Lens and tripod update

Ever since I have Nikon D700, I've always been wanting to get the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4. I've seen many beautiful low light as well as non low light shots. But I already have the 50mm f/1.8 so this f/1.4 was not on the top priority list. Out of nowhere last weekend I found a great deal on this lens from craigslist and was able to get it for $210. New lens would run about $330 or so and used one on craigslist would run about $250-$270. So now my Nikkor f/1.8 gonna be leaving me soon.










Also on my wish list is a super light weight tripod. I've been browsing around for one good and affordable tripod. And came across Slik Sprint Pro II. After seeing it on youtube, and try out in store, I have to have it. First trip I took it to was the Berry Creek Fall. After this trip, I decided I should not use this unless it involves air traveling, or extended long hike. Apparently it does not support D700 and 16-35mm. In portrait setup, the camera would tend to get loose and drop the lens toward the floor. Anyway, so I had it for that trip and Seattle trip. Very light weight and offer full features of high end tripod (btw, tripod head is not replaceable). I would if I could get a carbon fiber tripod but that's a little fancy at this moment :)

Seattle

What: Labor day hunting... for more landscape pics in ... Seattle

When: So this labor day I decided to be in Seattle for a weekend. Hoping to get something out or it. The locations I went to was not depend on season at all.

Where/How: So I landed in SEA late pm and decided to relax to get ready for early Sat morning.
Sat morning weather was not the best for landscape of downtown Seattle. I was up at 4:30am hoping I'll be able to get to see the crack of sunrise at about 6:30am. As usual, I got to the location Alki beach about 1 hr before sunrise. It was very cloudy that morning, so I didn't expect much out of it. Carry the whole backpack of lenses with me and the Slik Sprint pro II tripod. This location has some poles by the bank so I though it would give me some depth in the picture. On the other hand, the city was so far away that my 16-35mm will not be able to capture anything. The 70-200 would be too tight to cover these poles. I ended up using the 24-120mm the whole entire morning to cover the range I need. BAD BAD BAD decision. I would NEVER EVER EVER use this lens ever again for landscape. This lens was ment to be a walk around, family event fun lens.

This is what I got:

Shutter Speed: 3sec
Aperture: f/5.3
ISO 200
Focal Length: 72mm



Shutter Speed: 5sec
Aperture: f/5
ISO 200
Focal Length: 60mm


I then stopped by Gas Work park a little bit. It was early after noon, the light was not the best plus it's not much of my taste so I was not be able to get much out of it. I rather headed to Kerry Park for afternoon sunset shoot. Again, got here 1 hr before sunset to get ready and there were 2 pro photographers with their tripod up and ready already. So I joined them and still had my 24-120mm on at the time. I then decided to swap it out and used the 70-300mm. Good thing I did. Sun started to come down. Clouds started to glow... but not in the downtown area... ARG... oh well, it is what it is. So this is what I got, the data is approximated since I have quite a few layers to it:

Shutter Speed: 1.3sec
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO 100
Focal Length: 70mm


Sunday morning was not much better. I slept in and headed to fish lader before heading Seattle pier. At this location where I stood on top of the Art Institute of Seattle, since it's a pretty tight angle, I had my nikon 16-35mm on at 16mm. It was perfect sunset with glowing clouds and a little windy just enough to make it move under B+W ND1000x. and this is what I got (also layered so data is estimated):

Shutter Speed: 120sec
Aperture: f/20
ISO 100
Focal Length: 16mm

Bowling Ball Beach

What: Bowling Ball Beach, Point Arena in California. Ever since I heard about this place, I want to drive there one beautiful partly cloudy weekend sunset for a another shoot to my collection. But life's been busy, no one want to come along and keep me company or enjoy the shoot with me. oh well, everyone has their busy life.... not me, at least for the next few years.

I wanted to go so bad after seeing this. It's really that popular? gotta have it. Doesn't matter who come or not. No? I'm on my own, no problem. Last time I remember by myself, I got a really nice afternoon and got something nice as well.

