FOTOMike

Easyriders Bike Show Tour, Sacramento 2011

2011-01-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

Steve Miller Band - Raley Field, July 17, 2010

2010-07-18T02:41:00.000-07:00

The Absolutes - Debut Performance

2010-07-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Click on any picture to bring up high-resolution rendering...

Tesla Motors Roadster - All Electric

2010-05-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Shot from my iPhone on Madison Ave., Citrus Heights.
License Plate reads: ACPOWRD

Easyriders Bike Show Tour - Sacramento 2010

2010-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

Chicago

2009-11-16T17:47:00.001-08:00

Mountain High

2009-07-06T22:36:00.001-07:00

Another Shot of Another Bridge

2009-07-04T23:55:00.001-07:00

Another Bridge

2009-07-01T10:28:00.001-07:00

(A Tale of) Two Old Bridges

2009-06-11T00:56:00.000-07:00

The Old Hirschdale Bridge (decommissioned)

The Rainbow Bridge (still in use)

HDR

2009-06-09T16:46:00.001-07:00

Many moons

2009-05-27T22:12:00.001-07:00

Moon Beams

2009-02-07T13:17:00.001-08:00

2009 Easyriders V-Twin Bike Show Tour - Sacramento

2009-01-16T23:43:00.001-08:00

New Years Day Ride - 2009

2009-01-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Street Vibrations Reno, Fall 2008

2008-11-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

Preparedness

2008-08-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is why I always have a camera with me.

Click on the picture to see why that camera should always be kept clean!

Yosemite, Harleys and Good Friends

2008-05-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

Muscle

2008-03-09T13:11:00.001-07:00

Feelin' a little squirrelly

2008-03-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

2008 Easyriders V-Twin Bike Show Tour - Sacramento

2008-01-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

Heeeere's Johnny

2007-11-30T14:15:00.001-08:00

Guitarman

2007-11-30T14:09:00.001-08:00

After the tourists are gone...

2007-11-12T19:07:00.001-08:00

Killer Journalism

2007-10-16T15:20:00.001-07:00

E.V.O.C.

2007-10-11T22:07:00.001-07:00

Future Groom

2007-10-09T16:58:00.001-07:00

Boss Hoss and Kat

2007-09-28T13:17:00.001-07:00

Physics Major

2007-09-19T23:07:00.001-07:00

They Say it's Only...

2007-09-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Spinning Wheel

2007-09-11T17:14:00.001-07:00

Two Bridges

2007-09-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

Shot on Film.

Hanging by a wire...

2007-08-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

In response to a request from a friend...

This guy is having a really bad day.

2007-08-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

Another Tesla Concert - More Tesla Concert Pics

2007-08-18T00:47:00.000-07:00

Base Hit

2007-08-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

21-Gun Salute

2007-08-03T10:18:00.001-07:00

Donner Lake, Part Deux

2007-07-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

Cousins

2007-07-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

All of the girls here are girlfriends of either my boys or my nephews. The two boys on the far right are my youngest two... Timmy with his girlfriend Jordan (far right) and Matthew with his girlfriend Tiffany (next to Timmy). This is not a complete set of first cousins, but for this age group, it is pretty complete.

Basking on a rock. South fork of the American River, Coloma.

My Bike

2007-07-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

Now my "old" bike - it has been upgraded...

The Fourth at Sunrise Mall

2007-07-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

Even a Parade Must Wait for a Train...

2007-07-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Y & T at the Boardwalk - Sacramento

2007-06-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

You Really Wouldn't Believe Me...

2007-06-22T00:40:00.001-07:00

My Little Orange Visitor

2007-06-17T14:53:00.001-07:00

My Backyard

2007-06-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty cool bike...

2007-06-10T15:28:00.001-07:00

Comin' Atcha Live!

2007-06-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Tesla - Sacramento Free Concert
May 31, 2007

Stump

2007-05-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

For Sale

2007-05-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

2004 Toyota Corolla. Runs Great.

Idiot!

2007-05-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken just down the street from my home yesterday. This is the result of mixing way too much accelerator, a 17 year-old driver and not too much gray matter. Guess what I named the subdirectory for these pics?

