More of the Queen Mary

Some more photos of our visit to the Queen Mary ship in Long Beach, CA.  I wanted to capture some details of the boat that you might exactly expect.  The first image is a glass case with rolled up flags. 

Almost the weekend

The week is almost done and so am I.  Looking forward to catching up on posting and hopefully not working over the weekend.  Here's an image I shot with my Hasselblad film camera at the South Coast Botanical Garden. 

TGIF

You know those weeks where you've been wanting to say, "TGIF," all week long?  Well, this happened to be one of those weeks for me.  I survived a busy week at work and am looking forward to catching up on my photography!  For real, this time.  I've actually been shooting quite a bit but haven't had a chance to post anything online but I'll be back in action this weekend.  Also rented a 150 mm Hasselblad lens and I'm excited to test it out!

Have a great weekend.

Monday Blues

Is it really just Monday?  I realize I'm saying this just after a weekend but I wasn't quite ready for the weekend to be over.  We were hit with some heavy rain and thunderstorms/lightning late last week but luckily the storms left before the weekend.  Thunderstorms near the coast part of LA are very rare - I think the last time I heard it thunder was 3 years ago!  Anyway, hope this image will bring to cheer to your Monday.

Garden of Plenty

Even in the middle of winter, the vegetables are ready for picking in Los Angeles.

Here are some photos from the vegetable garden in the South Coast Botanical Garden in Palos Verdes, CA.

 

Garden Stroll

 

 

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  ~Walt Whitman

A Blend of Seasons

Last weekend I went to the South Coast Botanical Garden and was surprised to see it in full bloom.  It was a bit fantastical because I saw everything from flowering trees, poinsettias, and a few colored leaves that had yet to fall from otherwise barren branches.  Here are a few photos...I'll post more over the weekend. 

 

 

 

 

Busy Bee

 

As mentioned yesterday, I participated in a food blogging workshop this past Saturday.  It was a lot of fun and inspiring learning from Christina Peters and Amy Paliwoda.  We learned about lighting, lensing, composition, and food styling/propping tricks.  Not to mention, Christina gave us some helpful PhotoShop tricks on color correction, optimizing images for the web and my new favorite filter - the unsharpen tool.  I sort of forgot about this tool but it really helps to add some crispness to your images.  

Christina and Amy provided us with a selection of food items and props to choose from which was great - I think it helped me focus a lot more on the photography aspect instead of worrying about where to find my next recipe!  So many cookbooks, so little time.  :-)  The products ranged from lovely French macaroons, rustic breads, jams, vegetables, cheese, etc. 

My love for peanut butter and honey sandwiches rivals that of Elvis (I like it with bananas too but didn't include them in the shot) and thought it would be a fun challenge - especially since I wanted to capture the honey pouring onto the bread. 

Thanks again to Christina and Amy for making this such a wonderful class.  I'm hoping to sign up for another one and highly recommend it for anyone looking to gain more experience shooting food.

Here's another link to the class information:  http://www.mdrphotographyclasses.com/

MDR Photography Food Blogging Class!

Hope you all had a great weekend!  On Saturday, I participated in a food blogging class in Marina Del Rey, CA hosted by commercial photographer Christina Peters.  It was amazing and I'm super excited to show you some pictures and share what I learned. 

I'll be posting images tomorrow but in the meantime, if you want to check out any of her upcoming classes, you can do so here.

Happy Monday!

Before Sunset

Here are a few more of my favorite shots from our beach outing in Palos Verdes.

Winter Sunset

 

Here are some photos from last weekend's beach excursion.  It was amazing to see how the sunset bathed the landscape with a golden glow.

More Beach Life Images...

 

 

A Second Glance

 

I took this photo this past Autumn and didn't really think much of it but as I was going through all my images, I took a second look and really started to love it.  I'm digging the cool shadows.  Sometimes all it takes is a second glance.

Flower Power

Some graphic photos I shot at The South Coast Botanical Garden....

 

NY, NY

Here are a few more images from the streets of NY....I mean Universal Studios.

 

NY State of Mind

 

Shooting at the backlot in Universal Studios!  It was basically an all-access pass to check out all the cool sets.  We shot in the NYC section and rented a few taxis for our shot.

Winter in the Desert

Wow.  Between the Thanksgiving holiday and a photo shoot I just produced, it's been quite busy so my apologies for the silence.  As mentioned, this past week I was on location around LA and Palm Springs.  My day job involves producing photo shoots for Deutsch, an advertising agency in Los Angeles.   I produce print ads that you've probably seen in billboards, magazines, posters, subway cars, brochures and the web for clients like VW, PlayStation, HTC, Fresh & Easy grocery store, California Milk, etc.  It's fun, challenging, and often gives me the opportunity to travel a bit.

Last Thursday we drove to Palm Springs and shot on a strip of roadway between the wind turbines.  They're pretty awesome and HUGE.  I didn't have time to whip out my fancy camera so I thought it would be fun to try out some of the cool apps that I have on my Android phone.

More photos of my trip to come....

72 and Sunny

If you live in California or have visited, you might be familiar with the saying that the weather is always "72 and sunny."  It really holds true and this Thanksgiving holiday, it didn't let us down.  The weather couldn't have been better.  I sometimes wonder why we even have folks who forecast the weather here.  Anyway, here are some photos of the rocky coastline and beach area in Palos Verdes, CA.  If you love to hike and ride your bike, this is a great place to enjoy an afternoon.