Please visit!!!
The colors are not quite as spectacular as they will be in a couple of weeks, but a few little pockets around Oakville are showing colors ranging from vibrant green to stunning orange and red. Andretti Winery is one of the most photogenic wineries that I know of! It is located on Big Ranch Road which runs parallel to the Silverado Trail. It is open to the public and tastings are available. Grab your cameras and have fun!
Sometimes, technical mistakes can produce rather amusing results!
This photo was taken on a cold winter day and I had put my neutral density filter between my teeth while I changed my lens. It was getting dark, so it completely escaped me that the filter was now all fogged up!
I am not sure what happened with this one – probably a very dirty lens!
A new discovery in my own backyard – The Pirate Festival of Vallejo! So impressive to see so many people and such elaborated costumes in the 105 degrees’ weather. Luckily, ice creams, drinks and water melons were available everywhere, but the parrots and pet monkeys had to stay home!
I started putting up my pictures on Shutterstock this week and sold this picture twice to people in Tel Aviv! Thank you, strangers, for getting this project started!
This picture was taken in the early evening from a fishing boat. The background is the town of Ilulissat way above the Arctic Circle. And those are just the tips of the icebergs!
Watch this new video I made with Ezvid:
If anybody knows of software with better resolution, please let me know!
Magmods are fabulous light modifiers! They seem to be mostly used by wedding photographers, but you can have lots of fun with them at home, too! These photos were created with two speedlites, gels and masks for the patterns on the wall:
Asia brings me inner peace (I can prove it – my Fitbit shows BPM numbers that I never see in the Western World)! The colors, the smells, the buildings, the temples, the food, the people – everything feels like a comforting blanket and I feel strangely safe and calm. I can spend hours in temples and gardens looking at the many faces of Deities of the East. I still have not figured out if I prefer the Japanese version of the Buddha or that of Southeast Asia. Regardless of the origins, they are all very photogenic!
60 million people are currently displaced because of war, persecution, famine, climate and other disasters. For those of us who cannot grasp numbers of such magnitude, that is roughly the entire population of France or that of the US West Coast if we include Arizona and Nevada.
You may feel helpless or think that it is not your problem. I would like to be bold and say that it is everybody’s problem. Not only is none of us an island – rather, we are all interconnected as humans and have a moral duty to help each other. These people could be us, might be us sooner than we know it. I truly feel that we cannot ignore the fact that there are 60 million souls out there who are traumatized, desperate, hurt, afraid, hungry, and angry. Many of them are children who have been separated from their families and have not received any love or education for years. What kind of people do you think they will grow up to be? Balanced, loving people ready to take on a job and participate in a daily routine? How do you think they will feel about us, the people who turned their backs on them? We are creating a whole generation of children who are living through horrors we cannot imagine and who are in deep need of a future. We must help ensure that this future holds kindness and hope. Failure in doing so, and pardon my cynicism, may very well create an army of millions of angry people and disillusioned souls who may not think very kindly on us.
I sadly have no children of my own, but am fully convinced that children are our future and that nothing is more important than our kids. History will judge how we chose to ignore refugees, how we refused to treat this planet like their (and our) future home and how we are at risk of failing the kids in our own backyard.
To this I say:
Humanity First
One of the most difficult aspects of photography to me is flash and other ways of creating and sculpting light. That may be why I find it so fascinating! It is like a whole new three dimensional world and yet, it really should be so simple, because you are in control! Truth be told, I do not feel very much in control when I am standing in a room with flashes, ambient light peeping through the windows, reflectors, gels and flashlights! Here are some examples of (attempted) controlled lights:
Next assignment for me: Outdoor night shooting with flashlights and gelled flashes! Stay tuned!
Growing up, I was frightened of cats. They seemed unpredictable, mysterious and generally not of much interest. It was not until I had my first cat, Bigoudi, in my twenties that I discovered how magic these beautiful creatures are!
Unfortunately, it would seem that we will be covered in most needed rain tomorrow and so I will not have the great photo ops that I had last year in the little town of Benicia. People get very creative decorating their shops on Main Street for the annual competition and it is a fun and colorful experience to stroll up and down the street.
Greenland seems to be made for Odd Format Pictures! With gorgeous landscapes all over, the pictures are almost beginning for panoramic formats. I had these pictures done in 20 x 10 prints and must say that they look completely at home like that!
Fall used to make me sad. Being Scandinavian, I could not bear to lose the sunshine and the long days. Now that I have lived in California for almost 20 years where the weather seems to get warmer every year, I treasure the cooler temperatures and the many photo ops!
I went to my beloved Lake Tahoe a couple of weeks ago where the colors where just beginning to turn. How can these warm colors not put a smile on your face!?