Sacramento State

2007-05-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

STEPCHILD

2007-05-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

Freedom

2007-05-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Photogenic

2007-05-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

This is a Mighty Big Place

2007-05-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

The Northern California Coast.

Approximately 12:30 p.m. Early May. Beautiful!

Train Depot

2007-05-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

Fannette Island, Emerald Bay - Lake Tahoe

2007-04-29T00:54:00.000-07:00

Click here for a cool interactive view from the island.

This was taken from the Tahoe's West Shore, peeking through the trees.

My New Toy

2007-04-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

2007 Toyota Camry SE V6

Canon EOS 300D, f 3.5 @ 1/500, ISO 100, 21 mm

High Wires

2007-04-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Almost Too Natural

2007-04-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

Rose Garden

2007-04-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

These came with the house. There are purple ones, red ones, yellow ones, white ones... pink, there's a whole bunch of them!

2 South, California State University, Sacramento Library

2007-04-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

THIS IS A HARLEY

2007-04-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

Another Rail

2007-04-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

Cold Rails

2007-04-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

35 mm black and white scanned negative. Canon AE-1P, ISO 100, 50 mm f22 @ 1/60

Bay Bridges

2007-03-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco and San Pablo Bays have a number of bridge crossings. I was fortunate enough today to be called on an unplanned trip from my home in Sacramento to Redwood City - not far from my home town. There are many ways to get from here to there, and at least two don't involve any major bridges at all. Indeed, if I was in a hurry, I probably would have chosen one of these routes. But I wasn't... and I made a few stops along the way. I should add that my friend Carmi and his recent post of the Golden Gate Bridge served to motivate me to revisit these structures.

This is the Carquinez Bridge. The cantilever bridge in the center was the first major bridge in the Bay Area. It was built in 1927 and is currently being demolished (the portion closest has already been removed... only the pier is left). The suspension bridge was completed in 2003 to replace it. The other cantilever bridge was completed in 1958 and served eastbound traffic. Since 1958, the old bridged served westbound only until it was replaced by the suspension bridge.

And this, of course, is the Golden Gate Bridge. It was taken from the parking lot of Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley. That's all I'm going to say - this bridge can speak for herself.

This is the Catilever portion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. This is the section that was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The new bridge under construction will eventually replace it. It is way behind schedule and way over budget.

And finally, the suspension portion of the Bay Bridge. Although she sometimes languishes in the shadow of her world famous neighbor to the north and west, this bridge is every bit as impressive - and just as important. This shot, the previous and the next were all taken from the Treasure Island Naval Base.

Y'all know where this is!

Yuba River

2007-03-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

This was shot on 35 mm black and white and scanned into my MacBook Pro using a Canon CanoScan scanner with a film attachment. The Camera I used? Also made by Canon more than 25 years ago, an AE-1 Program. I used a 50 mm lens set at probably f/22 with a relatively long exposure (probably 1/30 or 1/15) , a tripod and a remote shutter release.

More Long Exposures

2007-03-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

These two shots were taken with the camera placed on my dashboard with the remote shutter release in my hand.

This was on Interstate 80 somewhere in between Colfax and Auburn. The elevation here is probably about 2,000 feet. At the moment, I was the only one within site traveling westbound, but there were a few vehicles traveling eastbound on the other side of the center divider. The blue and red lights are from a California Highway Patrol cruiser that had a vehicle pulled over - probably for speeding but I didn't stop to ask!

I think this is the intersection of Douglas Blvd. and Sierra College Blvd. I opened the shutter while approaching the yellow light and closed it not long after starting again from the green light. Although the road is pretty smooth here, the camera still picked up every little bump.

The Jewel of the Sierra

2007-03-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

I shot this picture late this afternoon. I was standing on the beach of Lake Tahoe's North Shore looking west towards the setting sun. I couldn't even begin guess how many times I've been to the lake, yet every time - every single time I crest Brockway Summit, or Echo Summit, or which ever way I happen to be entering the Tahoe Basin, she takes my breath away. This is, in my humble opinion, among Mother Nature's greatest wonders. There is no wrong time to photograph this lake. It is impossible to for her to take a bad picture.

