Bodyboarder Looking at the Wedge, Newport Beach, California

Knowing that a bodyboarder died the day before, I’m sure that had to weigh on the mind of some of these people. It was certainly on the minds of the lifeguards. When I first got there early on Saturday morning there were no lifeguards on duty. At one point there were two surfers caught inbetween the sets and started to drown. You could see a number of spectators start running over there to go rescue them. After some tense moments, one guy collapsed face first into the sand once they brought him ashore. It was at that point that you started to hear the sirens and the beach patrol truck showed up on the scene. I didn’t hear anymore reports of death so I guess the guy made a full recovery. By the time I left around 11 a.m. when the light started to get too harsh, there were already at least five lifeguard rescues. One guy tried to resist and was tossed off the beach as a result. After seeing these people in legitimate trouble, I would say that it’s always best to err on the side of caution. For me that is staying out of the water.

See more of my Orange County pictures.

Bodyboarder Falling Off the Wedge, Newport Beach, California

The Wedge is a crazy place. I have tried to go there on multiple occasions the past several years but have been unsuccessful in finding parking on Balboa Peninsula. So I got to Newport Beach pretty quick on Friday but it took me twice as long to find parking once I got to Balboa Peninsula, where the Wedge is located at the far end of it. I was determined to see the big waves this time so I just sucked it up after driving in circles for over an hour and parked at the Balboa Pier main parking lot which is quite a distance from the Wedge. More on that below.

By the time I got there, it was around 6:45 pm and had a huge crowd of spectators. The waves were gigantic obviously as you can tell from this photo (Correction: taken on Friday at dusk) and The Wedge video I posted yesterday. The crazy part about The Wedge is that the waves break very close to shore and thus any crash landings occur in shallow surf. One guy died earlier on Friday from getting tossed into the rock Jetty then drowning. The only injury I saw though was a guy who came back with a broken arm. The spectators have to be careful too because it’s not uncommon to see rogue waves wash up. In fact, I got a mouthful of saltwater almost as soon as I got there.

So anyway, the experience was really exciting. It felt like the ambiance of a major sporting event with the familiarity of a local community event. Seemingly, everyone from Orange County was there. Few bodyboarders / surfers were able to ride any of the waves though since it was so rough. When they did ride, the crowd would erupt into a massive roar of cheering and groan in shock every time someone experienced a nasty wipe out. I have been to Mavericks in Half Moon Bay but The Wedge is a much more exciting experience to witness in my opinion because the action is right there in front of you not a half-mile out into the ocean. As is, if you want tight action shots of the bodyboarders then you probably need at least a 400 or 500mm lens either on a crop sensor DSLR and a 1.4x teleconverter for full-frame cameras.

Parking Advice:
- Get there before sunrise.
- If not, then save yourself then headache and park at the Balboa Pier parking lot.
- From the Balboa Pier parking lot, your options are to ride a bike through the neighborhood to the Wedge, walk through the sand to the Wedge (shortest distance but tiring), or a 25 min walk through the neighborhood.

See more of my Orange County pictures.

Video from yesterday morning at The Wedge before dawn. A body surfer died here on Friday afternoon.

It is so convenient to be able to shoot HD video and shoot stills at the same time with a killer camera such as the 5D Mark II.

Young Women Dancing Together in Drum Circle, Venice Beach, California

This past Sunday was pretty crazy at the Venice Beach drum circle. Almost as soon as I got there, I was offered a pipe with some weed in there presumably. After declining, an amazing photo composition happened right there in front of me with the people lighting up. It would have been portfolio-worthy I kid you not. I had it pre-visualized and all the stars happened to align at that moment. I ultimately decided not to take the picture because I wasn’t comfortable with the subject matter but since then I have been wondering “what if?” That’s kind of been the story of my life so far but you can’t kick yourself too much and just have to move forward.

I do know that I got some pretty bad stomach cramps almost immediately after they lit up… So later on while the dancers were bumping and grinding the afternoon away, a gang fight broke out. I didn’t see what caused it but judging from who was involved it appeared to be racially-motivated. When I got over there it had pretty much been broken up but a lot of cussing and restraining was happening. As much as I wanted to take some pictures I decided it wouldn’t be a smart idea. No regrets this time!

I did get some footage of the drum circle and hope to create a multimedia video from it in the future with the photos and sound gathering I did last year. With these videos, it’s important to have a strong concept. You can have all the raw footage you want but without an idea there is no story to tell. I have a couple ideas at the moment but haven’t quite figured it out yet.

