Anthony Dunn Photography

New eBook Coming Out in February

2012-01-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

In February - if I finish it on time - I will be publishing a new eBook titled Ten Years Ago Today. The book is a retrospective of 20 landscape photographs I took in 2002, the year that I got serious about landscape photography and the year before I decided to turn pro.

A big part of this book is about my journey to break away from the expectation that in order to be a good landscape photographer, I had to photograph all the 'usual suspects' - Tunnel View in Yosemite, the Tufa Towers in Mono Lake, the slot canyons of Arizona, star trails in the bristlecone pines, etc., etc.

And although I have shot some of those places, this book is about how I learned to find beauty in the place that I lived - the unglorious Sacramento Valley. The book is a celebration of finding your own vision, of cutting loose of images and expectations of others to find your own way of seeing the landscape - whatever landscape you have in front of you.

The book contains intimate details and descriptions of 20 images I took in 2002, including an examination of the composition, techniques used, and post-processing of every image. The book shows my growth and evolution as a photographer over that year - leading up to my decision to shoot professionally on January 1, 2003.

In my next post I'll include some samples from the book.

Under the Endless Sky Book on Sale Now!

2012-01-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

My self-published book of photography of the Sacramento Valley, Under the Endless Sky, is on sale for $29.95 until January 31st! That's a savings of $6! Order here.

Under the Endless Sky by Anthony Dunn | Make Your Own Book

Consisting of photographs taken over the past ten years of the Sacramento Valley and its surroundings, Under the Endless Sky showcases the often hidden beauty of the north state.

From the Introduction:

"For most people, the Sacramento Valley is not a beautiful place. To them, the valley is only what they see through their windshield as they rocket up the Interstate at 80 miles an hour in their rush to get through its oppressive summer heat to some cool, green destination in Oregon or Washington. And what they see are endless flat miles of dusty fields and orchards: rice, tomatoes, corn, almonds, olives and walnuts. Hot, boring, flat and repetitious. Not a beautiful place. Not beautiful at all.

"But the Sacramento Valley is a true California landscape in its own right. It is a landscape not of wild rock or majestic forests, but of emerald rice fields under an endless blue sky and of golden sunsets reflected in the placid Sacramento River. It is a landscape of farms and of rolling hills; a peaceful and pastoral landscape, reminiscent of a California long gone in other parts of the state. And despite its wide open spaces, it is an intimate landscape that can’t be seen at 80 miles an hour, and so remains unknown – and unknowable – to the travelers whose only goal is to get through it as quickly as possible.

"To know and appreciate the beauty of the Sacramento Valley and its surrounding hills, you have to get off the freeway and wander at a more deliberate pace down the dirt roads that wind over rounded hills and through mazes of orchards that seem to go on without end. In order to truly see the landscape of the Sacramento Valley, you have to slow down to its pace. Unlike Yosemite or the Sierra Nevada, which force their grandeur on you, the Sacramento Valley landscape is a hidden landscape, one that takes time and patience to know before it begins to reveal its true beauty."

I'm basically selling the book at cost during this sale, so don't miss out!

My Ten Favorite Photos of 2011

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

2011 was an odd year, very busy in the first half, with nothing at all in the second half. However, I did take a lot of great photos during the first half of the year, and here are my 10 favorites.

This year I'm not going to break them out by category or put them in any particular order. These are just 10 photos that I particularly liked that I took in 2011.

Road to Lazy Creek Winery, Anderson Valley

Rows of Hills near Newville

Hills near Paskenta

Midnight Poppies, Table Mountain

Snow Geese in Flight from the Air, Llano Seco Wildlife Preserve

Irrigation Boom

Bald Eagle

Mount Shasta

Summit of Mount Shasta

Top Ten Most Viewed Images of 2011

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

Every year, I tally the most viewed images on my websites. You can see the results for 2010 and 2009.

Last year was a bit different since I was only able to focus my attention on my photography for the first six months of the year. However, that didn't have much effect on the most viewed photos. My sites rank high in searches for images of Sacramento, so not surprisingly, nearly all of the top ten most viewed photos on my sites are of Sacramento. Honestly, not a lot of change from previous years.

1. Sacramento Skyline at Night #2

2. Tower Bridge, Sacramento

3. Delta King and the Sacramento Skyline #9

4. Tower Bridge, Sacramento

5. Ziggurat Building, West Sacramento

6. Sacramento at Night

7. Peach Tress in Bloom

8. State Capitol, Sacramento

9. The Capitol Building at Sunset #3

10. Bank of the West Building, Sacramento #7

Resolution for 2012

2012-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

Having had little business in the past six months, and not even having had the time for pleasure shooting on the weekends, I was very happy to be able to get out and do some wildlife photography right before Christmas (I'll upload some photos in my next post).

I do this every winter (usually on my birthday), just for fun, since there's really no money in it for a guy like me. But just getting out and having fun taking photos after such a long hiatus made me really appreciate the opportunity and made me realize how much I love photography.

So my resolution for 2012 is simple: Photograph for the joy of it. Photograph what I love for the love of photography.

I really want to refocus what I do not so much for the money and the business end of it, but because I love doing it. It's easy to lose site of what you love in the race to make ends meet being a photographer. Although I don't believe that if you 'do what you love, the money will follow', I do believe that whatever money does follow will be worth more than if you are just earning it to survive.

So in 2012 I hope to get back to my roots photographically. I started taking photos because I loved doing it and this year my focus will be on maintaining that love of photography.

Here's a photo I took before I turned pro, a photo I took just for the love of it. I'd like to take more photos like this in 2012.

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T18:04:00.000-08:00

2011 hasn't been the most productive year for me, photography-wise. But at least I have a valid reason.

After having sat out the housing market craziness of the mid-2000's, my wife and I seriously began looking to buy a house last May. We spent literally every weekend from May through the end of summer looking at house after house before we finally found the right place.

We finally moved in in the middle of November, and of course the holidays began right after that. So although it was time well spent, I have done precious little photography work in the past six months. And it shows, financially!

But we are very happy in our new home, and I'll upload some decent photos of our new home as soon as I getting around to taking some.

I promise that 2012 will be much more productive photographically, if just so that I can make our mortgage payment!

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012!

Mendocino Wine Country

2011-09-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Last June I had the opportunity to visit the Anderson Valley for some vineyard photography. I won't deny that I did some wine tasting as well, but I tried to focus on the photography. Really.

Even though it was late June, the weather was wet and rainy for most of the trip, which actually worked out extremely well. I was able to get some photos with a very cool season feel to them.

Goldeneye Vineyards, Anderson Valley

Vineyards in the rain, Anderson Valley

A wintery summer's day in the Anderson Valley

One of my favorite spots on the trip was the road to Lazy Creek Winery. The lush forest with beautiful moss covered trees was a stunning subject, and I spent several hours exploring the photographic possibilities of a couple of hundred yards of road.

Road to Lazy Creek Winery, Anderson Valley

I also took the opportunity to hike through the old growth redwood groves at Hendy Woods State Park. There were some beautiful trails, and of course, I took my camera along.

Path in Hendy Woods State Park

Overall, it was a productive and enjoyable trip. Though it was a business trip, I managed to get in some personal photography - and wine tasting - as well.

Running Ahead of the Storm

2011-05-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

This has been a very unusual May for northern California, especially the Sacramento Valley.

While it isn't completely unusual to have rain and cool weather, it is usual to have almost daily thunderstorms, and it's extremely unusual to have tornadoes - both of which we've had.

In a single week, we had 4 severe thunderstorms pass over Chico, including three tornadoes just south of town that made the national news and damaged a number of orchards. One night we had nickel-sized hail fill our back yard.

The frequent storms and cool, cloudy weather have thwarted most of my attempts to do any landscape photography in the past month or so, but last Saturday I was determined to get out no matter what the weather.

Of course, a major thunder cell emerged from the north as I headed into the field and began to move south down the valley. Though I had originally intended to head north, once I saw this huge stormfront, I turned around and ran south to stay ahead of the storm.

Unfortunately, the storm caught up to me right as the sun was setting. I was hoping to get some 'God rays' - beams of sunlight through the clouds - as the sun set, but the cloud thickened up too much for that.

However, I did get a few colorful sunset images over the rice fields before the storm closed in and dumped buckets of water.

All in all, it was a fun shoot, and I always enjoy extreme weather.

An Endless Spring of Wildflowers

2011-05-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

...or so it seems! We've been blessed with a wonderful and long lasting wildflower bloom this year, as you can tell from this post and this post and this post.

Before the spring comes to a complete end, I thought I'd publish at least one more post featuring wildflowers from the foothills surrounding the Sacramento Valley.

Triteleia laxa at Black Butte Lake

Royal Larkspur (delphinium variegatum) at Black Butte Lake

Black Butte Lake is a reliable place to go for larkspurs, lupines and triteleia, and this year was no exception.

White Lupine on Newville Road

A surprise for me this year, was Clark Valley Road, west of Willows. There were wildflowers of all varieties, easily accessible all along the road. Next year, I'm going back there without a doubt.

White Lupine on Clarks Valley Road

More Spring in the Foothills

2011-05-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

We've been blessed this year with a long luxurious spring, due mostly to the heavy winter rains and the moderate temperatures (that will change soon, I'm sure).

Hills on Newville Road.

It has given me plenty of opportunities to get out to the west side of the Sacramento Valley, to remote and obscure places like Newville, Paskenta, and Sites, to capture the beauty of the foothills in spring. The green that lasted so long this year is rapidly fading, turning rapidly into the 'California gold' that is both dull and beautiful at the same time.

Oaks near Newville

Newville Road

Oak tree against the hills

But spring isn't quite done yet, and I'll have more photos before it's done!

More Spring Wildflowers

2011-04-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

This long, cool spring weather has made it a good year for wildflowers. Though we haven't had the intense blooms of some years, where flowers carpet acres upon acres of land, we have had a nice long bloom, that has given us the opportunity to enjoy the wildflowers longer than usual.

A couple of weeks ago, I went out looking for flowers to photograph, and found both a nice field of poppies and a some beautiful iris's to photograph. All of them were shot using off-camera flash to provide a bit more dramatic lighting. Enjoy!

California Poppies, north of Chico

Shasta Iris, on Honey Run Road.

A Dramatic Sunset - Sort Of

2011-04-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

A few days back we had a cloudy, sprinkly day. As late afternoon approached, the clouds began to break up a bit and interesting formations began to form.

I resisted heading out to try to capture the sunset, the better part of me thinking the clouds would wash out any chance of interesting sunset light. But another part of me felt that there might be a slim chance of something interesting. So I relented, and headed out into the Valley.

Eventually, I ended up near Capay, northeast of Orland, at the edge of a grassy field, with an open view to the west. I sat in my car for about 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. Right after sunset, I saw some color begin to appear in the clouds, so I quickly set up my camera despite the sprinkles of rain coming down.

I managed to capture one good image of the sunlight glowing through the clouds before the light quickly died. I'd say the light appeared in the clouds for less than five minutes.

Was it worth the drive for this one image? That's hard to say, but it's always worth the effort to go out shooting.

Spring in the Foothills

2011-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

I think I blog about this every year, but one of my absolute favorite areas to do landscape photography - and one of the most beautiful areas of California, in my humble opinion - is the rolling foothills on the west side of the Sacramento Valley at the foot of the inner Coast Range.

Rolling oak-dotted hills at the foot of the Coast Range near Paskenta.

The rolling, oak-dotted hills are a reminder of a California now mostly gone - except in this forgotten corner of the state. I'm not completely sure why this strip of hills, that extends from Capay Valley in the south almost all the way up to Redding in the north, is so unpopulated, but it's very hot and dry in summer here, and water might be a limiting factor.

I visit this area every year, and every year I see something new, something that catches my eye photographically.

Near Paskenta

Near Red Banks

Near Paskenta

Spring Wildflowers on Table Mountain

2011-04-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

This year, I've tried to make time to get out and photograph the spring wildflowers. I've driven down to Bear Valley in Colusa County (a great wildflower spot), but nothing was going on down there wildflower-wise. I've been up to the Vina Plains, but not much is happening there - at least yet. And I've been to Table Mountain (one of the best locations for wildflowers in northern California) twice so far this year (once was to conduct a workshop).

