Uvas National Park

What: Water falls in Uvas National Park

Where: Got there around 10:30 am on one Sat morning. Why this particular Sat morning? It's been raining (or should I say bay area just for hit with 4 storms) straight in 1 week. This Sat was the only day within 2 weeks window with partly cloudy report. This weekend will be followed by more rains until who know when. It's perfect for water falls shoots. Lots of water and sunny (partly cloudy) day. We got to this Parking lot and paid $6. Was gonna ditch but ... please support National Park! hihi

When: It'd be nice to be in this area on a sunny day during raining season (normally start Nov till April or so).

How: I brought with me all my gear as I normally do but this trip I only use Nikon D90, Tokina 11-16mm, Cokin P series ND4, ND8, steady/strong tripod ( I don't think carbon fiber can handle it). Once you start the trail, there are water falls left and right every where you go. Just enjoy and be careful around the water during rainning season. Hard to get to spot are always give you best result as a rule of thumb.

I set up my tripod here and there in the water completely or partially. At one place where I had all 3 legs under water directly under the fall. Not a good idea. Next time I should try it out first before locking my camera in. The camera was shaking on top of my Manfrotto 055XDB with head 808RC4. This combo is no toy. It's pretty strong, yet it was shaking the camera. Took it off the water I had 1 leg on the rock and 1 on the dead tree from the other side of the fall, and 1 still under water. But this time it's alot better (not really ... my camera still in the middle of the current hahaha***photo credit to Aleksandr Polyakov***)



And this is what I got or view large on black

Exposure:	6
Aperture:	f/20.0
Focal Length:	14 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

Exposure:	10
Aperture:	f/13.0
Focal Length:	14 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

Abandon Pier at Davenport, California

What: Abandon Pier at Davenport

Where: This is one of those places you can see, know it's a sweet spot but don't know how to get to. Davenport is about 9 mile North of Santa Cruz. Photographers love this area.

When: Just another boring weekend. I would love to come back and face this cliff another sunny, less cloudy day w/o second thought.

How: We got there around 4pm, about 1 hr before sunset. When we got there, I started to have doubt if we could really climb down this 80 degree, more than 50ft high cliff with about 7-8 ft section of all sand, no rocks to hold on to. I was checking in with my cousin to see if he's sure he wants to do this. Next thing I know he's already 5ft down the cliff while I was trying to put away my flash light. LOL.

So I waited until he's safely got down to where he could stand on his feet with out holding on to the rope. Oh btw, there were 2 guys down there already when we got there. They had the rope tied to the pole on top. It's about 100ft long. So bring 1 if you planning to really go down.

My turn! I'm 5'6" ~170lbs and go to gym 2-4 times a week. Just to let you know so you can compare. I had little problems going down but it's doable. Until the sandy 7ft section where all you holding on to is the rope which is rubber band like. hahaha I made it safely to where he was standing. And what do you know, we were still ~10ft above the sand, so we climb on the wood structure there. Finally made it to the sweet sweet spot every photographer love to have the stair to walk to.


We did a series of shoot down there. Bottom line: it is what it is. You can only do so many angle, after awhile you are pretty much done with it. It was a very cloudy day as weather.com call it "partly cloudy". So we took off a bit early before the dark hit us we have no idea how to get up being the first time down there. Some guys were down there until the tie got up for a better cloudy effect. But I had ND4 and ND8 earlier on my mainly used for this trip Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 and Nikon D90. Climbing up was not as easy as going down. Going down required your gut, going up required your gut and muscle. Especially the sandy section where you depend entirely on the rope and your knees, elbows. But yes, I made it.

Here are the results. Please DO NOT take the photo w/o permission. Give us some credit.

Oh... BTW, if you are gonna get some ND filter, go big and get something that are glass ~$100 for 1 screw on ND filter. People said you can get 1 biggest to fit your set of lens (say 77mm) and get a set of step down/up adaptor for all other lens. I had Cokin P series set with me at the time. I did what it suppose to and MORE which give me a serious color shift to red. I had to edit WB from raw file in photoshop to bring it back.

Exposure:	3
Aperture:	f/14.0
Focal Length:	29 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

Exposure:	3
Aperture:	f/14.0
Focal Length:	32 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

1 Round trip around the bay

What: Bay area tour...

