Thursday, September 30, 2010

Day 27 Sunset

Kim and I went down to the beach today because I was so disappointed that I had missed the beautiful sunset last night. There are thunderstorms predicted for the area tonight, so it made for some nice clouds and deep orange coloring at sunset. We spent a little time down at the Huntington beach Pier and I made a bunch of pictures that I liked. I could not decide between these two, so as a bonus today is a double picture day!

           f/4.5; ISO 100; 1/60 sec. exposure;  18mm focal length



             f/25; ISO 100; 13 sec. exposure;  32mm focal length

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Day 26 Birthday flowers

This is a shot of some of the flowers in Kim's birthday bouquet. A friend from work gave them to her on Monday and they still looked nice.
              f/5; ISO 200; 1/4 sec. exposure; 18mm focal length

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Day 25 Spyro

Here is Spyro the Dragon. He was flying around our den this afternoon but he was hiding very cleverly. I laid on the floor and sat real still waiting for him to fly over me. After about an hour of waiting he flew overhead and I snapped this picture, but I think he saw me.  He disappeared for the rest of the day out of shyness, I guess. I really had to crank up the ISO, so this shot is a bit grainy.

             f/5.6; ISO 3200; 1/8 sec.exposure; 53mm focal length

Monday, September 27, 2010

Day 24 Moonshine

I ran out of time to compose a cool one becasue I had to go rescue a friend whose car broke down. Anyway, The moon was interesting and the clouds around it looked cool. By the time I got my camera out and set up, this was the best I could do. Sue me. Some days this project will not produce gold. The key is to stay with it and not expect miracles.

           f/5.6; 1.3 sec. exposure; ISO 100; 154mm focal length

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Day 23 Little House

I almost didn't make it! Here is a little house that sits on one of our shelves in the living room. Not very creative today!

            f/5.6; ISO 100; 1.3 sec. exposure; 24mm focal length

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Day 22 Flower

This is a pretty little purplish-red flower on one of my neighbor's bushes. I cannot remember the name of the flower, but I liked it up close. It seems more red the closer I got to it, though.

            f/5.6; ISO-100; 0.8 sec exposure; 41mm focal length.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Day 21 Colors

OK, so I got in a hurry and had to rush it. The crayons are just aligned in a diagonal row fading off the page. I'd like to do this one again with more colors. The possibilities are intriguing.

           f/5.6; ISO 100; 1/2 sec. exposure; 55mm focal length

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Day 20 Brendan

This is A.J.'s cat Brendan (the Young Prince). It is obvious that I have irritated him with my rude picture taking during one of his 96 naps during the day. Nevertheless, he graced me with a look of disdain before dozing off once more.

          f/5.6; ISO 2000; 1/60 sec. exposure; 55mm focal length

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Day 19 Ashton and Blake

Tonight is opening night for Awana Clubs at our Church. I noticed that Ashton and Blake Plotz were outside in their official vests and thought it would be cool to feature them on my blog. Ashton is in Sparks (K-2) while Blake is in the Cubbies (preschool) group. Here they are showing their brotherly love before having a ton of fun tonight.

      f/4.5; ISO 125; 1/100 sec. exposure time; 36mm focal length

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Day 18 A special gift

This is a photo of a gift my team gave to me a couple years ago. We were invited to a birthday party for Brian and Jeremy a couple years ago at the Zuniga's house. At that time I was really becoming close with the extended Mostacciuolo family (Diaz's, Lavey's Uemura's and Zuniga's) and so these gatherings were important to me and I was happy to be included. Hockey had brought us together and now we were really building something special. Anyway, At this party, it became time for the (what I thought) birthday part with the cake and singing, etc. and Joe Zuniga got everyone's attention and announced the real reason we were all there. It turns out that the party was in my honor! He made a real nice speech about how the family appreciated the time spent coaching the kids and caring about all of them. He then presented me with this helmet in the picture below. All of the players had signed it with their number next to their signature. It was one of the greatest gifts I had ever received. But it got better. Joe then told me that I was welcomed into the family. It brought a tear to my eye and I did not know what to say, so I basically said thank you and that I was thrilled and honored to be thought of so highly by everyone.

