Augustin Bernal Park (12-13-2014) - Pleasanton, CA

On 12-13-2014, I went on a hiking trip in Augustin Bernal Park in Pleasanton, CA. I noticed some really nice clouds at the peak that day so I brought my camera set up along for photos. The blog post will also include some sunset photos and one photo from dusk.

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 Pleasanton, CA photos for 2013 and 2014, use this link. To see all of my 2014 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link.

Message from the Photographer: Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a good one! I will be starting my drive down to Los Angeles soon! Hope to bring back a lot of great photos for you guys. :)

A sunset photo from the mountain. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 38 17 N 121 54 36 W    

  Black and white process of the photo above.  

A photo of a tree on the mountain.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 38 16 N 121 54 36 W   

   Black and white process of the photo above.  

Another sunset photo from the mountain.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 38 07 N 121 54 36 W  

Black and white process of the photo above.   

 Another sunset photo from the mountain. Zoomed in photo from the save view above. 

 Black and white process of the photo above.  

Clouds at the peak of the mountain.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 38 00 N 121 54 38 W  

View from the peak. Photo shot from the same spot as above. 

 Black and white process of the photo above.  

A sunset photo from the peak. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 38 00 N 121 54 38 W   

Black and white process of the photo above.   

A photo shot at dusk from the mountain.  

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 38 21 N 121 54 30 W   

Black and white process of the photo above.  

These are all the photos for today. 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.

Pleasanton Autumn & Abstracts (12-10-2014)

Recently, there were some really nice clouds in the sky and I haven't been out shooting in a while, so I went ahead and went out shooting some autumn foliage photos and did some black and white abstract photography around a residential neighborhood. These photos were shot in the late afternoon on 12-10-2014.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To see my best autumn foliage photos, use this link. To view my best Pleasanton, CA photos for 2013 and 2014, use this link. To view my best monochrome/abstract photos for 2014, use this link. To see all of my 2014 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link.

Autumn leaves that has fallen onto the ground. I thought they would make a good DOF photo. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

 A black and white photo of a tree against the clouds in the sky. 

 Another black and white photo of a tree against the clouds in the sky.  

Next, I saw a raven up on top of a tree. I thought it would make a nice silhouette abstract too.  

Another few photos of the raven on top of the tree. 

These are all the photos for today. 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.

Clouds - Pleasanton, CA (12-12-2014)

There were some nice clouds in the sky on 12/12/2014, one day after the severe rainstorm hit the San Francisco Bay Area. In this blog post. I am here to share some of the cloud photos I shot. The photos were shot in Pleasanton, CA.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To see my best autumn foliage photos, use this link. To view my best Pleasanton, CA photos for 2013 and 2014, use this link. To see all of my 2014 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link.

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

  Black and white process of the photo above. 

 Black and white process of the photo above. 

These are all the photos for today. 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.

Rainstorm Abstracts (Part 2) - Pleasanton, CA (12-11-2014)

On 12/11/2014, the San Francisco Bay Area experienced a huge rainstorm. While great for the severe drought conditions occurring in California, the storm took many by surprise, and flooded many areas. Where I live (Pleasanton, CA) wasn't so much affected by the flooding, however many other areas in the San Francisco Bay Areas got flooded like crazy! If you want to see the aftermaths this storm had on the Arroyo Del Valle (creek in Pleasanton), you can see the post here.

The photos I'm showing today are some abstract photos I shot of the rainstorm from my house. Most of them will be selective focus bokeh photos (you'll get what I mean). Also, most of the photos shot were shot using the help of a flash to help freeze the rain droplets as they were dropping. The photos are split into 2 parts. This is part 2.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best at home photos for 2013 and 2014, use this link. To view my best monochrome/abstract photos for 2014, use this link. To see all of my 2014 at home photos, use this link.

Part: 1 | 2 |

This blog post is just filled with out-of-focus abstract photos I took. Pretty much what I did was focused to achieve bokeh and background blur while capturing the rain droplets that happened to have fallen down on the plane of focus. Rain drops were frozen using my Canon Speedlike 600EX-RT.

