Beautiful Sunday

Happy Mother's Day, all!

A wonderful day was spent today in the company of my Mom, her friend and my sister. We went to a brunch that was held at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The food was tasty and the price of admission included a live performance by Esteban.
For those of you not familiar with him, he plays a Spanish gypsy flamenco-style guitar and his technique is self-taught. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would certainly pay to attend one of his shows again. Oh, and I met my new grand-daughter today too. Her name is Buffy and she's a Boston Terrier. She's black and white and full of it! And, she's got a crazy pair of ears. Babe the Pug was quite fond of her.

Two shots from today.

Esteban:



And, introducing Buffy, approximately 14 weeks old:

Better Luck Next Time

My friend got a new kitty yesterday. I was hoping to show up with my camera and snap the first pictures of it, but the cat had other ideas. It was probably just bad timing on my part. A new cat in a strange environment plus two kids and a pug = cat hiding under bed. What was I thinking? Anyway, I moved on to the next unwilling candidate and was able to bribe a couple shots out of him with the promise of a shiny, new matchbox car the next time I saw him.

These were taken with my 105mm Micro. (This seems to be my lens of choice lately)

ISO 400/ 4.5

Through The Tulips

The first two images were taken with natural window light and the third image was taken with available light from incandescent bulbs above.

After many failed tries and a broken vase, I produced a handful of images that I am happy with. I really liked the shallow depth of field of one and two. It's a shame that the life span of these beauties is not very long.

Second Try

I went out again today to shoot more flowers. Specifically, prickly pear cactus flowers and bees. Yesterday, the wind was my nemesis. It's nearly impossible to shoot flowers when there is even the slightest bit of movement. Add to this a higher magnification of macro shots and your troubles only get worse.

Today I had some reprieve from the wind and shot a few images. I went out around 10 o'clock when the lighting was still somewhat soft. This way, I get the most color as opposed to shooting midday. I had my 105mm lens again. However, I did not have my tripod. I don't recommend shooting without one but fortunately I was able to kick up the SS enough to keep the subjects in focus.

Here are a few that I liked. I believe they were shot at F16.

(click on photos for a larger view)









This last one was F11. I'm not sure what kind of cactus it is.

Love This Lens

Yesterday, I spotted the brilliant yellow blooms on our prickly pear cactus so I grabbed my camera along with one of my favorite lenses, the 105mm Micro VR. This is a solid piece of glass and it takes great macro images. I also love using it for portraits and it functions well as a general-purpose lens.

Here is a full macro of the flower. It was quite windy so I wasn't able to come away with a lot of shots but this is one that I thought worthy of processing. It reminds me of some sort of a sea anemone. This image was shot at F16




This is a candid portrait taken with the same lens. I love the bokeh!

Natural Light Portrait

Good results can be achieved by using available light only. While it's important to get a grip on working with artificial light, i.e. strobes, flashes and continuous lighting, natural light portraits definitely have their place.

Here are a couple that I shot today. These were taken with window light that was coming in from camera left. I probably could have used a reflector for fill but I'm happy how they turned out.

Shot at 105mm at F3. I dropped in the backgrounds in PP. I think they look pretty cool

Flagstaff Trip

I visited Flagstaff this past Friday. It wasn't a productive trip regarding landscape photography. I went out on Saturday morning but didn't come back with much. I missed sunrise and the skies were uninteresting. (I prefer to shoot with a sky full of puffy clouds to add some punch to an image.)

A good time was had by all once we got past the shockingly cold temps. Yes, it was 27 degrees at night, excluding the wind chill factor. Quite a difference when compared to the warm weather we're having in Phoenix. I took a few snapshots and my friend got a tattoo that she's been wanting. Overall, I would say it was a successful trip.

Mount Humphreys still blanketed with snow:





I got a bit artistic when processing this image. I'm not sure if I pushed the processing too much but I really liked the colors.




Thought I would throw in the tat montage because I love how it turned out. The artist (Jay Arellano, Burly Fish Tattoo and Piercing) really did a nice job, I think.

Shooting Mid Day

I just wanted to share a couple images that I shot a couple of days ago. Normally I wouldn't bother shooting landscapes during the day. Reason being that the lighting is flat and does not add much dimension or color to the scene. Instead, I prefer to shoot early morning or even better, about an hour before sunset or, "the Golden Hour" At this time, lighting is more dramatic and brings about a nice saturation of colors.

I had lunch at Estrella Mountain Ranch and as I usually do, took my camera along. This particular day, the skies were overcast with big, puffy white and gray clouds. The way that the sun rays beamed through the clouds and cast shadows on the mountains really caught my eye. It gave them a 3-dimension appearance to what would normally be a boring, flat scene at this time of the day.

Here are a couple from the day. These were shot at 105mm. The first one was F11 and the second was F10. I actually used 3 frames to process each of these images, HDR style.

(Frames by Jason Hermann)

Weekend Getaway

I sneaked away in March for a long weekend with Babe the Pug, my friend Lori and her two kids. Destination...Oceanside! The weather was gorgeous, as it always is in Southern California. The sights and sounds from our porch were amazing. We could hear the waves crashing to the shore all night long.

The third image was taken from our deck.

The Desert Bloom

Springtime...it was my favorite time of year growing up and it is by far the prettiest time of year here in the Arizona. We had a decent amount of rain this past winter which usually brings about a lavish display of color when the wildflowers bloom in the spring. For the out-of-state visitors who have never witnessed it, the brilliant colors are a striking contrast to our normally dry, brown desert and definitely worth a look.

I had the opportunity to take a drive to Tucson a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to accomplish two goals. One was of course, the wildflowers. The second... I had been wanting to check out the old Barrio District. This is an area of old adobe buildings and houses that survived an urban rebuild. Most have been torn down leaving a small section that consists of a few blocks of streets that are lined with some unusual architecture that is plastered in a variety of colors .

The lighting conditions were less than ideal but I managed to snap a few pictures here that I'm happy with. On the drive home, we stopped at Picacho State Park to see if there was any wildflower activity. Unfortunately, we arrived at the worst time of day for photography but I didn't want to leave without something. Here are a few pictures from the day.

My friend and I drove to California on Superbowl weekend. We stayed in San Clemente and on Sunday, we drove down to the San Diego area. My main objective of the trip was to get a couple of photos of the San Diego skyline. I have been to this area many times but the timing was always off. This time, I planned accordingly and was set up and ready when the light was right. We arrived in Coronado just about sunset. Here are a couple of images that I was pleased with.

A Few Of My Favorite Models

Thanks to Lori for lending me such cute and cooperative kids to photograph. And thanks to my beauty girl, Babe the Pug.