            f/4.5; ISO-125; 1/3 sec exposure; 34mm focal length

Monday, September 20, 2010

Day 17 Dog tired

Here is my Yellow Lab, Thor. He is about 13 years old and slowing down from his once puppy-like demeanor. He's going blind and moving slowly, but he's still my "pup". He stayed mostly still for this one (four second exposure), though he did move his eyes a bit which caused a slight blur. Other than that, he was a good model.

             f/4.5; ISO 100; 4 sec. exposure; 28mm focal length

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Day 16 Birthday Girl

Today we celebrated Verity's third birthday. It was a nice party with a "Princess" theme. I captured a nice shot of the birthday princess during her time among her loyal subjects.

              f/4; ISO 100; 1/60 sec. exposure; 18mm focal length.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Day 15 Fall Colors

I was walking the neighborhood and noticed that LeAna had decorated her plant shelf by her kitchen window in fall colors. This is kind of nice and I like the different textures and colors on display here. I snapped a few and messed with this one until I liked how it looked.
            f/4.5; ISO 100; 1/4 sec. exposure; 30mm focal length

Friday, September 17, 2010

Day 14 ...by any other name...

This is one of the beautiful roses growing in the front planter at the Plotz's house across the street. I used my trusty spray bottle to add the "dew" effect. I do not have a macro lens otherwise this picture would have been much sharper. I like the deep rich red color of these roses and it really smelled great, too.
            f/4; ISO 100; 1/40 sec. exposure; 24mm focal length

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Day 13 Crosswalk

OK, so some days the subject matter will not be quite so exciting. Kim and I went for a walk and I snapped this one. It is a little button station for crossing 9th Street at Lampson. Hey, it's art! (?)

            f/4; ISO 100; 1/30 sec. exposure; 25mm focal length.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Day 12 Vietnam War Memorial

This Vietnam War Memorial is located in Westminster at the Sid Goldstein Freedom park. This is right by the Westminster Police Station and next to the Rose Theater (13th Street and Monroe if you're familiar with the area). This was designed and sculpted by Tuan Nguyen on 3/13/01. The inscription below thE sculpture reads:

DUTY, HONOR, SACRIFICE

IT IS SOMETIMES SAID THAT HEROES ARE HARD TO FIND.
PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF DUTY, HONOR
AND COUNTRY NEED LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THOSE WHO
FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

            f/4; ISO-2000; 1/14 sec. exposure; 18mm focal length

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Day 11 St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church

Here is a photo of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Anaheim. It is a beautiful building and this is actually the rear view of the church as seen from Dale Street in Anaheim. Interestingly, this Church held its first Liturgy in October 1961 at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on 9th Street just around the block from our house. The building you see below was built in 1975. I have an idea of taking a whole series of photos of Churches and this is the one that actually got me thinking about it. The front of the church is much more beautiful and I want to get a shot of that side at the "right" time of day. Anywho, I snapped this one off quickly, so the quality could be better. Hey, I was at work!

            f/22; ISO-100; 1/40 sec. exposure; 21mm focal length

Monday, September 13, 2010

Day 10 Plumeria

I was walking around our neighborhood taking pictures of various flowers when I came upon our neighbor's Plumeria bush. This particular species is known as Tahitian Sunset. Thanks to Pete and Irma for letting me take this one.

           f/4; ISO 100; 1/125 sec. exposure; 27mm focal length

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Day 9 Little Elephant

Once again we had a little wildlife in the neighborhood. This little Elephant has been making noise from around the area of Mark and A.J.'s rooms for a while now. He seems to be attracted whenever we have beans for some reason. Anyhow, I caught a glimpse of him in our backyard today. He was kind of shy at first, but I finally got him to sit still for a second to snap this one.

           f/4.5; ISO 1000; 1/2 sec. exposure; 24mm focal length

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Day 8 Water

Still not too far from home. This is one of the small water features at the park near our house. It is sometimes called the Civic Center park or the Library Park. There are a few ducks, geese and turtles who live at this park and inhabit the water. People come here with their children to feed the ducks and geese and sometimes chase the birds around. Anyway, here is a nice little photo for Day 8.

            f/22; ISO 100; 3.2 sec. exposure; 55mm focal length

Friday, September 10, 2010

Day 7 Call of Duty

This is the Garden Grove Police Memorial named Call to Duty, dedicated May 20, 1999 to five Garden Grove Police Officers who died in the line of duty.