And so far, Table Mountain has been the best spot for wildflowers.

So here's a set of photos from my most recent trip. I've been spending a lot of time working using flash for wildflower photos, and virtually all of these images use at least some flash. In some of the images, virtually all of the light come from flash.

Enjoy!

Yellow Monkeyflower

Lupine and Poppies

Owl's Clover

Unusual albino Lupine

Yellow Monkeyflower

Owl's Clover

Midnight Poppies in Broad Daylight

2011-04-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last month I attended the Flash Bus seminar in San Francisco, put on by David Hobby (of Strobist fame) and Joe McNally. In addition, I've been reading Syl Arena's wonderful Speedliter's Handbook.

All of these gave me some ideas about how to creatively light wildflowers (and a lot of other things as well).

So, since it is wildflower season, I headed into the field on a lightly overcast day to try it out.

To start, here's the location I was shooting, properly exposed:

As you can see, light overcast with no hard shadows. The sun actually came and went during the shoot.

I brought along the following equipment (for any gearheads out there):

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40mm lens
Canon 580EX flash
Canon 430EX flash
2 - PocketWizard FlexTT5s
PocketWizard MiniTT1
PocketWizard AC3 Zone controller
Lumiquest Softbox 3
Interfit Strobies softbox
2 - Small light stands

I set up the two lights with PocketWizards on the light stands around a bunch of poppies and attached the softboxes.

To get the exposure I wanted, I metered the scene in Aperture Priority mode, then switched to Manual mode and adjusted the exposure 2-3 stops below what the meter had told me was a proper exposure. This made the scene look almost like night, with just a bit of deep blue color in the sky. The resulting exposure was around 1/2000th of a second at f/7.1 at ISO 100.

I turned on the flashes and PocketWizards and set the flashes to high speed sync. That's the critical part here, since you have to use such a high shutter speed to made the scene dark enough to work. Without setting the flashes to high speed sync, you can't use a shutter speed faster than at 1/250 (Syl Arena explains all of this with perfect clarity in his book).

Then I sat down on the ground, set my 17-40mm lens at 40mm and held it down at or below the level of the flowers. Since I wasn't looking through the viewfinder, I had to take a lot of random shots to get compositions that I liked.

All in all, an amazingly simple and effective technique to give fresh, dramatic lighting to an overdone subject.

Thanks to Syl Arena for his book and wonderfully clear explanations that made me think, 'hey, I could do that with wildflowers!'

"Food is People" Photography Project

2011-03-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

This post is adapted from an email I sent to Colleen Cecil of the Butte County Farm Bureau regarding a photography project that's been brewing in my head for quite awhile now. I figured that this is as good a time as any to make that idea public...

I've been photographing farms and crops in the Sacramento Valley, both for personal pleasure and commercially, for the past 9 years. In the past couple of years, I've started photographing food as well. If you are one of the people who read this blog, you know most of that.

But I've never focused on photographing the people who run those farms or produce those crops that result in the food we eat. For me, that's a crucial element that is missing - both from my work as a photographer, and from the story I feel I can tell through my work. People grow food. I think we (non-farmers anyway) find it all too easy to forget that fact when all we see are piles of fruit and vegetables in the grocery store.

I've wanted to find a way to show that food is people (well, OK, not in the creepy Soylent Green sense) through my photography. I finally have come up with an idea for a project. I have no idea how it will be received, or even if it will be any good. But the idea is this: I want to create images (not just snapshots) of farmers in their environment and use those images - with text - to tell a bit of their story, the story of how food is people.

Essentially, I want to put a face on the food we all eat. I want people to realize that there are people, farmers and families behind every single thing we eat, even if we never see their faces or know their names.

It's still not completely cast in stone in my mind what the final form of this project will take. I'm planning (as a photographer, of course) to focus more on the images than the text, but I think that images alone can only tell part of the story. Certainly, I would be publishing the images and stories in this blog - and to our food blog. Some of the images might end up on my main website. Ultimately, it might end up as a gallery exhibition or hopefully a book. But right now, I'm just looking for farmers who are willing to work with a photographer and tell a bit of their story.

However, I'll warn any farmer considering participating that the reality of this project will be some idiot non-farmer coming out, asking a lot of dumb questions, setting up lights, and wasting huge amounts of your time fiddling with them to get the 'perfect shot', before he drives off not to be seen again until harvest time when you're honestly too busy to stand around waiting for him to fiddle with his stupid lights again.

Even I don't have a lot of patience for other photographers, but it's really a thankless profession despite all you hear about super models and trips to exotic locations. The most exciting model I've ever shot was a rack of lamb (for me, that's pretty exciting). And as for exotic locations... well, I did get to spend three days in gorgeous Modesto on a shoot last year. So, yeah, I guess photography is a pretty darned exciting profession.

Anyway, I apologize for that in advance, but it is a bit time consuming to get a truly expressive shot, and for some people it can take a while to develop the kind of relationship where you are comfortable having your photo taken. I understand that, and that's fine. At the very least, I'll get to know some cool farmers.

If you are a farmer (preferably within a reasonable distance of Chico, CA) that would like to waste your time with a photographer fiddling with his lights, I'd love to hear from you. If you don't have the patience for it, maybe you know a farmer who does, so please forward a link to this post to them.

I feel blessed to live in one of the most agriculturally productive (and let's face it, beautiful) areas in the world, and I hope that this project can be a small way of giving back to an area that gives us so much.

I'll close with my two favorite all time photos of farmland in the Sacramento Valley, both of rice fields...

Snow Geese at Llano Seco Unit - Sacramento River National Wildlife Reserve

2011-03-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

These images are part of the aerial shoot I did on February 26th. I'm still working my way through the over 1100 photos I took.

On our way across the valley toward Orland, we came across huge flocks of snow geese. I didn't realize it at the time, but they were in the Llano Seco Unit of the Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge. We circled above the geese for several minutes and I was able to get a number of fantastic images.

This is my favorite aerial photo of the geese - so far. Many more images to go through.

The geese were numberless when they took flight. It was breath-taking.

The flocks of snow geese were huge!

This is a nice 'close up' - we had to stay high enough to avoid potential collisions!

Snow geese flying over an island at Llano Seco

Snow geese as seen from above - I love this image too

There are many more photos of the snow geese at Llano Seco still to be processed. I'm sure there will be another post in the next couple of weeks!

Wildflower Workshop at Table Mountain - Only Two Weeks Left!

2011-03-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

There are only two weeks left before my wildflower photography workshop on Table Mountain on March 26th! There is still space, so sign up now before it fills up.

What
A wildflower field macro photography workshop led by professional photographer, Tony Dunn. You'll learn beginning and advanced photographic and lighting techniques for capturing dramatic wildflower photos, learn the settings on your camera that will give you the best wildflower photos, and do it all in the field surrounded by dramatic displays of spring wildflowers.

Where
Table Mountain, North of Oroville, Butte County. We'll meet at the parking lot at the Table Mountain Wildflower Reserve on Cherokee Rd (see map below - zoom out to see the general area). We will hike down to the waterfall where there is the highest concentration of wildflowers.

View Larger Map

When
Saturday, March 26, 2011, 4:00-7:00pm (sunset). Please arrive promptly as we will leave the parking lot for the field immediately at 4:00.

How Much
The workshop is $65 per person in advance. Because of limited space, please make your reservation in advance, as the workshop will sell out. You can pay via check or PayPal. Contact me for more payment information via email or phone (530-321-1753).

Is This Workshop for Me?
This workshop is for beginning, intermediate and even advanced photographers wishing to either begin learning the basics of wildflower photography or learn and practice more advanced macro photography techniques.

What do I Need?
We will be hiking about a half a mile each way over relatively gentle but occasionally soggy terrain to the main wildflower area, so you should wear sturdy boots and clothing appropriate to the weather. Since the flowers are very close to the ground, wear clothes that you won't mind getting down on your knees or belly in. Bring water and snacks if you wish.

You can bring a tripod for your camera if you wish, but it is unlikely that you'll use it.

You will need to bring a camera that is capable of capturing close up images of wildflowers. Most point-and-shoot and 'prosumer' cameras have some level of this capability. For DLSRs it depends on the lens. Some lenses have a 'macro' setting that does not really allow you to get close enough to take pictures of wildflowers really close up. For DSLRs, you will have the best results with a 'real' macro lens.

How can you tell what your camera will do? Try taking a photo of a quarter.

If you can get a quarter to look this big (or bigger) in your camera's viewfinder (in focus!), then your camera is OK for wildflower macro photography. If your camera won't let you get this close, then you can do general photography of wildflowers, but won't be able to capture the dramatic close ups that true macro photography gives. But that might be all you want.

Make sure your camera's batteries are charged!

What happens if it's Raining?

The workshop will occur if it is overcast and or cold. If it is rainy or extremely windy (which makes it difficult to photograph the wildflowers), then the workshop will be cancelled. If it is possible to reschedule for Sunday the 27th or for the next weekend, we will do that. If not, all participants will receive a full refund.

For more information, email or call me at 530-321-1753.

Crop Duster Dusting Almond Orchards

2011-03-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I was out on the west side of the Sacramento Valley shooting the beginning of the almond bloom. I noticed an Air Tractor crop duster working the orchards and found a good (and safe) place to park so that I could photograph him as he made his runs through the orchards.

It wasn't really part of the shoot I was working on, but I thought it would be fun to take a little time to try to catch the crop duster as he went by.

Fortunately, I was in a great spot, so I put my 100-400mm zoom on my 7D, giving me an effective focal length of 640mm, and started firing away. It was a lot of fun and the pilot waved at me several times as he went by.

I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to photographing airplanes in flight, but it was a fun bonus to the shoot.

More Almond Orchards from the Air

2011-03-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm still going through the 1109 photos I took a week ago on a flight over the almond orchards in the Sacramento Valley. And I'm still stunned at the photos I got from this shoot - I give all the credit to the beauty of the almond orchards in bloom!

I won't say any more, but just let you look at some of the shots I got.

Rows of young almond trees

Alternating colors of almond flowers

I can't get enough of the orchards bloom

Almond flowers as far as the eye can see

There are a lot more photos from this shoot to come, so stay tuned!

Almond Bloom from the Air

2011-03-02T07:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I finally got up for an aerial shoot of the almond bloom. Saturday was a cold but clear day, coming right after a storm and right before a big freeze.

Rows of almonds in bloom

I took over 1100 photos in a little over two and a half hours, so it was a very productive shoot, but I've barely had a chance since then to look over the photos I took. Here's the first part of the path of our flight (Google divided it into two parts):

View 2011-02-26 in a larger map

But despite that, I thought I should try to upload at least a few images from the shoot. These were all taken at the very end of the shoot, when we were flying in circles around one particularly beautiful orchard southwest of Durham.

Intersecting orchards

More almonds in bloom

Interesting "V"-shaped almond orchard south of Chico.

The last shot I took shows the setting sun turning the almond flowers bright pink!

I love the patterns that the rows of trees make, and I love images that show off those patterns in interesting ways.

I'll lots more images from this shoot in the coming days (weeks?), so keep tuned.

Gallery Opening - Reception this Friday, 3-7PM

2011-02-28T08:20:00.000-08:00

My photography will be on display at the Orland Art Center and Gallery from March 4th to 26th. There will be a reception at the Gallery on Friday the 4th from 3-7PM.

My work - focusing on rural and agricultural landscapes of the Sacramento Valley will be part of a exhibit titled "Beautiful Northern California" and will include works of three other artists - James Gregg, Charlie Osborn and Richard Verkuyl.

I will be there from 5-7PM to sign copies of my book of photography of the Sacramento Valley (Under the Endless Sky) and to talk, so make sure to come by!

The show will run from March 4th through March 26th. The Gallery is open 1pm - 7pm Tuesday through Saturday, and is located at 732 Fourth Street, Orland, CA.

Here are a few of my images that will be in the exhibit:

More Almond Flowers

2011-02-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of year, and with the weather as iffy as it's been, I've taken every opportunity to get out and photograph the almond bloom before the wind and rain do it in - and the almond crop with it.

I had intended to go up in the air to do an aerial shoot of the almond bloom last weekend, but the clouds made that an iffy proposition, particularly given the cost of chartering a plane. So instead, I headed out in my truck. Turned out to be a beautiful day - go figure.