Where/when:
Learning from last trip to Crater Lake and come back by 3am, I don't want to do any long trip on Sun. But this weekend is an exception ;). Sat was cloudy. Only Sun is good enough for a nice sunset. So I decided to head there around 2pm from North Bayarea. On the way, I stopped by Point Bonita Lighthouse again hoping I'm on time this route. The horrible traffic did not help at all. So I started to leave Golden Gate area around 3:40pm. Expected to be driving another 2 hr or so since google map said it's a 3 hr drive. Once I left 101 and get on Hwy 1, I found out it's not going to be a short drive. The street itself is nowhere to be complained about. It's a beautiful drive if it's Sat and you have the whole day with a convertible. I'm driving on late Sun afternoon in my compact sedan... Wanted to enjoy
the beautiful view but I'll be late for sunset which will be totally suck. Btw, it's a good 4+ hr drive, I timed on my way back. It's as far as from San Jose to Yosemite. Oh and not reconmend to bring anyone with motion sickness problem...;) it's gonna be a really really long drive. Anyway, I got there close to 7pm. Started to hike down the beach and got confused a little bc the beach area is separated with bowling beach area by a cliff. I got all excited and decided to climb across this cliff. I had ti head back when I couldn't go any further bc the cliff comes so far out in the water. Headed back to this trail, there was a split off of the trail heading to a restroom area. I followed this path, up a little, there was a tiny trail straight up follow that all the way until I see some wooden steps, follow by
wooden ladder. Got down to the sandy beach and walked for another few hundred ft all excited is the
bowling beach area.
As usual, I had flipflop to the beach here. Bad idea, it doesn't really matter what you wear; the area is all rocks covered with moss and algae. Be extremely careful walking in this area. You will slip and fall with you camera using shoe or a little better barefoot and get all kind of cut at the end. I picked option 2 and got a few cuts.

How:

So I left my complete backpack there bringing with me down to the rocks area my D700, Nikkor 16-35mm, 24-120mm (did not use this lens at all), B + W 1000x filter, Cokin ND8 and of course the wired
trigger.
And this is what I got.

Shutter speed: 1/15s
Aperture : F/11
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO 100

The rest of these are HDR from 7 exposure, then top off with another layer in PS to reduce the HDR look. (I don't like serious HDR too much but like how it's cover all color range)

Last but not least, my favorite in this set...

Rodeo beach

What: Another Friday, another reason to head out of the zip code to shoot. This Friday it's Rodeo beach

When/Where: Got off work a bit early on Friday and headed to SF. Got to Point Bonita about 5:40pm. I headed down the trail hoping the gate is open but then realized it's only open Sat, Sun and Monday from 12:30pm to 3:30pm and I believe they have guided tour. That's not cool but oh well, I was not there for the light house this round anyway. BUT the craziest thing I've seen and probably would never know how/why and don't think I'd ever ever see this again...
When we headed down the trail. We saw a black sedan down at the end of the trail by the closed tunnel to the light house. I was like "no fkin way... Somebody gotta be that stupid to drive down this walking trail..." But how though... Anyway we headed down about to pass the little section look like a bridge and the car drove up. It's a black Dodge Charger with a female driver and seem to be a female passenger. Careless we headed to the tunnel and find out it's locked. So we headed back up. Little did I know... (and I kid you not, I still get goosebumps as I type to this part), there's no way out of that trail. both left and right side of the trail are cliff. Up a little, right side is still sliff and left side is the hill with trees and no drive way. Close by the gate is a little drive way to the portable restroom. That's IT. The gate to the trail is LOCKED. And the tiretrack disappeared around the restroom area. I went in and checked that area. It's dead end. OMFG. How ? The only way they could get out is to have the keys for the gate, which I think only Ranger has them... ?!?! OK If you know any other way to get down there by car without using that gate... PLEASE let me know. Not that I want to drive down but I want to have an scientific explanation. I hate to have a mind bugging "gosh" situation like this...

So we then headed to Rodeo beach, did a little hike to this location.

How: As usual, I had with me the whole backpack but only used Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-35mm, B&W 1000x filter and Cokin ND8.

It was not the best weather I've seen so I didn't expect much out of this trip. After extended photoshop editing, I was able to get this.

Due to weather condition. I had to mix and match in photoshop with 7 layers to get this photo. So no valid EXIF data. Just 1 shot to get the rocks, few with ND8 to get the waves, and a few more to get the sky. Pick and choose from about 60 shots in this trip.



UPDATE 09/01/2010: OK so I stop by the light house again this pass Sunday and was able to talk to the park rangers (all female). They said it was them who drove down there to check things out. They went down everyday not just the scheduled tour hour. Well... that explains it... I still don't know why old female ranger would drive a nice, new, all black Avenger... oh well, I guess she could. Because it's better be her that day! :)

Berry Creek Falls

What: Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Yet another inspiration by Jim Patterson.

