After the Sunset

Let us speak of sunsets and the time just after the sun has gone. Here is one of those images. …

Usually, I like clouds to grab the light from the sun as it slips over the horizon and out of my view, but it lights the remaining, high altitude, clouds very nicely. … On this evening, there were no clouds. I was a little disappointed for the nonce, because I always think about what I am planning to shoot before I head out to shoot. … The weather chose to ignore my planing, and the sky remained cloudless. …

Still, I looked at the sky, and what was there, and I thought it beautiful.

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We’re having a conversation here. … You need something?

I love animals. And they love me. Here is a single image of some Boston Terriers that I talked into sitting on my little furniture. My niece gave me the furniture as props to shoot pets with. If you wander through the larger gallery, you will see some very cool shots.

All these gallery shots were taken a while ago, and I have become much better at my work through the passing of time. I think it would be great good fun to shoot another thousand pet photos.

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California Lupin – Lupinus albifrons

Some of the first, easily noticed, spring flowers are the Silver Lupins that pop up. … They are mostly noticeable because they are purple/blue, and stand out from the normally dusty colors of Southern California.

This plant jumped up on a firebreak along Tecolote Canyon after our most recent rain.

Lupinus albifrons, Silver lupine, white-leaf bush lupine, or evergreen lupine, is a species of lupine (lupin). It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows along the coast and in dry and open meadows, prairies, and forest clearings. It is a member of several plant communities, including coastal sage scrub, chaparral, northern coastal scrub, foothill woodland, and yellow pine forest.

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Expectations for Tomorrow

Whenever I look at a flower, I try to see its entire life. Really, I also try to see the life cycle of the plant in my head. It helps me look at what is in front of my eyes. And it makes me happy.

For example, this image is of what? What will it become, and how long does the plant live? Is it an annual? A perennial?

This small flower, not much larger than your thumbnail is part a perennial. The plant lives through many seasons. As a fact of note, the first season you plant this, it is not much useful for bearing fruit. But, after that first year, it is a wonderful addition to your garden.

Just picture yourself, walking out to your garden with half a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and then reaching down and picking yourself a dozen fine strawberries to toss into that bowl. … Ah, those summer days are on the way.

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A San Diego Day

What a day we had today! It was a great day to go for a walk. Make sure you check out the LEFT, Middle, and Right links for a better view.

This image is very large. It is made from 17 vertical images, and the full resolution is 42 thousand pixels wide, and 5,200 pixels tall. … It is so large that it cannot be easily displayed. … So I cut it into three pieces, and I have linked to those three parts to give you a better idea of what can be seen.
LEFTMiddleRIGHT

In the left piece, you can easily see Mount Laguna with yesterdays snow upon its flanks.
In the middle piece, you can see Iron Mountain in the left of the frame, and in the right of this frame, you can see the rocky face of El Capitan.
And, in the right piece, you can see Cowels Mountain.

In all three frames, you can see the kind of day we had today.

Today was just beautiful.

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A Thousand Cactus Flowers

O.K. It is not really a thousand flowers. … But, as soon as I saw this cactus, and got close enough to see that it was flowers all across the crown, I thought, “Holy smokes! That’s a thousand flowers.” … 😉 No, really, I thought that.

But it is beautiful. …

One thing about Macros that bugs many people is the narrow depth of field when you are so close to the subject. … One way to fix that is to shoot many images and pick the focused part of each image and then blend them together. … This image is not really a single image. This image is made from thirty images of differing focus points. …

Pretty cool!

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Pink in La Jolla

Jaz Cook, and her partner, hired me to shoot some images for their real estate business. She really wanted some images for their online presence. … We shot those, and they were very happy with them. We actually shot several times for several different looks. … But this image?

For this image, I had the lighting units there to shoot some portraits, and I love colors. … 😉 … So, in the moments between the real work, we played a little.

With the La Jolla sun banging against the empty La Jolla home, and streaming through the windows of a room with an ocean view and filled with mirrors, I gelled the units with a single color, and banged back.

