Huntington Beach Pier at the Golden Hour

Canon 7D, Raw, f/14.0, 1/40, ISO 100, EF-S 17-55mm, 33mm

I have been working on senior portraits for a very fantastic young lady from Edison High School here in Huntington Beach. We finished up the other day down at the pier. We met about 4:30 and this is probably around 5:30. I will share some with you when I am finished with them. My goal was to take a photo of the pier to replace the one at the top of this weblog. I am tired of seeing that man in the red trunks. He doesn’t even look good! This one did not work for that. Willie and I will be going again soon. I didn’t have to do much to this photo. I took it into Camera Raw and upped the exposure just a little. Then in Photoshop, I increased the contrast. That’s about it. Since I used a low ISO (100), there was no grain so no need to deal with that. I used a small aperture (f/14.0) so I wouldn’t have to worry about the range of focus – meaning I wanted the whole image in focus and not just one point.  I try to take care of things in the camera. If it is not in focus, you cannot make it focus on the computer. You can do a lot of other things, but you need to get your focus right. Until the next image…

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A Huntington Beach Sunset

We went down to the beach at the end of Warner Ave. There are not a lot of people there so it was very nice and cool. I took my camera, of course, and got this great sunset shot. I hope you like it. There were some waves and it had something to do with a “high” coming and  settleing on the coast. I don’t really understand all of that stuff. I just like the results! Good use of rule of thirds horizontally, but not so much vertically!

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An Evening in Dana Point

Had a great evening with friends at the Charthouse down in Dana Point. Our friend Merle wanted to go there so we could see the sunset over the ocean. Not quite a sunset, but a great view! This photo depicts the view we saw! It was beautiful! Larry and Shelley were going to go also, but he called me today and said that Shelley is not feeling well. We will see both of them (I hope) at lunch tomorrow for Willie’s dads’ birthday, his 87th. Not quite sure where we are going yet! 

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Laguna Beach Sunset

Isn’t this a beautiful sunset? The silhouette turned out great after a few Photoshop adjustments. Is that cheating? I don’t think so. All of us photographers use Photoshop! I just made it more of a silhouette so no one would be recognized. I confess, I took it at the PhotoWalk last month. It is on my gallery pages in its original form. You can check it out there. The individual PhotoWalk winners are out now and the overall winner will be announced soon.

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Huntington Beach Sunset

We had some very pretty cloud formations in the sky last night. I grabbed my camera and took some photos. The sun was very low and it gave some beautiful light shining up through the clouds and reflecting through them. I converted it to black and white because I thought it showed the contrast and the light better then in color. We all know the sky is blue and clouds are white (most of the time)!

A great Huntington Beach sunset…

We had a good class last night. Jason showed every ones slide shows and it was a lot of fun. He also brought popcorn and soda to make it extra fun! There were technical problems at first, but they were soon dealt with and the show went on. All of them were really good and very different. Have you looked at it mine yet? Check yesterdays post – that is where I have it. I am so behind on  the 31 DBBB! Hopefully, I will be able to catch up or just take advantage of everything.  It really is a great program!

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Huntington Beach Coastline

This is a photo I took from the Huntington Beach pier late one recent evening. It was a chilly evening but there were still some diehards on the beach. Lights are starting to flicker on. The water is blue and silvery with the setting sun glistening down. Winter and early spring is a great time to go down to the pier. I guess any time of year is a good time!

A wintery evening in Surf City…

The weather was starting to warm up a little but now I hear we may have some rain this week-end. It changes from day to day! Class was good last night and we are learning a lot about CSS and Spry Widgets. I have some photos to do for my Saturday morning class and some more work on my slide show. My work is never done! I am glad I do not have a class tonight – I can sit and relax with Willie and the dogs!