When/Where: So I did some homework prior to this trip. Sounds like the season (when water fullest) from Dec until Mar. And it's now mid Aug. Looks like I'll be running into an all dried up waterfalls. Anyway, it would not hurt to do a little hiking. After all I was busy and off exercise the whole summer. So we left San Jose 8am sharp and got to the park gate by 9:10am or so. It was a nice breezy summer day. It was high 50 or low 60 at the park. I did not bring any extra jacket thinking it'll get warm once I start to hike in ( and I was right). Down hill most of the way to the fall. BTW, the sign say 3.9mile but it's really an 4.8 mile hike to the fall. Got to the fall about 11am, had lunch and took some shoots, break until 12pm and head toward a little for another fall. It was not as attractive as Berry Creek Fall so we just went ahead and make a round trip which is 12.2 mile total. Got back to the parking area by 4pm. From 8-11mile was the hardest. It seems to take forever and ever. But once we see 0.9 mile mark, I was at it. Jogging in happiness all the way.

How: Since it's a 12mile round trip, I had to think twice what lens to bring. Obviously the macro and 50mm f/1.8 wouldn't help much. So those two stayed home. I had with me Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-35mm, 24-120mm, and 70-300mm because I had no idea how far away the fall is from where I'd be standing. The empty pocket was used for 3 water bottles (1 frozen). Also brought 3 sandwiches along to the hike. I got here when the whole waterfall were perfectly in shade with no burn. But a sandwich later the sun started to hit it spot by spot. Oh well, I'll try my best to make it glow. And this is what I had

Shutter Speet: 4sec
Aperture: f/14
Focal Length: 112mm
ISO-200

Napa, winery country

What: Napa, winery country trip

When: I was there mid July. It was not the best time of the year to be in Napa. It's definitely good enough not to see dead/dried up grape farm. I'd rather be there around end September or so for the fall color...

Where/How: We left South Bay around 8 am or so and got to our first location for... shooting rather than a wine tasting ...

In this trip, I mostly use my Nikon D700, Nikon 16-35mm, little with 70-300mm for some model shoot.

First stop was Andretti Winery. Must say I really like this design and they have so many angle at this location ...

Focal Length: 35mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200


Focal Length: 20mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 500


Second stop was Darioush. This place has a very attractive gate. You won't miss it.

Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1600sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200


Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/250sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200


Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1250sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200



Last stop: Castello . This place is the place you must visit while in Napa area. It's quite new but the design, the structure is amazing. We bought the tour which is also has wine tasting at the end. The whole experience was worth it.

Focal Length: 31mm
Shutter Speed: 1/800sec
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO 200


Focal Length: 35mm
Shutter Speed: 8sec
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO 400


Focal Length: 20mm
Shutter Speed: 2.5sec
Aperture: f/8
ISO 200



Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/25sec
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO 4000
This last one is the ceiling of the castle. The camera was about 5in off the ground so I had to hand held it. Thus crank up ISO to 4000. Well that's what the D700's for. ISO-4000 smooth as expected.

S.S. Palo Alto

What: S.S Palo Alto, the most famous concrete ship of the West Coast. Built in 1919 By San Francisco Shipbuilding Company in Oakland, California. The concrete ship was later purchased by an Seacliff Amusement Company of Nevada and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. An arcade, dining room, dance hall and even a swimming pool were built on the ship. Unfortunately, the Seacliff Amusement Company went out of business two years later under the financial crunch of the Great Depression. Then, in winter, a storm cracked the ship across her midsection. The Palo Alto was stripped of all salvagable metal and fixtures and turned into a fishing pier.

When: So I've been browsing Flickr and Flickriver a lot to find my next photoshoot location. And one of the best in this region, I gotta bring Jim Patterson into the picture. He has an amazing collection on Flickr. So I was browsing through and found this concrete ship. The color, the story, the age of this ship make me want to get there and capture it right away. Been busy, so I put it off and off until late summer 2010. It's been cloudy every morning all summer in the bay area. So I kept checking weather forecast in Santa Cruz area. I also search for live webcam there for better view of the weather condition. Kinda found AHA moment one day and drove there straight after work.

