35 mm scans

Well, I had some time this weekend to scan and download some slides that I did from my fall trip to Death Valley and Eastern Sierras. You may ask, "Well Algis, how is it that you, a very busy and hard working individual, have time to scan and download slides on a gorgeous weekend when you should be doing a photo shoot somewhere". Well, let me answer that, do the words "van down!" mean anything. Let me explain, most of you know that I drive a 88 vanagon and maybe now you can surmise as to my answer. Yes, my van is in the shop. Saturday morning, my van started spewing oil all over the ground when I started the engine. Not sure how serious it is but right now it is in the shop and I will know more Monday. I'm just glad that it went down while I was home as opposed to being in some foreign area on a photo shoot.

Change of plans

On Thursday morning I woke up ready to go to Napa for a photo shoot, but at the last minute, I decided to go to Yosemite. I read a message from one of my user groups that Yosemite was blooming with fall colors. I packed up my stuff and headed off at 4:00 am. I arrived in Yosemite at about 7:00 am and yes there were some nice fall colors but I was expecting more. So, being the professional that I am - not, I decided to shoot what I had available. I met another shooter who lives in Yosemite and he pointed me to some good areas. Also, there is some major road work being done in Yosemite and the road to the village is blocked off. You had two options, walk or take a shuttle. I didn't think that I would have to go to the village because I brought everything that i needed - wrong. In the middle of my shoot, I changed cameras and went to my 35mm Pentax and to my horror, I discovered that the battery was dead. Someone forgot to turn the camera off when they put it away - duh. I did bring extra batteries but they were for my Olympus digital camera. I parked the van on the side of the road and took a hike to the village store. I have to believe that the gods that were watching me from above were having some fun with me, and they were'nt finished. I arrived at the store and as fate would have it, they had every battery ever made except for mine. I figure I better cut my losses and head home, which I did.
I did get some nice shots but maybe in a week or more, the colors will bloom out more. I may or maynot come back, we'll see. I still want to shoot in Napa, maybe next week I'll go.
Moral of this story, don't assume you have everything packed, double check.

Happy Birthday - Me!

Well, as you can tell from the headline, it's my birthday today. The gang at ESG Consulting threw me a surprise party. I received some great gifts; a gift card and the beautiful piece of clothing that I am wearing in the picture. I am the person seated just in case anyone was wondering who I am. Not to get too sentimental, but I am so happy that I met Sal, almost 20 years ago, and that we started out as employer and employee and ended up as really good friends.
Sorry for how the picture turned out. My battery was low, in my spare camera that I keep in my van, and consequently the flash wasn't all that powerful. Note to self - get off your butt and charge your batteries.

Irlan Rose

Last night we had a special guest spend the night at our house - oh yeah, her mother was there too. She is just the cutest little baby, sort of reminds me when I was little - not. Anyway, I thought I would give everyone a treat and show some of the pictures that I took of her, not Shimaine, but me. Enjoy.

Shimaine's trip to San Franciso

OK, I think I'm in trouble. I thought that I was the photographer in our family but that may be changing. Saturday my daughter decided to go to San Francisco with fer friend, Khamalani (boy I hope I spelled that right). She took her camera with her and off she went. So I say to myself, what harm could come out of this. So, she has a nice camera, but I have many years of training on and off the web and I have read scores of books as to the fine art of photo taking. Also, some of my colleagues, who are professional photographers in their own right, have mentioned to me how great my pictures are. Granted, I plied them with enough booze to take down a small elephant, but nevertheless, I respect their comments. So my daughter comes home, drops the camera on my desk and says see if any of the pictures are good. Well, she is wrong! there are no pictures that are good, they're all great. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find any pictures that looked bad enough so that I could let her know that she has a ways to go to be as good as me. Oh well, I guess I could always go back to repairing computers...sob.

ok - the Bears are da Bears

What can I say, it wasn't a pretty win, but they got the job done. Obviously they went into the game thinking that this was going to be an easy win - surprise. The Bears offense is still stuttering but as usual, the Bears defense, and some luck, came through. Watching the Bears in the first half had me wondering where the defense was, it obviously wasn't on the field. Thank God that the coach lit a fire up the Bear's ass because in the second half, they came out firing.

It was a hard game to watch and I'm not sure that the better team, that played tonight, won. But, like with the Cubs, I'm still sticking with the Bears, as I have for the last 40 years.

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

Well, this is unusual for me but I did agree to go to the pumpkin festival held at Half Moon Bay. It was pretty much cloudy the time I was there. The sun did start coming out when we left. To say that it was crowded would be an understatement. It was wall to wall people. One of my main reasons for going was to get some ideas on how to present photos at fairs. I did manage to get some ideas but I was also hoping to talk to the exhibitors but they were all busy with clientele. Overall it was a good experience and I got to see all my babies at one time: Mady, Irelan and Bailey. So overall it was a good trip.

Back in San Jose

Hi Everyone, I am back in San Jose. I actually arrived Sunday afternoon but was to tired to post a blog. In reality, I wanted to spend some time in Yosemite, but there were a lot of people in the park. I guess because of Presidents Day or something. I hope to go soon though. If I go, I will post.

