Muir Woods National Monument (Part 3)

I took a trip to both Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito (pretty close together) a few month back. I took many photos at these 2 places and will be splitting the photos into several blog posts. If you want to see my Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito photos from last year, you can do so here.

Muir Woods National Monument is a park located in Mill Valley, CA, 12 miles north of San Francisco. It is famous for its Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees. This forest of trees is one of the few forests of this type of tree still standing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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 Muir Woods National Monument photos for 2013, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts:
Muir Woods National Monument: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 
Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San Francisco: Photos

Today, I have part 3 and the last photos of Muir Woods National Monument. The photos will include regular scenery, 1 panorama, 1 close up, and 2 HDR compositions. Please also note that the GPS coordinates provided may be inaccurate due to the heavy vegetation in the park.

Forest Floor

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 00 N 122 35 07 W  

Photo of the hiking trail. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 59 N 122 35 08 W  

Another photo of the forest floor.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 04 N 122 35 24 W

Vertical panorama of the giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 04 N 122 35 24 W  

Portrait of the giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 59 N 122 35 39 W

A wildlife research camera. I hope the researchers didn't mind me taking a photo of their camera. LOL 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 59 N 122 35 43 W  

HDR composition of the forest floor. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 28 45 N 123 49 35 W  

HDR composition of the giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 55 42 N 123 38 45 W

Forest Floor

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 05 N 122 34 54 W 

Walking trail at the bottom of the mountain (the main part of Muir Woods). 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 52 N 122 34 31 W 

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them. Next time I have photos from my drive down to Sausalito with a few photos from San Francisco. 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.

Parts:
Muir Woods National Monument: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 
Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San Francisco: Photos

Muir Woods National Monument (Part 2)

I took a trip to both Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito (pretty close together) a few month back. I took many photos at these 2 places and will be splitting the photos into several blog posts. If you want to see my Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito photos from last year, you can do so here.

Muir Woods National Monument is a park located in Mill Valley, CA, 12 miles north of San Francisco. It is famous for its Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees. This forest of trees is one of the few forests of this type of tree still standing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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 Muir Woods National Monument photos for 2013, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

Parts:
Muir Woods National Monument: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 
Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San Francisco: Photos

Today, I have part 2 of Muir Woods National Monument. All of the photos are from Muir Woods National Monument. The photos will include regular scenery, 1 close up, and 2 HDR compositions. Please also note that the GPS coordinates provided may be inaccurate due to the heavy vegetation in the park.

Shamrocks on the forest floor. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 44 N 122 34 33 W  

A long exposure of the forest floor.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 45 N 122 34 32 W  

Photo of the trail below. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 47 N 122 34 32 W  

Photo of the hiking trail. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 53 N 122 34 35 W

Portrait of a giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree that fell over. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 56 N 122 34 37 W  

Saw the sun shining through the canopy of the forest. I wanted to do an HDR composition but it came out all weird, so I just processed one of the shots as best as I can. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 53 59 N 122 34 41 W

HDR composition of the forest and the giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 39 32 28 N 123 43 37 W  

Portrait of the hiking trail. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 00 N 122 34 52 W

Photo of the giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 03 N 122 34 53 W  

HDR composition of the forest and the giant Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 58 27 N 124 05 31 W  

Photo of the hiking trail. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 54 01 N 122 35 05 W  

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them. Next time I have more photos from Muir Woods National Monument. 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.

Parts:
Muir Woods National Monument: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | 
Mill Valley, Sausalito, and San Francisco: Photos

First Time Trying Focus Stacking (Muir Woods National Monument)

I recently took a trip to both Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito (pretty close together). That day at Muir Woods National Monument, I tried to do focus stacking when I noticed I can't get everything in focus when I wanted to get close up to the mushrooms growing in the park. I am here to show you the results I got! :) I used my Canon 600EX-RT in all of these photos along with a Fotodiox Softbox. If you want to see the rest of my Muir Woods National Monument photos, you can do so here. If you want to see my Sausalito photos, you can do so here.

The mushrooms you see in this blog post are called Turkey Tail Mushrooms (Trametes versicolor). The mushrooms are not poisonous and are edible. It has been used for a very long time in herbal medicine to help boost the immune system and help prevent/treat cancer. Clinical studies have shown this mushroom does help kill off cancerous cells and help a person recover.

Second introduction here is on focus stacking. If you are a pro and know what focus stacking is, great! If not, let me teach you. If you are just learning photography, you should know the amount of stuff you can get in focus, decreases as you get closer to the subject. The amount of things you can get focuses is called your depth-of-field. The farther away you are from the subject, the more you can get in focus in front of it and in the back of it, the closer you are to a subject, the less you can get in focus. To help you understand this, I actually have a Youtube video on depth-of-field that you can watch here. Sadly, this means that the closer you get, the less of your subject will be in focus! So how do you get the whole thing to focus? You take multiple shots at different focuses and combine them later in Photoshop! I'll teach you how to do this at the end of this blog post.

