Month: November 2024

UCSD Photography Interest Group > Blog > 2024 > November

20 Nov 2024: Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Dia De Los Muertos

Posted on by jrwilkinson

This month’s Photography Interest Groups main themes were: “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (+Boats)”, “Halloween/Dia De Los Muertos”, & “Fall Colors”. The “Fall Colors” theme was not represented because some of us went to the Nov 2nd San Diego Old Town Dia de Los Muertos celebration. It was a fun street photography outing and many photos this month were from that celebration. The candlelight parade was under-whelming but the afternoon festivities in Old Town presented a lot of photo opportunities. Other non-theme photos shared were of the mid-October Supermoon and Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).
The “Planes, Trains, Automobiles, & Boats” themes were well represented with everyone sharing photos of vehicles or taken from vehicles .

Barbara

Cathy

Gary

Heather

Jerry

Jim

20 Nov 2024 Themes Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Dia De Los Muertos: Heather

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Heather had a great time at the Dia de los Muertos celebration Nov 2nd in Old Town San Diego. All the photos she shared were from this outing. It’s easy to see why since, like myself, editing the number of great shots down to 10 was challenging. She really enjoyed photographing the people gathered & celebrating. Heather snapped some great candids, but also enjoyed interacting with her subjects. She said they were all very gracious and cooperative photographic subjects. I find her ability to capture the more intimate moments of human interaction & behavior something I need to strive to do. I think that’s what can elevate an image from a snapshot. Heather used a Panasonic GX85 with 35-100mm zoom (micro-four thirds, so 70-200mm effectively).

20 Nov 2024 Themes Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Dia De Los Muertos: Gary

Posted on by jrwilkinson

It was Gary’s idea to meetup Nov 2nd 2024 for the Old Town Dia de los Muertos festivities. Thinking it would be a great street photography opportunity. He was right. He was also right in suggesting the San Diego Trolley as a means to get there. It was packed and parking was not available within a mile of the place. Gary also shared a few transportation- themed images. He shoot with a Nikon Z7 full-frame mirrorless camera with a versatile 24-200mm zoom lens. His iPhone 15 Pro camera is his second camera.

20 Nov 2024 Themes Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Comet A3: Jerry

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Jerry did not make it to the Dia de los Muertos outing but shared some once-in-a-lifetime photos of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet C-2023 A3. He traveled to Anza-Borrego to specifically catch this event. Shooting at his favorite location next to the Dragon sculpture, he photographed the comet using a longer lens. Unfortunately, the metal sculpture faces west so is not positioned so the comet in the frame. Jerry generated a composite image of what he had in mind. He also had several transportation themed images which were creative and fun. Some of vehicles and most from vehicles – trains, planes, and automobile, even a boat. He was the only person to catch all the category – nice! Jerry has shot with a variety of gear but currently uses dual Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLRs.

20 Nov 2024 Themes Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Comet A3; Dia de los Muertos: Jim

Posted on by jrwilkinson

I (Jim) had a busy 4 weeks since the last meeting. Wanting to catch the Oct 17-18 Supermoon and Comet A3, I traveled inland for the weekend to find clearer skies. Unfortunately, the Santa Ana Winds were howling Friday, causing extremely hazy conditions the first day of shooting the Supermoon and comet. Day 2 was spent photographing Salton Sea’s Bombay Beach in the late afternoon & evening. This solo outing ended with photographing Comet A3 over Salton Sea after sunset. Day 3 started at the Palm Springs Air Museum – a great place for plane photos. Then I headed to Joshua Tree National Park for astrophotography, hoping to catch the Milky Way with Comet A3. It was a very enjoyable & successful 3-day photography trip.
The Dia de los Muertos Nov 2nd Old Town San Diego celebration was another fun photography outing. I enjoyed the meet-up although I wandered off in search of images (and missed the margarita break). One thing about joining other photographers on such an outing and separating, is you get to see their perspective of the same event. After viewing their images, I feel I need to zoom in and capture more closer detailed portraits. I tend to include all the costume detail and really liked their tighter perspective. I shared 12 images but include a few more here. Astrophotos were taken with a Nikon Z8 & Z7II with 105mm f2.8, 50mm f1.8, 20mm f1.8, and 16mm f1.8 lenses. Salton Sea/Bombay Beach & Palm Spring Air Museum were taken with a Fujifilm XPro2 with 10-18mm Sigma f2.8 lens (15-27mm effectively).

20 Nov 2024 Themes Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Dia De Los Muertos: Cathy

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Cathy joined the outing to Old Town’s Dia de los Muertos celebration Nov 2nd in the evening when the light was fading. It was a crowded event and parking was hard to find close-by. But she was able to get some great portraits the short time she had to shoot. She also shared some train images taken during some recent trips to San Francisco and Breckenridge. Cathy shoots with a Canon Rebel SL-3 APS-C camera and is able to capture some wonderful images from her basic system. Just goes to show it’s the photographer and not the gear that gets great results. Her second camera is her new iPhone 15 Pro Max – she loves the camera upgrade from her older iPhone XR.

20 Nov 2024 Themes Planes, Trains, Automobiles; Birds: Barbara

Posted on by jrwilkinson

Barbara shared some transportation themed images and bird photos taken during a San Diego River Trail walk. She was lucky the burrowing owl was out of its burrow and just hanging out, snoozing. I’ve tried finding this owl and wasn’t lucky. Barbara uses an Om Systems micro-four thirds camera so her 50-150mm f2.8 lens is effectively a 75-300mm focal range. The advantage of using micro-four thirds cameras is they have a 2x crop – great for birds and wildlife.