I got a lot of nice photos of the flowers, and was rewarded with a colorful sunset at the end.

Close up of almond flowers (Glenn County)

Row of almond trees (Glenn County)

Close up of almond flower

More almond flowers - they are beautiful

An almond tree glows in the light of the setting sun (east of Willows, Glenn County)

And finally, the day ended with a dramatic sunset.

I'm still hoping to get up in the air this coming weekend to get the bloom before it ends, but the weather is not looking cooperative - they are predicting snow on the Valley floor, which could ruin the almond crop.

Keep your fingers crossed that doesn't happen and we get some clear warm weather.

An Early Year for Almond Flowers

2011-02-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

One of the wonderful things about agriculture is it's cyclical nature. Every year, the same processes occur, blooming, budding, sprouting, fruiting, harvest, etc. They don't always occur at the same or with the same intensity (ask any farmer about the lateness of last year's harvest), but they do occur.

One of my favorite cyclic events of the year is the almond bloom that starts in mid-February and lasts for about two weeks. Historically (I've been shooting the almond bloom since 2004), the bloom starts around February 18 and peaks around February 28th, as can be seen in a chart of the dates of photos of the almond bloom that I've taken in the past 7 years:

Chart of the dates of almond flower photos I've taken since 2004.

However, this year got an earlier start than I've ever seen: I took my first batch of photos on February 12th - far earlier than any previous year!

This isn't really much of a surprise since we have had six weeks of warm, dry weather in January and early February, with many days getting all the way into the 70's.

I'm not sure what effect this will have on the length of the almond bloom, but knowing that a series of storms was coming, I wasted no time getting into the field this year. True, most of the orchards were just starting to bloom on the 12th, but there were enough flowers blooming to get a few nice shots (below).

All of the photos below were taken at Cal Worthington's ranch in Glenn County.

Hopefully, the weather will clear enough for me (and the bees) to get out again before the bloom is over. If I'm lucky and I get some really good weather, I might be able to even get some aerial views of the almonds again this year.

Wildflower Workshop at Table Mountain!! Sign up Now!

2011-02-10T08:27:00.000-08:00

What
A wildflower field macro photography workshop led by professional photographer, Tony Dunn. You'll learn beginning and advanced photographic and lighting techniques for capturing dramatic wildflower photos, learn the settings on your camera that will give you the best wildflower photos, and do it all in the field surrounded by dramatic displays of spring wildflowers.

Where
Table Mountain, North of Oroville, Butte County. We'll meet at the parking lot at the Table Mountain Wildflower Reserve on Cherokee Rd (see map below - zoom out to see the general area). We will hike down to the waterfall where there is the highest concentration of wildflowers.

View Larger Map

When
Saturday, March 26, 2011, 2:30-5:30pm (sunset). Please arrive promptly as we will leave the parking lot for the field immediately at 2:30.

Make sure your camera's batteries are charged!

What happens if it's Raining?

For more information, email or call me at 530-321-1753.

Gallery Showing - March 4th - 26th

2011-02-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

My photography will be on display at the Orland Art Center and Gallery from March 4th to 26th.

My work will be part of a exhibit titled "Beautiful Northern California" and will include works of three other artists - James Gregg, Charlie Osborn and Richard Verkuyl.

Though my work spans the length and breadth of northern California, for this exhibit my focus will be on the under-appreciated beauty of the rural and agricultural landscapes of the Sacramento Valley. Generally considered to be little more than "hot, flat and dusty", the Sacramento Valley is in reality a rich landscape full of contrasts and beauty.

Come see for yourself! There will be an artists' reception on March 4th, from 3 - 7pm. I will be there, but probably only after about 4:30.

The show will run from March 4th through March 26th. The Gallery is open 1pm - 7pm Tuesday through Saturday, and is located at 732 Fourth Street, Orland, CA.

My Ten Favorite Photos of 2010

2011-01-31T09:24:00.000-08:00

2010 was a very busy year. I did a lot more assignment work in 2010, and branched out more into agricultural and aerial photography. As a result, selecting my ten favorite images of the year is going to be virtually impossible. There are just too many images to choose from. But, like last year, I've decided to break it down into categories and pick my favorite images in each.

Landscapes

These two photos were actually taken on the same day in March. I was in the hills of western Tehama County in a remote corner of Northern California and took a road I'd never been on before. I discovered not only beautiful green rolling hills, but unexpected views of Mount Shasta and the coast range. It was one of the single most productive days of landscape shooting I've ever had.

Rolling Hills near Paskenta

Oak and Shasta

Architecture

I did a number of architectural assignments this year.

My favorite assignment was to take an 'iconic' image of the City of Redding in Northern California. I was given free reign as to the exact subject of the image, but it had to say "Redding". So naturally, I focused on the only "iconic" thing in Redding - the Sundial Bridge. I took images of the bridge from every conceivable angle, including from the air. The image below, was my favorite, mostly because of the lighting and the reflections on the river. In the end, the client ended up selecting the aerial photo of Mt. Shasta and Shasta Dam (see below), but I really enjoyed shooting the Sundial Bridge.

Sundial Bridge - Redding

I also had an opportunity to shoot some of the buildings in downtown Sacramento last year. And my favorite image from that shoot is of the relatively new Bank of the West Building. This shot was taken very early in the morning and the building looks almost transparent with the blue-on-blue of the windows and the sky. Taken with a 24mm Tilt/Shift lens.

Bank of the West Building, Sacramento

Agriculture

At the end of last year, I had the opportunity to shoot some lettuce fields near Yuma, Arizona and I fell in love with the rows of alternating red and green mixed greens they grow there. This is one of many of my favorites from that shoot.

Mixed Greens in the Field near Yuma, Arizona

I also had the opportunity to do an aerial shoot of the rice harvest here in the Sacramento Valley. The harvest was very late this year, so I ended up going up twice, but I got some amazing images. This is easily my favorite from both flights. What makes this shot are both the curving lines of the harvest tracks and the contrast between the golden heads of ripe rice and the still green stems that become visible after the harvester passes.

Rice Harvest - Sacramento Valley

Aerial

I did a number of aerial shoots this year. My favorite shot from all of the shoots is the one of rice harvest (above). However, I got some great images on all of my shoots. One of my favorites was an unusual angle on some blooming peach orchards near Live Oak. I particularly love the contrast between the pink flowers and the green grass on the levee.

Peach Orchards in Bloom from the Air

I also got some great images during my aerial shoot of Redding. I hadn't actually intended to go up to Shasta Lake during the shoot, but figured that it was only a few minutes away (flight-wise), so we did several loops around the dam. It turned out that the client liked this image better than any of the others from that shoot and used this for a 30 foot wide mural.

Mt Shasta and Shasta Dam from the Air

Food

I didn't do as much food photography this year as last - something I hope to rectify in 2011. However, I did get a few images that I particularly liked. This lamb and cucumber soup was particularly successful because of the contrasting colors of the plate and the geometric composition.

Lamb and Cucumber Soup

Though there was nothing particular special about the lighting or setup of this shot, it's one of my favorites because of the simplicity of the composition, well, that and the fact that I love peaches and any kind of dessert with peaches in it. This layered peach and pecan parfait, was especially delicious.

Peach and Pecan Parfait

Top Selling Images of 2010

2011-01-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

Just like last year, the most viewed images on my sites were not necessarily the best selling images.

The following are the top 10 best selling images from 2010 and includes images sold as prints or licensed as stock. Only two images from last year's top 10 made it into this year's top 10.

1. The Tower Bridge over the Sacramento River in the late afternoon.

2. Mt. Shasta and Shasta Dam from the Air.

3. Shasta from Red Rock Valley.

4. Dusk brings out the colors in the lighted walkway of the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay in Redding.

5. Newly sprouted rice grows in fields south of the Sutter Buttes.

6. Rice fields surround the small towns of Nelson and Richvale in the Sacramento Valley, with the Sutter Buttes in the distance.

7. The downtown Sacramento skyline at night.

8. Rice harvest continues right up until sunset.

9. A rice combine harvests rice at the foot of the Sutter Buttes.

10. Storm clouds are reflected in a flooded rice field near Maxwell.

Top Ten Most Viewed Images of 2010

2011-01-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Last year, I listed the top ten most viewed images of 2009, and I thought I'd do the same thing this year.

2010 was a very different year from 2009. Business was up dramatically, due to an improving economy, and my business changed radically in 2010 from previous years, shifting away from stock and more and more toward assignment work.

Unfortunately, virtually the same images ended up in the top ten most viewed this year as last year. I was hoping that some images taken in 2010 would end up in the top ten, but that didn't happen. Though people seem to be viewing most of the same photos as last year, as we'll see in a future post, the most viewed images were not necessarily the most sold images.

Here are the top ten most viewed photographs on my www.adunnphotography.com and www.sacramentovalleyphotos.com sites.

1. The Tower Bridge in Sacramento

2. Downtown Sacramento Skyline at Night

3. The State Capitol Building at Sunset

4. Old Sacramento at Night

5. The Sacramento River and Skyline at Dusk

6. The Ziggurat Building in West Sacramento

7. The Sacramento River at Night

8. The Tower Bridge at Night

9. The Elks Club Building in Sacramento

10. Rice fields and the Sutter Buttes

Bald Eagle at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

2011-01-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

I always try to get out and shoot for my personal pleasure on my birthday, and this year was no different. Unfortunately, it's been very foggy and rainy for the past month or so here and there haven't been too many opportunities to get out. But we got amazingly lucky on my birthday. The fog and clouds cleared off and we had the most beautiful day you could imagine.

I had rented a Canon 600mm f/4 L super telephoto lens from BorrowLenses (see my previous post) just for this weekend, and I was very happy to have good weather to shoot with.

My wife and I spent the day at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge south of Willows, mostly photographing geese. But we were also lucky enough to encounter a very patient bald eagle sitting in a tree right by the side of the road. We actually went around the driving loop twice, and he was still there. Several other vehicles stopped to photograph him, and he never moved. He was very accommodating.

I'll have a few more shots from our trip to the SNWF in my next post.

More Crops Near Yuma

2011-01-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

Though I really enjoyed photographing the mixed greens while I was down in Yuma last month, I also took a bit of time to photograph a few other things as well.

I particularly like the abstract patterns that crops can create on the land, and I tried to capture that in some of these images.

Red and green lettuce sprouts

Fields of red and green lettuce sprouts

Fields of red and green lettuce

Iceberg lettuce sprouts, with date palms in the background

Lettuce sprouts in a field south of Yuma

An Afternoon in the Sun at Mount Shasta

2011-01-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

Last week (well, and this week as well) have been very gray in the valley. On Saturday afternoon, I had finally had enough, packed up my gear and drove up to Mount Shasta, where the satellite photos showed there was plenty of sun above the Tule fog that filled the Sacramento Valley.

Coming over Black Butte Summit I saw a bank of clouds forming around the base of the mountain, and worried that the long drive might have been in vain, but once I got past Weed, to the north side of Shasta, it cleared out nicely.

Though I thought I'd have only about a half an hour of light when I got there, I managed to get several nice images of the mountain from the north before the sun went down.

Mount Shasta from a ranch on the north side of the mountain.

Panorama of Mount Shasta

Bare trees below the mountain.

Panorama of the summit of Mount Shasta (view larger on Flickr)

The last photo is a stitch of 10 images taken with a 600mm lens, and shows incredible detail. The original image is 16,400x5120 pixels!

All in all, a great - if short - day of shooting. The biggest bonus was seeing the sun!

Canon 600mm f/4 L - First Day

2011-01-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend is my birthday, and as a present to myself, I rented a Canon 600mm f/4 super telephoto lens from borrowlenses.com to play with over the weekend.

Snow Goose

Canon 7D, 1/1250 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400

This is an extremely large lens, weighing in at 12 pounds (see below), but also provides incredible magnification. My goal over this weekend was to have a little fun shooting wildlife at our local wildlife refuges.

Unfortunately, this is also Tule fog season, Tule fog is a dense ground fog that can persist for days or even weeks, and has been the source of many chain reaction car accidents. And today was - unfortunately - the first solid day of Tule fog this year.

But I didn't let that stop me from heading out to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge south of Willows to see what I could do despite the weather. I attached it to my Canon 7D camera, giving the lens an effective focal length of 960mm.

