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Whenever I go out, I always bring along my pinhole camera with me. But finding a subject is quite challenging because of the ultrawide view from the pinhole. I took this shot of the barn just a few feet away from its corner. It 's already felt like I was at least 10 feet away. According to my math, the pinhole on my camera is equivalent to an ultrawide lens of 11mm focal length on a full frame camera. This tells you how wide it is and it 's probably won't be good for shooting portrait at all. And besides the subject has to stay very still at least over 10 seconds depending on the film speed and light condition. But pinhole is a lot of fun. It gets my brain to think differently. Since this particular pinhole I have supports 6x9, I only have 8 frames with one roll of 120 film. So I have to choose my subjects judiciously.
Film: Fomapan 100
Camera: RealitySoSubtle 6x9
Upon descending the hill from the west shore of Del Valle Reservoir, I encountered this cow in front of the panoramic view of the Livermore Valley. Of course, I had to capture this.
As I was lugging a 6x6 medium format TLR the other day, I couldn't frame the entire scene at this vista point. So I decided to take a two-frame pano instead. However, I think my hands shook a little and couldn't get a tack sharp image on the left frame. So when you zoom in, you could see a slight blurriness at the pixel level toward the left half of the image. On the other hand, the fine grain of the negative makes up the details very well. I am quite pleased with what a 40+ year old camera can do.
Film: Kodak Portra 400
Camera: Yashica Mat 124G
This was taken from last year. I am still waiting for these willow trees to turn colors. I go check on them almost every day. They are probably the last bunch in the season.
Low Fog Sunset at Golden gate Bridge 7/27/2019,
It was a great treat to have such a nice air conditioning in GGB from the 100 degree place in TriValley.
This low fog sunset burn was predicted by Yiupai sunset forecast.
Yesterday I biked around our neighborhood and saw this big object sitting on a fence from the distance. As I got closer, I began to realize it was a red-tailed hawk. I cautiously paddled by him and decided to stopped and took a photo with my camera in the pocket. I think I was just 8 feet from him. He remained perching on the fence unfazed by my presence.
I caught these wild turkeys jaywalking in our neighhood today. They didn't seem to be afraid of humans either. Still, I stayed at a respectful distance from them. When they move around in groups like this, they are pretty much unstoppable. All traffic has to stop for them.
Lens: Nikkor 105mm F2.5 AIS
While I was eating my dinner, my wife yelled out from our backyard and pointed at the sky. I frantically looked for my Canon ultrawide angle lens to no avail. So I grabbed my little Fuji and went upstairs to take this shot from our bathroom. This really made my day.
This historical farm house has a huge giant oak behind it. I was intrigued by its shadow casting onto the front yard. I really enjoyed doing black and white photography here as there were many scenes that could present the abstraction of the light and shadows.
Film: Fujifilm Acros 100 II, pushed 1-stop
Lens: Carl Zeiss C Biogon 28mm F2.8
Camera: Leica M6
I told myself the other day that I needed to go out and catch some Fall colors before they faded away. So I was driving aimlessly on Thanksgiving day and all the sudden I caught a glimpse of colors at this end of the street. So I drove through this section to make sure there were abundant of colors. I then parked my car on one of the side streets and walked toward here. There was virtually no car at all on that day. I 'm glad I did go out and wander around.
While on the freeway, I saw this bright yellow patch of mustards near our neighborhood and immediately thought it looked just like the super bloom at Carrizo Plain a few years ago. I later hiked to this closest spot to the wildflowers and took this photo to include the cattle gate.
I am surprised how well the contrast has turned out with 1/2 overexposure with my Contax rangefinder which has Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens. There are still plenty of details at 20"x16". Zoom in further, you can see a lot of grains that mask the details.
Camera: Contax T Rangefinder
Film: Fujicolor 100
I found out yesterday that the great Italian composer, Ennio Morricone, had already passed away over a month ago. His musical scores reminded me of many spaghetti western films I had watched when I was a kid. With that fond memories, I headed over to the early Irish settlement in Dublin and did a little photo walk there.
We had a photography event organized by Yiupai again on this Black Friday (11/27/2020)
15+ female Tri-Valley hikers climbed up to the summit of Mission Peak as our background models with flags waving, while 40+ photographers were shooting the 95% moon rising from Mission Peak Summit at the 1.93 mile distant.
We used PlanIt app to previcely predict the time and spot. This video was taken with my D850 with a 600mm lens with a crop.
This event was reported at 10 O'clock News at in KTSF26 11/27, and 5 O'Clock News at KPIX Channel 5 on 11/28/2020.
Happy Holiday!
On our way back home yesterday, we saw an object with a trail of light in the sky. My wife took out her camera, placed it on top of the dashboard and shot it away while I was trying to speed up my car. This is the result she 've got.
Today I drove around the vineyards in Livermore. I was delighted to find the Fall color change at Olivina. I got out of my car and took this pano on the roadside.
My wife got up really early today and asked me to join her for a hike in our neighborhood. We decided to walk down a backcountry canyon nearby. As soon as we got to this old barn, we saw a SUV going past us in the opposite direction. We thought the driver was lost as the entire road had been closed for quite some time. I then spotted this pair of chairs in the backside of the barn. So I got closer to the fence and took a shot of them. As I walked away from the fence, the SUV backed up to us. The driver told us that it 's private property and asked us to get back on to the main road. We asked him who he was and he told us that he was watching the property. So we obliged and continued our walk down the canyon. It 's ironic that there were these two chairs facing the main road. I guess someone invisible is watching.