See my website for more of my Venice Beach photos.

Woman Visiting Gravesite on Memorial Day, Santa Fe National Cemetery, New Mexico

Yesterday morning.

Man in Wheelchair Watching the Louisville Bats versus Norfolk Tides at Louisville Slugger Field, Kentucky

It’s not often that I go back and post older photos on my blog but I haven’t been able to get this photo off my mind. The funny thing is that when I lived in Kentucky, this photo really didn’t strike me as being one of my better photos from my time there. However I did feel a connection with this disabled senior citizen when I saw him because he reminded me of my grandfather who was disabled for the last decade or so of his life due to strokes. No matter his condition, he tried to live life like any other normal person, and not always for his own good but you know what I mean. This moment also reminded me of my own dad who has been afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease since I was in high school. My dad hasn’t fared as well so the contrast struck a nerve with me.

So I see this guy at the minor league baseball game in his wheelchair just watching intently the game like any other hardcore fan. From the way he was sitting it was obvious that he was really excited to be there even in the 90 degree humid heat of the southern summer. I knew I had to take a picture and hoped I would get some shadow details to at least show a hint of his wheelchair. It’s hard to see on the web but it did work out. Technical details aside…

My initial thoughts was that this was a suitable “stock photo”. In other words an image that gets processed then submitted but otherwise just kind of tucked away in the archives. Then a weird thing happened. When I think of my time in Kentucky, my mind keeps going back to this guy in his wheelchair at the Louisville Bats game. Then photo was licensed for a textbook last month and has been growing on me since. I know the buyer probably couldn’t care less about the meaning of the photo but the sale sort of validated in my mind that maybe there was something special about this photo that I captured that I didn’t grasp initially.

Here are more of my Kentucky pictures.

Young People Dancing the Night Away, Venice Beach, California

Aside from the fact that the above image was photographed outdoors in fading light and the picture below was photographed indoors in a dimly lit room, the quality of flash lighting in both images are also different. The indoor wedding photo was primarily a result of bounce flash which was achieved by using an Omnibounce diffuser pointed at a 45 degree angle to bounce light off of every surface in the room. It is a much softer quality of light. Meanwhile, the flash in the beach photo was pointed directly at the subjects but with an Omnibounce diffuser as well. Light falloff was an issue out there since there were no roof or walls to bounce the light off of so I had to boost the flash compensation by +1 stop.

Wedding Guests, Jackie and Antonio Heras Dancing to the Village People’s YMCA Song at Brandi and Daniel’s Wedding Reception, Ossian, Iowa

The reason for using a diffuser is so you don’t get that harsh, “flash” type of look that you see in most photos. Using a diffuser is only the first step toward getting a natural look though. What I try to do is use the matrix metering to underexpose the ambient light and let the flash fill in the rest.

By doing this, you get the benefits of both ambient light and flash with none of the drawbacks. For the indoor shots, I set the white balance to automatic because the type of light is so mixed that it is impossible to set accurately while shooting on the fly. You definitely do not want the bluish type of flash look that you get from point and shoot cameras. The flash is balanced for daylight setting so if you are mixing the flash with ambient light correctly then you should be getting desirable colors without much post-production work.

I also do not hesitate to crank up the ISO settings to achieve the exposures that I need. Using a flash to light up the image mitigates the potential downfalls to shooting higher ISO. As for aperture and shutter speeds, I’m usually shooting wide open with 1/30 sec as a starting point unless I’m going for a motion effect such as the wedding picture which was shot at 1/10. Normally if you shoot at 1/30 sec. the odds of getting a sharp photo won’t be very high but the flash helps to freeze the subject so 1/30 is good enough to get sharp pictures while allowing you to get some ambient light in the exposure shooting wide open at ISO 400 – 800.

City Buried Under Mud, Bombay Beach, California

There are parts of Bombay Beach that are completed buried under a few feet of mud. That bench for example is buried all the way up to the seat! There are some street signs in the middle of the mud field also.

If this were a school field trip I would probably get extra credit for trying but in the lowly field of photography what I get are a pair of ruined shoes and a picture.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Years on the East Coast and then the West Coast three hours from now! (Such a weird world we live in.)

I won’t be photographing the Rose Parade this year, but you can see pictures from the previous years in my Tournament of Roses Parade pictures gallery.

See more Rose Parade pictures.

If you recall a couple blog posts ago, I wrote about South Hills development issues. Well I met up with the local environmental activists this morning at the Glendora Christmas Parade. The lady on the right is Kristin Parisi, who is running for one of two vacant city council member seats. She is here to give voice to those of us who appreciate our local natural resources and want to keep it that way.

