My Photographic Showcase 2020 -- 2021

Ducks hanging out at Baylands Nature Preserve, January 4th, 2020.

For my next photo homework assignment from WVC’s Intro to Photo class, we were introduced to the subject of composition. How do you compose a photo? The instructor wanted us to shoot a “Composition Scavenger Hunt,” by taking pictures of varying composition techniques. These composition techniques included repeating shapes of triangles, Rule of Thirds, balanced foreground and background, and two things juxtaposing each other, and a final unique perspective. For this assignment, I decided to shoot macro flowers, with a background setup made with PVC pipe, and gray cardstock paper.

I decided to take an online Introduction to Basic Photography course from West Valley Community College for this fall semester, 2021. For the first class homework assignment, the instructor wanted me to pick any photograph, and attempt to recreate that photograph by “making a photograph that resembles the one you chose to upload for this assignment.” I decided to try out some tabletop macro photography in photographing oil bubbles on water, with colorful backgrounds. The shooting took place over Labor Day weekend, on the kitchen table. I shot 550 images of my oil bubbles on water—and a few water bubbles on oil. Of those 550 images, I selected 23 images to post-process in Lightroom, and select my final photo to present to the class. This is going to be a fun class to play in.

Springtime shooting of flowers at Elizabeth Gamble Gardens. With a gorgeous spring day, Elizabeth and I decided to pay a visit to the historic garden in Palo Alto.  I thought it would be fun to try an impromptu Saturday Shootout at the garden.  I was shooting the Helios 44-2 58mm f2 lens on the 5D Mark IV camera, and a Vivitar 135mm f2.8 lens on a Canon 6D Mark I camera. This image was taken with the Helios 44-2 58mm f2 lens on the Canon 5D Mark IV camera.

Roses are blooming at the San Jose Rose Garden.  Here we see a general view of the garden, and the rows of rose bushes.  This image was taken by the Helios 44-2 58mm f2 lens, on the Canon 5D Mark IV camera.  

The Russians are coming! Picked up a vintage, Russian Helios 44M-4 58mm f2 lens.  This is a film camera, manual focus lens, with some interesting, swirling bokeh background characteristics.  And what is a better place to test the lens, but at Villa Montalvo, showing the main house and grounds.

Saturday Shootout between the Canon 5D Mark IV camera with the EF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM lens, and the Canon 40D camera with the EF-S 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS Nano-USM lens.  I am comparing the image quality between both cameras, and their lenses.

Moon Viewing Upper House surrounded by the Japanese gardens of Hakone Gardens, in Saratoga, California.

Close-up photo of an American Sweetgum Tree seed, using a small studio setup of a white, cardboard background, and my Canon DSLR cameras with the EF 100mm macro lens, and Movo Four-piece Extension Tube set. The camera was set on a tripod and shutter release. The lighting was ambient light, with a small flashlight shining a main focus light on the seed through various angles.   This image was shot with the Canon 5Dmk4 camera, and you can see a piece of hair on the top, middle of the picture.

Close-up picture of a beautiful, pink flower at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero, California, September 2019.  

Picture of a truck cab, rusting away in the weeds of my uncle's family farm, outside of Sioux City Iowa, July, 2017. It is just the cab only, sitting in a bed of weeds. There is no engine, front end, chassis, or even a bed. I think the wheels came off long ago. Farmers do not throw away anything that is metal, or tools, or tractors, or trucks, or combines, or any type of farm equipment. Everything can be salvaged, adapted, or used to repair some piece of farm equipment back to a running state that they absolutely need. Or the farmer will haul it to a space, and say, "Someday, I'm gonna restore this back to its original condition." Someday, in the future. 

Villa Montalvo State Park, Saratoga, California.  

These are images I have taken at Villa Montalvo from 2017 - 2021, testing all newly purchased Canon digital cameras and lenses.  This is an image of a succulent plant, taken in the gardens. 

Are you playing Hide And Seek Mater?  Yellow truck behind some pine tree branches at the Empire Mine State Park, Grass Valley, California

Image 9511. Exposure: f3.5 at 1/60, ISO 100 Diffuser on. ETTL Flash. Flash head rotated upwards 60 degrees, and rotated left 45 degrees. Bounce facing directly towards the subject.

San Francisco Women's March, January 18, 2020

Santa Cruz pictures taken in between the surfers at USA Surfing Prime, January 10-11, 2020

USA Surfing Prime Junior Event, Under 18, Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz, California, January 11, 2020

Birds, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, January 31, 2020.

USA Surfing Prime Junior Event, Under 18, Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz, California, January 12, 2020.