Arroyo Del Valle Trail - Pleasanton, CA

Today I have several  photos I took on Arroyo Del Valle Trail in Pleasanton, CA. If you follow me on my blog posts, you probably know by now that Arroyo Del Valle is a walking trail near my house and I go walking there often to take photos and exercise. There are many wildlife and flowers on the trail, so I sometimes bring my camera for some photos. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best photos of Pleasanton in 2013, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pleasanton in 2013, use this link.

I saw some flowers so I stopped and switched over to my macro gear which is my Kenko Extension Tubes and my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT.  

Bees collecting pollen.  

 Another few macro shots of the flower. 

Afterwards, I switched out of my macro gear using only my Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. I shot these flower photos and the rest of the photos with this set up.  

I thought the grass made some great photos so I took 2 shots.  

 More flower photos.

Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) 

One Lone Flower. I thought this would make a great moody image so I took a shot. Reminds me of that Bleach song called "Ichirin no Hana" by High and Mighty color. The song name is Japanese for One Lone Flower.

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis)  

Another flower.

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

My First Fan Mail!

I would like to share photos with you guys of my first fan mail! I actually got this from one of my Google+ followers several month ago on 3/1/2013, but never found a good time to put it up. I figured this would be a great time now to post it up so here it is! Both photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

So pretty much she lives in Sabah, Malaysia and it was suppose to get here by Chinese New Year, but you know what US Customs is like. XD So it got here a bit late. Also Sunny is a nickname I sometimes use online which is why it says Sunny.

Here is what the letter says:

Dearest Sunny,
Nice to meet you and have you in my circle. We are same race but live in different country. Lol. You take care at USA, and don't for get 华语 [Mandarin, I can read some Chinese], because it is our mother tongue to communicate each other. Keep up the good work in photograph. :) 

[My parents read me this part but I forgot what it says.] 

From
Tzu Fung
Sabah, Malaysia.
19/1/13

This is all I wanted to show you guys today. :) Thank you Tzu Fung! If you have not followed me on my personal Google+ yet, you can do so here. Over 10K+ (at the time of writing this) have followed me there. On my personal Google+, I usually share photos before they end up on this blog and get its own blog post. If you are interested, definitely follow me. :)

Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Seagulls in Shadow Cliffs Regional Park (Pleasanton, CA)

A few month back I visited Shadow Cliff Regional Park in Pleasanton, CA and took a few photos. I am here to show the seagull photos I took while in the park. Shadow Cliff Regional Park is a great place for bird watching, fishing, and also picnicking. For photographers, there are usually many birds (especially seagulls and geese) to photograph. During spring, there are also some wildflowers in the park. I find a walk in the park is pretty nice now and then.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Shadow Cliff Regional Park photos, use this link. To view my best bird photos of 2013, use this link. To view all of my Shadow Cliff Regional Park photos of 2013, use this link.

Tip: I shot a few photos of a bird in flight using continuous shutter. Those few photos are best viewed via a slideshow. Just click on the first photo of the sequence and the slideshow should load.

The seagull got a bit startled when I brought my camera out. It was going to fly away so I quickly took a shot of it with its wings up.  

Since the seagull was quite some distance from the shore, I guess it figured out I won't be able to reach it. It calmed down and posed for another shot. :P I think the thing it is standing on is for measuring the depth of the water.  

More seagulls on the sandy beach area of the park. As you can see there are many seagulls at the park.  

 Shot a 1 photo of a seagull in flight. Didn't get my settings quite right for this one, which is why I only had one shot. Below is my sequence of shots I did when the settings were right. 

The rest of the photos are of the continuous shutter shots I did of a seagull in flight over the lake. Click the first photo of the sequence to bring up a slideshow.

