maternity - baby b

My first maternity shoot! This was a ton of fun and the couple was prepared with lots of cute ideas and were game for just about anything. I'd done some maternity photo research online in preparation and the one thing that seemed an absolute requirement for a good maternity shoot was a field of wheat. That's a tall order in San Francisco, but we found the next best thing up on Bernal Heights Park (you know, that beige hill to the south of the Mission that you always wonder about).  Turns out, it's a great place for pictures!

macro class

I had a fun afternoon yesterday in a Macro photography class that Canon offered in downtown SF. They have a great series of classes that are all really affordable and in off-work hours. See the list of classes here. The Macro class was more of a set up of cool things to take pictures of, not really formal instruction.  I was surprised how low sales-y this was, I would have easily sat through (might have even preferred) a half hour on all of the ins and outs of their macro lens line up but they were like, you can borrow this one, sorry it's all we have. Anyway, the lens I borrowed was great, the 100mm f/2.8 L series (think I'll still buy the lower end version of the 100mm). Then around the room they had set ups of a variety of macro situations.

What did I learn? Well, this really is the opposite of portrait photography, it's all about tripods and f/11, f/16 to get as much clarity as possible, not very mobile, not about wide apertures at all.  I also learned how to zoom in while in Live Mode to get crisper manual focus.

The coolest set up by far was water dripping into a pan. This was just a plastic cup with a hole in the  bottom suspended over a black plate with a swirly watercolor on the wall behind it. Tripod in front, remote shutter release. These are mostly at 1/125 sec at f/16.

There was also a set up of a glycerine drop on a leaf, which nicely reflected flowers behind it. However the glycerine had started to sag a little:

Orchids with some water spray, this set up fired off two remote flashes. Remote flashes are still a mystery to me. 

 And if you see me hanging around toy train supply stores it's because of this set up.

the dicarlos

While in Sea Ranch, I was able to take some pictures of my lovely friends and their children. A field of wheat and some dappled oceanside evening light was conveniently at hand.

Miss you guys already!

the sea ranch

The Sea Ranch is a little oceanside community about 3 hours north of San Francisco.  It's known for its distinctive architecture - low, angular homes out of silvery/grey wood. Lots of vacation rentals. Spent a beautiful couple of days here with some great friends, checking out Point Arena Lighthouse (warning: that link makes a fun noise), the guy who makes tiles in a little shop outside of Gualala, yoga at the rec center, dinner at the Sea Ranch Lodge, and, of course, losing money in the nickel slots at a casino (?!?). With all that, not much time for pictures, but below are a few from the trip.


Driving comments for future reference: The trip there was exactly three hours; 101 then cutting over to Valley Ford Road before Santa Rosa, then driving up Highway 1 through Jenner and beyond. Really spectacular drive. For the way home which took about a half an hour longer, we went East on Annapolis Road right out of Sea Ranch - very wind-y and one way at some points but another gorgeous drive. This connected to Skaggs Spring Road, then Dry Creek Road, then you're in Healdsburg! 101 all the way home after that.


Pretty ocean vistas:

The Sea Ranch Lodge: 

Our Place:

Point Arena Lighthouse:

You know I love me some birds. Pelicans: