Flowers, Weed, and Arroyo Del Valle Creek - Pleasanton, CA

On March 12th, 2017, I took a walk along Arroyo Del Valle Trail in Pleasanton, CA and took some photos of flowers, weeds, and the creek. The Arroyo Del Valle Creek was really swollen from the recent San Francisco Bay Area mega storms. The creek was pretty much running like a river. Here are the flower, weed, and creek photos I shot that day. A travel vlog was shot during March too and it can be viewed here.

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 2016 to 2017 Pleasanton, CA photos, use this link. To my best flower photos, use this link. To view all of my 2017 photos shot in Pleasanton, CA, use this link.

Peach Tree Blossoms 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Peach Tree Blossoms 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

Weeds 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Weeds 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Weeds 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

The swollen Arroyo Del Valle Creek from the recent San Francisco Bay Area mega storms. The creek is running like a river. I thought the rapids would make a nice photo. 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

The swollen Arroyo Del Valle Creek from the recent San Francisco Bay Area mega storms. The creek is running like a river. I thought the rapids would make a nice photo. 

Black and white process of the photo above.

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed the photos! A travel vlog was shot during March too and it can be viewed here. 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.

Monochrome Processes Redone (Multiple Places)

Today I have some monochrome (black and white) processes of photos I've taken in the past. They are from various places. Hope you enjoy. If you enjoy monochrome and abstract photos, you can view more at my gallery here.

First photo is of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. This was taken back in 2010 on my road trip to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park from the SF Bay Area. 

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

This is a photo of a Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis) in silhouetted against the bright white clouds. Photo was shot at Quarry Lakes Regional Park in Fremont, CA. 

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

Photo is of a hummingbird silhouetted against the bright sky. This actually happened by accident as the bright sky threw off my exposure reading. As Bob Ross used to say "Just happy little accidents". Photo was shot in Augustin Bernal Park in Pleasanton, CA.   

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

 This is a photo of rock formations at Point Lobos State Reserve in Big Sur, CA. 

Original blog post here. 

Full resolution photo and prints here.

Photo shot on drive driving from Reno, NV to Truckee, CA. Photo is of winter scenery. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

Photo shot near the trail head at Mission Peak (Stanford Entrance) in Fremont, CA. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

Another photo from Mission Peak in Fremont, CA from the same trip as the photo above. It is a photo of a rock. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here.  

Here is a macro shot of a flower on a peach tree shot in my backyard in Pleasanton, CA. 

Original blog post here.  

Full resolution photo and prints here. 

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 Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Peach Tree Flower Macro Shots

It is finally spring, but it is more like summer here in the SF Bay Area. Anyways, spring is a wonderful time for flower photos as they are starting to grow and bloom. Today I have photos of some flowers growing on my peach tree to show you. All of these photos were taken in my back yard with the help of my Kenko Extension Tubes and my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. I will also be telling you a bit on how I took these photos so hopefully you can get a few tips from them too. 

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 macro photos for 2013, use this link. To see my best flower photos in 2013 from the US, use this link. To see all of my 2013 at home and backyard photography photos, use this link.

Photography Tip: For all of these shots I did put my flash on a light stand (well mine is a cheapo tripod) because I didn't have an assistant to hold it for me and I used an off camera sync cable to tether the flash to the camera.

Photography Tip: See how these photos have a black background? This is achieved by under exposing the shot and turning up the power on your flash. Light fall off from your flash is very fast so the flower is the only thing lit in the photo. As long as you have a flash, you want to set your camera up in Manual mode. Since any movement with a macro shot will cause motion blur in your image, you want to control the light, and use a speed up to your camera's sync speed with your flash. This speed is usually 1/200 second or 1/250 second. Don't worry about under exposing your photo as your flash is very strong. Make sure you do use a light modifier such as a soft box to soften the light from your flash, and keep the flash as close as possible to the subject. If the image appears under exposed, just turn up your flash power or adjust the flash exposure compensation in your camera's menu.

A photo of a flower bulb

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.