Where/How: Traveled on HWY 17 toward Santa Cruz, take South HWY 1 toward Capitola for about 5 miles. Then take State Park Dr. toward Seacliff State Beach. If you want to support State park, drive straight, pay $10 parking fee, and drive down all the way to the pier. If not, just before the park entrance, make a Left onto Santa Cruz Ave, then right on Broadway and park at the corner of Broadway and Seacliff Dr. It's street parking. Walk toward the beach you would see really really long stair down to the beach. The S.S. Palo Alto is right there.

So I got there about 7:30pm when sunset at 8:30 pm . I've been in so many situation where I have 10-15 min until sunset and I don't have the right gear to do anything thing. This time, I have 1 hr extra, the whole complete backpack with Nikon D700, and all my lens but I only used Nikon 16-35mm. Kinda used 24-105mm a little bit but didn't really need to. Got to the end of the pier, set up my tripod and frame ready for sunset. Did some practice shoots and find out it looks plain at eyes level (about 5ish ft.). So I had my tripod fully extended to about 7'. Now it's aproblem. I cannot see the frame. I can't change settings. And the gate has about 3.5-4in gap between bars so I have very little room to move my lens side to side when it's between bars. So I tried many many times to get the right ones. Everytime I want to view, I have to pull camera and lens back out from the bars which totally change my frame .

Nikon D700
Nikon 16-35mm

In this shoot, I also had B&W 1000x density.

Focal Length: 16mm
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 8sec
ISO 400



This one is combined of 5 shot and HDR using photomatix. I almost always do HDR but not to an extend that it looks not real anymore. This is another try :)

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

What:Pigeon Point Lighthouse

When: Yet another random weekend trip to the coast.

How/Where: From Santa Cruz, head North on HWY 1 for about 28 miles. Make a left on Pigeon Point Road and park to the parking on the left. I brought with me on this trip was my old D90, Tokina 11-16mm, Nikon 70-300mm and tripod.

First angle, I was here. This image was merged by 3 exposures using Photomatix for HDR effect.

No Exif data from 3 exposure.


Second location, this one is kind of tricky because of the fence. I had my Tokina sticking out through a hole along this fence (surprisingly somebody must have made this hole to fit the camera through :) nice). This below image is also HDR... no EXIF :



Third stop, walked all the way to the end of the lighthouse trail. It started to become really foggy, so I think B&W is better for this shot

Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 11mm
Speed : 0.6sec
ISO 100
Exposure compensation: 0 step



Also from this third location, when the fog start to come down, I have the following setting:

Focal: 50mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Speed: 2sec
ISO 800


I had 42 shots of the same frame, the same 2 sec. The fog does not always help to create a straight, solid white beam. With all 42 shots I was able to put some light beam together in this one. The fixed 2 seconds help keep the thickness of the beam consistent.

Sunflower field Dixon, CA

What: I love Sunflower. Such a brilliant color. Summer would not be completed without sunflower... how about a whole field of sunflower...

When: Google sunflower season and some users on flickr, I notice they bloom sometime between early June until late July. It depends on the temperature of the year.

Where: I've been browsing for this field for 1 year, wait and try to find it another year. This year I decided, what the heck, I'll just gonna spend 2 hr driving there to check out the area. At least I'll get a relax road trip on the weekend. So I when to Dixon area early June... nothing there. Sadly drove another 2 hr home. So early July I checked back with some friend in the area, she volunteered to be the Guinea pig and browse the area again follow my rough direction. I headed there the following weekend (7/4/10) after knowing she found the place.

Amazed how big this area is. By the time I got there, the season looks like it's almost over. Still I was able to get some good pictures. They have bee hives along the fields... well, why not, great source for bees to collect honey. These sunflowers grow as high as 7ft and some rows at 4-5 ft.

How: I brought with me all my gear but used Nikon D700, Nikon 16-35mm, 70-300mm, a little of 105mm macro and 50mm but too much glare because of where we were.

I used 70-300mm a lot for portrait, and 16-35mm for some landscape.
DO NOT forget to bring ladder. These flowers are high. I had with me a 3 steps ladder. Helped a little but not much.


This one was merged from 5 different exposures. So I can't really say much about the exif data :)



Speed: 1/125s
Aperture: F/9
ISO 200
Focal Length: 200mm

Update to family members...Summer 2010

So I decided bring Nikon 16-35mm f/4 home. It's such a great combination with D700. They are great BUT I think I over kill it by a little. Performance wise, it's a great combination but for my needs, doing landscape, I still think Nikon D90 and Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 still the best combo. Even though the Tokina is not sharp at all at f/2.8. But who shoot landscape at 2.8 anyway.


