Target practice

I was bored waiting for the start of a golf match so I though why not get in a little practice follow focusing? There were a number of dragonflies buzzing about so I aimed my 300mm along their flight path and fired away.

I learned two things right way; dragonflies are quick little devils and they never fly straight and level for more than a few seconds before they make a radical course change.  Anyhow it was good practice to keep my fingers nimble on the focusing collar.

Back to business

It's been a while since I have posted here, things happened that preoccupied my life.  The passing of my mother, a change at work, things spiraled out of my control until I landed here, right now.

This blog has become a collection of random thoughts and experiences from work.  My hiking photography has found another venue and I decided to resurrect this blog instead of abandoning it.

So after months of standing still I'll try to bring a glimpse of work life to these pages.  It's never a dull day on assignment, well almost never.

Drive by

I snapped this shot as a possible cover for a special section for the Patterson, Ca paper.  This shot is the wrong shape for the section but I love the lines, the feeling of movement and receding shapes from the palm trees. That and it has a sweet looking Model T car.

Lady liberty

Sometimes you just have to smile on assignment.  I was assigned to take some pictures for a tax filing season story and turned my camera on the woman trying to get customers for Liberty Tax Service. Since mid-January someone stands on the sidewalk of 11th Street near Lincoln Boulevard trying to drum up some tax return business. On the day I went by Carole Angulo dressed as the Statue of Liberty and her dog, Conchita, waved to cars passing by on 11th Street.
 

Crash landing

It seems like have a specialty for capturing moments in sporting events that don't go quite as planned.  This shot is part of a motor-drive sequence of an outfielder's attempt to capture a fly ball to shallow center field.  The player just missed the ball on his diving attempt.  I don't use autofocus on my camera and this was the only frame that was sharp as I pulled the focus following his run for the ball.  Sometimes I just get lucky I guess.

A change in programing

Due to some upcoming projects I have underway in the near futureI have had to make a change to my blogging.  I have started a new blog Through the Viewfinder to follow my photography adventures on the trail and elsewhere except at work.  All work discussions will remain here on the Snapshots blog.

Everything at Through the Viewfinder is my own personal content with no connection to the Tracy Press.  Please feel free to follow along with my hiking, aviation and other photography adventures at the new blog site.

Something fishy

Of all the things you would expect to find at the Tracy Animal Shelter a 3-foot long leopard shark isn't one of them.  The fish was found lying in the middle of Chrisman Road early Tuesday morning.

You can read the whole story here and by the time I arrived at the shelter the shark was lying quietly in the freezer to sleep with the rest of the fishes.  Never a dull day in Tracy for sure.

36

I remember the old days of photography, a fresh roll of Tri-X ,my Nikon FM and a nice sunny day made for some photography adventures.  Digital photography and the high capacity memory cards and live view photography has taken away some of the magic.  Blast away as many frames as you can and look almost instantly to see what your picture looks like.  That anticipation of waiting to see your negatives fresh out of the film developing tank is gone. Almost gone.

Enter the iPhone app 36.  This is a pretty cool idea.  It simulates a single roll of film.  You have 36 frames in black and white to take.  You can't see what the pictures look like until you have finished taking all 36 and even then the camera "develops" the pictures one by one.  This is not a blaze away for instant gratification of your images.  This is old school photography of sorts.

I headed out for this weekend's hike to Round Valley.  I decided to link two trails together for about an mile trip.  I would start out along the Miwok Trail to the Murphy Meadow loop and the finish with a climb along hardy Canyon.  With just my iPhone I would use the 36 app to record the hike.

I have a bunch of photography apps from panorama to Hipsmatic but 36 seemed different.  Not looking at the pictures until you are done with 36 images sounded the most interesting.  I wouldn't be able to check lighting, composition or focus , I would have to go with my gut instinct.

And then there was the fact that I would be limiting myself to 36 exposures.  Sure I could shoot more than one "roll" of film but it was the concept of like the old days, a limited number of frames available.  I would have to be choosy, more deliberate and certainly more careful in my selection of subject material.

I did a pretty good job of conserving my film.  I tried to stay away from the sweeping vistas of the countryside as much as I could and stick with studies of textures and lighting.  Looking back the app does not do the best of jobs with shadow detail but it sort of adds a vintage look.

I finished my last exposure near the end of my hike and then let the iPhone begin the laborious process of developing my shoot.  Honestly they could have made it a lot quicker but I guess they wanted to keep the idea of sending it out to processing  so you couldn't look at the pictures right away.

On the plus side part of the app's coolness is a contact sheet that pops up ready to send to your photo album, Facebook or Twitter account.  It looks a lot like the contact sheets from my black and white days in the darkroom.

Looking back at the hike with the 36 app it really did force me to slow down and think about my pictures more before I took them.  I had to think about which composition and angle worked the best or i would have to sacrifice two or more frames on the same scene, which I had to do a couple of times.

I will use the 36 app more in the future, it is a great way to make yourself slow down and think about your photography.  It would be nice if they could make a version of 36 to simulate a roll of Kodachrome slide film.  That would be a fun time remembering those colorful day behind the lens.