Where: It was one boring Sat doing nothing but eat and sit around all day, which is not what I prefer to do. Called up my cousin and decided to make a round trip of the bay. We started to leave San Jose about a little pass 8pm and got to Treasure Island about 9. Coming from SF (no toll fee ... woohoo) I took exit to Treasure Island and got to the parking space where everyone park for an awesome look at SF. This remind me I don't have a snap shot of this angle yet. So this parking was not where I wanted to be at the moment. After the Uturn, and going back up to Treasure Island Rd. Keep left to where it says toward Oakland. Seeing a really sweet spot on the freeway entrance, look toward SF thru the BB, I park my car at the "drive way" up 50yard from that spot). Walking back is not so hard compare to parking the car down there and hike up for ~ 1mile. Trade off was that my car could be towed by the time I came back. We got to this sweet spot, while setting up we saw a cop drove by. He looked at us and kept driving. We were thinking something gonna go really wrong... either we got arrested for trespassing or just fall down the hill from trying to hide... But before we know it, another one drove by and yell at us " you guys are not suppose to be there, get back to your car!!!". LOL that's not too bad compare to arrested. So we got our first shot at BB.
This can't be the end of the night... No way 1 hr driving and ~60 mile worth of gas end like this. We got back to the car and drove around, make some turns and bunch of Uturns which I partialy lost in the dark but ended up at the top of the Island, end of Signal Rd. What we did next is pretty much 99.99% risky and illegal but come on ... I know all you photographers 've been there done that... haha... So I'm not gonna tell you how risky illegal it was. I rather have you discover yourself... So we climb up that little old building and got a few shot of the BB. We went down all relieve that we still alive and not arrested (again). And had a shot at this building as "souvenir" hahaha..
The night was still young so we head back to SF and park by Embarcadero and Howard St. for another look at Bay Bridge. By the time we are done with this spot, it's almost 12am and it's now "too early to go back"
So we headed over the Golden gate for some foggy night shot. We went to the classic Hendrik Point and got some ok foggy Golden gate shot. Extremely tough with high wind, cold and dark combined.
Left SF at 2am. It was a long long drive back when you are all out and thinking about the warm warm bed every 1/250 a sec. hahaha.

When: 1 bored out of my mind weekend early Jan
How: Brought with me all my gear but only used Tokina 11-16mm like any other scenery trips and now with new member Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 for Nikon D90.
First one was a bit rushing so I forgot and still had ISO 400. If it was 100, you'd get a better, nice tail light lines on the bridge.

Exposure:	3
Aperture:	f/13.0
Focal Length:	40 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

Got setting in a little better. Brought with me ND4 and ND8 but didn't really need it. F could be narrower (larger number) for longer exp. I was really pissed when I got home and see ghost on almost all of photo at this spot. I HATE cheap filters. My HOYA skylight.

Exposure:	3
Aperture:	f/6.3
Focal Length:	46 mm
ISO Speed:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

This is a fun one. I had D90 open for 30 sec and flash light painting the stair also top level of the structure. Came out great!

Exposure:	30
Aperture:	f/4.0
Focal Length:	11 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

There are some serious light coming from the street lights, So be ready to have something to cover up your lens to avoid glare.

Exposure:	30
Aperture:	f/7.1
Focal Length:	11 mm
ISO Speed:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

Got some OK shot here. Not so excited about it since almost everyone has this tattoo at the back of their mind.

Exposure:	15
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	38 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash

Cheap China filter vs. Cokin filter

No need to explain much, the pictures say it all! D90 is set to Aperture priority at f/4.5, ISO 200, focal 38mm focus on the word "AXE" with Tamron lens 17-50mm f/2.8.

First off: no filter @1/20sec


Cokin ND8 @ 1/2sec (pretty close to baseline)


China filter ND8 @ 1/4sec


Cokin ND4 @ 1/5sec


China filter ND4 @1/8sec



Cokin GND4 @1/10sec


China filter GND @1/13sec. Pretty good for this filter right ? WRONG, look at top right corner, it's pinky compare to Cokin


Bottom line is: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!! These 3 China filter cost ~ $20 on ebay and worth about $2 or less. Cokin cost $65 for all 3 and worth every penny.

New member to the family

After reading reviews and waiting for good deal, I finally decided to get the Kata 3n1 30 camera bag. The way they have zipper around the bag is kinda confusing at first but once you get a hang of it, it's supper cool. Only the left portion of the lens compartment is kinda hard to get to. It has plenty room for all my toys D90 w/ grip, Nikkor 18-105mm, 50mm 1.8, Sigma 105mm 2.8, Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 and a big old 70-300mm VR. I threw in bunch of extra batteries, cables, flash SB-600, adapters and cokin filters. The best thing about this bag is that it put almost 0 lb. on my shoulder compare to Lowepro slingshot 200AW which hurt really bad after 15-20 min hike. This is perfect for long hiking trips. Gotta love it. BTW, it's 95 on ebay - 20% from bing.com . Awsome!


OK next up is this baby Tamron 17-50mm 2.8. There is a new VC version of this lens if you want to spend more @~ $600 or spend extra $300 to get Nikkor 17-55mm used for $900. After checking around and searching, I didn't find the need to have stronger body at $600 more than Tamron. So I got this baby on craigslist at $300. I didn't believe the quality of this lens at first. It's sharp, focus right on, , solid as a rock. I don't know what's all the bs about this lens online but it's awsome!


This is why I bought it, milky bokeh...
f/5.3
1/5sec
ISO 640
75mm