Soccer Field Photo Shoot

Working with Dan from KDKC Photography shooting tons of soccer kids Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. Yesterday was 9-11 & 6-8 year olds. Today is the older kids, 11-14 year olds, and tomorrow is the real little ones 3-5 year olds. (that should be a fun time!)

Crazy Dogs Open House

Beardie's and other breeds showed up for a weekend of sheep herding and competition training!

I had the opportunity to take photos for 2 days of dog training and competition testing and training this weekend. Thank you for sharing Sara Goodman, DogTrainer.

Herding Training Center

Call Sara @ 760-505-4796 or SaraM.Goodman@gmail.com

See more @ GAphotoArt.com

Friday Night Lights

It's always fun shooting high school varsity football!

These are local High School teams that I photograph. I photograph most of the Orange Glen Varsity football home games and a few select away games.

Orange Glen @ San Marcos

OG is from Escondido, San Diego, CA (Blue & White)

San Marcos, (Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness) is a neighboring town which makes most games really exciting?

See more @ GAphotoArt.com

2013 Color Run San Diego, CA

The big day has finally arrived!

October 12, 2013 my wife and daughter ran in the 5k Color Run in San Diego, California. Neither of them have ever run in any sort of running event before today. They have been training for a few months and the event finally came. They had such a fun time that they can't wait to do it again. I didn't run but took photos of the entire event. Here are just a few of the many pictures available to download on my site at:   GAphotoArt

Big Brothers, Big Sisters of San Diego County is the charity the Color Run is supporting with your donations towards this event. Click the link below to learn more about them.

BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY

Friends running together

People of all ages run

Friends running together

Back Home

It was a great trip!                       

It has been a week now and things are back to normal. I edited all of the photos that I had taken while I was away in the High Sierra Mountains. I published the photos to my web site and a few to my instagram account. 

• Wednesday- Help Dan with a Photo Booth shot at a local high school.
• Friday- is Orange Glen at San Marcos football
• Saturday- I shoot the San Diego 5K Color Run

I will post pictures here after each event so come back again soon.

Bridgeport, California

27 Degrees in California ?

I stayed at the Bridgeport Inn, in Bridgeport, California. Just 25-30 miles from Bodie and Mono Lake. Nice place but I was freezing, all night. I am or was a New York boy but my blood has thinned living in my warm San Diego climate.

I decided very quickly that I don't like cold weather any more.They, (Bridgeport people), didn't seem to think it was to cold at all. Every place I would go I would start my conversation with, "Wow, it's freezing here!" They would just look at me funny and continue with what they where doing.

I couldn't warm up all night and when I left in the morning my car had frost on the roof and my windshield washers where frozen! I looked at my iphone and the temperature was 27 degrees! I put the heater on full blast and couldn't wait for it to warm up my car. I stopped at the Shell station for gas and I  tried to tell him how cold it was but he just mumbled something under his breath.

Photo from Google images 2013.

Mono Lake

Mono Lake "What the hell is that smell?"

Just off the 395 in Mono County there is a huge lake, heading North, on the East side of the road. Mono Lake is a saline soda lake that was formed about 760,000 years ago. There is no outlet to the ocean so as a result, the level of salt that accumulates in the lake is extreme.

The first thing I clearly noticed was the strong smell of dead fish or dead something! It got worse the closer I got to the lakes edge. There were spots along the shore that looked firm but when you stepped on them, you started to sink into the salty, smelly earth! The black sand that is close to the water in the photos, is actually black flies! Did I say smelly!

When I first drove by, I thought it was frozen with mounds of ice piled up along the shores. When I went back the next day and walked down to check it out, and take photos, I realized that it was mountains of salt that had created huge towering salt sculptures off shore and along the coastline.

It's really kind of beautiful to look at in a very odd sort of way so I had to take a few pictures to take home with me. As I walked back up the path to my car, three more photographers where heading down to take photos.

I did an image search for "Mono Lake" and found a picture of a wedding couple standing in this water.

After my description above do I need to say anything else!

Salt towers up from the water like glaciers.

Millions of flies line the shores!

I Love Rust!

I love rust!

There is something about rusty things, cars, machine parts, farming equipment and all the nuts and bolts that I love taking photos of. Here is more of Rusty Bodie. 

Ghost Town from Hell!

History of Bodie, CA "Ghost Town"

Bodie was a gold mining town that started in the mid 1880's by a man named Bodey. The spelling was changed when a sign painter misspelled it and was never changed. This gold mining town was the home of as many as 10,000 people during its hey days. The mine produced millions of dollars in gold during its years of operation.

It had the reputation of being the closest thing to hell! 

There were killings there almost everyday. Over 60 saloons on Main street, gambling halls, women of the night and everything else you could imagine.

2 major fires destroyed 2/3 of the town. Today, only 1/3 of the town still remains in a frozen "State of Arrested Decay". In 1964 it became a California State Park, that is protected from the outside world.

It is a 13 mile drive off Route 395. The first 3 miles are smooth sailing and all of a sudden, you are back in the Old West driving on a dirt road with potholes and rocks everywhere. (This is no exaggeration!)

Amazing!

This place is amazing!

It's a photographers dream come true! A least for me that is! Actually there where photographers everywhere on Sunday morning. I was at the rangers station at about 8:40 am just waiting for the place to open at 9am sharp.

I wanted to get a chance to take photos without the crowds of people walking into my view and having to wait for the right moment to come. It wasn't long, after I parked my car, and started walking towards the location, I had been eyeing up the day before, that a line of cars and trucks rolled into the place.

I was in my own world and nothing could stop me from getting the shots I wanted.

The day was calm and clear and there were even white clouds in the sky, which is rare for California! What a day, what a wonderful day!


SPECIAL NOTE:
Nikon D600 let me down when I got home and processed these pictures from Bodie.
Most pictures had spots on the left top corner which is caused by oil that is coming off the shutter. It is a Nikon issues with this camera! I will have to have it cleaned before using it again!

Heading to Bodie, CA

Well, it's just a week away

and I ask my wife if we have anything planned for the weekend of September 28th-29th. She looks at me and already sees my wheels turning! I tell her about my plans to go 565 miles North to Bridgeport, California.

I was going to leave early Saturday morning, head up to Bodie for a day of photographing, go 30 more miles to the nearest town, Bridgeport, and stay overnight there. The next day, get up early and be the first one on line in Bodie for more photographs and head back home around noon. I figured I would be in my driveway by 8pm. Not bad for a photography weekend of fun!

Photo Road Trip

I had been planning a photo adventure for a few months... 

My plan was to start traveling up the coastline of California, stopping along the way at Santa Monica Pier, Morro Bay, Rocky Creek Bridge, 17 mile drive, Rodeo Beach, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco and go East across to Bridgeport and Bodie, California. It is a 1,400 mile trip!

Needless to say, I just couldn't find enough time or money to trek myself all that way this year. The warmer Summer weather was coming to a close and the couple of days I alotted was just not enough to take my time to photograph everything I wanted to photograph. I wanted to be at some of these locations at sunrise and sunset and into the night time hours. It would have taken a week between traveling and looking for the perfect spots at the right times to take pictures.

I ended up changing my plans for this year and going straight to Bridgeport and Bodie, CA.

Watch for more about my Bodie adventure!