Considering the dense freezing fog, I think I did pretty well. There were a lot of birds out and the large objective element on the lens gathered enough light despite the fog to allow some very nice exposures. Here's a sample:

Northern Shovelers
Canon 7D, 1/1500 sec., f/6.3, ISO 800

White-fronted Geese
Canon 7D, 1/1600 sec., f6/3, ISO 800

Marsh Hawk

Canon 7D, 1/800 sec., f/6.3, ISO 800

Marsh Hawk

Canon 7D, 1/1600 sec., f/6.3, ISO 800

Snow Goose

Canon 7D, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400

My initial impressions of the lens are that it's very useful for specific things, but amazingly unwieldy. It's very difficult to maneuver. Even propping it on the window sill of the car requires a lot of work and effort. However, the image quality is incredible. I'd love to own this lens, but at $8000, it's a bit rich for my blood. For now, I'll stick to renting.

Winter Lettuce Fields

2011-01-03T20:58:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas, I was in the Yuma area photographing lettuce fields. These photos were all technically taken in the south-easternmost corner of California, just north of Yuma. This is a big area for winter lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and other greens, along with dates.

Mixed greens in the field

In this shoot, I was particularly focused on rows of mixed greens, all planted together. I actually had no idea that they grew the various varieties together, but watching the crews harvest the crops, it made complete sense.

The rows of alternating green and red lettuces are undeniably beautiful, and I could have spent several days just exploring the patterns that the alternating rows created.

I really enjoyed photographing these fields, and the farmer who owned them was about as enthusiastic about lettuce as you could possibly be. I have to admit, that - at least for these mixed greens - I shared his enthusiam.

Sacramento Valley Rice Harvest from the Air

2010-10-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last week I went up to get some aerial photos of the rice harvest in the Sacramento Valley. Unfortunately, it was very smoky, which limited the views and angles I could get, and we also ended up having some electrical problems with the plane, which cut our flight short.

Still, I got a number of good images of the harvest, and hope to go up again next week - before the next storm comes in.

California Apples

2010-09-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back, I had a shoot with the California Apple Commission to photograph apple packing facilities in the Central Valley during the peak of the gala and Fuji apple harvest.

I know, I know. California produces apples? Indeed we do, as I got the opportunity to see at a couple of apple packing plants in the Central Valley near Stockton. I always find such processing facilities fascinating, and the ones we visited on this shoot were no different.

Here are some images from the shoot.

Gala apples being sorted

Sized gala apples floating toward their next destination.

A sea of gala apples.

Apple boxes stacked in an enormous cold storage facility. It was refreshingly cool in there.

After shooting the interior of the busy packing facilities, we took a few boxes of apples to make some beauty shots with. I set up my speedlights in a corner of the kitchen and we arranged some apples on their cardboard trays. It was quick set up, quick shoot, quick tear down, but I think the results were excellent and show off the color and texture of our local apples.

Fresh organic gala apples

More galas

An especially nice gala

Fuji apples, ready to ship

Postscript: The day after this shoot, I went into Trader Joe's in Chico and noticed that they were selling gala and Fuji apples from Chile and New Zealand. I was very unhappy and disappointed. First, because Trader Joe's positions themselves as a 'green' company, with their reusable shopping bags and granola-crunching clientèle. And second, obviously, because we were harvesting California grown gala and Fuji apples less than a hundred miles away.

They could have been selling fresh-picked, locally grown (and even organic) apples instead of apples that were harvested last February, stored for six months and then shipped halfway around the planet. Those Chilean and New Zealand apples weren't fresh, environmentally sustainable, or economically responsible (given how the US and California economies are struggling).

I wish that retailers and consumers would be more aware of where our food comes from and would focus more on buying locally. Here in California, the fate of the agricultural economy is the fate of the state's economy.

Downtown Sacramento Skyline

2010-09-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

While I was in Sacramento a few weeks back doing the shoot of the Bank of the West building, I decided to take the opportunity to update my portfolio of images of the Sacramento skyline, mostly taken from the Sacramento River waterfront on the Yolo County side of the river.

Here are a few images from that shoot:

Bank of the West Building, downtown Sacramento

2010-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

I recently had a shoot of the new Bank of the West Building in downtown Sacramento. The goal of the shoot was to get some good architectural elevations of the building in various lighting conditions.

I started out early in the morning, right at sunrise in order to try to catch a bit of sun on the face of the building. Unfortunately, the US Bank building across the street blocked most of the sun at that early hour. Still, I did manage to get a few decent views.

I used my 24mm tilt/shift lens to correct the distortion that appears when you shoot tall buildings. It's a must have lens for professional architectural photography. The image above was one of the first images I took, and it's my overall favorite from the shoot.

Still, the lighting wasn't the greatest in the morning because of the shadow the US Bank building cast. If I had come a week or tow earlier, I wouldn't have had that problem, but you do the shoot when you have to do it, and you make the best of the conditions you have.

I had better luck lighting-wise when I came back after sunset to catch the building as its lights came on at dusk. The colors of the building and the sky were fantastic, and I was able to get some excellent angles. I used both my 24mm tilt/shift lens and my 17-40mm wide angle zoom to capture various angles.

Overall, this was a fun, easy shoot, and provided very satisfying images.

Studio Shoot for SunWest Foods

2010-08-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

Last month I shot the full product line of rice and nuts for SunWest Foods in Davis.

They actually sent there entire product line (including 50 pound bags of rice) to my studio.

I shot everything from their full product line in a single shot (well, actually three shots stitched and blended together), to individual products, to loose nut products.

This was an interesting and difficult shoot. First of all, my studio isn't really big enough to have a bunch of 50 pound bags lying around for several weeks. Secondly, those bags are heavy and difficult to move around.

But the biggest problem with the big bags was the fact that they sagged when you stood them up for their portraits. So, for some of the shots, I laid the bags on the floor to smooth them out more.

Another approach I took for dealing with the wrinkles caused by sagging bags was to light the bags from several different angles and then merge the differently lit shots in Photoshop to minimize the shadows and glare. Though this was a bit labor intensive, it produced excellent results.

I had a little fun with a couple of shots, scattering loose rice around the product jar.

Of course, after sitting in my studio for a couple of weeks, the 300 pounds of rice and nuts we had photographed couldn't be sold, so, with the permission of the folks at SunWest, we donated it all to the Chico Jesus Center. Here it is in the back of my truck ready to be delivered.

Although challenging in some ways, this was a successful and fulfilling shoot.

New Images: Shasta Dam from the Air

2010-06-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

The same client that needed the high resolution panoramas of the Sundial Bridge also wanted some aerial photography from the Redding area as well. While I took a lot of aerial photos of the Sundial Bridge (which I'll post next week), I also got several images of Shasta Dam from the air. Since the lake is virtually full (for the first time in years), this was great opportunity.

Even though it wasn't the perfect day for it, I managed to capture some really nice images showing the dam, the lake and Mount Shasta in the background.

Mt. Shasta and Shasta Dam from the Air

Shasta Dam from the Air

New Images: Panoramas of the Sundial Bridge in Redding

2010-06-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

I recently did a job for a client where they needed some very high resolution panoramic photos of the Sundial Bridge in Redding.

I spent a very beautiful day shooting around the bridge, making high resolution panoramic images, consisting of three to six stitched 21 megapixel images. The resulting images are 9000 to 12000 pixels wide.

You can see the full set of panoramic photos from that shoot here, or look at the samples, below (best viewed larger).

A duck flies by the silhouetted tower of the Sundial Bridge

People on the bridge are silhouetted against the sunset

The Sundial Bridge at Dusk

Detail of the Sundial Bridge

The Sundial Bridge spans the Sacramento River

Spring in Bidwell Park - Part 2

2010-06-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

The second set of spring photos of Bidwell Park in Chico in the Spring.

These were taken upstream from One Mile, but still in lower park. At this time of year, the forest is amazingly lush and green.

The road that winds through Bidwell Park

A bicycle rider rides through Bidwell Park

People riding and running though the forest in Bidwell Park.

Riders in Bidwell Park
(taken with my 24' tall camera stand)

Panorama of the woods in Bidwell Park

Spring in Bidwell Park - Part 1

2010-05-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

Bidwell Park is a jewel in the middle of Chico, and has become one of my favorite locations to shoot. Here are a few photos from One Mile Pool.

Spring in the Foothills - Part 2

2010-05-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the gap in posting. I've been busy with client work a lot lately and haven't been able to pull my head from either behind the lens or out of Photoshop long enough to upload a post.

These are mostly images taken from the west side of the valley, though the last few are from the east side of the valley. All from Tehama County.

Bully Choop - This is one of my favorite images

Bully Choop from Hesse Road

Close up of Bully Choop

Shasta Bally from the east side of the valley

Red Bud in the hills north of Red Bluff.

Spring in the Foothills - Part 1

2010-04-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

This spring I had the great good fortune to be able to get out and photograph the foothills along the west edge of the Sacramento Valley. This area, dotted with 'towns' (if you can call them that) like Newville, Paskenta and Red Bank, is one of the most beautiful regions of California, and one of the least known.

Parched, hot and dry in the summer, this range of rolling hills turn emerald green for a month or so in the spring, providing wonderful opportunities to the landscape photographer. I went out several times in late March and early April to capture some of that beauty. Here's a bit of what I saw:

Cattle Grazing in the Hills near Paskenta

Rolling Hills near Paskenta

Late Afternoon Sun on Oaks near Red Banks

Oak and Shasta

All of these images are available as fine art prints or for licensing for publication. Just call or email me for more information.

Peach Orchards in Bloom - From the Ground

2010-04-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

In last week's post, I highlighted an aerial shoot I did of the blooming peach orchards around Live Oak, but this year I also got some incredible photos from the ground as well.

There were a couple of orchards at the south end of Yuba City in particular that were amazingly beautiful. There is really nothing in the Sacramento Valley more beautiful that the peach orchards in full bloom, as I think these images attest.

You can see the full set of photos from this shoot here on my main website.

All of these images are available as fine art prints or for licensing for publication. Just call or email me for more information.

Peach Orchards in Bloom - From the Air

2010-04-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks after I chartered a plane to photograph the almond orchards in bloom, I went up again, this time to photograph the peach orchards around Live Oak and Yuba City in bloom.

We had a beautiful day for the flight and flew around the emerald green Sutter Buttes on our way down and back. I was able to get some great images of the Buttes as well as the peach orchards.

Peach Orchards in Bloom from the Air

Peach Orchards and Feather River from the Air

Peach Orchards in Bloom from the Air

North Butte from the Air

South Butte from the Air

The full set of photos from this shoot can be seen here and here on my main website.

All of these images are available as fine art prints or for licensing for publication. Just call or email me for more information.

Almond Orchards in Bloom - From the Air

2010-04-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, when the almond orchards were in full bloom, I chartered a plane to get some aerial images of the orchards.

Although the weather wasn't the best for photography, I was able to get some excellent images of the orchards as well as the beautiful green hills on the west side of the valley. I also had a blast. I love flying, and flying low over parts of the valley that I knew by heart was a great experience and gave me a whole new perspective (literally!) on the valley.

I went up a again a couple of weeks later to photograph the peach orchards around Yuba City in bloom, and that will be the subject of my next post.

You can see the full set of photos from this shoot here and here on my main website.

All of these images are available as fine art prints or for licensing for publication. Just call or email me for more information.

Five Assignments Book

2010-03-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

My book of assignment photography, Five Assignments, won an honorable mention in the Commercial Category of the Blurb Photography Book Now competition last year.

Five Assignments by Anthony Dunn

This book is a compilation of images from five commercial assignments that I found particularly enjoyable, including the Sundial Bridge in Redding, Los Angeles International Airport, lettuce fields in Arizona, and the Chico State university campus.

Every Camera I Have Ever Owned: Part II

2010-03-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Konica Minolta A2 (2004-2005)

By the beginning of 2004, it was clear that digital cameras were the future, but they still had a long way to go before they either had sufficient resolution to replace my Mamiya 645 or were affordable.

Still, I decided to take the plunge and bought a great little 'prosumer' Konica Minolta A2, an 8 megapixel fixed zoom lens camera.