D700 and Nikon 16-35mm is another story. It's so sharp and I love it. The only down side is ... IT"S HEAVY !!!

Another lens I collected this summer is the all time favorite for FX walk around 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6. Well... It's a walk around lens, nothing much special but slow. It's light weight and does do job well, sharp.

Goodbye

Goodbye my lover... :( (lol on song selection)


BIG changes in the collection this time! New born and is the king in family now.. all new Nikon D700 from beachcamera through ebay with bing and bucks discount. Letting D90 go in tears today (May 31, 2010)... with its 18-105mm and soon the Opteka grip. All to welcome another new member Nikon 16-35mm to be hand in hand with D700.

I'll be missing D90 A LOT. It's a well built camera. If I ever get a gig doing photoshoot, I'll probably get D90 again as backup body.

Switching to D700, there are so so so many more options that I've not had a chance to get used to ever since it's born (MAY 27, 2010). Things I notice so far from this switch:
- Very big view from FX senso in D700
- 3 programmable buttons on D700 compare to 1 in D90. So I had live view, auto bracket, and raw programed in. Kinda the same as D90 bc live view and auto bracket in D90 has its own button. Auto bracket in D700 however can do up to 9 steps unlike D90 only 3 steps.
- When viewing images, D90 let you scroll back dial or use cursor to go through images, D700 only let you use back dial to scroll once image is zoomed in. ***update: the menu of D700 offers so many option and I did finally found out how to do this view using back dial***
- Of course amazing ISO performance.

My final dream set would be Nikon D700 and Nikkor 16-35mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm. But I know I use a lot on the wide end so I ended getting 16-35mm first. Soon enough, 24-70mm will come, but not now. I think 50mm 1.8 and 70-300mm meet my needs for now.



***update: I really miss the Nikon D90. It's best bang for the buck camera so I don't really mind abusing it compare to babying the D700. Light weight (at least compare to D700). Just enought option to amature ... like me. If I ever need a back up body, it'll be D90 for sure.***

Bay bridge

What: I've been driving around and took so many pictures of Golden Gate. This time, I decided to beat Bay bridge to death :) Last time I had some good shots but it was too dark.

When: It was another "partly cloudy" Saturday (05/15), which always end up as a really cloudy day. I'd definitely come back mid summer for a clear shot. So we left SJ about 5:30pm for the 8pm sunset. It's a short drive to Treasure Island... or at least to South SF. Then the traffic started to look really bad... yes on Sat afternoon.

Where/How:

We got to Treasure Island and had that "oh sh!t" feeling looking at the clouds all over SF. It was not what I had in mind before we left.

So I did a lot of hw before I go out to shoot for a location. It's all started from a place I heard, browsing in bay area group in flickriver. Then search and read some more about it, how to get there, what to bring...

This time I have a clear picture in mind of what I wanted, something similar to the pier 7 shot. But I guess it was not the day.

So we decided to to park down the hill in Treasure Island and hike up. Luckily for me this round ;) our friend who is driver volunteer to drop us off at the location. Then we started to hike down the some-what trail. It's not the hardest hike but it's a loose gravel trail. So we got down to the location and it's no where close to sunset. It was so cloudy and I know I wouldn't be able to get any color out of sunset. Any flat cloudy day would turn the picture to pretty much B&W. So I just started taking some knowing it's gonna be B&W for now. And this is what I got

Shutter Speed: 1/50sec
Aperture: F/15.6
Focal: 16mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: -2

So we waited and waited until the bridge started to lid up as well as SF. Still, SF was covered with clouds. Moving around a little and I got some more:

Shutter Speed: 6sec
Aperture: F/5
Focal: 42mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Shutter Speed: 3sec
Aperture: F/5
Focal: 18mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Staying there for awhile, we decided to head back to SF side of Bay bridge and get some more angle and finish this bridge. I started to get my first shot of Bay bridge from my "to go" list

Shutter Speed: 8sec
Aperture: F/16
Focal: 38mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Then here

Shutter Speed: 30sec
Aperture: F/9
Focal: 11mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Last location:

Shutter Speed: 3sec
Aperture: F/4
Focal: 14mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Lesson learned: Some local news website would have camcorder in popular location. I would check that first next time I go out to save gas and time. This time I remember to do some pano shots. I almost come to the basic number of shots at each location: A mode to close down to where I wanted depend on location. Add ND filter. Do bracket for HDR. Repeat for portrait frame after landscape is done. Do some under auto. Then some all around for pano.