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Four Friends in San Diego

Three Mustache Club Friends, and a new friend whose name I do not recall in front of the gallery. Terence, Harley, our new friend, and Charlene. 😉

Last June, when Charlene was working as an apprentice at the Alexander Salazar Fineart Gallery, she started a closed Facebook group for a small set of friends. For the most part, the group consists of friends that like to don a mustachioed persona upon occasions for fun. … She invited me to join, even though I have a built in mustache.

Charlene still works once-in-awhile at the gallery, but she loves art, and comes to most openings. This opening, I cornered this small group of friends outside before they left. This is the result of that moment. 😉

Cool!

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My Funny Valentine – Valentines Day

Well it is that time of the year, where thoughts turns to love. Love current, loves lost, loves past, and loves future. …

But one love always stands the test of time and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes. … The unquallified love our pets have for us, and we have for them. I know that at this very moment, while I have my feet up on a cushion in front of my chair, that between the chair and cushion, under my legs, lies Gypsy. She is waiting patiently for me to finish this little letter to my human friends, so that I can take her for a little tour around the neighbourhood. …

Well today is very special, we will go many dog places today, and she will be very happy. 😉 Me too!

Check out My Amazing Pet Photography Gallery, and think about a time when we can shoot all our pets together, on one very special day. Because, I would surely like that!

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The Alexander Salazar Fine Art Gallery – A History of Sorts – 48 openings.

For almost a year, I have been shooting events for Alexander Salazar, for his Fineart gallery at the corner of 7th and Broadway, and at the Contemporary White Box gallery, between Broadway and “C” street, also on 7th avenue, and most recently, his exhibit space in La Jolla. … Inadvertendtly, the collection of galleries create a reverse chronological history of those events.

These events include Dancing Downtown, his one year anniversary party, and his White Birthday party downtown. They also include events at the Hilton Bayfront hotel.

You can go and meander through the past year, and you can find all the events that you attended, by name and by date.
This is a link to a single page with all the galeries in reverse order.
Link to the 48 Galleries.

The dates are listed like this, YearMonthDate, for example these are the four most recent events. …

20120209-TrueDelorenzo
20120304-FredBriscoe
20120203-HeidiThompson
20120120-AlisonVanPelt

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The El Valencia Hotel – La Jolla

This is The Valencia Hotel in La Jolla. Since it is in a town that I have known for most of my life, it has never seemed very special. Boy was I wrong. I have come to realize that this is one destination hotel that many people know about. Mostly people with a generous income. 😉

It is a beautiful Hotel. Inside and out. This is just the street side. It has a wonderful garden courtyard, pool area that seems like it is in a tropical land. 😉

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Fred Briscoe at Alexander Salazar Contemporary Exhibit space in La Jolla

I shot this yesterday evening. I am posting it right now because, this evening, February 04, 2012, at the Alexander Salazar Fineart Contemporary Exhibit space in La Jolla, Fred Briscoe will be in attendence.

You can meet him, and ask about his creative process concerning general information, or the particular pieces on display. He works in stone and various metals.

And, he is a very nice man.

(Addendum 20120206) By the way. I had met Fred a couple years ago when I was shooting for the San Diego Fine Arts Society’s creator, April Game. The San Diego Fine Arts Society has metamorphosed into artpulse, and April Game is the Executive Director.

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Star

This little flower lives by a surface street on the way towards Tecolote Canyon, a location where I walk my dog quite often.

Someone said that this flower is called a monkey’s paw. I do not know. …. What I do know is the location. … And that location is here. -> On Google Maps.

If you go there, give me a call and I will show you some other arts of Tecolote Canyon. It is a nice walk.

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Looking Towards the Convention Center

I love living in San Diego, and I love shooting for Alexander Salazar Fineart galleries. Shooting for Alexander gets me out and about to different locations ad interesting times. I can go a little early, and wander home a little later, and the opportunities for catching a cool moment abound.

For example, I was shooting Alison Van Pelt evening at the Bayfront Hilton. – Please check out those links if you wish. – And that very evening gave me the opportunity to shoot this twilight image of Down Town San Diego.

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Some Friends.

I like to go for little trips with friends, and shoot some images. … This is just a jumble of some of those little drives.