Konica Minolta A2 Kit (up for sale on eBay)

This was a handy little camera, and was particularly great from macro photography. I used it a lot for wildflower photos and that's where it really excelled. However, it suffered from noise even at ISO 200, and was unusable at ISO 400 or above.

I used it actively for almost two years and kept it around as a backup for a several more years.

California Poppy

Dogwood Blossom

Sundial Bridge

Canon 20D (2005-2007)

By 2005, I realized that, simply from a workflow perspective, I needed to convert to digital full time. Prices were coming down and image quality had finally equaled, if not surpassed 35mm film.

But I had a dilemma. The major DLSR players of the time, as they are today, were Canon and Nikon. I was shooting Mamiya, and was miles above the petty Nikon vs. Canon wars. But it was inevitable that I was going to choose one of the two... and with cameras, once you choose a brand, you are pretty much making a lifetime commitment because you end up with a major investment in lenses that are not interchangeable between brands.

I had absolutely no bias going into the decision since I considered both brands as 'toys' compared to medium format. In the end, I chose to go with Canon, mostly because, at the time, Canon was trouncing Nikon on both image resolution and low noise performance.

I ended up buying an EOS 20D, which was a workhorse of a camera. At 8 megapixels, it wasn't quite the resolution I was looking for, but there was a huge price jump from it to the 16.7 megapixel IDs Mark II, which at the time retailed for about $8000.

Canon EOS 20D (for sale on eBay)

I shot with this camera for a couple of years before relegating it to backup body status. But by that time, I had accrued enough Canon glass to make switching to Nikon prohibitive, even if I had wanted to. I finally sold the 20D on eBay exactly a year ago.

Great Egret

The Delta King at Dusk

Panorama of Rio Vista Bridge (one of the last images taken with my Canon 20D)

Canon 5D (2007-2009)

By 2007, it was clear that the 20D was insufficient for my business. Fortunately, the 12.8 megapixel Canon 5D had come down enough in price by then to make it a logical replacement. This camera was my main body longer than any other I've owned since I went pro, and there are more images in my image database taken with the 5D than any other camera.

This was a great camera to use; fast and flexible, and it produced images of stunning quality. I used it fro everything from landscapes to architectural work, and it always performed flawlessly. I finally parted with it last December.

Mt. Lassen from Manzanita Lake

Moon and the Theme Building at LAX

Renaissance Tower, Sacramento

Canon 5D Mark II (2009-)

By early last year, it was becoming clear that my 5D, though still producing wonderful images, was getting a bit long in the tooth with respect to certain features. In particular, I really needed a camera with automatic sensor cleaning, since the 5D full frame sensor attracted dust like a veritable magnet. The 21.1 megapixel 5D Mark II fit the bill for me perfectly, maintaining a full frame sensor, but upping the resolution dramatically and providing a larger LCD, sensor cleaning and a number of other features.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my 5D Mark II, and it's served me pretty much flawlessly for the past year, providing truly stunning image quality.

Big Chico Creek in the Fall

Walnut Zucchini Pizza

Sundial Bridge Abstract

Canon 7D (2009-)

I'll be the first to admit that the 7D wasn't a necessary purchase. My old 5D was still producing great images, even though it had been relegated to backup body status.

But the 7D came with a number of new features, including a new (and as it turns out, occasionally problematic) autofocus system. So I sold the 5D and took the plunge on the 7D. And although there has been a bit of a learning curve on the new AF system, for the first time ever I actually have a 'backup' body that I actually use.

And here's the reason: Because the 7D uses an APS (cropped) sensor, I get different results with lenses on it than I do with the 5D II. I've found that I pretty much keep my 100-400mm zoom attached to the 7D when I'm in the field and the 28-70mm when I'm in the studio. This gives me a wide range of focal lengths with two bodies immediately at hand. That's something I've never really done before, and the 7D makes a logical way to work.

Pintail Duck

Cow Grazing Below Bully Choop Mountain

Cattle Grazing on hill near Newville

Canon 450D/XSi (2010-)

The Canon XSi is the newest member of my family of cameras, purchased only last month. But with a 5D Mark II and a 7D, what could I possibly need a 2 year old entry-level DSLR for?

As a way to diversify my work and my business, I recently purchased a 24 foot tall telescoping camera stand. In testing the new stand, I quickly realized that I wasn't terribly comfortable putting a $1700 camera with a $1000 lens on it on top of a swaying 24 foot tall pole. So, I bought the cheapest Canon DSLR that would allow me to control it remotely from the ground. I promise to do a post on this set up soon.

However, I've discovered that this is a neat little camera and actually produces fantastic images. Though I still use it primarily for pole shots, its nice to know that I have a capable body as an emergency backup.

Peach Orchards in Bloom

Panorama of Almond Orchards and Fields

Every Camera I Have Ever Owned: Part I

2010-03-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

I admit it: I love camera gear. Every time I go to a bookstore, I spend most of my time reading camera magazines, looking at all the new gear that is out. I pour over camera reviews on dpreview.com. I love new cameras, old cameras, you name it. I used to even have a small collection of classic cameras.

So, though it really doesn't have much to do with the purpose of this blog, and probably isn't that interesting for the intended audience of this blog, I thought it would be interesting (or at least nostalgic) to list every SLR camera I've owned since I was a teenager.

Imagery-wise, I have a few nice studio shots that I've taken of a few of the cameras, especially the ones that I own now. For most of the cameras, however, the images I have are those I took when I was preparing to sell them on eBay. Amazingly, I actually have photos of every SLR I've ever owned.

Yashica TL Electro X (1973-1979)

I've already done a blog post on my first camera, a Yashica TL Electro X, so I won't say much more about it except that this is the one camera I still have after all these years. Most of the others were sold to fund the purchase of the next camera. I bought this camera in 1973 and gave it to my father around 1979 or 1980. He used it for many years before returning it to me a couple of years ago.

In my early 20's I moved out to a commune, and departed the world of photography. Though I did many things in my career, I didn't take up photography seriously again until 1998, when I spent the summer living in Idyllwild, in the San Jacinto Mountains of southern California.

Minolta Maxxum 500si (1998-2002)

I had just finished doing some lucrative utility company consulting, and had always been attracted to Idyllwild, so I rented a cabin and spent the summer hiking and goofing off. I was immediately taken by the stunning beauty of the area, and decided to buy a camera and start taking pictures.

I bought a copy of Popular Photography and turned to the ads in the back of the magazine and ordered a camera over the phone. Internet-based eCommerce wasn't exactly where it is today.

The camera I selected was the Minolta Maxxum 500si, mostly because it was the cheapest SLR that would allow me to do long exposures using a cable release. I wanted to do night photography, and the 500si was the cheapest thing that did what I wanted.

My Minolta Maxxum 500si (up for sale on eBay)

This was a decent little camera, but I quickly realized that it wasn't really ideal for the type of landscape photography work I wanted to do. I needed to use manual exposure mode a lot, and it was not ideally set up to give that level of control to the photographer.

Still, this camera went with me to the top of San Jacinto Peak, to Yosemite Valley and Hetch Hetchy, and all over the Sierra Nevada. I got some wonderful images with this camera, and have to credit it for getting me into photography again. I've been taking photos steadily since I bought this camera.

Sunrise on El Capitan, Yosemite Valley (Minolta Maxxum 500si, Kodachrome 64)

Shooting Stars in the San Jacinto Mountains (Minolta Maxxum 500si, Kodak Royal Gold 200)

Sunrise in the Alabama Hills
(one of the last photos taken with my Maxxum 500si, Kodak Max 400)

Minolta Maxxum 7 (2002-2003)

Over Christmas break in 2001, I drove down to visit my parents in San Diego. I went down the east side of the Sierra Nevada with the intent of spending a few days photographing the east side on my way.

I distinctly remember setting up to do some sunrise exposures in the Alabama Hills (see above image) and being fed up with the limitations of the Maxxum 500si. I resolved there and then that I would buy a new camera for myself when I got to San Diego.

I went to a camera store in downtown San Diego (probably the same place I bought my old Xashica) and bought a Minolta Maxxum 7. I think it cost me about $550, which seems a laughably small amount given what high end digital cameras cost today.

This was without a doubt the most ergonomic camera I've ever owned. It was a real photographer's camera; flexible, easy to use, capable. Within about six months of purchasing this camera, I decided that I wanted to do photography professionally.

My Minolta Maxxum 7 (up for sale on eBay)

My Minolta Maxxum 7 kit, including Tamron 24-135mm Macro Zoom, Minolta AF 100-300mm Zoom, Tokina 20-35mm Zoom (which was killer sharp)

I also took some of my favorite photos of all time with this camera, even though I only owned it for a year. No camera since has felt as much a part of me as did this camera. Minolta never got the credit it deserved for such a great 35mm SLR camera.

Sutter Buttes (Minolta Maxxum 7, Tokina 20-35mm lens, Fuji Velvia)

JW Ranch (Minolta Maxxum 7, Tamron 28-200mm lens, Fuji Velvia)

Sunset and Bare Oaks, New Years Day, 2003
(one of the last images taken with my Minolta Maxxum 7, Tamron 24-135mm lens, Fuji Velvia)

Mamiya 645 Pro (2003-2005)

On New Years Day 2003 I was taking photos along La Porte Road near Bangor in Butte County, in the foothills at the eastern edge of the Sacramento Valley, when I ran into another photographer shooting with a 4x5 camera. We got to talking, and he convinced me that I'd never make it professionally shooting 35mm film. He felt that you needed to shoot large format (4x5) in order to be competitive. I didn't quite believe that, but he did convince me that, as much as I loved my Maxxum 7, that I needed to move to a larger format to be successful.

So I immediately went out and bought a Mamiya 645 Pro kit, including lenses, gadgets and whatnot on eBay. I think the whole kit cost me about $2500.

Mamiya 645 Pro, with 55-110mm zoom lens

Mamiya 645 Kit, including 55-110mm zoom, 105-210mm zoom, 45mm lens, 80mm lens, and 500mm lens.

Now this was a REAL camera, and a completely different experience from the 35mm cameras I had owned. For one thing, it was huge and heavy. I really built up some arm muscles hauling that camera around It was also fully manual - no auto exposure modes, no auto focus, no auto anything. This really made me learn how to photograph. Though I shot mostly in manual exposure mode with the Maxxum 7, I had no choice here, and learned how to read and adjust exposures very well.

But this was a fantastic camera. Like the Minolta, it was a photographer's camera, though in a different way. Where the Minolta was designed to be easy to handle, the Mamiya was designed to be a precise tool, not an easy to use one. And as with the Minolta, I took some of my favorite photos of all time with this camera.

I actually held onto it for a number of years after I stopped shooting with it, just because I loved it so much.

Late Afternoon Oak (Mamiya 645 Pro, Mamiya 105-210 f/4.5 Zoom, Fuji Velvia 50)

Rice Field Panorama (Mamiya 645 Pro, Mamiya 55-110 f/4.5 Zoom, Fuji Velvia 50)

Aspens near Grant Lake (Mamiya 645 Pro, Mamiya 55-110 f/4.5 Zoom, Fuji Velvia 50)

In Part II, I'll talk about my switch to digital, as well as the explosion of camera buying that's happened in the past year!

Best Time to Photograph Wildflowers

2010-03-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

Every year around this time, I start getting ready for the wildflowers. Though wildflower photos don't sell much, I just enjoy their beauty and use photography as an excuse to get out and see them (don't tell anyone I said that).

And every year around this time, I start trying to remember when the peak of the wildflower bloom is in and around the Sacramento Valley.

I have hundreds of photos on my website of wildflowers, from the Sacramento Valley. So I went though my image database, and grouped all the images of wildflowers by the day of the year they were taken. I then grouped the images by the week of the year and came up with the following chart, showing that the peak of the wildflower bloom (or at least of me photographing the wildflower bloom) occurs at the end of March and very beginning of April.

That explains why I'll be in the field almost the entire time from March 26th through April 4th this year.

Here are a few of my favorite wildflower photos from around the Sacramento Valley:

Owl Clover on Table Mountain

Wild Poppy in Upper Bidwell Park

Wildflower Panorama near Chico

Tidy Tips at Vina Plains Preserve

Downtown Chico at Night

2010-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

No one will deny at Chico is a 'cute little town.' People particularly like downtown Chico. But that doesn't necessarily make it photogenic. There are certainly parts of downtown Chico, such as the plaza, that are photogenic - I posted some photos of the downtown plaza in a previous post, "Merry Christmas Chico".

