Jim participated in the San Diego Velodrome meetup and photographed bicycle races for the 1st time. He experimented with long exposures with flash to combine motion and freeze detail. He also photographed the full moon rising over the California Tower August 9th. He added one reflection image from a SD Padres baseball game to fulfill the “reflections” theme.
Jim shared recent images from the San Diego Fair and a recent trip to Sequoia National Park. Because of past images from Sequoia NP being rather dull, he experimented with using a R72 infrared filter. This filter brings out the character of sunlit foliage and is great to use during midday sunlight.
He also ventured out to catch the moonrise over Mt Ecclesia in Oceanside. Last month, the marine layer blocked the moonrise so he tried again in July. The skies were free of marine layer, but the best images had some clouds in front of the moon. This darkened the moon enough to balance the exposure between the dome structure and the moon.
Jim has photographed California Mission whenever traveling to their area. Growing up near the Mission San Luis Rey, that Mission has also been a favorite. Not necessarily the most photogenic of the Missions, Mission San Luis Rey is conveniently close and with the right light and situation, can generate some memorable photos. The SD Fair is the opposite, offering photo opportunities only limited by the photographer’s imagination. Jim wanted to try on-camera flash photography the evening and night of the meetup June 11th. Although not very successful, it inspired him to come back before the Fair ends and try again. Here are his images:
Jim’s photography has been pretty eclectic lately, but he thinks of the themes when approaching making photos. Some techniques like selective color are done post-processing. But he does pursue street photography with themes like repeating colors – none lately. Here are the images he shared this month:
Jim traveled to Sacramento to catch a couple San Diego Padres away games against the Sacramento/Las Vegas Athletics. During his outings before the night games, he focused on this month’s themes when photographing Old Sacramento.
Jim shared images he took during the La Jolla Cove meet-up Feb 9th to photograph pelicans, osprey and cormorants. In February, these birds exhibit breeding behavior and colors. Quail and Black Cardinal photos were from a recent February Joshua Tree camping weekend. He also spent some time out in the cold, photographing the full blood moon lunar eclipse. It was partly cloudy but he was able to get intermittent photos during the cloud breaks.
Last meeting, Jim shared ~10 favorite images of 2024. This month he shared several Passion Projects images – he has many ongoing eclectic projects. Trees – he loves photographing trees and the Salton Sea/Bombay Beach are just two continuing subjects he photographs. Minimalism is another genre he wanted to try after watching a YouTube video on long exposure black& white seascape photography. So during a recent La Jolla Cove meetup to photograph cormorants and pelicans, he brought a tripod and did some long exposure oceanscapes.
Jim shared his favorites of 2024, some seen before but re-processed, and others that were overflow from previous meetings. Meaning, with the 10 image limit per meeting, these were ones that were cut for time.
Jim used a small on-camera flash and long exposure to both freeze and blend time, a technique he hadn’t used in a long time. The results are unpredictable but, fortunately unlike film, when using a digital camera, you can review the results. Then adjust the flash intensity to blend with ambient light and subject distance to reduce the flash “blitz”. His favorite shot almost didn’t happen – the Naruwan Taiko drummers were performing for December Nights so he photographed the finale of the show using a slow shutter speed and flash. Although he took several shots, one was a keeper.
Jim also shared a photo from a Lake Skinner Thanksgiving trip & hummingbird photo taken at the zoo before December Nights. Here’s the images he shared:
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).