And on the way home, some long exposures...

This is from the vista point at the top of Yuba Gap. Most of the people who stop here do it during the day and enjoy the natural scenery facing away from Interstate 80. Of course, at night there is precious little to see unless one allows for a very long exposure and a little patience. Each of these shots had shutter speeds in excess of one minute - and it's cold once the sun goes down at 5,000 feet. It was worth it, however... don't you think?

California Capitol Building

2007-03-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

South Fork, Yuba River

2007-03-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Aftermath

2007-03-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

The Union Pacific trestle fire in Sacramento.

Folsom Lake

2007-03-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

Alpine Hall

2007-03-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Foresthill Bridge

2007-03-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

Oh Yes They Are!

2007-03-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

While I was setting up to shoot some pictures of the Truckee River last Saturday, these tourists (I know that's an assumption, but having lived there for five years, an accurate one I believe), just couldn't wait, I guess. I couldn't have planned this if I tried. They looked over, sort of chuckled nervously (I do have photographic evidence of a misdemeanor in progress - complete with a license plate number), and sped away. I could have protected their identity and blurred the license plate, but I am under no obligation to do so - so I didn't. You just never know who will have a camera these days.

Cross-posted on The 25 Year Plan

In No Hurry

2007-03-07T00:36:00.000-08:00

Donner Lake

2007-03-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

Some shots just speak for themselves...
This is one of them.

A Very Long Train

2007-03-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

Self Portrait

2007-03-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

Scanned From a Negative

2007-03-03T04:13:00.000-08:00

Shades of Gray

2007-03-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

Twilight

2007-02-28T22:49:00.000-08:00

This is Mendocino Hall at Sacramento State. This newer five-story building is home to the school of journalism. The image was shot with a Canon Digital EOS Rebel (300D) and a Sigma Compact Hyperzoom 28-200mm lens. According to the metadata provided by Apple Aperture, it was shot at ISO 400 with a focal length of 90mm. The aperture was set at f/9 and the shutter speed was 1/80 of a second. Actually, since I was shooting in manual mode, I knew what the settings (except for the focal length) were without the help of Aperture. The view here is exactly as it came from the camera, no alterations were made.

This building is white. At least it was earlier in the day. The angle of the sun in the sky combined with the threatening storm clouds produced this eerie effect - and it only existed for a moment. I could not reproduce the shot just one minute later. A cloud moved or the sun dipped just low enough to produce only a light orange tint - but nothing this ominous. I often marvel at how the lighting at this time of day can so profoundly change the appearance of an otherwise ordinary building.

College Life

2007-02-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

An Angry Sky

2007-02-26T23:07:00.000-08:00

Sugar Bowl

2007-02-25T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is the newest part of one of the county's oldest ski areas. It was founded by Walt Disney and others and one of the main peaks bears his name. This is the Mount Judah base. My youngest son and I spent the day here Saturday in between storms. The burgundy Burton snowboard (the one with all the snow on it) is mine.

And this is my youngest boy. I put him on skis when he was about five. He's 17 now. We switched to snowboarding within a year or two after he started skiing. He's a pretty good snowboarder, and not old like me!

New and Old

2007-02-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

I got a couple of new toys today. The first allowed me to get the shot below. I don't have a macro lens for my Canon Digital Rebel, but I do for the AE-1 Program (pictured below). When Canon changed to the EF lens mount for its EOS cameras, it meant that the older FD style lenses would not be compatible. For a short while, Canon made adapters, but that was a long while ago. However, third party manufacturers still do and I just received mine in the mail. There is no auto anything when using the adapter and there is a loss if one f-stop, but with an FD f 1:1.4 lens, I can afford it. And of course, now I can use the macro, the zoom, the extension tube and all the other FD lenses as well.