I few weeks ago, I decided to take another shot at photographing parts of downtown at night.

In some ways night photography is easier than daytime photography in a place like downtown Chico because you don't have to contend with blight sunlight and deep shadows. The lights of the buildings at night also tend to look more colorful and interesting than storefronts during the daytime.

However, night photography can also be more challenging in some ways. Buildings and blocks lacking interesting lighting can make dull subjects. But the biggest problem is often cars. Car headlights can ruin a street scene by being too light. Cars moving through the scene can leave streaks of light which can be interesting or intrusive.

Still, over a period of an hour or so on a Saturday night, I managed to capture a few representative images of Chico's downtown area. I also witnessed a car turning the wrong way on a one way street, a couple of cars completely running red lights, and large numbers of people in various states of drunkenness. Ah, Chico.

The Incredible Peach Orchard Bloom

2010-02-23T09:32:00.000-08:00

Starting at about the 1st of March, and lasting about 10 ten days, there is an explosion of color in the orchards around Yuba City as the peach trees come into bloom with sprays of pink, ranging from delicate to intense.

It's my absolutely favorite bloom of the year, better even than the almond bloom and the wildflowers that follow in April.

Peach Blossoms near Yuba City

However, the bloom is limited to the area right around Yuba City and Marysville. I'm not sure why peach orchards in the Sacramento Valley center around the Yuba City/Marysville area, but it is the only significant area of peach production in the Valley (see map, below).

Distribution of Peach Orchards around Yuba City

Unfortunately, a lot of peach orchards were cut down during the real estate boom of the mid-2000's. Many of the home built on the former orchards now stand empty, a testament to boom's failure.

If you get the chance during the peak of the bloom (typically March 5-10), you should take a drive through the area surrounding Yuba City and Marysville to experience the intensity of the bloom.

Peach Blossoms & Mustard

Peach Orchard in Bloom

Peaches & Almonds in Bloom

Pink Peach Blossoms

Hallmarks of the Sacramento Valley: Downtown Sacramento

2010-02-17T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Sacramento Valley has only one 'real' city - that is, a city with any sort of skyline. That city, of course is the state capital, Sacramento.

I've spent a lot of time in downtown Sacramento capturing the skyline, from the riverfront to Old Sacramento to the state capitol building. And though Sacramento lacks anything resembling the skyline of San Francisco (or even Los Angeles or San Diego), it does have it's own unique character.

He are a few photographs that help portray Sacramento as a growing modern city, but one with historic roots and it's own environment. You can view my complete library of stock images of Sacramento on my main website.

California State Capitol Building

Tower Bridge

Late Afternoon in Old Sacramento

Dusk in Old Sacramento

Wells Fargo Center

Sacramento Skyline at Night

Renaissance Tower and Light Rail

Sacramento Riverfront at Dusk

State Capitol Building at Dusk

The Delta King Riverboat

I hope to make several trips to Sacramento this spring to build my stock library of images of the city.

Spring is Coming!

2010-02-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

Despite all the rain and gray weather we are having, spring is coming. I promise. And with it will come green hills and wildflowers. I'll be doing more posts in the next month or so on spring photography, but here's a taste of what you can expect to see as the weather warms and the skies clear.

You can view all of my photos tagged with 'spring' on my main website.

California Poppies north of Chico

Wildflowers and Mount Lassen, from the Vina Plains, north of Chico.

Oak tree along Leesville Road, west of Williams

Owls Clover on Table Mountain

Sutter Buttes in Spring

February - Almond Blossom Month

2010-02-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

Mid-February is special and particularly beautiful time in the Sacramento Valley; the time when the hundreds of thousands of acres of almond trees bloom.

California produces 80% of the world's almonds, and winter wouldn't be complete without the endless sea of white flowers that appear for two weeks every year.

Here is a sample of what the orchards look like during the bloom (you can see my full set of almond orchard images on my main website):

A Little Fun on My Birthday

2010-01-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

I truly love photography, as a business and as a passion. So when my wife told me it was 'my' day on my birthday and that we could do whatever I wanted, I (of course) wanted to do photography.

Since it was my birthday, I wanted to shoot something just for the fun of it - with no goal of selling the image or satisfying a client. It took me a while to come up with an idea of where to go since it was a very cold gray day, but I was finally inspired to head out to the local airport.

Tiny though it is, there are a few old hangers out there that I always wanted to photograph. So we spent a windy cold afternoon enduring occasional sprinkles while I explored the nooks and crannies of the airport.

Honestly, there isn't much there, and my wife was worried that I'd be arrested as a terrorist for photographing a bunch of empty hangers at a podunk small town airport, but I had a lot of fun taking pictures of pipes and whatever caught my attention.

I also decided that I was going to process the images however I wanted: change the colors, saturation - anything I wanted to do to make interesting photos.

Mostly I ended up playing with saturation. I'm just not a wild and crazy guy when it comes to Photoshop. But I had a great day and a lot of fun photographing something that wasn't for a client or taken with the intent to sell.

As professional photographers, we need to do this more often.

My Ten Favorite Photos of 2009

2010-01-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

I've posted my top ten most viewed images of 2009 and the top ten best selling images of 2009, but this post will be much more difficult: my top ten favorite photos that I took in 2009.

2009 was a year when, due to the poor economy, I decided to branch out a bit more in my photographic work. I put together a small (microscopic, actually) studio in a corner of my office with a few speedlights, reflectors and umbrellas and began exploring food and product photography - more as a learning experience than anything else.

As result, my work is more diverse now, and picking ten photos of all the images I took last year is a difficult task. Instead, I decided to pick two images from each of the main areas I did work in: landscape, architecture, agriculture, food, and "other". Dividing the photos into categories actually made the choice even more difficult, but eventually I was able to narrow it down to ten images. Ask me tomorrow and I might pick ten completely different photos, but as of today, here are my favorites of 2009:

Landscapes

Mt. Lassen from Manzanita Lake

It's fitting to start off with one of the first images I took in 2009. I was nearing the of work on my book on the Sacramento Valley (Under the Endless Sky), and about the only image I was missing was a good photo of Mt. Lassen. I had been thinking about a winter shot from Manzanita Lake, but had just never gotten around to making the trip. When I finally did, it turned out to be a beautiful, if cold, day. The lake was frozen solid - a good thing since the brush around the lake made it difficult to get pictures of the peak from the shore. This photo was taken about 30 feet out on the ice. Canon 5D, Canon EF70-200mm f/4L USM , 1/80th @ f/8, ISO 160.

Reflections in Big Chico Creek, Bidwell Park

Though I've lived and worked in the Chico area for a decade, I never really focused any of my work on Chico itself. I'm not even sure why. This year I decided to begin rectifying that issue, and I started at a fortuitous time: right as the colors began to turn at Chico's Bidwell Park. This photo was taken on an afternoon walk through the park. Even though it was right by the trail, you really couldn't see this view due to surrounding brush. I had to climb through the brush and brace my tripod and myself on a very steep and crumbly embankment above the creek. Though I had visions of me and my camera ending up in the drink, I was able to get the shot. I'll be back in the spring to see what it looks like then. Canon 5D Mark II, EF70-200mm f/4L USM, 1/10th @ f/8, ISO 100.

Architecture

Gateway Science Museum, Chico

I had the pleasure do do some work for the New Gateway Science Museum in Chico. They just finished their new building, and though it is completely empty, they asked me to take some photos of it for promotional and advertising materials. I've been a big supporter of the museum since it's inception years ago, so I was a was happy to provide my services for free. I only had two time slots for the shoot, so I decided to do an evening shoot in order to capitalize on the dusk lighting. Though I got a number of great shots during that shoot, this is perhaps my favorite. Canon 5D Mark II, EF17-40mm f/4L USM, 0.8 sec @ f/8, ISO 320.

Sundial Bridge, Redding

Until the recent state budget cuts, I taught photography classes at our local community college. I also taught a few photography classes for the local recreation district. My favorite class to teach was on photographic composition, and my favorite place to take my students in this class is to the Sundial Bridge in Redding. Though it's a full 90 minute drive from Chico,the Sundial Bridge is the purest abstract sculpture in the north state and the single best subject for abstract compositional photography. I've found that there is no other subject in our area that gives students access to line, shape and form in such a simple and powerful way. This photo was taken during a field trip in one of my classes to the Sundial Bridge. Canon 5D Mark II, EF17-40mm f/4L USM, 1/60th @ f/13, ISO 200.

Agriculture

Walnut Orchards in Fall - Sacramento Valley

Though I've lived in the Sacramento Valley for ten years, and have been photographing it for eight, one thing I never managed to capture was autumn in the walnut orchards. This year, I vowed that I would not miss it, and was rewarded by one of the best years in recent memory for color among the orchards. This photo was taken on a partly cloudy day just south of Chico. I actually got a number of excellent images of the walnut trees last fall; this one just has an extra appeal to it for me. Canon 5D Mark II, EF28-70mm f/2.8L USM, 1/125th @ f/8, ISO 200.

Winter Wheat Fields

I little known fact is that the Sacramento Valley used to be the bread basket of a fair chunk of the country. Glenn and Colusa counties grew tens of thousands of acres of winter wheat during the 19th century. Little of that wheat production remains today, as the dry farmed hills have been mostly turned over to grazing. However, there are a few small corners along the western edge of the valley that still produce winter wheat. This photo was one of the first I took with my then new Canon 5D Mark II, on March 22nd, 2009. Even at this seemingly early date, many of the fields have already been harvested. Canon 5D Mark II, EF70-200mm f/4L USM, 1/1250th @ f/8, ISO 800.

Food

Last summer, my wife and I decided to start a food photography blog - her for the food, me for the photography, of course. Though changes in her work hours have made it almost impossible to keep it up, it is a project that we both enjoy. Food photography was something completely new to me and a real challenge - both technically as far as lighting, styling and set up, as well as conceptually and compositionally. As a primarily outdoor photographer used to dealing with natural light, having complete control over my lighting was a new a mysterious experience. And obviously, composition and conceptualization in food photography are totally different from landscape or architectural photography. Nonetheless, it has been a wonderful and enlightening experience.

Zucchini Walnut Goat Cheese Pizza

This is easily my favorite of all of my food photographs. The colors of the pizza are beautiful, and somehow I managed to catch the lighting on the basil leaves perfectly. It's simple, intensive, beautiful and appealing. Overall, I've had a lot more luck with shooting food on dark plates on dark backgrounds than the other way around. You can view the full set of images (and read about the dish) at the blog post. Canon 5D Mark II, EF17-40mm f/4L USM, 1/100th @ f/8, ISO 250.

Scallops in Orange Saffron Aioli

I love this image for the perfection and simplicity of the composition and the simple, clean lighting. As beautiful as it was, the saffron aioli wasn't a delicious as it sounds - or looks. Oh well; not every dish we've made for the blog has been both beautiful and delicious. You can view the full set of images from this shoot in the blog post. Canon 5D Mark II, EF17-40mm f/4L USM, 1/100th @ f/6.3, ISO 250.

"Other"

Motorola Droid - Detail

Last fall I finally joined the smartphone generation by purchasing a Motorola Droid phone. I was intrigued by its rather severe industrial lines, and decided to explore the camera photographically. You can see my full set of images in this post on the Motorola Droid. Although I really liked a lot of images from that shoot, I particularly liked this one for its simplicity and the subdued tonal qualities of the image. Canon 5D Mark II, Sigma Macro 105mm F2.8 EX DG, 1/100th @ f/8, ISO 200.

Pintail Duck - Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

I don't consider myself a wildlife photographer - they are a breed apart from all other classes of photographers - but I do enjoy wildlife photography, as long as it doesn't involve wading through freezing water at 5:00 AM to wait in frozen stillness for hours for a bird to land within range of your $6,000 lens. I took this shot of a pintail duck from the viewing platform at the Llano Seco Wildlife Refuge. It was only moments before sunset and the wind (which had been blowing at a steady 20 MPH clip) let up briefly for me to get this relatively still water shot. Canon 7D, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, 1/100th @ f/8, ISO 400.

