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Archive for the ‘local travel’ Category

Sep

Patriotic Photo Theme

Filed Under international travel, local travel, photography

Red

White

Blue

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Aug

Oregon Coast Road Trip

Filed Under entomology, graphic design, local travel, photography

Being a proud Oregonian, I was excited to have the opportunity to visit the Motherland for an extended weekend. My youngest cousin was getting married and I looked forward to being present for the ceremony. (I’ll most likely keep those photos for family only.) After the Saturday wedding, I began my road trip home, 1,000-miles from Newport, Oregon to Arcadia, California. It was a fantastic three-day journey through the redwoods of Northern California, the rolling golden hills of Central California, and the fertile valley from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Here’s a map and some photos. Click on the photos to see them on Flickr. Scroll to the bottom for a link to a slideshow.

View Larger Map

Here’s a link to view these photos in a Flickr Slideshow. You can also view it in a slideshow on my site here.

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Aug

Kayaking at Channel Islands Nat’nl Park

Filed Under local travel, photography

Friends and I took a day trip to Channel Islands National Park yesterday for a little bit of kayaking. Although I have a sunburn you would not believe, the trip was a blast! The wildlife viewing started on the 20-mile ferry crossing to Santa Cruz Island, where we saw dolphins, sea lions, and a glimpse of two or three blue whales.

We docked at Scorpion Anchorage and met up with our kayaking outfitters, Aquasports. They introduced us to our sea kayaks and went over some general instructions. I couldn’t have been more impatient to get into the water, but I knew that this was important. Of my friends, Nelson and Javier, I had the most experience kayaking, which isn’t saying much.

We were on the water at about 10:30am and headed up the island, hugging the coast. The water was a beautiful blue-green, like in the Caribbean, and was as flat as a lake. Visibility underwater was about 40-50 feet! I brought some snorkeling gear for later in the day but struggled not to jump into the water from my kayak. I also purchased a Canon PowerShot SD 1100 IS and an underwater housing for it and looked forward to taking some underwater photos and video.

We kayaked for 4-5 hours and explored a few caves, some as big as an auditorium and as narrow as a doorway. It was exhilarating! Sea lions visited us throughout the day. we saw lots of fish, including the beautiful Garibaldi, its bright orange scales making it easy to spot from the surface. We also glimpsed some manta rays.

We got back into Scorpion Anchorage around 3pm, giving us about an hour on the beach before our ferry home arrived. I immediately grabbed my snorkeling gear and camera, but unfortunately the sea was a bit choppy and visibility had dropped down to 6 feet. I had fun nonetheless in a kelp forest, where I saw another ray, some Garibaldi, starfish, sea urchins, and a sea slug.

Javier, Nelson and I were exhausted by the time we got back to Ventura. I passed out in the car on the way home. Weekend warriors, indeed.

Here’s a video:

Here are some photos:

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Aug

Photo Similarities

Filed Under local travel, photography, Uncategorized

I was perusing one of my favorite blogs and came upon a photo that looked strikingly like a photo I took in 2003. Before discovering the photo, I had spent the morning reading a handful of posts about copyright laws and photographer’s rights, and so I immediately thought that my photo was stolen. It turns out that my photo hadn’t been uploaded anywhere (until now) and started to feel a bit embarrassed of my reaction to the photo: Dozens of people probably have photographed from the same vantage point since the Red Line station opened in 2000.

Still, the similarities of the two photos are a bit creepy. Abby’s photo (above left) was taken in October, 2006. My photo (above right) was taken in December, 2003. Great shot, Abby. I think your angle is spot on. The curves of the metal frame the image much better than in mine.

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May

Los Angeles Twilight

Filed Under local travel, photography

A lot of sweat went into the following photos. I huffed it up the Sam Merrill Trail in Altadena only to find out that I forgot to pack a memory card. Realizing that I had them in the car, I hurried down and back up again in time to catch the last of the evening twilight.

I created a panoramic image using ten photos. Click on the image below to go to the page where you can zoom in and check out the details.

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May

Shootin’ Up Los Angeles II

Filed Under local travel, photography, urban-explorers.com

How often can you say that you do something “once in a blue moon” and really mean it? I was going to start this blog by saying “Once in a blue moon…” but I stopped and went to Wikipedia on a hunch and whatdoyaknow – it really is a blue moon this month (May 5th – June 2nd).

So, once in a blue moon, I organize a photography outing with my friends to share photography techniques and to explore our home turf. I invite anyone and everyone to join me, even if they own just a camera phone. I find that photographing with other people inspires more creativity and sharing of photographic ideas.

This time out (our second), we kept it green: only public transportation and our feet were used to get around. The five of us started in Pasadena and ended in Chinatown. Here’s some of my photos:

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May

Don’t Upset Mother!

Filed Under local travel, photography, Uncategorized

My Parents and I had fun making this shot at Badwater in Death Valley National Park on Christmas Day, 2005. Keep in mind that my Mom is about 5’2″, my Dad (center) is 6′ and I’m 6’4″.

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May

Video Page Created

Filed Under graphic design, local travel, photography, YouTube

I created a page for posting my videos. I’ll be adding more as I create them, but for now you’ll find a high-resolution video of my Joshua Tree National Park trip. If you’re bored, you can read that trip’s report here.

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May

Shell Collection

Filed Under local travel, photography

I was cleaning out a closet and found a shell collection I made when I was a teenager. Now that I have a good camera, I thought I’d capture the beauty and exquisite details of some of the shells. I found many of these shells while beach combing or snorkeling in Orange County in the early 1990′s.