California Love

I've had a lot of mixed feelings the last few weeks.  So take a look at these California love based pictures.  On film.  As they should be.  Courtesy of my Olympus OM-2n.

holga.8

Are you guys enjoying my film? Aside from my 365 project it’s the majority of what I’ve been shooting lately. I still have a backlog of digital to share, but I just haven’t gotten around to those yet.

This is another Holga picture, as the name would indicate. I feel like my blog posts, aside from the photos, has been boring lately. Not much funny. I’ll work on that. It stems from me not preparing posts in advance. I need to step it up. But for now, there’s just this Holga.

The Ocean

Geez I love the ocean. This is one of my favorite Holga pictures I’ve taken. Something about it works well for me. I don’t think the ocean will ever get old to me. I’d live on a yacht in the ocean if I had the means. I’d spend my days puttering up and down the coast; docking at other cities and spending some time sightseeing. West coast, east coast, Mediterranean Sea. Any would be right for me.

Catching Some Sunset

This is from about a month ago when I went to the beach after work one night with a friend.  It’s just a nice Wednesday night sunset at the beach.  And people doing some minor rock climbing to get a good view.  I did a little climbing earlier too, but went back just in time for this silhouette sunset.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:07 6:18 PM
Exposure time	1/50 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	+1

Splash!

I took this last Friday when I went down to the beach after work.  After this week, I probably need to do that again.  And I’m sure you have questions.  Did I get wet? Yes.  Did I clean my camera and lens really well?  Yes, always after the beach.  Did I fall in the ocean?  No, not yet, and hopefully never do.  Do I love going to the beach?  ¡Absolutamente!

There’s something I really like about square photographs.  They’re great.  But what’s the deal with “standard” size photo frames?  If you want a square frame, you won’t be able to get it at Hobby Lobby unless you build a custom frame.  You can order them online, but most of the websites I’ve seen that have them for sale don’t have good preview pictures of the wood.  For all I know I’m getting some cheap frame made out of plywood.  And how is their quality control?  Most of the frames I see in stores have defects; are these online stores the same way?

I guess I’ll figure out a way around it if I ever want to hang a square photo.  I think you’ll be seeing more natively square photos soon though… wink wink

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:16 5:57 PM
Exposure time	1/80 sec
Focal length	10mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Small Feet

I took my first mid-week-after-work trip to the beach last week.  It was awesome; I definitely am going to have to do that more often.  How can I resist?  Corona Del Mar (my favorite) was the destination, and it did not disappoint.  I only had my 50mm lens with me, but that was OK because it got me thinking about different kinds of compositions.  Here’s the first of a few I liked.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:07 6:43 PM
Exposure time	1/60 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Stop Motion

I really dig this photo.  I took a few similar ones but this one stood out because of the water movement in the background.  Of all the pictures I took this was the only one where the water got high enough to run down the rocks in the back.  I took this at sundown at the Little Corona part of Corona Del Mar Beach (my favorite!), so I was able to get this sweet two second exposure without any filters.

It amazes me how many times I’ve been here and had someone ask what I’m taking pictures of, or why I’m taking pictures.  It happens elsewhere too, but these times have been the most recent.  I never know exactly how to respond because I don’t want to sound like a jerk and say ‘uhh, because I like taking pictures’ so I usually manage some variation that comes off in a pleasant manner.  I should start making up stories about why I’m taking pictures; the more outrageous the better.  I’ll let you know how that goes, but until then, enjoy this!

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:02:13 5:47PM
Exposure time	2 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Little Corona's Rocks

Well I caught some flak from my aunt this weekend for not posting enough photos from California, so, by popular demand, here is another photograph from California!  I got a 10-stop neutral density filter for Christmas and this is exactly what I wanted it for.  This type of filter is very dark and reduces the amount of light that gets through the lens to the camera’s sensor, allowing for long exposures during the day.  The results, as seen below, are pretty cool when photographing moving water.  I took this at Little Corona Beach, which is part of the larger Corona Del Mar Beach in Orange County.  Corona Del Mar is quickly becoming my favorite; I actually went there again this weekend and did some shooting (this photo is about a month old).  There are lots of pretty rocks and tide pools, so there are plenty of subjects for photos.  I took this one near sunset, so I got a lot of warm sunsetty colors.

As you can see from the EXIF info below, this was a 30 second exposure.  I did some editing in Photoshop to get the colors and a few other things exactly how I wanted them.  This was really my first attempt at shooting with this filter and I’m pretty happy with the results.

Exif Information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:01:22 15:33
Exposure time	30 sec
Focal length	10mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0