Final statistics of my trip:
Total miles driven............... 1591
Total digital photos.............. 1694
Total 35mm photos............. 158
Total days............................. 6

Death Valley - Saturday

Well, as I said in my last blog I actually slept well and consequently I woke up at 5:30am. Holy shit! I’m going to be late at Zabriski point. I had to hurry, go to the bathroom, get some coffee and I was gone. When I arrived there, there were quite a few people gathered, I actually saw 2 people with large format cameras. I figured, they probably know what they are doing, so I kind of followed them around. As they moved, I would move. They probably figured I was stalking them. I finally found a good spot and waited there for the sun to come up. It was nice that the moon was still out so I was able to get a couple shots with the moon in the picture. Overall, it was good experience.

After Zabriski, I was close to Furnace Creek which is something like a resort with golf and a lot of other amenities. I figured I’d have breakfast there. I had a Gouda omelet with coffee. My bill came out to $14.50, a little pricey but it was good. The theme in the restaurant was the Old Ranger that would come on TV in the 50’s and presents a show called “Death Valley”. It was sponsored by 20 mule team borax. I used to watch that show religiously every Saturday night. The show always had something to do about cowboys in Death Valley. Probably the younger people who read my blog won’t know what I’m talking about but there are probably some of you older ones who will or at least admit that they do.

After breakfast I was on the road again. I came upon a field called “The devils corn field”. It’s actually brush that has sand under it but for some reason, it’s elevated, don’t know why, but I did include a picture on my blog. My next and final destination was the slot canyon near where I’m camped. From my camp I had to drive another rocky, bumpy, jarry, holey road again. I must admit, my van came thru again. This was supposed to be a 1.5 mile walk through canyons and then you come out in an open field. I never quite made it to the end. I brought my camera equipment, recall 2 bags, and my 18 pound tripod. The hike was pretty much straight up through canyons that you had to maneuver over rocks and ledges. I swear to god I was going to toss my tripod out over a ledge. It was so cumbersome maneuvering with 2 bags and a tripod. Recall the dunes incident. I did manage to go roughly a little over a mile before I had to turn back because of the difficulty in the terrain. I did hear from a couple other people who were at the parking lot that the best part of the trail was the first quarter mile through the canyons. Where were they when I started this hike. I did manage to pick up a couple more bruises and my tripod got dinged and now one leg does not slide together. I’m sure it was an accident that it got dinged, there was no way that I could have tossed it at the wall 2 or 3 times. I also bruised my elbow when I had to slide down ledge to get back on the trail. Oh well, all in a days work.

When I got back to camp, it was 1:00 pm. I decided to take a shower and after shower I spent the next 2 hours writing up my blogs in Death Valley. I hope to leave Death Valley tomorrow morning and when I get to Bishop, publish it.

Next stop, Yosemite, I hope. I heard a couple people say that 120 was closed. I’m hoping it’s open tomorrow. If not, I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Me out.

Death Valley - Friday

Well I made it to Death Valley. It wasn’t too bad a drive. I beat the heat by starting out early from Bishop. It took me more than 2 hours to get there and that is only because I kept stopping to take pictures both outside and inside the park entrance. One thing that I notice right away is that approximately 90 to 95 percent of the ground is rock. I was under the impression that it was mostly sand…wrong. I got a campsite at Stovepipe Wells. Not much as far as amenities but it does have electricity and I have access to the pool and the showers. I hooked up with a ranger and he told me that 2 of the better photo opportunities would be the dunes at night and Zabriski point in the morning. I figured I would do the dunes tonight and do Zabriski point tomorrow, Saturday morning. I had about 5 hours to kill before I had to get ready for the dunes, so I visited a couple spots.

Badwater was the first. This area is the lowest point in the states. The ground is covered with salt crystals. From far away it looks like you are approaching water in reality it is salt. This probably played havoc with al lot of the miners.

The second location was Painters Palette. It gets its name from the different colors in the mountains. It actually does resemble a painter’s palette because of all the clusters of color in close proximity. It’s really impressive looking and I could only wonder how pretty it looks after a rainfall when the sand is removed from the outside of the rock.

As promised, I went to the dunes at about 5:30pm and already people were getting ready and walking all along the dunes. I had to hurry and try and find some spot that wasn’t walked on. Note to self get a damn lighter tripod. I’m lugging this 18 pound tripod and 2 bags of camera equipment and trying to maneuver in the dunes. Let me tell, no easy feat. I swear to god I must have had the heaviest tripod because mine would sink half way in the sand even before I attached my camera and that’s another story. Note to self, get a friggen camera backpack and not carry 2 camera bags one of which is an ice cooler converted to a camera bag. I can’t believe how hard I was huffing and puffing moving from one location to another. The dunes were pretty and I had plenty of time to observe them because I had to stop and catch my breath every few feet or so. I think I took some decent photos at least I hope so. One last surprise near the end when I was making my way to my van, the moon popped out. It was gorgeous, so big, and incredible.

When I got to the van it was 7:00 pm. I was too tired to go to the restaurant and get some food so I had to come up with another solution. There’s a little store where I was camped at and they served fountain soda. I brought some seven up with me so I figured I’ll go to the store and see if I can get a cup with some ice in it so I can make myself a VO seven. The guy at the counter said sure no problem, help yourself. This was a big mistake, I was just going to get a small cup, but since he was so generous I took a 24 oz cup and filled it with ice. When I got to the van, I naturally filled it half way with VO and filled the remainder with 7up. Now that my beverage is solved what to eat, I recalled that I bought some cookies in Bishop, my dilemma is solved. For dinner I had cookies and VO. Not bad, but definitely not as good as pesto pizza and VO, that was the best.

The next morning I woke up with a slight headache, I could only attribute that to the desert heat. I will say one thing, I slept well. Algis out.