You are probably wonder what this brown stuff is. It is the fence of my yard.

 Black and white process of the photo above.

I decided to compose with a bit more color in the shot. Those are tiny bushes in my yard (kinda obvious). 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

Now you are probably wondering how I knew there was going to rain drops that fall down in the plane of focus... Answer to that is... I don't! It was heavy rain (so it was easier to catch them in midair), however I sometimes have to shoot several times on each composition to get an adequate amount of rain drops in the shot. These photos are all trial and error and no 2 photos will ever look the same!  

 Black and white process of the photo above.

Also needed for these photos are a bit of luck. Most of these photos you see here, I've only had to do 2-3 photos before I got one I was satisfied with. On one of my compositions, however, I tried 9-10 times trying to get adequate amounts of rain to show up on the photo, but it just didn't happen. I ended up giving up on that particular composition. I suspect it was due to the tree in my backyard obstructing a lot of the rain in that direction. 

Black and white process of the photo above.   

Last one of these abstract photos.  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

These are all the photos for today. 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.

Part: 1 | 2 |

Review of 4 Anker Chargers (Video)

Here is a video review and overview on 4 chargers from Anker. I give you the pros and cons and some of the specs for each charger.

Products reviewed in this video:

• Anker 40W 5 Port USB Wall Charger
• Anker 24W Dual Port USB Car Charger
• Anker 2nd Gen Astro Mini 3200mAh Power Bank
• Anker 2nd Gen Astro E4 13000mAh Power Bank

I have received the car charger and the Astro E4 chargers for free during Anker's Black Friday promotional giveaway. This has not affected the truthfulness and the honesty of the video in anyway. The rest of the product, I have purchased for my personal use.

Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here.

Rainstorm Abstracts (Part 1) - Pleasanton, CA (12-11-2014)

On 12/11/2014, the San Francisco Bay Area experienced a huge rainstorm. While great for the severe drought conditions occurring in California, the storm took many by surprise, and flooded many areas. Where I live (Pleasanton, CA) wasn't so much affected by the flooding, however many other areas in the San Francisco Bay Areas got flooded like crazy! If you want to see the aftermaths this storm had on the Arroyo Del Valle (creek in Pleasanton), you can see the post here.

The photos I'm showing today are some abstract photos I shot of the rainstorm from my house. Most of them will be selective focus bokeh photos (you'll get what I mean). Also, most of the photos shot were shot using the help of a flash to help freeze the rain droplets as they were dropping. The photos are split into 2 parts. This is part 1.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best at home photos for 2013 and 2014, use this link. To view my best monochrome/abstract photos for 2014, use this link. To see all of my 2014 at home photos, use this link.

Part: 1 | 2 |

Rain drops falling frozen using flash effects. 

Here is another exposure. You might be wondering why each water droplet shows up a few times. The Canon Speedlike 600EX-RT can strobe. My flash went off several times during the exposures. 

 One last exposure of the rain shot like this.

 Black and white processes of the 3 photos above. I displayed the black and whites separately because I know a few of you will click on the photo (which opens up a slideshow) and play it like a stop motion animation.

A tried to do the same thing with my telephoto lens to get more background separation, but because I am more zoomed in, the rain droplets are dropping "too fast" for my flash to freeze at the power I selected. I think I had my flash at full power when I did this which extends the "flash duration". If I had turned down the power, it would have probably froze the motion better. Nonetheless, I feel that the photo still make a cool abstract. 

Here is another photo shot with the same method above. One of the best things about these photos? No two photos will ever be alike! 

 Black and white processes of the 2 photos above.

Notice that swimming pool in my backyard in the photo at the beginning? It made quite a great subject too with the splashes and bubbles the rain droplets made. There are also a few autumn leaves floating in my pool. I wanted to frame them out, but there was too much floating around to completely get rid of. You'll see what I mean in the next photo. 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

 A photo shot of the autumn foliage floating around my pool. I think it made a nice contrast against the blue water. 

A photo of parts of fallen pine cones contrasted against the wet ground. 

These are all the photos for today. I will continue with the rest of the abstract photos next time. 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.

Part: 1 | 2 |