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The Old 49er

This fantastic sculpture, which used to be my mother’s, sits on the edge of my fireplace mantel. I was in the living room with Willie and looked up to see the setting sun glowing over the sculpture. I rushed to get my camera because I know how fast things change at this time of the day. I liked this look. My only regret is that I did not get his pick-ax in his pan sitting on his lap. I was going to wait until today and try again, but it is very overcast. Maybe at a later time.

An old 49er taking a break with his stogy…

Checking my weblog stats, I see I am at 1,998 hits. To some people that may not seem like very many, but to me it is great! I will hit 2,000 (if I haven’t already) today. I have photos to take for my class tomorrow night. I am very uncomfortable doing all of my shooting in raw, but I know it is the way I need to do it and I will learn a lot shooting that way. I got a copy of Adobe CS4 Design Premium. I will install it on both computers and than I can take time to learn the latest camera raw software, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.  

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Silvery Blue Sky

I thought I would share with you what our sky has looked like full of rain clouds. I thought this view was very pretty. I like the contrast of the silvery blue and white clouds.  I took many shots but this is my favorite. I like to use the manual setting on my camera to try different exposures, apertures, etc.  and see what happens. I have been learning a lot. The main thing I have learned is that I will never use the automatic settings again! Those settings tend to blow out a lot of the image. I always seem to bracket down one-half  to one stop to get the exposure I want.

A gorgeous sky getting ready to rain…?

It is beautiful today. Very sunny and not a cloud in the sky! It changes so fast – it will change back to rain by the end of the week. There was a full moon last night – did you see it? I didn’t take any pictures of it this month. Maybe next month I will try again up in the mountains. The dogs are playing outside right now. They are barking alot and that is what they do when they run around chasing each other. What a life they have!

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Surf City Winter Sunset

It is winter here in Surf City, alias Huntington Beach, but you would hardly know it by all the people at the beach. I was able to get this very late afternoon shot without anyone in it. The sun glowing on the water is so pretty. It looks very silvery. Notice the rock on the sand that has the sun reflecting on it. There were many sea gulls flying around, but none of them made it into my photograph. I like the photo and I hope you do also.

Silvery, reflective sunset on the beach…

It is fun going down to the ocean. It always looks so different from one day to another, but it is always intimidating to me. I am not a water person – it frightens me.  I am fully recovered from my birthday celebration and my special dinner Willie made for us. I have a few appointments today and then I will be back home. I want to take Donnan to the park for a walk. I hope Willie and Kyla will go with us. My week has been from the mountain snow to the desert to the beach – what a life!

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A Sunset Unlike Any Other

This sunset photo was taken way back behind our cabin far into the National Forest. It was beautiful in red, yellow and blue. Have I done a black and white sunset before? I did one once up in Santa Barbara. It is on my website and also very beautiful. I played around with this one and liked what I was seeing. I have always been a fan of black and white photography. The dogs went walking with us and really enjoyed their adventure through the forest and into the night.

Winter sunset at Green Valley Lake…

The dogs are so filthy! It will be a big job getting them clean and mat free when we get home. It is still a little windy up here. I was looking at the HB Web Cam earlier today and it looked very nice and clear. I could easily see Catalina in the distance and a lot of people on the pier. We are going to go take some more photos today and probably leave this evening to avoid traffic. I never did get my full moon photos!  I think the sunset shot makes up for it!

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Surf City Sunset

Isn’t this a gorgeous sunset at the Huntington Beach Pier? There were a few die-hards on the pier and there are always some brave surfers on this cold winter evening. The sun is just peeking through the pier pylons, setting over the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula. Willie and I went down to the pier with the dogs. You can’t go on the pier with dogs so we stayed on the sand. Boy that sand gets cold!

A gorgeous winter sunset…

It was a beautiful sunset last night – just a few wisps of clouds in the sky. Luckily I had my telephoto lens with me! That is pretty much all we did for Willie’s birthday. He chose what we did and this is what he wanted to do. We never did make it out to dinner! We watched the Dark Knight. I thought it was good – Willie was not too impressed. There are only a few days left in 2008. It has been a very eventful year for the Casas family and friends. 2009 is going to be great!

