"Shooting in Fire", Amador County 10/15/04

For two months I’d been anticipating shooting Fall foliage but I wasn’t quite sure where I would get my shots. Last year I’d found nice colors in Marin County so I called the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center in September to inquire about Fall foliage. The leaves hadn’t turned colors yet, so the lady suggested I try Nevada City, which is up in the Sierra foothills.

I’d been to Nevada City before, but wasn’t aware that the Gold Country was a fall color hotspot rivaling New England. So I called the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce weekly over the course of a month and a half about local conditions. Each time the lady told me that the maples hadn’t turned yet because the temperatures were still too high.

At the same time, my friend Marc kept talking about wanting to make a trip to the Eastern Sierra for a photo workshop. I didn’t have time in my schedule nor the money to make such a trip so I told him about Nevada City. He mentioned that he was planning on spending a weekend at his in-laws cabin at Amador Station to get his mind off his job search struggles. We made plans to carpool to Nevada City then over to the cabin, but by the end of the week I still hadn’t received good word about the foliage yet so we just decided to go to the cabin instead and spend the weekend on Highway 88 photographing foliage at Hope Valley.

I drove to his place early in the morning then we took his car out to the cabin. An hour and a half into drive, we discovered that there was a huge fire somewhere. We decided to press on not knowing the story behind it all the while driving through increasingly thick smoke. It was so thick that the sun was crimson red despite being high in the sky. It would remain that way for the rest of the day.



Though probably unhealthy, the smoky conditions made for incredible light to photograph in. It was as if a golden reflector and super-warming filter was illuminating everything in diffused lighting.

We finally arrived at the cabin. Marc went to turn on the water and power, while I was in the back taking advantage of the lighting to shoot the forest. Normally, I’d volunteer to help but the light was too good to pass up. After dropping our supplies off, we decided to head off to Hope Valley. Luck would have it that the road was closed five miles beyond the cabin. The fire was located near the Bear River. In addition to that fire, there was a fire going on just north at Kyburz which shut down I-50 which is the main road South Lake Tahoe. How did we find out? At a newspaper rack at the former gold mining town, Volcano.

We went to Volcano disappointed initially because the fire cut our trip short. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had never been there, so Marc wanted to show me the town. We got there and found foliage turning colors everywhere. Leaves draped on the “downtown” brick buildings were red, and yellow was decorating the trees throughout the residential streets. All while the yellow haze was around us. If the leaves weren’t already colorful enough, the golden diffused lighting put the colors over the top. I’m sure anybody who sees my photos from the trip would accuse me of Photoshopping my colors to an extreme degree, but I assure you I actually had to desaturate the images slightly. The light was that crazy.



We spent about an hour and half wandering the streets enjoying the spectacle. The few townsfolk outside must have thought we were insane. One lady in the post office was standing outside while we walked past and was wondering why we were shooting in such bad conditions. Marc replied, “It’s a perfect day for photography.” That was a bit of a stretch but we did have unique shooting conditions that day for sure. The lady was dumbfounded and went back to her business.

After enjoying a great, fire-roasted burger at a local market/cafe, we went on to pick up our stuff at the cabin not knowing if it would still be there if we had come back later. Afterwards we drove on the backroads to Sutter Creek. The scenery was great. I’d love to come back in healthier conditions in the future and explore the area more by foot.

Sutter Creek is supposedly the most beautiful town in Gold Country. I’m not sure I agree with that, as I thought Columbia and Nevada City were just as nice if not prettier. We saw nice foliage there but nothing as photogenic as Volcano. So we headed to Jackson. We walked through Main Street and stumbled upon the Amador County Museum because I saw some nice foliage right next to it. We went inside and browsed the museum. Very nice collection of artifacts and history dating to the Gold Rush era. The elderly woman at the front was very helpful as I inquired about my Chinese heritage in the region. She scoured the archives she had there and presented me with some facts and names. She also gave me the card of the Amador County Archivist. I bought a little book entitled “The Chinese in Northern California” by Barbara Pricer. It turned out to be packed with more useful information than Ronald Takaki’s 800-page “Strangers from a Different Shore.”

After thanking the woman and browsing the museum, we headed back towards home since it was already late afternoon by then. We went home on a different route and the air was clear as we approached Livermore.

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve 12/10/04

This was the first of three consecutive minus tide days during magic hour. If there is a time to shoot an ocean shots, this is it. The tide on this day was minus 1.2 feet at 3:12 p.m. Saturday was minus 1.7 feet at 4:20 and Sunday is minus 1.9 feet at 4:52 p.m.

This is a very scenic location with ocean bluffs and a large tide pool, but it seems to be devoid of tide pool life despite being in a marine reserve. I’d been here during a low tide twice previously and I can count the number of sea stars that I’ve seen on one hand.

I spoke to a ranger on the phone a few months ago and they clued me in to why that is. One theory is because people insist on picking up and touching everything that moves. This was not surprising to me because as a former aquarium naturalist, I would constantly have to warn guests not to pick up sea stars. The reason is that the sea stars have suction cups on the bottom and those is what they use to move and eat with. If you’ve ever tried picking one up yourself you might have noticed sometimes they are hard to get off of a rock. That is why. Once we start picking them up, suctions break off and they are unable to hold themselves down and eventually get washed to sea or eaten.

Personally I don’t touch anything and try to avoid stepping on any living creatures including mussels. I especially don’t step in shallow pools of water. Ironically, I saw a scientist stepping in the pools with rubber boots while taking wildlife surveys.



Being a Friday afternoon, there was a high school group there digging through the pools picking everything up in sight. They cleared out eventually as the sun was setting, so I had the place to myself to shoot. The conditions appeared ripe for a nice light, but it never materialized. My guess is that the clouds weren’t high enough to catch alpenglow and the air was “too clean” on this day to color the light.



What to bring: 1. all the Graduated ND filters that you have for the low tide because the tide pools are a lot darker than the sky. Also because there’s a limitless amount of compositions you can make during low tide.

2. Polarizer. The wet exposed tide pools reflect a lot of light, which ruins your colors and overexposes everything. If you want to see the colors of your subjects, use the polarizer in a situation like this.

3. Hiking boots. It is slippery out there. I only have running shoes so I have to gingerly walk out there. This is a place where you don’t want to have an adventure.

I’m curious as to what Point Reyes looks like during low tide. In Galen Rowell’s Bay Area Wild book there’s an image of octopus and sea stars during low tide at Pt. Reyes. There’s more life in that one image than I’ve seen in my trips to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.

Sawyer Camp Trail/Crystal Springs 12/4/04

I was out running errands in the afternoon when I noticed that storm clouds were only partially covering the sky with many areas breaking up towards the south and more open sky to the north. (If you read “Fort Funston”, then you will start noticing a pattern) So when I was finished, I went home to get my gear and gambled by heading a few miles south on the 280 to the Sawyer Camp Trail at Crystal Springs Reservoir.



The reservoir is the source of San Francisco drinking water. The San Andreas Fault created the natural canyon where the water has filled. For years, this place was closed off from public access because of this. Even today, you are limited to where you can go. That is a shame because this is the most beautiful place on the peninsula in my opinion. The hundreds of joggers, hikers and bikers would probably agree with me as well.

This being one of the most popular trails on the peninsula, I was hesitant at first about going there because weekend driving and parking in the Bay Area is ridiculous everywhere you go whether it’s hiking or a strip mall. Even more so when there’s only street parking at this particular location. Luckily I got a space reasonably close by when the sun was just behind some clouds about to set behind the mountain.

I didn’t have to walk far to get the best views. The best view in my opinion is just right past the gate looking to the left because that is where you get the widest view of the lake. It also happened to be where the good light was. What irritates me about shooting here though is the whole slope going down to the lake is fenced off with barbed wire. We have to stay pretty far up, so it’s a challenge to work in the scene w/o the fence. I would only recommend shooting here if there are interesting clouds out. I have never tried shooting here on a cloudless day, as I think that would be pointless. There is no close foreground to work with unless you enjoy shooting barbed wire fences.

I chose to shoot here on this day because I’ve long fantasized about having a shot of dramatic clouds rising over the reservoir. I have plenty of ocean shots, but a limited amount of lake shots so this would satisfy my desire.

Before long, the sun was lighting up all the clouds yellows, and pinks. Great! Exactly what I had bargained for. Then this guy comes up to me and starts talking to me about how he saw these “rare, exotic birds” at the other end of the trail. Egrets… Upholding my policy of not being a rude photographer unlike a lot of other photographers, I stopped to listen to him and spoke with him even as the light show was unfolding. My mind was really on the light, but I didn’t think he noticed where my attention was. Finally he left after we discussed the peregrine falcons munching on small birds in his backyard. So I resumed. By then I was using my three-stop graduated ND filter to balance out the exposure of the water with the sky. It might have even been a little much, but my soft two-stop gradient wasn’t working very well for this situation. I needed a hard-edged filter and the three-stop filter is what I had. When I exhausted the possibilities, I walked further down the trail just as twilight was coming up. Where the most amazing display of clouds and light emerged for a few seconds. I was able to get three shots with a three stop graduated filter in-between while some jogger was complimenting me on my great timing. Then the light went flat and I took off back to my car. I encountered the jogger again and we chatted. He revealed that he runs here three times a week and commented, “It’s amazing how all of this is in our backyard.” That’s exactly what I’ve been saying over the past two years I’ve lived up here.