Another update to family member

Three time is a charm... in my case, Tokina 11-16mm was dropped 3 times and decided to zoom from 11-15 only.

First time, it was carefully wrapped in a jacket and left in back seat. and there goes the lens when I pulled my jacket out the car. It dropped hitting rear cap down the concrete floor at about 2.5ft. Not much damage since it was the metal mount taking the force.

Second time, my failure of walking on log from Crater Lake trip and front end of lens hit the log at about 4ft but not straight down but it was a hard hit as well. Still work "like new"

Third time... I was in my backpack all happy until I pull the backpack out of the trunk unzipped. It flew out hitting the concrete floor again. This time was the front end and the hood took the hit. Filter thread cracked, zoom only from 11-15. Focus still works.

So I let it go today. 1 year later I lost $40 for this lens. What a deal. That's how much it would cost me to rent it a week or so. Btw, the buyer do know it has problem zooming but was ok with it :)

Lesson learned: look twice where you leave the lens. Don't think you are spider man and can walk on log with camera, tripod on 1 hand. I know we all rush when on the spot doing shoot and leave backpack open, but do always check, don't just yank them out. They cost! Last but not least. Invest in good lens, it'll take the abuse and at then end, it's great return. In fact I made few dollars extra from buying, use, and resale the good set of lens. :)

My collection is getting smaller and smaller... only D90, 18-105, 50mm, 105mm, 70-300mm now. BUT (it's a really really big BUT) Nikon D700 is just around the corner. So D90, 18-105mm and Lumix lx3 is on "retirement" list. btw, I had lx3 for few months, it's a great great camera by Panasonic. It comes in small package but do truly turn heads. There are tons of review about lx3 vs Leica online. It was a smart choice from my end. Since D700 is around the corner, it has to go. :( No more pns for me. Maybe a new phone with 8mpx by Verizon would do the trick :)

Color of spring in California

Spring, flowers are blooming. California is one of the location for spring shootings, at least for this year. Next year maybe a trip to tulip festival in WA and maybe cherry blossom in DC the year after...

What: Tecolote Ranunculus and California Poppies

When: Flowers blooming schedule depend on weather every year. It normally around late March till mid April. I went to these location April 10 which was a little late for Tecolote Ranunculus but I think it was perfect for California poppies.

Where: Tecolote Ranunculus is about 30 min North of San Diego called The Flower Field and California Poppies is in Lancaster area. The entrance to Poppy park is at the corner Lancaster Rd and 150th st W. But I didn't went straight to the park's parking lot. Once you get on 138 from HWY 5, keep going straight until 170th st. You'll start seeing field of poppies left and right (well mostly right side. I made a right turn onto 130th st and started shooting. It's every where so I don't need to say the exact location.

How: this is what I got. This time I decided not to edit with PS at all. I think the color by my D90 come out just great and I like it the way it is.

First stop was in Colorado island. Of course for the sun rise view. It was not a perfect day to catch sunrise in SD. It was a cloudy day and this is what I had:

Shutter Speed: 25sec
Aperture: F/10
Focal: 24mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0


Shutter Speed: 4sec
Aperture: F/4
Focal: 31mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0



Then Flower Field:

Shutter Speed: 1/1250sec
Aperture: F/4.5
Focal: 22mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0



Shutter Speed: 1/1250sec
Aperture: F/4.5
Focal: 38mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0


Shutter Speed: 1/200sec
Aperture: F/7.1
Focal: 16mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0


Headed out to SD beach for sunset
Shutter Speed: 1/160sec
Aperture: F/14
Focal: 20mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: -2


Then we headed to California Poppies field in Landcaster. On the way we found this
Shutter Speed: 1/20sec
Aperture: F/10
Focal: 15mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0


Shutter Speed: 1/40sec
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal: 40mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: -2


Shutter Speed: 1/320sec
Aperture: F/5
Focal: 105mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Update to family members...