I took out my TTArtisan 28mm F5.6 to shoot around in Livermore and particularly against the backlight of the sun. The resulting flares it produces are quite interesting.
Lens: TTArtisan 28mm F5.6
Here is the timelapse of 2/1/2019 Sunrise Burn at Highway 580.
This sunrise burn and low fog were predicted by Yiupai Sunrise/Sunset Forecast Service.
Took this shot over a month ago when I encountered this cow who kept starring at me while I was walking by. I turned around and started to "moo" to her hoping that she would moo back. But she didn't.
Film: Kodak Ektachrome E100
Camera: Yashica Mat 124G
Took this early this year when I saw this young deer hiding behind an electrical junction box. They have been shy lately. I 'm not sure if it 's because of the warm weather or the hills being too brown and dry.
I think my photography has started to take a drastic turn these days. I began to wonder what 's the point of having everything so clinically sharp and colorfully saturated. We are living in an imperfect world of random events. However, I do believe in cause and effect. This pandemic has let me rethink my view of life as I slowed down quite a bit. Why not going back to something raw and basic? Something no thrill while letting nature takes its course?
Film: Arista.Edu Ultra 400
Camera: Holga 120GCFN
The best sunrise I had during the Thanksgiving weekend, with the rolling hills and low fog in tri-valley area.
After a couple of Winter storms, our hills have finally turned into green again. I took a short hike to Del Valle this afternoon. Glad to see these cows are out in the sun grazing. Oh, and it 's first day in the year of the Ox too.
I can't believe Summer flew by us so quickly. One more month we are in Thanksgiving. Speaking of which, how can I forget about those turkeys that I have been tracking. This particular group have decided to stick around in our area. I remember I have taken this group photo of them behind some cherry blossom. They are a healthy bunch!
Yesterday, we stopped by the vineyards in Livermore to see if they have turned Fall colors. Indeed, they did. I also captured the front view of the historical Concannon family house during sunset.
Sunrise at San Ramon Valley predicted by Yiupai Sunrise/Sunset forecast.
Yiupai sunrise/sunset forecast service provides a customized sunrise/sunset forecasts daily based on weather models and clouds movements from Satellite.
If you are interested in this sunrise/sunset forecast service, as well as other photography services, you are welcome to download the "Yiupai" app and subscribe the service. It is free downloadable in Google Play Store and Apple store.
My wife and I were stunned by what we saw earlier this evening when a huge looming dark cloud descended upon us. It was both eerie and fascinating. I have no idea what 's going on with our weather these days. It 's still very cold this week with sporadic local showers.
Lens: Voigtlander Ultron 40mm F2 Asph SL II
The house next to the barn that I frequent on my late afternoon walk has been burnt down mysteriously. I don't know whether it was caused by an arsonist or was an act by Nature. But the damage has already been done. A couple of vehicles next to the house were destroyed by fire as well. Good thing that the barn is still intact. However, I saw a few sections of the fence had been taken down. This place badly needs some clean up. But I 'm not sure if the ranch owner is doing anything about it at all.
I had a roll of Lomochrome Metropolis loaded in my Rollei 35. When I saw these chrome grills, I gotta take one shot with my Lomchrome film. After all, I was running out of subjects with this film. It 's not for every situation like Kodak Gold.
Film: Lomochrome Metropolis
Camera: Rollei 35
Took this shot of the still water while crossing Arroyo Del Valle. I really like those reflections there.
It was fun walking along with the Mandalorians at the St Patrick's Day parade. I was pleasantly surprised by the rendition from the Nikkor 70-210mm lens. It 's compact and paired well with the Nikon Df body. I pretty much didn't change any lens on that day. The push-pull zoom mechanism is quite outdated by today 's standard. Another downside is the severe vignetting at wide open. I had to push the exposure in post to get it right. Fortunately, the sensor on the Nikon Df is superb with its dynamic range. And most importantly, this lens is cheap at under a hundred bucks in the used market. Made in Japan though.
Not really sure if there is a valley named after mountain, but it's the first thing that came to mind. This was taken the same day as Sunset Ridge. You can see the oak trees from that shot on the hill to the left.
I walked down this canyon and saw a few wood fences were erected to prevent people from stomping on the grass. I 'm not sure how effective that is as I saw a few people walk around them and take short cuts to the other side of the canyon. The fences are good for photos though.
Film: Silbersalz 250D
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F1.2 Asph III
Saw this gorgeous sunset two days in a row. I couldn't help but took a snapshot of it. Interesting enough, my car hood had caught the reflection of it with a panoramic view.
Captured this marvelous sunset on our way out to the exit of Sycamore Grove Regional Park yesterday.
Took this photo a month ago when we were just starting shelf-in-place. It has been a month now and we don't see the end of it. On the other hand, I did enjoy walking around town.
When I reached this vantage point, I began to wonder if the Volvon tribe had actually picked a strategic location for their village with a commanding view of the entire area. From here, Brushy Peak is directly in my line of sight. If someone sets up a smoke signal over there, I can immediately spot it. Not too far from here, I can even see the wind caves at Vasco next to Los Vaqueros Reservoir. I wanted to continue to wander down that trail in front of me but my hiking companions were hungry and wanted to return. I have to come back here another time and walk the Black Hills.
While I was taking a stroll near a neighborhood ranch earlier this afternoon, I saw a portion of this wire fence get rolled into the metal pole. Not sure what's going on there, but it certainly presented a photo opportunity to me. I was thinking to shoot it wide open but my camera would not let me go beyond 1/4000 sec. The fact that its base ISO is 200 didn't really help at all. I had to make a compromise and shot this at F4. Good thing is that the background isolation is still there.
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical III