The sun was setting, the waves were crashing, and I didn’t have a tripod to capture the moment. On top of that, all I had with me was a black and white camera. Who shoots coastal sunsets in black and white? The answer: I do.
Read MoreShelter
And the light. Oh, my, the light. There was a tall clump of trees off to the left and their shadow fell around the area except for a swath of sunlight that illuminated the tree and the rocks directly in front.
Read MoreFeatured in Inaugural Issue of Lots Magazine
A brand new magazine for creatives called Lots has just issued its inaugural issue. I’m excited to be featured in their Street Photography section.
Read MoreUsing Lightroom to Post Process Your Leica Monochrom Landscape Photos
As the owner of a Leica Monochrom, you will know that there is no color information available with the .dng files from the camera. Since the color filter array has been removed from the sensor, there will be no way to manipulate the different “colors” of grayscale like when you convert a color photo by setting the Treatment to Black and White in Lightroom.
Read MoreQuarantine in Roseville
How the Pandemic is Affecting My Hometown
I’ve spent most of my time during shelter-in-place secluded at home. I’ve been doing what a lot of photographers have been doing and taking pictures around the house and backyard. This past weekend I finally had had enough and needed to get out of the house and take some pictures of the local area. I felt it was important to preserve the impact the pandemic has had on my local town in pictures.
Roseville is best known for its Automall and the large shopping mall. I didn’t drive by the Automall but I did go to the popular local church and a couple of restaurants. Also, I took a walk through downtown Roseville to see how the local shops and restaurants were dealing with the crisis. The place was a ghost town with only a handful of people out and about on a beautiful spring day. The last places I visited were a strip mall with lots of popular restaurants and one of our movie theaters.
It’s such an eerie feeling to see a normally bustling society shrink back inside its walls. Life is scary and unpredictable at the moment, but it has also been simplified. I think the one silver lining that will emerge at the end of all of this will be the appreciation for the quieter aspects of life: spending time with family; enjoying a meal at a restaurant with friends; watching a ball game on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Perhaps a lot of us will realize that all the stress and constant motion in our previous lives were unnecessary?
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you and yours stay safe and healthy during these precarious times.
David
Fall Trip to Hawaii
Fun Family Get Away to the Garden Isle
Our October trip to Kauai, Hawaii was a bit of a mixed emotion type of trip. On our way to the airport, my wife received the news that her father had passed away. This wasn’t a surprise as we saw him twelve hours earlier in hospice and prayed that he would pass quickly. So it was with some relief that we received the news but understandably also very sad.
My oldest daughter’s boyfriend, who is half-Hawaiian, had never been to his ancestral homeland so we were excited to share his first time in the islands. We have been to Kauai many times so we know the island quite well. This was our first time staying in Princeville, though, and we enjoyed our time there. It did mean a lot of time in the car travelling down to the east and south coasts of the island but we liked the lush beauty of the north side of the island.
My wife had some difficult moments on the trip but I think it was therapeutic to be there at such a hard time in her life.
David
Labor Day Trip to Santa Cruz
A Fun Family Trip to the Mountains and Beach
We took a trip to Santa Cruz over the Labor Day weekend. We usually go to Aptos when we come to the area but my youngest wanted to stay in the mountains for a change. We found a nice Airbnb in Boulder Creek, a small community in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was a nice change of pace to staying at the beach. I can’t say I like it more, but it is nice to change things up now and then.
We did a day trip down to Gayle’s Bakery (a must) and then to Monterey Bay Aquarium and finally, Carmel. The next day we went into downtown Santa Cruz to walk around and I was able to take some street photography while my wife and daughter shopped. It was a nice and relaxing weekend and I can’t wait to go back as Aptos and the surrounding areas are one of my favorite places to relax.
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
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
Workshop with Alan Schaller in San Francisco
I absorbed more about black and white photography that one weekend that in the past 20 years of shooting. If you get the chance to attend one of Alan’s workshops, don’t pass up the chance. You won’t regret it.
Read MoreWinter 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
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
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
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
The Padgett Family Shoot
The Family That Plays Together
A close family friend and I coordinated a Documentary Family Photography shoot in the Gold Country town of Sutter Creek. It’s an old western style town nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. It has a lot of charm and it was the perfect spot to capture Angelica and her family while they played at a local park.
David
Pacific Grove
New Year Trip to Monterey
With a few days left of vacation time, we decided to head down to our favorite part of California: the Monterey Bay. We usually stay a little north in Aptos but there was nothing available at the last minute so we booked a place as close to Carmel as possible in Pacific Grove. The place had a great layout and they accepted dogs, so we took Sandi and Bilbo with us on our journey. One day we went to Carmel beach the dogs had a blast.
It’s these short, spontaneous vacations I like the best. There’s no pressure to do anything and there hasn’t been enough time to build up expectations that never get met.
David