Last week, I took my camera gears to the mountains, hoping to shoot new photos, but for three days, I saw 50 inches of fresh snow and no sun. A day later, I was back on my local beach watching this beautiful scene unfolded right in front of me. What a difference a day makes: from a whiteout blizzard at 8000 feet to a colorful sunset at sea level.

As for the tittle of this shot, I could write a long post about it, but I am leaving possible interpretations to my viewers.

Another long exposure (120 seconds) made with a ND110 filter and a 2 stops hard-edge ND filter. I don’t have too much time to write a longer post, but I did update the previous post to show a comparison between an image shot with ND110 and one without.

I am heading up the mountains for a few days. Hope to bring back a good photo or two.

This image is a three minutes sunrise exposure of the lava rock tidal pools on Kauai’s shoreline. Two filters were used: a BW ND110 to lengthen the exposure time and a 0.6 Lee GND hard-edge filter to balance out the extreme contrast between the sky and the foreground lava rocks.

I spent a few days in Kauai during the last week of 2009. This image is the last sunrise of 2009 that I photographed. I didn’t take too many photos during the trip. Unlike my usual travel routine, photography wasn’t a priority. I came home with a few images instead of hundreds. For two consecutive mornings, I did nothing but sat on Kauai’s Poipu shoreline and soaked in the warm sunrise light.

I will post more next week.

Last Sunday, I decided to take my camera out to experiment with my new B+W ND110 filter (1000x). This image is a 90 seconds exposure shot during day light as the sun was setting. For those who have not used an ND110 filter, it’s a 10 stops loss of light neutral density filter. One can’t see anything through the view finder with this filter on.

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been too busy. Last Thanksgiving, I attended yet another funeral. In the last twelve months, we’ve lost three family members due to cancer.

Needing a break from editing funeral photos, I took my camera out to a local beach. I spent two hours on the sand and did nothing but watched the perpetual tides and thought about my own mortality. At sunset, I put on this pitch-black ND110 filter on my lens as if I wanted to see with my eyes closed. At the end of the day, I came home with a few beautiful exposures. I realized that it doesn’t matter what type of equipment I use or what the circumstances are, I tend to photograph what my heart tells me: I like to stay in the light. Light does penetrate the darkest places if given enough time. For those who are in the dark, remember that you always have a choice. We might be living on borrowed time, but we do have choices.

PS: I probably will not be able to post again until next year. To all my viewers and followers, I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season.

This is a candid shot of a girl walking her dog on a Southern California beach during a beautiful summer sunset. This photo was taken on the same day as Broken Kelp. This image is a square crop from a single exposure.

Dusk light over Devereux Creek – Santa Barbara, California

Last Sunday, I went back to the beach for the first time in over two months. I took a few typical “photofool” seascape exposures, but decided to post this creek side image first.

This image is a blend exposure from a single raw file (10 seconds exposure). The details on the lower right corners are not too visible in this small JPG. I wished I had enough time to put on my GND filter and tried a few exposures.

It’s amazing how this ordinary swamp can be so beautiful during the last few minutes of day light.

“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward together in the same direction”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Did a little bird watching over the weekend. Decided to do minimal post processing for this image.

There are a few ingredients needed to make this shot: a medium telephoto lens and some patience to stalk the birds without chasing them away, a circular polarizer filter to reduce the glare from the water surface and to boost the color saturation, luck and timing to get the birds to pose, and light: it’s always about the light. Last but not least, when I shoot these, I always think, “What can I remove from my composition to allow my image to speak clearly?” Here’s a zoom out scene of what the creek looks like about five minutes later. I post the zoom out image shot at 70mm not only to show the light and colors in the actual scene, but to demonstrate how “selective seeing” makes a difference in a photograph. Sometimes, less is more.

It is still color, it is not yet light — Pierre Bonnard

This image of a black necked stilt bird feeding in shallow water might look like a computer rendered digital art, but except for the enhanced back ground colors, everything else is from a single RAW capture. I use “shade” color while balance to get a warmer color tones, change level to boost the black points, and apply a linear S curve to get the rich golden water surface. The rest of the colors come from shooting into the setting sun. I’ve done this a few times with my other bird shots. For this image, it took countless tries to get the reflected light on the inner ripples to match with the bird’s position.

On a personal note, its been a while since my last post. I am so busy that shooting and posting photos on a regular basic now is nearly impossible. There are still a few weeks old emails from my inbox that I haven’t gone through yet :( For those asking how am I doing? I’m good. Thank you. I’m just super busy. My life has different priorities now. Last evening was the first time in weeks that I was able to take my camera out and for a little bird watching in the warm sun. Hopefully, I’ll find the time and the motivation to take my camera out more often.

Decided to crop out the Virgin River from my previous Zion Court of the Patriarchs (B&W) post.

PS: I am so fed up with the site’s sporadic speed. If I didn’t have a million things going on, I would spend the time to find a new hosting provider. Thanks for being so patience with the slowness.

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