What to bring: 1. A full-sized tripod so you can clear the fence. I only have a backpacking Gitzo tripod so I can assure you this isn’t the right place to go light. Someday I will have money for carbon fiber. Some day I will have money for carbon fiber. Someday I will have money for carbon fiber.

2. Two stop soft graduated filter for daytime clouds, three stop and two stop hard-edged filters for sunrise/sunset.

3. I don’t think there’s a significant difference to shooting sunrises or sunsets from here. The sun doesn’t directly come up or go down over the lake as far as I know. Hence, look for interesting clouds.

4. A bike and/or running shoes. I wish I had a bike for these places, I wish I could jog for these moments.

The 1957 Kodachrome

During a recent phone conversation with my mom, she mentioned that my grandmother had given me a gift while I was gone. An antique 620 film camera. On my recent trip home over Thanksgiving, we looked at old 1957 Kodachromes that were taken with that camera. The two boxes of slides contained images of a visit home to Massachussetts where my grandmother was born, as well as images taken around their town of Pasadena, California.

One box of slides was badly faded around the edges. Amazingly, the other box was pristine, if not a little dusty. That was like winning the lottery as far as slide film goes. The slides were some of the most beautiful slides I’d ever seen. They were well saturated, wide range of detail, and sharp. I’d love to be able to try a roll of old Kodachrome for myself and compare it with the modern day Fuji films. Anyway, I was thrilled get a glimpse into our family history. My mom was two, my aunt was three, and my grandparents were 30.



Some of the images perfectly captured the ambience of the era. I had chills at seeing how much of an eye my grandfather had for photography. It’s too bad he didn’t shoot more! Who knows what might have come of it.

After reviewing the boxes, I decided to bring the ones I could salvage back up north with me. The Monday following Thanksgiving, I spent a solid chunk of my day in the digital photography lab at the Academy of Art, scanning the chromes with a Nikon Coolscan 9000 using a glass plate. The session revealed that the slides had a great deal of oil and other blemishes on them. Needless to say, my anti-static brush did little to improve the condition of the chromes.

My main concern had been whether or not the slides would scan properly. I’ve heard that Kodachrome comes out freaky when scanned. (notice the special setting for Kodachrome?) The scans came out on the dark side. Keep in mind this is 1957 Kodachrome.

This being several days later, I have finally gotten a chance to work on a few of the scans in Photoshop. What I’ve found is that they take a great deal of retouching (big surprise there) and they come out overly magenta once the Levels are adjusted. I had to add 5 pts. of green to the midtones to this image and several others to restore the color back to what the slide had. The images pick up a lot of contrast as well after adjustment. That’s the biggest drawback I’ve encountered so far. To counteract this, I had to adjust shadow detail with Curves. Not perfect but acceptable quality.

My conclusion: The Kodachromes have stood the test of time fairly well. They are worth my time to preserve digitally. They take more work than modern film scans, but then again Velvia isn’t exactly cakewalk either. Dig out those old slides someday yourself or ask your parents to see them before it’s too late. You might miss out on a treasure. It’s not about film v.s. digital. It’s film and digital.

Carmel 10-5-04

Some of my most memorable childhood experiences took place in the Monterey Bay area. Among the memories were the white sands of Carmel Beach, where my dad lost his wedding ring in 1992. It has never been found to our knowledge, nor replaced.

Being in the area since I had spent the foggy, overcast morning at the Pacific Grove Monarch Reserve (didn’t notice any butterflies) and Monterey Bay Aquarium to see the baby white shark they had put on display. As with everyone else at the aquarium that day, I couldn’t miss this opportunity. I can’t even count the amount of time that I spent as an aquarium naturalist at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco answering questions about white sharks. The majority of them were skeptical as I assured them the odds of being attacked are very slim. So I sympathized with the naturalists at this aquarium as they were being bombarded with tourists.

After finishing the aquarium and lunch, I was torn between Big Sur, Carmel and Point Lobos. Carmel won out since I hadn’t been there since ’92. I remembered it being beautiful, but I was still struck by the beauty of walking the streets. The Spanish style architecture adds to the character of the town. The most beautiful storefront had to be the entrance to the Kincaid Gallery. Moss and flowers were covering the brick hallway leading down a corridor to a courtyard where the gallery was. I walked around noticing everything out of my price range and tastes until I found the Weston Gallery. Now if you aren’t aware of Edward Weston, he was a contemporary of Ansel Adams and was also a very influential photographer for today’s masters.

The work that really jumped out at me in the gallery was the highly-regarded, Yosemite photographer William Neill’s images. I must admit to not being a fan of his work prior to this, but after seeing large prints of his 4x5 small details in nature I have finally begun to appreciate his art. He is truly a master of fine art. If you’re familiar with his work, you may think as I once thought that anybody could shoot what he does. I’ve found that to be way off base as I’ve matured as a photographer, as I’ve occasionally since tried to emulate what he does and can’t do it. I can assure you that the book and magazine format does not do his art justice, as his work is meant to be experienced large and in person.

