Alviso Adobe Community Park - Pleasanton, CA (9/11/2017)

On September 11th, 2017, I did a photo shoot at Alviso Adobe Community Park in Pleasanton, CA. This historical park has the oldest house in the town of Pleasanton. The photos were shot during a thunderstorm so the lighting might seem a bit weird. Sadly, I didn't end up catching any lightning in the photos. As to why I went out in the middle of a thunderstorm, I really loved the look of the cloud cover! Yes, photographers can be a bit crazy sometimes. :) That is how you get the best shots.

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 photos from Pleasanton, CA, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pleasanton, CA in 2017, use this link.

Entrance into the historical park from the parking lot.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 36" N 121° 54' 43" W

Black and white process of the photo above. 

A bridge and pathway under trees.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 37" N 121° 54' 43" W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Pathway in the park.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 38" N 121° 54' 46" W 

 Black and white process of the photo above.

Historical Building

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 39" N 121° 54' 46" W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Historical Building 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 39" N 121° 54' 47" W

Black and white process of the photo above. 

I ran under here to get cover from the rain. When a thunderstorm comes down, it comes down fast. I waited out the worst part under here. Luckily the heaviest parts of a thunderstorm also goes by fast. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 40" N 121° 54' 47" W

 Black and white process of the photo above.

Historical Building

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 40" N 121° 54' 46" W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

Historical Building

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 40" N 121° 54' 47" W 

Black and white process of the photo above. 

A photo of cactus. Photo shot near the same spot as above.

Picnic area in the park.

Approximate GPS location (type into Google): 37° 39' 42" N 121° 54' 48" W

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed the photos! 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.

Arroyo Del Valle After Rainstorm - Pleasanton, CA (12-12-2014)

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!

Behind my house is a tiny creek called the Arroyo Del Valle ("valley stream" in Spanish). You may have seen this creek in my past blog posts from Arroyo Del Valle Trail or mistakenly just labeled Pleasanton Trail before that. This creek is usually dry or have a tiny stream of water flowing through it. Today, I am here to show you the aftermaths on this creek from the storm with photos I shot on 12/12/2014). SPOILER ALERT! The creek turned into a full blown river! I've also included some funny things to go along with this blog post, so make sure you read the captions under the photos. :)

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

A quick shot of the stream while I walked over the to the trail that takes you down to the stream.  

Here is a photo of the stream shot from the bridge on Division Street.  

 A black and white process of the photo above.

Now at the trail. Walked onto a bridge that crosses the stream. I'm glad it didn't get high enough to flood that. I wouldn't been able to get the photos from the best angle on this trail if it did. LOL 

Here is a photo of the scene behind me from scene above. As you can see, the flow of the water is pretty fast. If the bridge was flooded, no way I could have walked into the middle of this water. Not that I would try. The water was way too murky for my comfort too. The stream is usually a lot more clear than this, but due to the amount of rain, a lot of debris must have gotten into the water. 

 Here is another long exposure of the stream. I didn't use any filters on these photos except a B+W polarizer. The trees did a good job blocking out just enough light for a fairly long exposure to run.

 Another photo shot on the other side of the bridge. 

Here is another photo of the stream further down the trail. You can probably see why I said the spot above had the best angle of the stream on this trail.  

 Another photo from the spot above with a slightly different composition. You know what is funny? A week before this storm, I was looking at my Yosemite National Park photos, and kept saying to myself, "I so wish a river is closer to my house. I love taking long exposures of rivers." Looks like wish granted! Be careful of what you wish for. 

Another photo shot of the stream even further down the trail.  

Another photo of the stream.  

Now I get to the train tracks that crosses the trail. I shot this right under the tracks. As you can see, the stream was going as strong as a river. My original plan was walk to downtown after this photo shoot (which is like 2-3 minutes from this spot) and get pizza, but the trail after this point got flooded, and I had to turn back on an empty stomach (sad face). I know this is doing good for the drought, but the trail getting flooded was my biggest disappointment that day. ROFL 

A 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.

Fruit Picking in Brentwood, CA

Brentwood, CA has many self pick farms. When the time is right, and the fruits are ripe, many farms open up for you to go in and pick the fruits yourself. A while back, I did just that out in the country side. While I didn't really pick much fruit (my friends and family did most of that), I did take some photos. Here are the photos I took on the trip out in the country side. Most of these photos are from Brentwood or from surrounding cities. I forgot my Canon GP-E2 GPS that day so I don't have exact locations for these shots.

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 Brentwood photos here. To see all the photos of my trip, use this link.

The first farm I was at was a cherry farm called "Nunn Better Farms". Here is a shot of some cherries on the tree.

A few portrait shot of trees at Nunn Better Farms.

In the parking lot of Nunn Better Farms, I spotted a nice shot of an adjacent field. I thought the lines in the field made really great lead-in lines, so I took a few shots from different perspectives.

After picking cherries my family and friends decided to go to a peach farm to go picking peaches. Not sure what the name is for this farm, but there were some run down buildings there that I thought would make a great shot. Above is a regular shot of one of the buildings. 

I then proceeded to take an HDR composition of the building from a different perspective. 

Photography Tip: HDR compositions are very useful with buildings like this. See how the "dark shadows" in the building are also lit up? You can do this without driving the noise up in the photo when doing this with a multiple exposure HDR composition. Just exposure bracket your shots in camera and then combine them into HDR using Photoshop in post. I enjoy processing them via the 32-bit process because the colors look more natural.

A few photos of the peaches on the farm. 

A shot of the peach field. I thought the gap between the trees made a great lead in line. Sadly the sky was not very good that day and it started to rain a little bit when I was about to leave. Pretty sure the shot would have been much better on a sunny day.

A shot of the road and a field adjacent to the farm. A drop of rain actually got on my lens and you can see it on the left. 

This is a shot I took on my way home. This is in Byron, CA of a river. Approximate location of this image was at 37.812242,-121.57854. Thanks Google Maps and Street View! The reason I was able to find the location of this one is because the river is very easy to spot on the map, plus I remembered what street it was. 

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.