Merry Christmas

Have wonderful times with family and friends. 

Enjoy those around you and remember those far away.

Good health and much happiness to everyone. 

Hagan Hugs to All!

Chabot Park Walk

Short photo walk with Emily one day. Not too much looked good due to the low level of the lake, and the mid day sun.

This shot, however, was saved.

A little soft due to the lack of a tripod, but you might enjoy the sun star.

Rice worker Pair

Hard working, back breaking rice planters.
These ladies had been in the fields all day, and they do this every day. Standing in the mud and flooded field to plant each individual rice plant by hand. How lucky we are to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Technology is available, but Bali pride makes for better rice for the Bali diet.

Bali Rice worker

These workers still plant all of this rice by hand.
The small clumps of rice are held together, and each individual rice plant is then put into place by hand. Rows are all planted at different times so there are always plants to be harvested.

Due to tremendous pride of the Bali people, they still plant rice barefoot, and with large hats to protect them from the sun.

Not enough rice is produced to feed the population, but they still are a proud, hard working group of people who smile often.

Weaving tools

Weaving done by hand with looms made from sticks. These hand dyed and carded yarns are woven into wonderful designs by local ladies.

The patient and hard work continues to this day.

Very fun to observe traditions carried on by these artists. Can you imagine weaving that design into the cloth?

USS Championship Age Group Finals last weekend.

Not very often a group of summer rec swimmers break a Pacific Assn
30 year old record in a Championship Meet.
Congratulations to these 9-10 year old boys. Alex Seybold, Tucker Peterson, Ryder Hagan and Nicholas Chang.
Quite an accomplishment fellows!!
Thanks to Coach Josh Scott for the encouragement and coaching.

Batik Painting and Sepia

This is the same image that was posted two days ago.

I loved the hard working hands and the beautiful fabric.

Very fun to change the look of the image by taking away the color. Does the color make us see things differently?

Batik Painting

These ladies painted beautiful designs on fabric all day long. They were very talented and used this pen and ink tool for their handiwork.

Everything was done freehand, and they continued to chat with us as they worked.

Mask maker 2

This talented carver uses both feet and both hands while carving.

Wonderful gentleman who was very patient as he carved and talked to a small group while continuing to work.

These artists are from Ubud and the entire village is full of groups of artists.

Bali Mask Maker

Rainy weather and busy schedules gave me time to look at  images from past travels.

The software in Photoshop make it fun to review and work on older photos.

What fun to enjoy and remember a wonderful trip.

These wood carver masks are very expensive, and wonderful works of art.

This tree is a bit broken down, but the leaves in front caught my attention, and I liked the green in the background also.

Lots of fall color even though the tree has no leaves.

More from our Redwood Regional Park hike.

A bit of fall color seen from the viewpoint of a small newt or something else about that size. The Camera was on the ground, and so was I.

The low shot was to emphasize the leaves on the ground as well as the yellow leaves hanging down and the green background.

Sometimes we miss a bit when we are standing up.

Redwood Park

Redwood  Park in Black and White with a sun star shining through the trees. These trees are VERY tall, and the sun was just getting up into the sky.

View from bridge facing
away from Half dome.

My First attempt using my
ND 8 filter to blur the water.

Also using the Topaz filter
Simplify with personal preset.

Floating leaves

Late afternoon leaves
and pine needles form
a colorful pattern at
the side of the lake.

Redwood Park

Hiking this morning around  9am, very dark in this amazing redwood forest. This time of year the light is low and it was a bit breezy and cool.

Warm clothes and a bit of sunshine made for a lovely morning. What a nice way to spend Monday after a long fun weekend in Napa.

Not much color and the lady bugs had flown on in their migration, but we had a great walk.

Aspen tree with friends

An almost leaf less Aspen tree
standing proud and tall while
surrounded by Evergreens and
a large grove of multicolored
Aspens.

Through the Aspen Image

The top Image is selenium toned
using the Topaz B&W filter.
The second image is a duplicate, using the Nik Silver Efex filter 2 and the Vintage Antique II effect which has been toned down to 20%.

Question is, does color distract from composition? And does toning effect the quality of the black and white image?

Fall Leaves in the lake

Very little water in Yosemite now.

These oak and aspen leaves did
manage to land at the edge of the
river along with a few pine needles.

Perhaps few shadows add a touch of
mystery.

Yosemite wanderings in a meadow close to the main road.

Not much Fall color, but some deserted campsites that showed the remains of properly handled fire remains.

A different type of Yosemite color. There are always things to photograph. Just keep the camera handy.

Lee Vining Canyon in Northern California.

A closed RV campground right on the creek was pure joy. Beautiful trees, a babbling brook, and vacant campsites. Very peaceful and pretty.

Another artistic attempt for a photographer who paints walls with a roller.

A walk in Lee Vining Canyon about a week and a half ago.

The view of the Aspen trunks in the shade with a view of the forest is was interesting.

My rendering of a painting.

Merced River as seen from the beach.

Very little water to be seen.

The middle school kids were having an outdoor class right in the river bed.

This drought is really serious.

Lee Vining Valley Color.