We discussed doing an interview on my blog for her to give a little more background on The South Hills. Hopefully I will have this for you in the near future. All in all, it was a pretty fun parade.

Save the South Hills Twins, Glendora Christmas Parade, California

See more Glendora pictures.

The destruction left in the wake of the firestorm last week is very clear as you drive along the 57 freeway through the Brea Pass and on the hills of the Carbon Canyon area of Brea, which is still closed to residents only. The stench of the fire still smells fresh as was the resulting ash.

Fire Scarred Hillside, Brea, California

See more of my environmental pictures.

Photo: Brea Canyon Wildfire, Southern California
Picture:Brea Canyon / Diamond Bar Residents, California
Photo: People Watching Wildfires in Brea Canyon, Diamond, California
Picture: Brea Canyon Firestorm Flames, California

See more of my environmental pictures.

This is the strand of kelp featured in the previous blog post. After the kids finished looking at Brian Auer’s camera, they ran over to the kelp and took it back home for a souvenir from America I suppose. I got a good laugh out of this and it is probably something I’ll always be reminded of whenever I see kelp from now on.

See more of my San Diego pictures.

I was shooting some seascape photos of this big strand of giant kelp when Brian screamed, “Hey man turn around!” Then a split second later these Mexican kids showed up to look at his camera. I didn’t see the kids come across but Brian said that they waved at him initially from the Playa de Tijuana side of the fence and when he waved back they surprised him by running over. All I know is that I turned around really fast and started shooting photos without thinking twice.

I would say that this was the lightest moment from the photo shoot.

See more of my San Diego pictures.

Border Field State Park is actually part of the Tijuana River Estuary Reserve. There are kelp strewn along the beach and a part of the beach roped off for snowy plovers. If it weren’t for the complicated political situation, it would just be like any other beach.

We spoke to the border patrol agent for about a half an hour after this and he gave us the low down on what goes on here. It is true that many people trying to cross the border at night come in an attempt to provide a better life for their families but there are also a fair amount of misfits also; murderers, child rapists, Iranians, etc… I believe there was a European that waded off-shore in the ocean for hours trying to avoid getting caught. It wasn’t until that he stumbled onto shore with hypothermia that he was apprehended. He was described as a normal-looking white guy but a background check revealed that the guy was wanted by Interpol in multiple countries.

Supposedly, the situation was worse a few years ago before the feds started to beef up security at Border Field State Park. Large groups in excess of 50 people would cross nightly and disperse into the neighborhoods of Imperial Beach. Once they cracked down on the illegal activities, the amount of people attempting to cross at night dwindled thus making Imperial Beach real estate values skyrocket.

The law enforcement situation was described as a cat and mouse game going on between the immigrants and the U.S. Border Patrol. When the feds seal off one area, the immigrants move onto other areas. In the news earlier this year there were even underground human smuggling tunnels in the Imperial County area.

Lost amongst all of this chaos is that there are legitimate families out there that have been split apart. I saw numerous families talking with loved ones at the fence near the parking lot. One large group even appeared to be having a family meal. I don’t know what their situation is like but I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad for these people as I was driving home at night on I-5.

See more of my San Diego pictures.

Last Saturday, La Jolla-based photographer Brian Auer and I went to photograph the U.S. border. Neither of us knew what to expect and turned out to be quite a surreal experience even while driving in.

Frustrated Mexican Man Grabbing Tijuana Mexico International Boundary Fence, Border Field State Park, California, USA

I said hello to this guy as I was standing next to the border fence then he started asking me how far San Diego was from there and then about Imperial Beach which was across the Tijuana Estuary. After I pointed out that San Diego was about 20 miles north of here, I asked him if I could take pictures of him. He agreed then instantly his previously upbeat demeanor transformed to what you see here. I wished him good luck once I finished taking my photos.

See more of my San Diego pictures.

I have been hiking regularly for over a month now, both with and without my camera. Two days ago I encountered this in the hills near my house. The only words I could make out was the + Laura. I figured it was a guy doing something romantic for his girl. How sweet! Then I went back last night with my camera and once I looked through my viewfinder I was able to see what it said. All of the sudden, it felt sobering to realize this perhaps didn’t have such a happy ending. However one question remains for me, what does it say between the names Laura and Michael? It appears to be a “1 43″ but I’m not sure. I looked on the internet, and no biblical passages fit. Nor does it say, “and”. How it reads to me is, “Jesus loves Laura and Michael” but I can’t quite connect the dots due to the ambiguous nature of those three letters. I even looked through the local news sites and search engines, came up with nothing.