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Surf City, Huntington Beach

Willie and I went for a ride and ended up down on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) as the sun was low in the late afternoon sky. This statue represents the epitome of Surf City, don’t you think? We even have our own Surfing Museum. There were a lot of people down by the beach.  After the rain the other day it was so beautiful, plus, Friday is street market day.

Beautiful Surf City silhouette…

The dogs spent most of the day outside yesterday enjoying the sun. They did a lot of running around and barking – that’s what dogs do, isn’t it? I think Willie wants to make some more pork tamales. I guess we will go get the groceries today. Larry and Shelley leave on Tuesday for Scotland – I am so happy for them! We will miss them on Christmas, but, that’s ok – they’ll be here next year. Have a good week-end!

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Gorgeous Sunset in Corona

I took this photo on Thanksgiving in the backyard of my brother’s house in Corona.  They have a very large lot and hills behind them. The sunset was beautiful that evening and I am really glad I was able to capture it on “film.”  The colors are very real. It is not that often I get to take a photo like this without a lot of ambient light shining and interfering.

Have you ever seen a more gorgeous blue…?

For the past six years or so I have done a calendar at Christmas (I think I have already mentioned this) – anyway, I ordered my calendars yesterday from Shutterfly and I will have them in a little over a week. I think the 2009 version came out well. Many of the photos I have posted on this site, but not all of them. If you are interested in seeing it, let me know, and I will send you a link. Have a good Thursday!

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Shimmering Sunset

Willie thought it would be good to go down to the beach and watch the sunset last evening. We were not the only ones as you can tell by the sandpipers and the little boy walking down the beach. I liked the way his silhouette looked. It was a little chilly down there, but calm. There weren’t many clouds out as it has been a little windy here.  Isn’t the shimmering gold pretty?

A gorgeous early winter sunset….

I was with Donnan at the vet yesterday and the doctor agreed that the growth (or mass as he called it) has gotten a little larger. They will do the surgery this morning. I have to have Donnan there at 8:00. I asked him what he thought it was. Of course, he would not say. However, he did say that normally dogs do not get cancer until they are 8 years old or more. Donnan will be two at the end of this month. So, we will keep our fingers crossed. By the way, Kyla loved that bone Willie gave her after we left. As soon as we got home this afternoon, Donnan took it from her. They chased each other around the yard for quite some time! She barked at him a lot! I would guess he is going to be ok!

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Looks Like a Patriotic Sunset

Yesterday I said in my post that I would try to come up with a patriotic photograph for today.  Well, I think I accomplished that with this sunset photo. Willie was in the backyard getting the barbque ready for dinner and he had me come out to look at the sunset and some birds in the sky. I grabbed my camera and went out the front door. I am happy with the results. There is red, white and blue right there in the sky and it is as political as I am going to get!

For our new President-elect….

I have put all of my photos in monthly galleries. If you look in the sidebar, you will see the galleries for September and October. It’s a fast way to look for a particular photo you want to see or if you just want to see the photos and not read all my ramblings. My object is to say a little about the photographs I take and a little about what else I am doing. Tonight is the first quarter phase of the moon. I don’t think I will bore you with another set of photos of the moon.  But, who knows…?

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Monday is a Work Day

I had a fun week-end so now it is time to get some work done!  I watched several videos on Lynda.com so I need to get caught up on some work for school.  I guess I need to do some housework too – and of course, photography!  I really enjoyed doing the photo below.  We drove up to the top of a parking structure and I wanted to get the reflection of the sunset in the glass building.

Reflective Sun With Moon

I am very pleased with the outcome.  The added bonus was that the moon was in First Quarter and it is a great addition to the photo.  There are some clouds reflecting on the one side but you need to look closely to see them.  You don’t realize how fast the sun sets until you are taking photos with it!  You finally see what you want and you better shoot fast!  Well, I better get to work and get something done around here.  Until tomorrow!

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