Another Fall color image with the Aspens, the Pine trees  and a lot of varieties of yellow and orange and green.

Spectacular color telling us the Winter is on its way. Those of us in California are hoping the rain arrives soon, and comes to visit very often for many months.

Seeing the lakes with such low amounts of water reminds us how the last 3 years with limited moisture have affected the environment. Time to do a daily rain dance.

Sometimes distance is better, and sometimes a close view is interesting. The Fall colors with the Aspens in the foreground, then the pine trees, and finally the sky makes a different composition. Fun to view, and fun to photograph.

Aspen color

On the way from Lee Vining to Tahoe, we took a few side roads to check for color. This lonely tree was tilted, and a little weary looking, but the sun on the leaves was surprising and quite interesting.

Magnolia by the Marina

I took a  very early walk by the San Diego Marina one morning a couple of weeks ago.

There were 2 or 3 of these trees in bloom, and fortunately one of them had blooms low enough to photograph with my 50mm lens.

I had never seen such an interesting grouping on a single petal.

California Color

Lee Vining Canyon Sunday October 19th.

Yosemite was still very green,
The road to Mono Lake was
green until we came to the
valley just outside Lee Vining.

Amazing color in the canyon.

Pismo Waves

Quick snapshot taken on the beach at Pismo, Ca.

Quiet morning, nice waves, and a peaceful way to start the day for all concerned.

A little bit of watercolor effect added for fun!

Dinner with a View!

Last night in San Diego.

Wonderful Dinner

Wonderful View

Will Return!

Mud Pie!

San Diego Sky

and

 Mud Pie!

Birthday Wish

Decided today what I want to do to celebrate my 80th birthday!!

Looks like fun to me.

Torrey Pines, CA

And so it goes that October is almost here.

Old town in San Diego was busy getting ready
for the upcoming holiday.

Boo!

It is not often that we  can see the humming bird extend their tongue.

This little lady seems to be getting ready to reach deep inside the feeder for a big drink.

Fun to watch.

Yes, another humming bird. Up a little closer this time, and she turned her head just a bit so I could see her brown eye this time.

Busy Saturday cleaning out cupboards and labeling thing so I can figure out what goes with what!

Took my time and actually enjoyed myself.

We moved the feeders a bit yesterday.

Tried a new lens today.

Getting a little closer, but the faster
shutter speed requires a higher ISO
speed and that makes for background noise.

Sure fun to watch these lil critters!

Get out of the way  everyone,
new Alpha male in town,
and only his family and
friends get to eat on this
feeder from now on!!!

All grown up

Saturday August 23, 2014.


Wonderful Day, wonderful weather,
everyone is happy and enjoying the wedding.

What a treat it has been to watch this family grow and develop into a loving, happy five some.

We are so blessed!

Rehearsal Dinner Fun

Raquel, Riley and Maurine ham it up for photographers.

Lovely event, thanks Masons!

Today I used a shutter speed of 1/2500 of a second to capture the wings. Perhaps a little faster would be better.

Or, perhaps a little slower speed would give us more of a motion effect.

I believe their wings beat at approximately 2000 beats per second. Is it a wonder they need so much sugar to survive?

Mama's resting after taking care of those babies.
Catching a bit of lunch and taking a breather while Dad feeds the babies.

Babies are eating from the feeders now too, so Mom gets a bit of a break.

Hand held at 1/80th second with my 55mm lens.
Taken today around noon.

Looking through some oldies, and here comes Fall.
Window reflection taken from afar in the Tahoe area.
Really looking forward to a trip to Yosemite and Tahoe this October.

The sun was setting on this lovely beach in Northern California.
The evening was windy and cool and  the colors were magical.

One of the big bosses of the feeder stopping by for a drink around mid morning. Using Macro lens set at about 3.5 to blur the background a bit so the focus is on the bird.

So fun to watch these birds flocking to the feeders every day for a big drink.  With the drought in California, the number of flowers is much lower than normal. Right now we have 4 feeders going every day and go through about 10 pounds of sugar per week.

Hummers for lunch

Hand  held quick shot of hummers moving to to eat lunch yesterday. Normally this would be taken on a tripod using a faster shutter speed.
The low light situation didn't allow for a fast exposure.

Coastline Drama

Crescent City, CA coastline in the early evening sun. Very windy evening and the waves were great.

 I mush have waited at least 30 minutes to get waves hitting both rocks at the same time.

Cactus in Infrared.

This is a cactus taken on the photo walk.

What if you had an infrared camera? Might the image look a bit like this???

Playing around with filters is very fun!

After I win the lottery, I may just take and old camera and have it converted for infrared exposures.

 Then I will take my grandfathers old view camera and cut a hole in the back for my mirror less hand held camera and see how that works.

Sounds fun to me!  Geeks and Nerds look out!

Painted City

View of the San Francisco Skyline taken last week in  Richmond, CA. I went on a photo walk with a couple of friends, and we ended up at the end of the street and were overlooking the City.

Camera and lens were recovering from an impact, so the Topaz filters converted a fuzzy photo into a painting.

Light and exposure and composition work every time in all types of art.  Fun time remembered.

Red, White and Blue

           HAPPY 4th