On a side note, Mr. Neill actually said hello to me once at Gates of the Valley in Yosemite while shooting the sunset. I was embarrassed later to realize I didn’t recognize him until I saw his picture in his monthly column for Outdoor Photographer magazine.



After wandering the streets of Carmel, I drove down to the end of the street to the beach. Before my eyes laid the same white sands that I had remembered so fondly from my childhood. Just for humor’s sake and the slim chance of hope, I walked around looking down at the sand and ran some through my fingers. No ring. Not without a metal detector anyway. I shot a few pictures for old time’s sake, then decided to look for Carmel Mission which I had never been to.

I found the Mission after asking around a bit and paid my $3 or so to get in to walk the grounds. Very beautiful, but not as big as I had imagined. I was inspired to see the mission after seeing some Spanish mission prints at another gallery in Carmel, and from seeing Vern Clevenger’s work on his website and on display at the Mountain Light gallery in Bishop. School was in session as I walked the grounds, I didn’t notice the signs instructing us to not walk in the hallway during class. Photographically, the lines and shapes of the buildings are appealing as well as the foliage which grace the buildings.



Why can’t all of California look like this? Modern architecture looks like hell on earth. No wonder why I avoid big cities as much as possible.

I spent the rest of the day driving down to the Carmel Headlands and then part of Carmel Valley. The clouds were rolling in and became gray so I gave up hope and headed back home about an hour and a half to the north.

Winter Hotspots: 1. Pacific Grove Monarch Reserve. From mid-October til March, is a great spot to see clusters of Monarch Butterflies. Point Lobos State Reserve is another great spot, along with the Monarch Reserve at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz. Don’t take my word for it though. Look it up yourself on the net or visit if that floats your boat. Best time to see the butterflies is in the late morning when it isn’t overcast.

2. Whale watching. Last year at the same time of year, I saw migrating gray whales spouting from the Lone Cypress Tree viewpoint on 17 Mile Drive. I think you can rent kayaks at this place on the waterfront across the street from Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey. Haven’t tried it though.



Lastly: I was disappointed to find the Ansel Adams Gallery on Cannery Row is now gone. It was replaced by some crap commercial art gallery.

Fort Funston 11-30-04

I was at Borders at Stonestown Galleria to pick up another copy of the December issue of Outdoor Photographer, which has an article by me in there. On the way back home, I noticed clouds that would be conducive to a good sunset. With the peninsula which is the opposite direction of the sunset, a mucky looking overcast which woudln't make for good alpenglow light. I decided to go home and get my camera gear and head towards the beach. Fort Funston in San Francisco which is a few miles up Skyline blvd. from my apartment.



When I got there the sun was behind some clouds as I walked up to the viewing platform. This platform was built for people to watch hang gliders. This is the hang gliding hotspot amongst locals. And for good reason. As there are dramatic cliffs down to ocean beach. After I shot a few pictures for stock, I decided to head down the sand ladder trail down to ocean beach. The sun finally broke out of the clouds and bathed the landscape a vibrant yellow. I made the trip down after stopping to take pictures along the way and found myself in a low tide situation.



Lucky me. I’d been down the trail numerous times but never coincided with a low tide. Initially I didn’t realize it until I stepped into the water to shoot some rocks. The water was very shallow and I realized that wasn’t the tide level. The tide was actually a few hundred yards further out, but the beach is relatively flat so the tide left some water behind on the beach. Nevertheless it was enough water to deter me from going out to the ocean as well as everyone else. There was even a dog wading in the shallow water on the beach.



So the sunset and the clouds made for some excellent reflections on the shallow water. I got my pictures, but forgot to bring extra memory cards so I was limited. I made my way back up as the light faded. Being out of condition since I hadn’t hiked the trail in weeks, I was pretty nauseated as I made my way back up the steep several hundred foot trail. I almost threw up at home believe it or not. It was a good workout and one I’d recommend to anyone in SF. Although it’s more enjoyable when nobody is around, which is the case when it’s fogged in during the summer, but that is for another report.

Things to look for: rocks when the tide is low. Shorebirds. The ocean bluffs. Marin Headlands to the north. The San Mateo coast to the south. People throwing Frisbee to their dogs in the water.

Bring: a two-stop graduated neutral-density filter to balance the sky and water. From my experience at this beach, three stops is too much for the water. For landscapes on the beach, I think a soft gradient would be more useful than a hard edged filter. Keep in mind I'm using the Galen Rowell Graduated ND's. Lee and Hi-Tec's might be different although I have no experience with them. Unless you are living on a string budget, I don't recommend Cokin. Graduated Grey isn't neutral so it can make your sky look sick.