A friend that was staying at my house and I decided to catch him off guard and use him as my video test subject. First time ever editing and posting a video on my D90.

So I know I failed and left the links unattached to a lot of my photo albums for a long long time, but I got off my butt and fixed them. So you can enjoy all the beauty of the world again. Look forward to some new stuff coming up from San Francisco, Chicago, and the famous scenic coastal drive down Hwy 1.

Click here to view my photos of the Academy

So I finally got to go to the California Academy of Sciences last weekend. It was a lot of fun. We drove up from San Diego up the 5 and stayed at a friends place. We went on a Saturday when it wasn’t too busy, but when I arrived I was told that the Planetarium was sold out for the day. big bummer. I was really looking forward to that most of all.

My evaluation of the place. The building is wonderful and just great in its design. The exhibits were nicely done. The rain forest was an unexpected surprise for someone who enjoys photography like I do. Lots of cool flowers and butterflies to capture there.

Steinhart Aquarium left me torn. I think the exhibits were some of the best I’ve seen in all the aquariums I’ve gone to. They have great aquascape and plenty of exhibits for you to see. A nice selection of fish, though there was nothing breathtaking like the huge fat morish idols of the Long Beach Aquarium. The coral selection however was dismal. There was this amazing “reef caves” exhibit (the picture in the album with the black wall and circular tank viewing window) that could have been amazing. There were a million and two places for suncorals, dendros, scleronepthias galore…but they just left it empty and you stared at nothing but an empty overhang of rock. In the reef exhibit there were a few softies and some other LPS, but nothing looked flurishing. It looks like there could also be some more light added to the tank.

I can’t wait to see what the place looks like in 5 years if they really get some reefers in there to stock the tanks and care for them. This place will be a million times better than the Long Beach Aquarium which happens to be one of my favs.

Reference to California Academy of Sciences

http://www.my1uplife.com/2008/10/california-academy-of-sciences-steinhart-aquarium

After a long period of down time and a long absence on my part, the site is moved to a new server and I’m moving to an new apartment! Lots of updates coming soon. So hang in there and you won’t be disappointed.

Click for Borrego Springs Photo Album.

This weekend I went out to Borrego Springs desert on a camping trip with SDPhotoForums.com. I drove up with my friend Jeff Friday after work and got there about 6pm. The sun had already set and it was pitch black out there. Luckily my friend Marshall had already pitched the tent for me so we didn’t have to fumble around in the dark. On Saturday morning we woke up to a great breakfast of eggs, hash browns, and croisants. In the late afternoon we took a hike through the mountain to see some more of the scenery. It was a really nice weekend and I hope to get out to the desert to camp again soon.

Click here to view my photos from Greece

I got to spend a summer in Greece in 2002. I was still shooting in film then, and my friend was nice enough to scan some of my favorites into digital format for me. These pictures were taken with a Canon Rebel 35mm. I traveled around the country for 4 weeks, enjoying the sites. I was acutally robbed when I was there. It happened at a hotel on the beachs of Mykonos. I was sleeping in my room with a friend and someone climbed up to our second story balcony, came in the patio doors, and grabbed my wallet out from my bag next to my bed. It is presumed that they sprayed some kind of sleeping drugs or something in the room, because there were 7 rooms in a row hit from that hotel and no one woke up. I had only gone to bed at 4am and we woke at 7a to see my credit cards, license, and other personal items from my wallet thrown down the street. It seems the purpetrator was only after cash, thank goodness.

The rest of the country was very beautiful and hopefully you’ll enjoy some of my favorite snapshots of my trip.

Balboa Park bridge highway at night

I finally got out to do some night shooting around town here and I am very happy with what I came up with. I met some other photographers that were able to instruct me on how to capture the best possible image.

I was able to set my shutter speed on my camera to “bulb” settings in order to manually control when the shutter opens and closes. A tripod was used as well as a remote shutter release. The exposure on these pictures ranges from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
Enjoy and comment!

San Diego Skyline At Night

San Diego Skyline at Night

Airplane taking off from Lineburg Field in San Diego