View allAll Photos Tagged lowangle
The Tauntauns, indigenous to Hoth, had to be broken in by a special group of wranglers before the Rebel Forces could use them as mounts. The breaking-in process was short but very fierce, managing it in deep snow was a task for the most skilled animal handlers in the fleet only.
I recommend to view this one large, decluttred or on black. It really gives a different [better] impression.
I used The Photographer's Ephemeris on tuesday to help me pick a location to shoot and based on the review of the radar and locations I'm familiar with, I decided to return to El Matador Beach which is towards the end of Malibu. Malibu is a WAY bigger area than most probably realize. With the sunsets now an hour later, I had ample time even in traffic to go just about anywhere except of course Laguna Beach, a location I've yet to visit. I'm just not up leaving in heavy rush hour traffic and returning around 10pm. I also had about a half dozen other options along the way if I changed my mind since El Matador in traffic is about 90 minutes but I'm very familiar with that stretch of the PCH.
My first and only previous trip here came early in 2016 and I shot there on a very gloomy, windy and rainy day. If you aren't familiar with El Matador, it's extremely unique and possibly the least dog friendly place I've shot in California. The beach is carved from a massive cliff and the drop from the top to the shoreline is very high. From the large parking lot, you walk down a too narrow for two directions of traffic winding staircase that looks and feels like it should be replaced. The shoreline has large rocks jutting out from everywhere and the beach seems to only be about 50ft deep at it's widest point from surf to cliff. This is a hugely popular shooting location for tourists, wedding photos, models, and pseudo models and on both trips it was much more crowded than I normally like.
The amazing thing about this place is what you see first when you start the descent from the parking lot. Once you get to the steps and look out, you suddenly see the ocean from 150ft up and there's a strong temptation to just stop at each level of the stairs and shoot from a high vantage. Since I arrived a good half hour before the sunset really kicked in, I did pause a few times at the top to take some shots. Once down on the beach, I wandered down until I could line up with the sunset between the rocks and mostly stayed right there, alternating until dark between vertical and horizontal shooting as well as playing around with the depth of field. I shot this particular photo in horizontal to get a different look on the reflections with the 70-200lens and got lucky when this girl happened to appear in the right place. I was setting up to focus hard on the immediate foreground and this was the only shot I took with her in it. It's underexposed since I wasn't counting on her being the prominent subject in the shot but at least I kept her motion relatively static and got the great pose and golden outline from the remaining sunlight.
In retrospect, I'm disappointed I shot this in vertical and would've prefered the option of cropping this however I wanted, but this turned out to be one of my favorite captures on the evening. I'm glad her shoes stayed dry. Mine didn't.
LOCATION
El Matador Beach
Malibu, California
March 14th, 2017
SETTINGS
vertical composition
@115mm
ISO 100
f/3.5
1/125th second
CPL
Now the snow has gone Evan has taken to getting out with his bubble-mower! I looked out the window to see his bubbles sitting on the frosty grass and raced out to get some shots.
Today is the 1 year mark of when Scotch and I arrived in Los Angeles. We had arrived late on Christmas Eve and it took a while to sink in how crazy our trip here had been Scotch and I both slept a ton after 18 hour days in the car at high altitudes. We left on December 14th from downtown Washington DC on a cold, rainy afternoon and had no end date in mind, figuring I'd just play it by ear depending on how it was going. I thought a ton about this trip but didn't do much planning other than making sure I'd have everything I needed for a few months away from home. I had no idea this would become permanent.
It had been my plan for many years to take Scotch on a road trip like this, but I didn't think it would take this long to materialize. In a way, it was lucky since even a few years ago, I wasn't into photography and this trip would've been primarily shots from my phone or a point and shoot and on the quickest route possible. Waiting until I did and having a relatively competent understanding of manual photography gave me the push I needed to set out on the trip. I just wish for Scotch's sake, this move could've happened several years ago before he started...aging. He had just begun showing signs of the Laryngeal Paralysis that became such a major problem out here and the cool winter air back home suppressed many of the symptoms. The trip was pretty demanding for him despite his absolute love for the car and the open road. Since I was in high school, long quiet drives by myself were one of my favorite ways to relax and it had always been such a joy the last 13 years to have a dog who enjoyed it just as much.
As my photography expanded, my dog deteriorated and no longer had the energy or desire to join me on trips to unknown places. I found myself enjoying photography less as he worsened, having trouble justifying not being there for him. During the really hot summer months, I started to prepare myself that he might not make it to winter and there was a slight sense of of relief when summer ended and then when he turned 13 towards the end of October. Over the next 2 weeks, his breathing condition worsened considerably and it seemed like this happy, tough dog might not be able to fight the inability to breathe much more. It was starting to be very real to me that his days were now numbered, not years and when it became clear that he wouldn't last through that weekend, I panicked and scheduled surgery--if it was still an option so late in the illness-- the following morning for his throat. During this rapid deterioration, I started to photograph him non-stop, rarely shooting anything other than him. I skipped amazing sunsets and just shot portraits of him during the few moments he was calm or sound asleep. I didn't want any shot to be the last shot so I just kept going.
Well, it's been almost 2 months since that surgery and he's regained a lot of the muscle that disappeared when he could no longer exercise. He's had a few infections in that time that have been more of an annoyance but he's healing really well, can finally breathe and is smiling a lot more. He's still mostly deaf but that seems like a small tradeoff at this point for him living out the rest of his life on his own terms. My christmas was spent hanging out at the apartment with my brother and Scotch, eating, watching some tv, playing some video games and taking the dog on walks around fairly empty Hollywood. We made it through one full year here and as the calendar flips to 2017, I'm hopeful it will be our best one yet.
I haven't photographed him much since his surgery and am mainly just trying to enjoy his actual company again. I shot this on December 2nd after having just returned from an art store with a 6ftx4ft thin black foam board to use as a backdrop for his portraits. He was very bouncy and having a lot of fun moving just as I'd finish focusing on him. I had to push the shutter speed much higher than I normally would but if he was going to move, I wanted some reasonably detailed shots. This was the photo that made me laugh the most.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!
SCOTCH: age 13
Hollywood, California
December 2nd, 2016
Canon T4i
EF40mm 2.8 STM
ISO 400
f/2.8
1/40th second
Storms on the Sierra Nevada often break up as they cross, leaving the path open for stunning light in the Eastern Sierra the next morning.
This is a "nearby location" that I mention on pages 95-96 of my new "Photographing California - South" guidebook. The state is so large and diverse, the book could have easily doubled or tripled if I had fully described each location I had visited, so to be efficient while still including as many locations as possible, I'd often name and provide a photo for the most prominent location while still referring readers to other worthy discoveries waiting nearby.
The mean bunch!
It was a windy day, so windy that the troopers kept falling off the table I was shooting on all the time.
This is a nod for a show in Florida I'm happy to be a part of in june.
(Explored)
Turnstone usually creep about the shoreline, turning over seaweeds and, well, stones - looking for food beneath. But this picture was taken at a very low tide: giving me the chance of a worm's eye view of this terrific little bird.
I've had lots of fun crawling after this Toad. I really think it looks like some kind of dino when I'm at eye level with these beautiful amphibians.
We were playing in the water and afterwards gave the dogs a bath, or tried to. While Rosie and I were washing Bean, Glory let out yelp of pain and started pawing at her mouth. We quickly figured out she got stung by a bee. That bee must have told his friends since, in seconds, bees started buzzing around our heads. Bean yelped in pain letting us know he also got stung. Bath time was aborted.
What followed next can best be described as a frenzy of screaming, running and swatting. One bee got trapped under my hat brim and as I was smacking myself in the head to get it out I got stung on my temple. The bee went up into my hair and stung me a few times on my scalp before I could untie my braid.
Rosie, dogs and I all ran flailing into the house. A few bees had the nerve to follow us inside and some were trapped in our hair and clothes. Rosie had a bee trapped under her shorts! While I helped her get at that one, another stung me on my wrist leaving the stinger behind.
By the time we cleared the house of bees Rosie and I each had five or six stings. The dogs had only one or two each, saved by their superior running skills. I'm not sure what happened but we have had a bee hive in the yard for years and have never been bothered by them, just live and let live...until now. Ah Summer!
for ODC group - This is Summer
Looking more like the smoke from a bush fire as bright sunlight illuminates the passing clouds. Just a grab shot from the car window in traffic of the back end of todays rain storms, as the winds pushed the clouds east in such a dramatic fashion over the Orangeville Hospital Heliport with one of Ornge Bandage choppers sitting in readiness.
The bleak morning sun revealed that the Rebel Alliance's presence on Hoth was over, with only piles of destroyed Snowspeeders left behind.
The Snowtroopers were to return to their base for a good cup of hot coffee after a freezing overnight patrol shift searching for survivors.
Note; I saw a beautiful midwinter sun outside yesterday, and I wanted to see if I can create something like it. This is what I came up with. I also inhaled a ton of baking powder through my nostrils while doing this. It feels terrible!
Update: I made another version of this, I don't know which is better.