Officer Myron Trapp was shot and killed on October 6, 1959.

Officer Andy Reese was killed on May 30, 1970 while directing traffic for the Strawberry Festival Parade. A motorist tried to pass a slow moving vehicle and struck Officer Reese.

Officer Donald Reed was killed on June 7, 1980 while serving an arrest warrant at a bar.

Officer Michael Rainford was killed on November 7, 1980.  During a routine traffic stop, Officer Rainford was approaching the motorist when he was struck and killed by a drunk driver.

Officer Howard Dallies, Jr. was killed on March 9, 1993. He had pulled over a motorcyclist at around 2:45 in the morning for a traffic violation. As he approached the motorcycle, the rider fired six shots, striking Officer Dallies four times. He later died from his wounds.  

           f/4.5; ISO 100; 1/2 sec. exposure; 34mm focal length

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Day 6 A.J.

This is not photo shopped except for a bit of cropping. A.J. is a bit out of focus because the exposure is so long and he got a cramp, but it came out OK. I think I'll try to explore this technique a bit to see if I can perfect it. I took this in the backyard at around 8:30 tonight. This will work better in a REALLY dark environment. The possibilities are endless.

              f/5; ISO 100; 30 sec. exposure; 34mm focal length

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Day 5 Pizza

Well, tonight we'll keep it simple. The boys and I were on our own so we went to Costco to pick up a pizza. I thought it looked pretty good, so here it is. Not bad.

          f/11, ISO 1000, focal length 18mm, 1/20 sec. exposure

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Day 4 Egg

This is a Russian Egg that Faith brought back for Kim a few years ago. It has a nice rendering of a Russian Orthodox Cathedral, though it doesn't look like any rendering of St. Basil's that I've ever seen. This egg sits on a little stand and is prominently displayed in our wall unit at the moment. It has spent time on one of our two little curio shelves in the past.

   f/5.6 ISO 1000, 1/3 sec. shutter speed 55mm focal length

Monday, September 6, 2010

Day 3 Wild Kingdom

So I was out walking the neighborhood and saw some local wildlife. Here he is munching away on a dwarf palm tree.

                      f/4 1/640 sec ISO 100 focal length 55mm

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Day 2 Mullholland Fountain

This is the William Mulholland Memorial Fountain in Los Feliz. This fountain was dedicated in 1940 to the "Father of the Los Angeles Water System" and the builder of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The fountain was restored in 1996 and is often called the Koolaid Fountain because of the multi-colored lighting inside the fountain.



                     Exposure length 6 sec with an f-stop of f/8

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Day 1 Self-Portrait

OK, so here we go! I thought I'd start with a self-portrait. I think the best way to do this is to get going. Let me know what you think about this project as we go along. I appreciate the comments made by some of you to help me along. Please hold me accountable (reminding me if I have not posted a pic that day)!

You can follow along on my blog as well. The Facebook posts show up a day or two behind the blog posts for some reason that I don't care to investigate.

http://photographicwhims.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Here's an idea...

As some of you may know, I've struggled to find my Muse as it relates to photography. I love to make photographs and I have some talent, but my motivation is just not there. I know it's laziness and the ease with which I find a comfortable spot to sit and vegetate is amusing, I suppose.

Aaron made a comment on that post that started my mind wandering (as it often does) and I eventually got to thinking about Aaron's 365 albums in a year project.  I know he struggled to blog it, but I also know it's something he likes to do. That aside I looked at the joy Aaron seems to glean from listening to music and then sharing it with us.  I thought about that after my last post describing my self pity for not being able to find my Muse. Then it hit me: why not post a photo a day for 365 days? I mean, since I can't even post one every day for a week, 365 days should be a snap, right? Well, no, I guess not.

So here's what I propose: In about a week or two I will begin the project. What I need from anyone who wants to contribute is ideas. I need a ton of ideas (well 365 ideas, anyway). I have some ideas that I can use, but those are easy.  One rule I need to abide by is that I need to make the picture on the day I post it. If I happen to be on vacation somewhere that does not have Internet access (the beach or mountains, for instance) then the posting that day rule will get bent a bit.

So there it is. post one pic a day. It doesn't have to be a great shot, just a photo I made that day.

I need ideas, people.