Laura and Michael?

Does anyone have any answers or theories about what this message represents?

See more of my Glendora pictures.

In a recent blog post I discussed the UC Berkeley Tree-Sitters. Well last night, UC Berkeley moved in to remove the tree-sitters at the Memorial Oak Grove.

Here is the story from the San Francisco Chronicle: UC removes tree-sitters’ gear before ruling

Here is a YouTube video of yesterday’s events: UC Police Extracts First Berkeley Tree Sitter

Update 6/20/08: Food supply support lines have been cut. “Dumpster Muffin” is still in the trees however and not planning on coming down anytime soon according to the Mercury News.

70-300mm @ 70mm, f7.1, ISO 800, 1/400 sec., AP mode w/ pattern metering +1 exposure compensation, flash w/ omnibounce diffuser.

See more of my environmental pictures.

In response to the actions of the activists, the police have barracaded the group in with fencing and reserves the right to arrest anyone supplying them with food. However, every Sunday at 2 p.m., environmental activists show up in numbers to support them. Presumably with the strength in numbers philosophy.

“Ki Jones” here has been for the past two months. Jones is originally from San Antonio and heard about the Berkeley tree-sit on the radio so he decided to come out west. Prior to arriving in Berkeley he was tree-sitting in the Northern California Redwood coast, and in Oregon.

As he was discussing his background and living situation, a group of Jewish missionaries walked up to us and started questioning Jones and his friends motives. The missionaries didn’t seem to see much validity in environmental conservation. Naturally, the tension started to rise, as Jones explained his position while the missionaries remained skeptical.

Among the positions adopted by the tree-sitters:
- Memorial Oak Grove is situated on a fault-line as well as the adjacent Memorial Stadium
- There has been evidence that this was an ancient Native American burial site and thus is sacred grounds
- The world is over-developed as is and the world cannot sustain it’s natural resources at the current rate of consumption
- Even though this is just fighting for a small part of the world, we need to celebrate Earth’s natural gifts
- The oak trees were dedicated to World War II veterans so they have historical value

Photo: Memorial Oak Grove Tree-Sitter, UC Berkeley, California (Apologies for the poor file quality. I’m using my laptop and have minimal software installed.)

Personally, I found Jones to be a nice guy and passionate about what he believes in. Among his interests is art. He sketched a telephone pole that had morphed in a tree. He intends to make it into a painting eventually. We also discussed photography a bit as well. His grandfather was a professional photographer back in the day so he developed an appreciation for the artform. In fact, here he is posing with my business card! Before I left, I mentioned that I was interested in talking with some of his friends from the Redwood Coast.

See more of my San Francisco Bay Area pictures.

Picture: May Day Illegal Immigration March, Los Angeles, California

Yesterday morning I took the Metro Gold Line from Old Town Pasadena to Union Station because most of the streets near the Civic Center were shut down for the various protests in Downtown L.A. From there I walked all the way down to Broadway and Olympic where the illegal immigration rights group gathered. Initially there were about as many LAPD officers there as protesters but the crowd grew the closer it got to the 2pm starting time. It was easier to get pictures when the crowd was smaller in size, but the peak moments of action happened once the march started heading down Broadway toward 1st & Temple where The Times Building and Civic Center are located.

It may seem really obvious, but the key insight about photographing these sorts of events is the people want their picture taken. Unlike day-to-day scenes where it would be rude to do so, here it is a tailor-made situation to shove a 17mm lens in the faces of the subjects. The difficulty in shooting something like this with a wide-angle is that when you find an interesting sequence for taking pictures, five other photographers suddenly show up right after and often end up in the edges of your frames. Hit the delete button and hopefully you have 5-10 other similar images to pick from.

This photo was taken at the front of the pack with the entire crowd behind the flag. It was a pretty fast moving march so it required backtracking while taking photos others you will get trampled. I don’t know very much Spanish but the crowd was generally speaking out against federal raids that arrest illegal immigrants and deport them back to their country of origin. The separation of families was a major theme of their argument. There was also a strong anti-Bush sentiment in the crowd and a desire to elect either Clinton or Obama to the White House.

My ultimate goal was to get a photo that captured tension between the LAPD and the protesters but it was mostly peaceful in this group aside from a few arguments between security and marchers.

See more of my Los Angeles pictures.