Top Ten Selling Images of 2009

2010-01-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

The most viewed images on my websites were not necessarily the ones that sold the most, either as prints or as licensed images.

The following list shows the best selling stock images of 2009. The emphasis on renewable energy boosted sales of images of solar panels last year, and the PBS special on the National Park System boosted sales of images of Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite National Park. Otherwise, image sales followed my strengths of landscapes and photos of Sacramento.

1. The California State Capitol building

2. Morning near Mt. Tom

3. Snow Geese in Flight

4. Ponderosa pines along the edge of a snowy meadow east of Mt. Lassen.

5. Bunches of ripe wine grapes in the Shenandoah Valley

6. Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.

7. Solar Panels.

8. Rice Field Panorama

9. Red Barn in Snow

10. The Tower Bridge over the Sacramento River in the late afternoon.

Top Ten Most Viewed Images of 2009

2010-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

2009 was an interesting year. Business was slow until near the end, but I still had a lot of traffic on my sites.

Here are the top ten most viewed photographs on my www.adunnphotography.com and www.sacramentovalleyphotos.com sites.

1. The downtown Sacramento skyline at night

2. The California State Capitol building in downtown Sacramento at sunset.

3. The old Elks Club Building (McCormick and Schmick's building), downtown Sacramento

4. The State Capitol Building in Sacramento.

5. The Tower Bridge over the Sacramento River at Sacramento.

6. The Ziggurat Building in West Sacramento, along the banks of the Sacramento River.

7. The Delta King, Tower Bridge and buildings of downtown Sacramento at dusk.

8. A panoramic view of a busy Friday evening in Old Sacramento.

9. The lights of the Delta King and the Tower Bridge reflect on the Sacramento River.

10. Purple larkspur (Delphinium sp.) in a field near Chico.

My First Camera

2010-01-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

Technically, my very first camera was a Kodak Brownie-type thing that my parents bought me when I was seven or eight. What I'm referring to here is the first camera that I bought for myself: a Yashica TL Electro X 35mm SLR that I bought in 1973 at the age of 16. I don't remember where I purchased it or for how much. I know it was brand new.

This was the camera that first inspired me to pursue photography, even though by today's standards it has little to recommend it. It was heavy as a brick, completely manual in every way and used the old Pentax screw-in lens mount, which was virtually impossible to use.

But I loved this camera and used it for everything. As a teenager I was very interested in experimental photographic techniques and did a lot of infrared, time-lapse, and multiple exposures with it. I also did sports photography for my high school yearbook, specializing in Track and Field and Football. Some of that early work was even pretty good.

Unfortunately, none of those images survive today, other than a scan I made of a print I gave my parents of sunrise from the top of Mt. Whitney, taken in 1979 (yes, I hauled that monster all the way to the top of Mt. Whitney).

However, despite how primitive that camera was by today's standards, it introduced me to serious photography and gave me the ability to learn to see as the camera sees.

Though it wasn't a terribly special camera in many ways, I still like it's functional lines and robust build. There is an immensely satisfyingly heavy 'clack' when you trip the shutter.

The last photo juxtaposes my first SLR with my most recent DSLR purchase, the Canon 7D. It's interesting how much - and how little - SLRs have changed over the past 36 years. The basic form the SLR is essentially unchanged, but where the Yashica TL Electro X was "the first camera with electronic lights for exposure information", today's cameras are fully digital image acquisition and processing platforms, some even wifi ready.

And though the technology has changed radically, the process of photography - the seeing and making of an image - has not.

The Tule Fog

2010-01-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year in the Sacramento Valley, when the tule fog moves in, settles on us and makes our lives miserable - sometimes for weeks on end - with impenetrable freezing cold fog.

But it can also make for some amazing photographs. Here are a few images I've taken over the past few years in the tule fog.

Walnut trees in the fog near Colusa.

A small island in Ellis Lake, Marysville.

Trees in fog near Chico.

A walnut orchard near Meridian.

A path through the fog.

Hallmarks of the Sacramento Valley: The Sundial Bridge

2009-12-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Sundial Bridge in Redding is probably the most famous piece of architecture in the north state. Designed by world famous architect Santiago Calatrava, and completed in 2004, the Sundial Bridge draws people from all over.

For me as a photographer, the Sundial Bridge is a fascinating abstract sculpture, and a location amazingly suited for practicing abstract composition. As a result, I have brought my photography classes and workshops to the Sundial Bridge repeatedly, and have used it to teach basic and complex compositional concepts.

But regardless of its effectiveness as a teaching tool, it is a beautiful structure and one that always surprises me with new angles and new beauty.

Here are a few images that I've taken over the years, highlighting the abstract nature of the Sundial Bridge.

Merry Christmas Chico!

2009-12-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

I went downtown a few days ago at sunset and took a few images of the downtown Plaza in Chico.

The lit Christmas tree added at lot of color - and sense of the Christmas season - to these photos of the fountain in the center of the Plaza.

Merry Christmas Chico!

Canon 7D Review - Focusing on Focus

2009-12-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

As I said in a previous post, this blog is not a gear review blog. However, I just purchased a new Canon 7D DSLR and felt that I should add my two cents to various discussions that have been happening regarding this camera.

If you don't want to read about camera gear and the various arguments that photographers have about how many pixels can dance on the head of a pin, then you can stop reading right now and I won't be offended.

Some people, but certainly not all, have had issues with focusing and specifically image sharpness on the 7D. One of the more damning posts, from an image quality assessment, came from photographer Darwin Wiggett. He called the 7D "the camera we want to love". There are numerous other posts out there, particularly in the DP Review forums regarding softness issues with this camera.

Well, if this camera is so problematic, why did I purchase one? One reason I bought the 7D was to it use for wildlife photography. Though I don't do a lot of wildlife photography, it is something that clients occasionally request. My main body is a Canon 5D Mark II - a full frame body. Whereas a full frame camera gives you the advertised focal length of a lens (e.g., 400mm), a crop-framed camera such as the 7D gives you a 1.6X increase in effective focal length (e.g., 400mm = 640mm). That can be a great increase in 'reach' for relatively little money, particularly when a 600mm lens might cost $8000.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason I purchased a 7D; the improved autofocus and built-in wireless flash control were also important factors. Additionally, I knew that some people were getting outstanding results from their 7D's. I just hoped that mine would be sharp.

But I wasn't about to take that for granted, so since I received mine from B&H Photo last Thursday, I've been running tests on it.

This review focuses (no pun intended) solely on focusing and sharpness issues. Feature- and handling-wise, I think this is a great camera. But when it comes to 'pixel-peeping', it may be another story.

The first thing I decided to do was run the 7D up against my 5D Mark II.

Not a fair comparison, you say? Actually, all other things being equal, these two cameras should produce images with very similar resolutions. The 5D II produces images of 5616x3744 pixels (21.1Mp); the 7D produces images of 5184x3456 pixels (18.0Mp). If you do the math, the 5D II theoretically produces 8.3% higher resolution than the 7D - which should not be discernible even at 100% enlargement.

The images produced by the 7D are only marginally smaller than the 5D II.

Note: all images in these tests were shot in RAW format and given default processing in Adobe Camera Raw. I did play around with sharpening, but it always introduced noise, so I considered that an unacceptable option.

Round 1: Photoshop Calls the FBI

I placed the camera on a tripod, set up a couple of flashes and took a few shots of a $20 bill in front of an old postal scale. I rarely use the scale, so it's covered by a layer of fine dust that comes in very handy in doing resolution tests.

I put the camera in One Shot AF mode, and took a bunch of photos at different f-stops. I did the same with the 5D Mark II. Even though the different sensor sizes produced a different crop, I adjusted the zoom on my lens (43mm for the 7D, 70mm for the 5D II) to give the same apparent subject size.

Images framed to give the same apparent subject size.

When I went open the RAW images in Photoshop, I made a very interesting discovery: Photoshop recognizes photographs of 'banknotes' and refuses to open them. It probably also reported me to the FBI. So I guess these photos might be illegal, but I swear I'm not trying to counterfeit anything!

Anyway, I ended up taking screenshots of the images at 100% in Adobe Camera Raw and then pasting those screenshots into another application that wasn't as 'sensitive' to potentially illegal activities.

One thing I wanted to test was the claim made by some that image quality for the 7D would begin to decline after about f/5.6 or so. I thought this concept was absolute bunk, so I tested the 5D II and 7D at various apertures.

All images were taken in manual mode, 1/80th sec, ISO 200, Canon 28-70mm f/2.8 L lens. The images below are 100% crops.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 7D

I notice two things from this test:

The people who say that you can't shoot over f/5.6 with the 7D are full of it. The f/11 image is clearly (if marginally) sharper than the f/5.6 image.
Holy moly, the 7D is as soft as Charmin compared to the crispness of the 5D II, particularly in the detail of Andrew Jackson's face.

Round 1 Verdict: I just wanted to toss the 7D in the trash.

Potential flaws in my technique: for this shoot I didn't move the camera, but rather zoomed the lens. Just as lens sharpness varies from aperture to aperture, it also varies from focal length to focal length, which may have affected the results.

Round 2: The Game is Afoot!

Actually, there wasn't much game afoot the day I took the 7D into the field. But I bought it mainly to use as a wildlife body, with it's fast and flexible AF and 1.6 crop factor.

Here is where I started to wonder what was up. Though it was a crappy overcast day, I got some decent shots with the 7D. The autofocus seemed sure and fast. But the results were as often horrible as they were decent.

Some shots came out nice, despite the crappy weather:

1/400th, f/5.6, ISO 800, AI Servo AF (view at large size for more detail)

Others were inexplicably soft all across the image. The image below has not one single area that appears perfectly in focus. I had a number of images like this.

1/400th, f/5.6, ISO 800, AI Servo AF (view at large size for more 'detail')

Those were about the only two birds I saw, but I did take a few photos of a sign in an attempt to gather more information about the camera.

1/200th, f/11, ISO 800, One Shot Focus AF, Canon 100-400 L IS, at 400mm

Even though I had to enlarge the 5D II image considerably to make up for the 1.6X magnification advantage of the 7D, the two images returned virtually identical levels of resolution, and the 7D has noticeably more noise.

100% crop of 7D image, enlarged crop of 5D II image (view full size for more detail)

Round Two Verdict: WTF?

Round Three: Tipping the Scales

So after that indecisive experience, it was back to the studio. This time, I tried repeating the first test, but this time without the $20 bill. I put the camera on a tripod, with a couple of flashes:

The results were all over the place. Some images seemed sharp, but most were soft. I had put the camera in One Shot AF and refocused between each shot when I changed the aperture. Each time the camera locked on the center part of the scale dial.

I couldn't figure out why some images seemed tack sharp while others were undeniably soft, when I suddenly noticed in one soft image that the dust on top of the scale was perfectly sharp. The problem snapped suddenly into sharp focus (OK, seriously, did you think I could resist that? Really?): the AF was not focusing at the same point on every shot!

Here are crops of two shots, taken one right after the other:

Both images are 1/80th, f/8, 100, Sigma 105mm macro lens

In both shots, the AF 'locked' on the center of the face of the scale, but only focused there on the first shot. The second shot is severely backfocused.

Round 3 Verdict: Aha!

Round 4: Back to Jackson

Now I had a theory to test, so I went back to my trusty Andrew Jackson $20 bill. But this time I wasn't going to photograph the whole bill - I was going to use my extremely sharp Sigma 105mm 1:1 macro lens and shoot only a tiny portion of the bill... and hope that Photoshop wasn't smart enough to tell that it was still a $20 bill.

My plan this time was to manually focus each shot, using live view at 10X to give me the sharpest focus possible. This time, I also moved the camera closer and farther from the subject in order to retain the exact same scale and framing for each camera (which is not as easy as you'd think).

I took two shots with each camera: one focused on the teensy tiny word "America" on the left side of the bill, and the other focused on the word "Jackson".

The two focus areas used for the images

The results confirmed my theory. When manually focused using live view at high magnification, images from the 7D are every bit as sharp and detailed as images from the 5D Mark II, if not more so.

