying a day at the beach together. No TV, no electronic games, just sand castles and each other. After a few minutes, the young girl was happy the towel no longer has any sand, she put the towel down on her mommy and gave her mommy a big hug......

Livermore Wine Country and Altamont Pass Wind Farm

The weather was wintry, forecaster had called for a partly cloudy day. I wanted to take a drive and get some fresh air away from the city and thought I should venture out to Livermore to see how the grapevines are shaping up thus far. Northern California has had a whole year's worth of rain already - could it wreck havocs to the year's vintage? I wonder...Anyhow, my excuse for driving 50 minutes northeast to the pretty rolling hills countryside despite the menacing rain clouds hovering over my head most of the journey. .
I was not too optimistic about getting decent shots. Well, the sky did clear (long enough for me to take a couple of nice shots of the wind generators towering on the hills along Altamont Pass). I did not really mind the cloudy sky, to me it just added to the mood. The intermittent sun and dark clouds and its shadows falling on the rolling pastures made for beautiful landscape. There is always photo ops I reminded myself. The real reason for my little escape today was that I had acquired a nice (well used) Mamiya RB67 Pro SD with 90mm f/3.5 KL/L lens and a 120 film back last Sat all for a mere $280 and I have been dying to use it. I had a roll of 120 Velvia in hand and thought I should take it out for a "test drive". The RB67 Pro SD is soooo heavy, weighs a good 6+ lbs not counting my tripod :(. I weigh a mere 110 lbs and have a 5 ft frame!! This is going to be fun.....My shoulder will probably hurt tonight but what did they say about chasing your hobby (my passionate pursuit of something called photography). I had just the right backpack for it though....a new backpack I got last Xmas (it even has a touch of champagne pink fabric on the front) See pictures below. It is pretty large but not overly large for me, with straps on both sides so I could strap a tripod on it (barely though) (the main selling point of the backpack). I was able to pack my RB67 ProSD body with the 90mm lens and 120 film back, my Pentax digital spotmeter, Canon 10D with a wide angle lens and even a Holga which I had a couple of frames left that I wanted to finish. I quickly loaded everything in my car, and drove north on 680 and then 84 in the direction of Livermore at 7:30am.



A few comments from the trip:

First of all I love the RB67 ProSD...I am all smitten by it. The waist level viewfinder is so very bright, what a world apart from the viewfinder of 35mm SLR. Second, there are a few safety locks so one will never accidentally click that shutter without cocking the level and winding the film forward. Third, multi exposure on same frame is a breeze, just set it and adjust for stops and shoot away. Fourth, I don't have to rotate the entire camera to change from vertical to horizontal shot or vice versa, just rotate the film back, WOW!! (that is such a brilliant idea). Finally, it is all mechanical, no worries of camera battery dying on me just when that perfect moment presents itself!!

It is HEAVY!!! but it is such a joy to use....The only way for me to use it is to shoot on a tripod (a good habit anyway)

The images posted above were from my Canon 10D, as I need to finish the roll of 120 Velvia and as soon as I have it develop, I will update with some images...can't wait.

Finally, this is the day I decided to leave all my Canon DSLR lenses at home except for the wide angle because it would simply be way too heavy. I wish I had them expecially the 70-210 f/4. Anyhow, I had also inadvertently set the image size on the Canon 10D to small (uugh)!!! I was so grateful I had shot a roll of Velvia on the RB67, I never have to worry about accidentally setting the wrong image size with film camera. I was reminded of how pros used polaroid to do test shots before the advent of digital camera. Well mine sure look like polaroid samples now, good for web use:(. So much for agonizing over whether to leave my other lenses at home. On a good note, I did find a couple of spots that would be awesome for black and white photography and as soon as my films arrive from Adorama this week, I shall head out there to shoot more!!







"my beloved new backpack" It has a rather large top camera compartment where I put the medium format camera and a second bottom compartment for a second camera, seen here in the picture. Here is a link to Amazon's Cuscus Amazon store I can't seem to find the same backpack on their store anymore, I remember reading that it was out of stock. They have some really nice hiking backpacks tho :)
Find Camera Backpackson Amazon

Looks like dust spots have found their way into my Canon 10D again, time to cough out some money to get the sensor cleaned again!! With film cameras, one never have to worry about sensor dust spots.

A footnote about the wind farm, these towering wind generators do make a constant swirling (humming) noise (sort of like sound of a quiet engine running constantly). It is very audible indeed at the foothills some 400 ft down and I understand now why some farmers in the midwest objected to their neighbors starting a wind farm as a way to subsidize their farm income