So... I recently purchased a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8. There are 10^infinity site out there review on this nice, lovely lens so I'll just run over quickly. It's HEAVY. Unlike any lenses I have it's really heavy which is a good trade off for it's performance. I didn't see great improvement until I come back and use 18-105mm lens with all kind of limit. Anyway. I got from ebay... bad bad move. It has many scratches on the body and the focus ring make noises which was kinda turn off. But it did came with 2 B+W filters. So I sold the lens and kept the filters.

Then it's kinda hit me that I have to have this lens at better condition. So I decided to sell my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. I also loveee this lens. Only turn off was that it focus supper slow, and hard in low light. Plus this lens doesn't work too well with Nikon D90. It has problem linking focus at time. I though I could live with it, apparently not. It's annoying when you have fast lens trying to get shots faster and ended up couldn't focus right.

Then the Lowepro slingshot 200AW was gone today as well.

Going through all this could mean I'll get a new Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 or a refurb Nikon D700 from an ebay unauthorized Nikon dealer. And start the whole lens collection again :( So what's wrong with refurb + ebay + unauthorized dealer? I don't know, If you do know what I'll be missing by getting Nikon from "unauthorized dealer", let me know.

Crater Lake trip

3 months after the previous post, I have time for this page again. Probably many people stop bother coming back to check for update. If you do, don't be shy to drop a line to say hi :).

When: It was end of Jan when the snow was still there in Crater Lake. A lot that we had hard time going around.
Where: Crater Lake, OR
What: So I got called for a Crater Lake trip. It was a long 8 hr drive from San Jose. We didn't leave the area until midnight due to some technical problem. After 4 guys in my car taking turn to sleep, eat, drive... we got to the area around 7:30am Sat morning. We drove around and around the whole day w/o any place to really stop and "collect" nature through the lens. Most of the scheduled places for Sat was blocked due to poor road condition. So we headed to Diamond Lake for lunch break.

This is what I got at Diamond Lake. Not the best I wanted but ... oh well. It's done with Nikon D90, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8

Shutter Speed: 1/4000sec
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal: 40mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: -2


Shutter Speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal: 34mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

We headed to Crater Lake to once again prove the cloudy day is really cloudy.

Sunday morning, we had appointment with Mr. Sun at around 6:30am. We were there right on time. TOO ontime that rushing was needed to get to the place. HIGHLY recommended: snowshoe, waterproof boot. waterproof pants, EXTRA jackets, gloves. At one point a friend with Canon 5D markII stop working ?!?! My cokin P filters was started to ice-up. I could see ice powder on my filters, tripod, backpack... Anyway, here's what I got at Crater Lake with Tokina 11-16mm

Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: F/3.2
Focal: 16mm
Exp compensation: -1

Shutter Speed: 1/4 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal: 14mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0



Shutter Speed: 2 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal: 14mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0

After Crater Lake, we started to make round trip to the rest of the water falls as planned.
First stop was Clear water.
Beautiful place. One thing to keep in mind. Don't ever think you can cross the waterfall walking on a log covered with moss... especially when it's raining/snowing! Bad bad bad... idea. I didn't know until I took second step on this log, felt, hit my D90 with Tokina 11-16mm attached with 2 Cokin P series filters. Next thing I know I'm waist deep in cold water with left hand holding tripod and camera up in the air (lucky I guess). I then found out my water proof boot really did a great job ... holding the water... in.
Some of the damage:



The result:

Shutter Speed: 1 sec
Aperture: F/13
Focal: 12mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: -0.3


Shutter Speed: 2.5 sec
Aperture: F/10
Focal: 11mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: -0.3


Then Watson fall ... Beautiful place down stream. Upper fall is beautiful as well but would be hard to get a "wow" effect. This is one of my favorite with a touch of HDR to it. Turns out great and I've got quite a few feedback as "avatar" world.

Shutter Speed: 2.5 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal: 17mm
ISO: 100
Exp compensation: 0


We then headed back to Crater Lake for another try at sunset. But it was a waste of time while we should be start driving back. It was started to get cloudy again. So we started our 7+ hr driving trip pass 6pm. Didn't get home until almost 3 when I have to work 8am Monday morning. I now keep wondering how stupid my face was at those meetings on following Monday.

Lesson learn: Don't think you can walk on log. Even if you know and did try successfully before, don't do it!! At least not with an expensive camera and everything else on you. AND make sure you will have a good rest Sunday night if you planning to work on Monday. Because it would be impossible to sleep less Friday through Sunday and work normally on Monday :)

Bonus video

Part 1



Part 2


Part 3