Apple Hill

Early Season Trip to Apple Hill

One of the popular things to do in early fall in the Sacramento area is to take a trip up to Apple Hill and pick apples. The picking apples part is actually just an excuse to head up to the Sierra foothills and go to all the various farms in the area just East of Placerville.

Most farms have apples to pick, pies you can eat there or take home, food stalls, craft fairs and various entertainment for small kids. We decided to head up in August since we heard a few of the farms had opened up early. Usually the season doesn’t really start until after Labor Day but we thought we’d get a jump on the crowds and take a chance.

Sure enough, our favorite couple of farms were not open yet, but we did manage to find a couple that were open as well as visiting the Boeger winery. We’ve been enjoying their wine for years and I had always wanted to visit their winery for a tasting.

All in all it was a fun trip and a good time to spend with family before college starts up in a few weeks.

David

San Diego Vacation

A Week in San Diego for our 25th Anniversary

We had been mulling over several options to get away for our 25th Anniversary week and we finally decided as a family to head down to San Diego. We were there in Mission Beach with my wife’s extended family in 2017 and had a great time, so we thought perhaps we could recapture some of that magic.

The place we stayed at was very nice and had a wonder rooftop hangout with bar, fire pit, and bbq. You could see the ocean and Mission Bay from there so it was nice to go up in the mornings and drink coffee and listen to the ocean.

The sunsets are hard to beat while walking on the beach. I took several one night when it looked like the clouds would be right for a good sunset. Man, that drive is a long one from Sacramento but it was worth it to spend quality time with the family.

David

San Francisco Pride Weekend

Celebrating Gay Pride in San Francisco

This past weekend my wife and I took our 17 year-old daughter down to San Francisco for the weekend to experience Pride weekend. She is a lesbian and has a hard time meeting others where we live so we wanted her to know what it felt like to be around lots of others like herself.

We arrived in the City on Friday night and headed out for dinner in North Beach. Then on Saturday we spent the afternoon at the festival that was being held at the San Francisco Civic Center. There were bands and booths and lots of people having fun. There were also quite a few fully naked men walking around which I had warned my daughter about. We’re not really a prude family so we enjoyed the sense of freedom for everyone to be themselves.

Sunday morning was the parade. We got a great spot on Market Street sitting atop a couple of newspaper boxes. The parade was long and we left before the end of it but we saw a good 2 1/2 hours of it. Our daughter had a wonderful time but I think she’ll enjoy herself more next year when she’s 18 and perhaps goes with a girlfriend.

David

Matt Stuart Workshop

Excellent Workshop During StreetFotoSF Festival Week

StreetFoto San Francisco has a week-long festival every year. It’s filled with free photowalks, gallery events and various workshops you can pay to take part in. I looked at the Matt Stuart workshop early on but decided against it as I was still fresh off of Alan Schaller’s workshop just a month prior (at the time). Two days before the workshop was due to start, there was a cancellation and an email was sent out saying there was an opening. I took that as an omen and replied. Luckily, I was the first and I got into the workshop.

I travelled down to San Francisco on Thursday morning for a photowalk in the Mission with Harvey Castro leading the way. It was a fun day walking around seeing the colorful murals and fantastic street life of the area. I was bummed that I had only brought my Leica Monochrom camera as I wanted to capture the colors of the area. Oh well. It was still a great photo walk.

The next day, I showed up for the Haight photowalk that took place a few hours before the workshop was to begin. The Haight was also an interesting area to photograph but not quite as much as the Mission. I met a couple of other photographers who were attending the workshop and we broke off from the main group as the start of the workshop approached. We walked over to the Castro and grabbed a few shots before finally heading to the Harvey Milk Photo Center.

It was an intense weekend that was covered in great detail by one of my fellow attendees, John Lowell, so I will not recreate that here. What I will say, is that I was in a weird place when I arrived at the start of the weekend and I left with even more confusion and some clarity at the same time. We spent all day shooting Saturday and then spent all day Sunday critiquing each other’s work in the most brutally honest way I’ve ever experienced. I knew that I had wanted to stop shooting like Alan Schaller and move toward my own style. Going through the rigorous experience with Matt and my fellow students made my path a bit more clearer.

I also realized that I’m just not a Leica guy. At least, not Leica digital. I have so much more fun shooting with my Fuji X-Pro2 than with the Monochrom. Anyways, I feel a bit liberated after such an intense weekend and I’m looking forward to shooting for myself finally.

David

Vegas Baby!

Fun in Las Vegas with Friends

My wife and I flew out to Las Vegas to meet our good friends there who had flown in the day before. We’ve been to Vegas many times over the years and we always wanted to visit with our close friends Chris and Michele.

We stayed at a new hotel for us, the Nobu at Ceasar’s Palace. It’s a cool niche hotel inside the main Caesar’s building. At the bottom was our hangout for our vacation, a cool cigar bar with awesome bartenders and video poker machines to take more of our money.

Being a World War II buff, one of the highlights of the trip was going to Battlefield Vegas to shoot real machine guns used in the war. We shot a Thompson, MG-42, and my favorite, the BAR. All four of us took turns shooting and it was a lot of fun.

One of the nights we dined at the Nobu Japanese restaurant. The cool thing was that we just told them how much we wanted to spend per person and the chefs prepared each dish for us. I’m a pretty picky eater, so the waitress who took our order noted all the stuff I wouldn’t like to eat. It was nice not to have to pick things out. It ended up being one of the best meals of our lives. I highly recommend saving up money to eat there.

All in all it was a great trip and I’m already thinking about when we get to go back.

David

High School Graduation Day

Hard to Believe My Youngest Has Graduated High School

My youngest daughter had her High School Graduation Ceremony on Saturday morning. They hold the event outside on the football field. Thankfully, they start it at 8:30am because sitting in the direct sunlight gets really hot. If it were any later in the day, there’s no way anyone would stick around to watch. My daughter actually graduated early last December so this was sort of weird for her to be back in High School. She was very pleased to be leaving as she did not have a good experience. We are very proud of her and can’t wait to see what the future will bring her.

My niece, who lives in Marin, also graduated that week and her graduation party was on Sunday. So after having people over at our place Saturday night for my daughter, we traveled down to Marin to celebrate my niece’s graduation. She’s going to Berkeley to row for their crew team.

David

2019 Amgen Tour of California

Annual Spectator of the Best Cycling Race in the US

Every year I look forward to going out and watching the cyclists compete in the Amgen Tour of California. It is the biggest professional bike race in the United States and usually has some of the sport’s best talent. I chose the second stage to go and watch as it provided some good hills to watch the riders as they ascend. Stage 2 started in Rancho Cordova and ended in South Lake Tahoe. I chose a spot just north of Placerville that gave me good sight lines down the road. As a fellow cyclist, it always blows me away how fast the pros ride up such steep climbs.

David

Weekend in Napa with Lomography Color 800 Film

Lomography 800 Film: An Interesting Color Palette

On a beautiful weekend at the end of March, my wife and oldest daughter went down to Napa for the weekend. The weather had been rainy and cold for most of the month but the sun and warmth came out for that weekend. Before our trip, I had recently received Lomography’s 800 speed color film in the mail and I was anxious to try it out. I thought the way the film treated colors was pretty cool and I thought Napa would be the perfect place to try it out. I left all my digital equipment at home and just brought along my Leica M6 with the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 lens. The 800 speed was a little too much in the bright daylight, but it definitely came in handy indoors. I really like how it handles the warmer tones, especially reds and oranges. I have more rolls in the fridge and after the results you see here, I will definitely be using this film again.

David

Easter 2019

Family Easter Get Together 2019

We got together for Easter at my Niece’s house as usual. However, there was one big difference, this time she had her newborn son, Caleb, with her. Everyone usually brings a dish for brunch and then we hang out and chat and then watch the little kids hunt for Easter eggs. I took some shots on film with my Leica M6, but to my horror and dismay, I discovered that i never made sure the film had been taken up by the film spool. When we got home, several important pictures were left in the ether. It really bummed me out and taught me to never use film for important, once in a lifetime pictures. That’s a little extreme, but at the very least, get some backup shots with the digital camera. Still, we had a great time.

David

Afternoon in the Park

My Wife’s Brother and His Family Come to Visit

We had a great time last week visiting with my wife’s brother and his wife and two boys. We had gone out to dinner with them the night before with just us adults, but we wanted to see the boys as well. The next afternoon provided great weather and a perfect opportunity to meet up at a local park to play and hang out. I think I got some good shots of everyone as we enjoyed the California sunshine and fantastic company.

Workshop with Alan Schaller in San Francisco

Black and White Workshop

During the weekend of March 23-24, I attended a 2-day black and white workshop with renowned street photographer Alan Schaller. It was a fun but tiring weekend and I learned a lot, probably more than from any other workshop or class I’ve ever attended. If you get the chance to attend one of Alan’s workshops, don’t pass up the chance. You won’t regret it.

David

Winter in the Foothills

Rare Snowfall in the Sierra Foothills

My parents live in the Sierra foothills in the middle of California Gold Country. We saw that a colder than normal storm was going to be passing through up there and it was going to bring snow with it. Having not seen it actually snowing yet this year, we headed up to my parent’s house for the weekend and hoped to see some snow falling. When we woke up Sunday morning, we are not disappointed. My Dad said in the 19 years they had been living there, that was the most snowfall they had ever seen.

David

Caleb

The First Great Grandchild

After my wife and I returned home from New Zealand, we were anxious to go see our Niece’s newborn baby boy. He was supposed to wait until well after we came back from our vacation but the little man had other plans. He is doing great and we are so happy for my Niece and her husband. They are going to be wonderful parents to baby Caleb.

David

New Zealand Cruise

Cruise from Sydney to around New Zealand

My wife strained her thumb at work and had to go on disability for several weeks. We took the opportunity to celebrate our 25th Anniversary a little early in the year and booked a cruise around New Zealand. The ship left Sydney and sailed around the southern tip of New Zealand and then up the East Coast, stopping at various ports along the way. After twelve days we headed back to Sydney and then home. It was a great trip and something we will always remember.

David

Baby Shower

Niece’s Baby Shower

Our family is excited that we are expecting the first great grandchild in the family. My parents, my sister and her husband, and especially my niece and her husband are over the moon excited. My sister lives in the Sierra Gold Country and that’s where he had the Baby Shower. I’d never heard of a co-ed Baby Shower before, but it was fun and I had a great time photographing it.

David

Down on the Sand in Aptos

Annual Vacation in Aptos

Almost every year, we rent a house on the sand in Aptos. It’s a small beach community just south of Santa Cruz (which in itself is about an hour south of San Francisco). This was likely our last year for a while as we have some other vacation plans upcoming in the next few years. My parents usually join us for the week and it’s always a good time. Aptos is one of my favorite places ever and I wouldn’t mind retiring down there. It’s also one of the most relaxing vacations we take because we know all there is to see and do around the area so there’s no pressure to “have” to go and see stuff.

David

The Irvine Family Shoot

Fun on the Golf Course

I met up with Amy, a friend from college, for a Documentary Family Photography shoot. She suggested I shoot her and her kids while they played a around of golf. Turns out Amy’s son and daughter are both on the golf team in High School and Amy thought it would be fun to capture them in that milieu. It was quite the challenge with the midday sun and the distance away from my subjects, but when all was said and done, I think I captured the essence of Amy’s family.

David

Mountain Bike Race

High School Mountain Bike Race

This past weekend we went out to Folsom Lake to watch my niece’s High School Mountain Bike team compete in a race. It was fun to see her compute in such a wonderful sport. My daughter was on the Granite Bay team for a year before going back to cheerleading, but it was fun riding with her team on practices and stuff.

My parents and sister came down to watch as well so we made a day of it. It was a great day on the lake, although a little hot. Luckily we found a nice place to spectate under the shade of a building on the course.

David

Easter 2018

Easter Egg Hunts and Family

For the past several years we have traveled to my niece’s house for Easter brunch. Since our kids are grown and don’t participate in the easter egg hunt anymore, we all watch vicariously through the eyes of the younger generation with small children. Still, it’s fun to get together and see everyone and the food is always great too.

David

Disney World

Fun at Disney World

My daughter was living in Orlando while she participated in the Disney College Program. A little more than halfway through her tenure, we decided to fly out and visit her. We had lots of fun visiting all but one of the parks over the many days we were there.

David