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 Muir Woods National Monument photos for 2012, use this link. To see my best Sausalito photos, use this link. To see all of my photos from this trip, use this link.

 I think this is the best photo I took at the park.

The tree stump of a fallen tree. Sure a lot of mushrooms!  

Some mushrooms and moss growing on a tree.

These are all the focus stacked photos I took at Muir Woods National Monument, and like I said above, I will teach you how to do this.

Settings on your camera:

• Aperture Priority (Av or A)
• Narrow aperture

How to take your photos for focus stacking:

1. Plug a remote shutter release into  your camera and set your camera on your tripod. Make sure it is far enough to focus on the closest part you want to focus on! If you are using a flash, try to set it on a light stand or hold it steady. Moving the flash slightly between shots is fine. 
2. Take a photo, focus a bit farther, take another, and continue to do this until you get all the parts you want in focus. 

How to combine them in Photoshop:

1. If you did them in RAW, drag all 3 into Photoshop and process them in the same manner, then open them up in Photoshop. If you did them in JPEG, go ahead and just open them in Photoshop. 
2. File >> Scripts >> Load Files into Stack... >> Add Open Files (Make sure "Attept to Align Source Images" is checked) >> OK
3. Select All Layers in the Layers Panel
4. Edit >> Auto-Blend Layers >> Check Mark "Stack Images" and "Seamless Tones and Colors" and press OK
5. After Photoshop is done, make sure you crop out some of the borders that show up on the side (due to the different focuses), and then save and you are done! 

I hope you have enjoyed the photos and the tutorial! I will be posting the other photos I took on this trip soon, and the links will be at the top of this blog post. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

See the rest of my Muir Woods National Monument photos here. See my Sausalito photos here.

Shuttle Endeavour Flyover at NASA Moffett Field (Getting Back at the Paparazzi)

On 9-21-2012, the space shuttle Endeavour made its last voyage from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles, CA where it will rest in the California Science Center museum. The space shuttle was flown attached on top of a Boeing 747 and has made its trip across several famous landmarks all over the United States including the NASA Moffett Field, Monterey Bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Endeavour has flown 25 missions, including 12 to help construct and outfit the space station, and logged nearly 123 million miles in flight during 4,671 orbits. It has served us all a very long time and has helped us further understand our unique and mysterious universe. For those who were not lucky enough to get to see it or wish to see it close up and relive the event again, here are the photos I took at the event at NASA Moffett Field near Mountain View, CA. These photos includes photos of the event, the space shuttle itself, the paparazzi groups, and some other stuff. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos! These photos will be split into several parts!

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. View my best event photos here. If you want to view all the photos from the event, use this link.

Parts:

• Endeavour and Fighter Jet
• Getting Back at the Paparazzi
• Airplanes on Display and Hangar One
• The Speech
• Other Event Photos

As you know the paparazzi has been taking photos and shooting videos of people, whether the person liked it or not, ever since the camera has been invented. It's time us normal people get back at them. ^_^ Here are the photos of the paparazzi groups (the news reporters) at the event. I wanted to get interviewed but they said no. :( Those jerks. ROFL I really wanted to be on TV. Alright, hope you enjoy viewing these "get back" photos! 

This is the CBS paparazzi group. The guy on the left looks so intimidating. LOL I also think he was the tallest guy there... It's not a distortion in the photo. HAHA He really is that tall. 

I guess this is one of the employees of NASA video taping the event. He got me on video, and I got him on photo. :P

The parking area for the paparazzi. Those antennas are really tall! 

 Reporter interviewing a visitor to the event. 

3 cameras set up from 3 different news stations. Those in the back are the antennas from the news vans. 

Saw a helicopter flying over head and decided to take a photo because I was in the high speed photography mood. XD Turns out it was an ABC news-copter. 

Alright guys, these are the photos of the news crew I took a photo of. If you see news crews next time, take photos of them. :P Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Next Post >>
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Stanford University

I recently visited Stanford University with a friend of mine. I was not able to take too many photos on that trip as there was construction going on all over the campus. Here are the photos I was able to take. If you want to see the Stanford photos I took last time, you can view that here.

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 Stanford University photos, use this link. To see all of my Stanford University photos, use this link.

Like I said, there was construction going on everywhere. So, why not do some macro flower photos. :P

Photo of a red flower.

A hallway at Stanford. I actually got pulled over to help take photos for some other visitors. They probably saw my professional camera equipment. XD It's funny because I suck at portraits... 

4 photos from Stanford. Not a lot... I hope you have enjoyed viewing them! My Muir Wood photos and Yosemite photos are still being processed. Again, I have a lot of photos from those two places and it takes a long time for me to go through them. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Turkeys 火鸡

The other day as I was driving up the mountains of the Warm Springs Area in Fremont, CA to a friend's house, I saw some turkeys. I chased after them and took some photos. I hope you enjoy viewing these! If you are from the area, you would know there are a lot of turkeys on the mountains here in the SF Bay Area. I actually saw some more the second time I went, but that day, I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any photos from that day to show you. Turkeys are a common site here. You can find my turkey photos from Livermore, CA from a few month ago here.