The other toy I got was Apple's Aperture. This photo management program does so much more than I have yet learned to, but I am anxious to get on it. The Aperture product manager from Apple gave a free seminar on the main features at Sacramento State yesterday. As a token of Apple's appreciation, all attendees received a free, fully functioning, non-demo and "not for resale" version of Aperture. That's a $150 value - and money I probably would have spent on this package eventually. Below is the same shot with a few tweaks. I was just playing around - I have no idea what I did. The cool thing is that the original "master" has remained unchanged. All of the alterations are saved in a much smaller file and applied when the image is rendered. I think I'm going to like Aperture.

Classical Glass

2007-02-22T00:18:00.000-08:00

This is the set up I've been shooting black and white with. Soon, I'll be posting some of the shots taken with this old but very functional equipment. The pictures are all developed, processed and printed by yours truly. Until the print hits the scanner bed, there is not a digital bit to be found. In the darkroom - with all the attendant odors and sounds - it's a creative experience completely different than tweaking histograms with a computer. It's painting with light and no two prints ever come out the same.

What's Up??

2007-02-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

STROKE!

2007-02-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Pole Sitters

2007-02-19T00:42:00.000-08:00

The Tower Bridge

2007-02-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

This draw bridge was built in 1935. I'll not go into its history here as a thorough account of its creation along with old black and whites can be found here. I knew that this was a functional draw bridge, but I had no idea how often it actually got used as such. Although I have lived in the Sacramento area now for about four years and I've driven over it a few times, this is the first time I have actually "visited" the bridge. As luck would have it, the Spirit of Sacramento was chugging upstream while I was shooting. This shot (above) is looking from Sacramento across the river to West Sacramento.

In this shot (above), the center section of the bridge has been raised up high so that the riverboat could pass underneath. Large commercial shipping vessels don't travel this part of the river due the completion of the deep water shipping channel in 1963 and because the location of the Port of Sacramento is downstream from here, on the shipping channel. However, horns, bells and alarms sound occasionally to alert pedestrians and motorists that a larger vessels is approaching and the bridge will be momentarily unavailable.

After allowing the Spirit of Sacramento to pass safely, the bridge re-assembles itself so that cars, bicycles and pedestrians can do the same. The next shot shows the barricades sliding back into the roadbed waiting their next call to action. There is a sign mid-span, above the sidewalk that states:

WARNING
GET BEYOND GATE
WHEN BELL RINGS

Next time, I think I'm going to ride it up!

Folsom Bridges

2007-02-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

This is the Lake Natoma Crossing, shot from the north side of the Rainbow Bridge. I like the way the bridge's lights reflect off the American River just as it becomes Lake Natoma. The Nimbus Dam (featured in previous posts) is responsible for creating this lake. Both the dam and its reservoir are significantly smaller than is upstream neighbors - Folsom Dam and the reservoir bearing the same name, Folsom Lake.

This shot was taken from the same spot, I just turned about 90 degrees to the left. The southern part of the much older Rainbow Bridge can be seen on the left side of the utility pole (as always, clicking on the image will make it way bigger). Up the road is the old part of Folsom. The Lake Natoma Crossing, completed in 1999, was built to help alleviate the traffic congestion on the almost 90 year-old, two-lane Rainbow Bridge. Both of these shots were taken using entirely manual settings, including the focus.

Spill Way

2007-02-12T22:01:00.000-08:00

Eighteen Dollars

2007-02-11T01:10:00.000-08:00

Which is $13 more than I left with and $12 less than I started with. Probably the cheapest three hours of entertainment there is!

Pump House

2007-02-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

Some of the drinking water for the greater Sacramento area comes from this spot on the American River. The water is drawn out of the river and then processed in a plant just adjacent to California State University, Sacramento. The water comes down from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the two forks of the American River, ending up in Folsom Lake. The water continues through the Folsom Dam into Lake Natomas before exiting through the Nimbus Dam. The confluence of the American River and the Sacramento River is not too far downstream from this pump. From there the water enters the Delta before flowing to the Pacific Ocean through San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay and finally out through the Golden Gate.

Do you ever wonder about the journy of one drop of water?

Canadian Visitors

2007-02-08T16:50:00.000-08:00

Top Side

2007-02-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

Foot Bridge

2007-02-06T21:34:00.000-08:00