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Tree Roots - Shadow Cliffs Regional Park (Pleasanton, CA)

A few month back I visited Shadow Cliff Regional Park in Pleasanton, CA and took a few photos. While I was there, I took mostly wildife photos and flower photos, however one of the photos I took was of some interesting looking tree roots. It didn't really belong with the rest of the photos so I have decided to give it a stand alone post. :) Also, I am on vacation so, to make things easier for me to manage was the other reason.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Shadow Cliff Regional Park photos, use this link. To view all of my Shadow Cliff Regional Park photos of 2013, use this link.

As you can see from the photo, the tree roots just grew everywhere and had an interesting pattern. That is why I took a photo of it.

This is the only photo for today. I hope you have enjoyed it. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Alameda County Fair 2013 (Part 8)

Every year, Alameda County here in California hosts a fair from mid-June to mid-July on the fair grounds in Pleasanton, CA. While I am not a big fan of fair/amusement part rides, I thought it would be a great place for some photography, plus a few of my friends kind of dragged me along (a few of them requested I don't post photos of them online, therefore I took care not to include them in any of my shots). So, here I will be sharing with you the photos I took at the fair. The photos will include the rides and games in the fair, the Freestyle Motorcross, All Alaskan Pig Racing, Model Railroad, and some other stuff. I took a little over 200 photos, and will be splitting them into several parts. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Alameda County Fair photos, use this link. To view all of my Alameda County Fair photos, use this link.

<< Previous Part

Today I have photos of the Model Railroad Exhibit, a photo from the small animals exhibit, and a few "street photography" type photos. This is the last of my photos from the Alameda County Fair.

Some machinery right outside of the Model Railroad Exhibit. 

A few photos of the Model Railroad. It was a very big one! 

A model bridge. 

It wasn't very bright inside so I was using my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. It reflected off the glass a bit. 

Lucky for me, there was something to set my camera on so the last 3 shots I did of the Model Railroad turned out really nice as I was able to exposure it longer. 

There was some sort of talent show in the fair too. I too a photo of the people watching the performance. My friends and I have been standing/walking and decided to sit down for a rest. I was too tired to walk to the performance stage. 

After our little rest, we went to the small animals exhibit. This is a photo of a tarantula. I wanted to get some photos of other animals, but they were too hard to photograph. Plus, I didn't want the owners to scream at me for using my super bright Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. LOL

A photo near the White Water Ride of the people at the fair. 

My last image is of this giant Android inflatable inside one of the buildings at the Verizon booth. 

These are all the photos for today and for this chain of posts. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

<< Previous Part

All Alaskan Pig Race - Alameda County Fair 2013 (Part 7)

Every year, Alameda County here in California hosts a fair from mid-June to mid-July on the fair grounds in Pleasanton, CA. While I am not a big fan of fair/amusement part rides, I thought it would be a great place for some photography, plus a few of my friends kind of dragged me along (a few of them requested I don't post photos of them online, therefore I took care not to include them in any of my shots). So, here I will be sharing with you the photos I took at the fair. The photos will include the rides and games in the fair, the Freestyle Motorcross, All Alaskan Pig Racing, Model Railroad, and some other stuff. I took a little over 200 photos, and will be splitting them into several parts. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Alameda County Fair photos, use this link. To view all of my Alameda County Fair photos, use this link.

Next Part >>
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Today I have photos of the All Alaskan Pig Race at the fair. Those pigs sure knew how to run! Some of these shots are continuous shutter shots, so like the Freestyle Motocross pictures, you can click on the first image and a slideshow should load.

The people that came to watch the pig race. I sat right up next to the fence to get some great head on shots at the curve of the track. The sun was very strong that day. Even though I used sunscreen before I left for the fair, my face was red by the time I got home. 

 Look at the pigs run!

 The pig owner set up a few hurdles for the pigs to jump over. 

 Race with just one of the pigs and an extra high hurdle. I think this pig was called the "Sourdough Jack" as an advertisement for Jack in the Box. 

One last race. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will have photos of the Model Railroad Exhibit, a photo from the small animals exhibit, and some more regular street photography type photos from the fair. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Next Part >>
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