我几天前在山上看两只火鸡。这些是我拍的照片。三藩市周围可以看到很多火鸡。我上次拍的火鸡照片可以在这里找到。

So as always, I like to stick the important news up here first. So what important photos I have coming up? Well I still got photos from Yosemite National Park, Muir Woods National Monument, Sausalito, and some random photos I took elsewhere. Those photos are still being processed, and it will take a bit longer. As I have told you before, college classes has started for me and I haven't been getting as much time for photography.

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. See my best bird photos from 2012 here.

The day I had my camera, a parent turkey was leading its offspring. 

It was shady so I had to use a wide aperture for speed. The parent turkey was blurred out a bit. 

Aren't they cute? ^_^ 

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them! I still have some random photos left to show you guys, and more importantly photos from Yosemite National Park, Muir Woods National Monument, and Sausalito to show you guys. As I mentioned above, I am still in the process of looking through and processing them for my blog so they won't be available for a while. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Deer - Muir Woods National Monument (continued)

Recently, I visited Muir Woods National Monument located in California, USA. I took lot's of pictures and it took me a while to pick out a few that was good because they were all extremely amazing. (Not that I want to brag) So today, I will be posting a few pictures I took on that day. More is to come in a next few posts.

曾经我去过 Muir Woods 国家公园在加州，美国。我拍了很多照片。我花了很长时间才把一些好照片挑出来在我的博客上分享。它们都很好。所以今天我会给你看一些我在公园里拍的照。下次文章上会再给你看一些。

If you missed my last post, you can find it here. (06-25-2010)
要是你没读我上次的文章的话你可以在这里找到。(06-25-2010)

Ok guys, today will be the last post for this chain of Muir Woods National Monument photos.
今天关于 Muir Woods 国家公园是这个一串关于 Muir Woods 国家公园最后一个文章了。

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. View my best Muir Woods National Monument photos here. View all of my photos from this trip here. View my best deer photos here.

Sometimes you can spot a deer if you look closely, if it is near the main trail, you'll see a bunch of people taking pictures. XD

有时候你可以看见鹿。要是它在路边上的话你有时候会看见有很多人在那里拍照。XD

Check out these great deals on electronics!

If you missed my last post, you can find it here. (06-23-2010)
要是你没读我上次的文章的话你可以在这里找到。(06-23-2010)

Muir Woods National Monument (continued)

Recently, I visited Muir Woods National Monument located in California, USA. I took lot's of pictures and it took me a while to pick out a few that was good because they were all extremely amazing. (Not that I want to brag) So today, I will be posting a few pictures I took on that day. More is to come in a next few posts.

曾经我去过 Muir Woods 国家公园在加州，美国。我拍了很多照片。我花了很长时间才把一些好照片挑出来在我的博客上分享。它们都很好。所以今天我会给你看一些我在公园里拍的照。下次文章上会再给你看一些。

If you missed my last post, you can find it here. (06-23-2010)
要是你没读我上次的文章的话你可以在这里找到。(06-23-2010)

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. View my best Muir Woods National Monument photos here. View all of my photos from this trip here.

Sometimes you can spot a deer if you look closely, if it is near the main trail, you'll see a bunch of people taking pictures. XD

有时候你可以看见鹿。要是它在路边上的话你有时候会看见有很多人在那里拍照。XD

Chipmunk
花栗鼠

CHECK OUT THESE GREAT DEALS ON THINGS FOR YOUR OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES!

Mushroom
蘑菇

Trees!
树！

If you missed my last post, you can find it here. (06-23-2010)
要是你没读我上次的文章的话你可以在这里找到。(06-23-2010)

Muir Woods National Monument (continued)

Recently, I visited Muir Woods National Monument located in California, USA. I took lot's of pictures and it took me a while to pick out a few that was good because they were all extremely amazing. (Not that I want to brag) So today, I will be posting a few pictures I took on that day. More is to come in a next few posts.

曾经我去过 Muir Woods 国家公园在加州，美国。我拍了很多照片。我花了很长时间才把一些好照片挑出来在我的博客上分享。它们都很好。所以今天我会给你看一些我在公园里拍的照。下次文章上会再给你看一些。

If you missed my last post, you can find it here. (06-21-2010)
要是你没读我上次的文章的话你可以在这里找到。(06-21-2010)

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. View my best Muir Woods National Monument photos here. View all of my photos from this trip here.

The bird is an oregon junco.

这个鸟是一只 Oregon Junco。
Photography tip: Zoom in on the bird. Try not to approach it too fast. It will get scared. Always take multiple shots!

Chipmunk
花栗鼠

Need a Camera Case for your cameras and camcorders? Check out these great deals!

Mushroom
蘑菇

The person in the red shirt is my friend. :D
穿着红衣服的人是我的朋友。:D

Trees!
树！

If you missed my last post, you can find it here. (06-19-2010)
要是你没读我上次的文章的话你可以在这里找到。(06-19-2010)