7D on the left, 5D II on the right. Very difficult to discern any difference in resolution or sharpness. (100% crop for 5D II, 7D image slightly enlarged to match)

7D on left, 5D II on right. Here the 7D image appears clearly sharper than the 5D II image, possibly due to the fact that the 7D is using a better part of the lens. (100% crop for 5D II, 7D image slightly enlarged to match)

Round 4 Verdict: The sensor rocks, the AF sucks

Though it seems clear that the AF on my camera has 'issues', there are still a number of images I've taken with the 7D that are soft all the way around, with no part of the image appearing in focus (e.g., the egret photo). I don't have an answer for what's causing that.

But I do know that I have an RMA number from B&H and will be sending this copy of the 7D back. I'm hoping that the one that replaces it will have more reliable autofocus.

In truth, I almost hate to send it back since I was able to get such incredibly sharp images out of the 7D. But it took so much work to get those images, and I had so many more that were worthless, that there is no way I could rely on the 7D's AF for my daily business.

My OTHER Photography Blog

2009-12-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging for years. This is my fifth or sixth blog, I think. Technically, all but one or two of those blogs are still going, but in reality, there are three that get any regular attention.

My first blog was a weekly wine column that I did for a local newspaper. Amazingly, the posts can still be read here: wine-thoughts.blogspot.com.It was a humorous column attempting to make wine accessible to 'regular folks'.

Last summer, with business in the recession doldrums, my wife and I started a food photography blog. Food is something I love, but also something that I'd never photographed, so I thought that it would be a good learning and growing opportunity. I didn't do it with the intent of becoming a food photographer; I did it because I simply wanted to learn something new and expand my horizons photographically.

The blog was rather optimistically called 365 Days of Food, but with my wife working 3 to 4 nights a week for the past several months, coupled with some improvement in business, it has been almost impossible to keep it up on the a daily basis as we had hoped.

However, I did manage to write a new post and send it out this morning, so I thought that I'd share it here as well: Crab Fettuccine in Alfredo Sauce. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Here's a few other images from that blog...

The Gateway Science Museum, Chico

2009-12-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

As a nature photographer, I've always been interested in the natural sciences. In fact, I got my bachelor's degree in Natural Resource Management. As a result, I've always been a big supporter of the Northern California Natural History Museum, which was recently renamed the Gateway Science Museum.

For many years, the museum has been little more than a few dedicated staff and some architectural drawings, but they finally received enough funding to actually build the museum. I was honored that the museum approached me to do the first shoots of the nearly completed, but empty future of home of northern California's only science museum.

I was more than happy to donate my time to take these photos for the museum, particularly since non-profit organizations like this struggle in tough economic times.

Given that I had only one evening a one cloudy morning for the shoot, I think I was able to do a decent job capturing the character of the still empty building. I used only natural light for the evening shoot, relying on the darking sky to give some balance to the exterior lighting, and relying on only interior lights for the interior shots.

Hallmarks of the Sacramento Valley: The Sacramento River

2009-12-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Nothing communicates the character of the Sacramento Valley's natural environment like the Sacramento River.

The river begins way up near the Oregon border in the northeast corner of the state as the Pit River. A shorter tributary, the Sacramento River proper, begins on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. Along with the McCloud River, they meet at Shasta Lake and flow from there through the valley, past downtown Sacramento, into the Sacramento Delta, and then on to the San Francisco Bay.

You can learn a lot more about the river on these sites:

As one of the defining natural and recreational features of the Sacramento Valley, photographs of the river can do a lot to communicate the character and lifestyle in our region.

Here are a few of my images of the Sacramento River at its tributaries:

The Pit River at Fall River Mills, in far northeastern California

Boaters on the Sacramento River near Anderson

The Sacramento River at Sacramento

The Sacramento skyline reflected in the Sacramento River

Clouds reflected in the Sacramento River near Knights Landing

The Sacramento River at Rio Vista in the Sacramento Delta

The Motorola Droid Phone

2009-12-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

This isn't a product review blog, and if it were, it would contain reviews of camera equipment, not cell phones. However, I recently got a Motorola Droid, and I find it such a wonderful device that I thought I'd share my thoughts on it (while at the same time sharing a bit of product photography).

First, a few photos.

The Droid is such an industrial-looking piece of hardware that I decided to takes some photographs of it. I used a simple two-light setup (actually three lights, but the two rear lights acted as a single source - click on the image for more detail on the lighting) and moved the phone around to get different lighting effects.

This simple lighting set up worked very well. I kept the lighting low keyed, to accentuate the rather masculine, industrial look of the phone, and to bring out its textures. I used a 100mm macro lens for most of the shots, in order to get the tight detail shots. All images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II.

What I Like About the Droid

There is actually very little I dislike about the Droid; it's fast, it's flexible. There are plenty of apps, but not as many as for the iPhone - yet. The GPS and location-based services (like turn-by-turn GPS, GPS trip tracking, Locale, Layar, etc.) are simply incredible. These alone have changed the way I do a lot of things.

Verizon's 3G coverage is extensive. On a recent shoot (see map below), there was only one location where I didn't have 3G coverage, even though I was out in the middle of the Sacramento Valley, far from the towns and freeways. I had internet access to weather info and satellite photos (critical to a landscape photographer) from nearly every location.

The Google integration is automatic and pretty amazing. Since Android is Google's phone OS, that's not surprising, but it is very nice. Sign into your Google account when you first get the phone, and it automatically synchronizes your Gmail, Google Calendar, and most of your other Google apps. It's that easy.

I love using the barcode scanning app to check product prices and reviews while in the store, and the Google Sky Map is great for figuring out what star or planet you're looking at in the night sky.

Bottom line: it's basically a pocket computer with built in turn-by-turn GPS. As long as you have Internet access, you have just about everything you could need.

What I Don't Like About the Droid

The camera sucks. Cell phone cameras pretty much all suck image quality-wise, but the Droid goes one better by making the camera so slow to focus and unresponsive that it's very frustrating to use. When the aliens land and the Droid is all I have on me, will I use it to take those first Pulitzer Prize winning photos? Of course I will; but that doesn't change the fact that the camera sucks.

Just as Google apps integration is awesome, the complete lack of iTunes integration is not awesome. I have a far library of music purchased from iTunes that I can't use on my Droid. Oh, well. I'll be buying my music from the Amazon MP3 store from now on.

Because the Droid multitasks, unlike the iPhone, it is possible to get so many things running that the phone slows downs considerably. There are 'app killer' apps that you can download to kill memory eating apps, but sometimes restarting the phone is the only way to clear out all the crap that you've launched. This is a minor but unnecessary annoyance. Every app should have a Quit option.

The physical keyboard is basically worthless in my view. The virtual keyboard works fine (though my big fingers are clumsy), particularly since it suggests words as you type. Get four letters into a word and you can usually just click on it. They could have saved on the weight and thickness of the phone by omitting the physical keyboard.

How I used the Droid in my Business

Of course, it's a phone, so I use it to communicate with clients, but since it is also synced with my email and calendar, I use it to receive and send email, check meetings, etc. None of that is news to anyone. What is new are some of the location-based abilities of the phone.

A lot of the shoots I do are in the field, particularly landscape and agricultural shoots require a lot of driving. As a business, my mileage is a legitimate expense. But I'm too lazy to check the mileage at the start and end of every trip. I used to manually enter my path into MS Streets and Trips after every shoot, but with the Droid and Google My Tracks, I can just press a button and have the GPS unit on the phone record every step of my trip.

Here's a shoot I went on a couple of weeks ago:

The Droid recorded every turn of the trip, and reported total distance, as well as a lot of stuff I 'm not that concerned about:

With a single tap of the screen, I can save this trip to my Google My Maps. Every shoot I go on, I have a audit-proof record of my mileage.

And the detail and accuracy of the GPS is astounding. Here's a screen capture of my wanderings in a walnut orchard as I was taking photos:

The great thing is that I can pinpoint the location of each and every image I take. If only there were an automatic geotagging tool that would add the location to the EXIF info in my Canon 5D Mk II as I took each image. That would rock. Cameras need to get built-in Bluetooth to communicate with our smartphones. Are you listening Canon/Nikon/Sony/Pentax?

Here's a photo from that specific orchard:

Because I have internet connectivity, I can check the weather - particularly satellite photos for the location of clouds. When I'm in the field doing landscape photography, knowing where the clouds are going can make the difference between getting some incredible images or being left in the dark.

Here's a shot of the sky a few weeks ago:

Pretty overcast, but that's what I was looking for while shooting walnut orchards. Many times when I'm in the field I am chasing the light, and knowing where the good clouds are (or are going) can make all the difference in the world.

I've only had the Droid for a couple of weeks, so I don't really know yet all the ways that it will affect my business, but just the trip tracking and Internet access have already made a huge difference in how I do work in the field.

Add the ability to communicate directly with the camera, and you'd have an everything phone.

The Bottom Line

Everyone asks me if the Droid is an iPhone killer. I know a lot of people with iPhones, and, at least for me, the Droid is better in many ways. Multitasking to run location-based apps, built-in GPS, outstanding Verizon network - all of these let me use the phone in the field in ways that the iPhone probably wouldn't. I definitely think the Droid is going to cut into the iPhone market, particularly for those people, like me, who just couldn't accept a two year commitment to AT&T's crappy service.

Overall, even though the Droid isn't perfect, and it's still missing some apps I'd like to see, I couldn't be happier with it. It's an awesome device, and that's the bottom line.

Walnut Orchards in the Fall

2009-12-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

The autumn leaf colors in the Sacramento Valley this year have lasted longer than most years. I've gotten several sets of great images of fall color from Chico's Bidwell Park. In addition, this has been a great year for color in the walnut orchards around the valley.

In many years, the leaves on the walnut trees just turn splotchy brown, but this year we've seen a lot of great color - mixes of greens and yellows - and even some golds - in the tree leaves. And the color is lasting longer than in most years. As a result, I've made several shooting trips this season just to photograph the walnut orchards as they change color.

Here are a few images from walnut orchards near Corning and Chico taken in the past week or so. I think you'll agree that walnut orchards can be amazingly beautiful at this time of year. (you can view the full set of recent orchard photos on my main Website).

Give the Sacramento Valley for Christmas

2009-11-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Looking for a great gift? Under the Endless Sky: Landscapes of California's Sacramento Valley is the perfect gift if you want to share the beauty of the north state with friends and family.

Under the Endless Sky showcases the sometimes hidden beauty of the Sacramento Valley and the north state in beautiful color photography.

Including images from the mountains surrounding the valley (including Mt Shasta and Mt. Lassen), to the farms and fields that make up the valley floor, all the way to the Sacramento Delta, Under the Endless Sky shows the the Sacramento Valley in ways that few ever see it.

From the introduction:

For most people, the Sacramento Valley is not a beautiful place. To them, the valley is only what they see through their windshield as they rocket up the Interstate at 80 miles an hour in their rush to get through its oppressive summer heat to some cool, green destination in Oregon or Washington. And what they see are endless flat miles of dusty fields and orchards: rice, tomatoes, corn, almonds, olives and walnuts. Hot, boring, flat and repetitious.

But the Sacramento Valley is a true California landscape in its own right. It is a landscape not of wild rock or majestic forests, but of emerald rice fields under an endless blue sky and of golden sunsets reflected in the placid Sacramento River. It is a landscape of farms and of rolling hills; a peaceful and pastoral landscape, reminiscent of a California long gone in other parts of the state.

As a photographer, my challenge has been to find these places, to delve beneath the dusty, bland exterior that the valley shows to casual visitors, and to record the unseen beauty that hides in full view under the endless sky.

Under the Endless Sky is available at blurb.com for $34.95, plus tax and shipping.

Under the Endl...

Landscapes of Cali...

By Anthony Dunn

Book Preview

View a preview of the Under the Endless Sky.

Here are just a few sample images:

Hallmarks of the Sacramento Valley: Winter Waterfowl

2009-11-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

The Sacramento Valley is one of the premiere wintering sites for birds on the Pacific Flyway. According to Ducks Unlimited, between 1 and 3 million ducks, geese and swans winter in the Sacramento Valley. But more than just ducks and geese winter in the Sacramento Valley. Everything from egrets and herons to ibises, stilts, and pheasants winter in the valley. There are times when the sky is literally dark with birds.

Starting in October, and continuing through March, the flocks of birds that inhabit the refuges and rice fields are a hallmark of the Sacramento Valley - and can be used to great effect in publications and Websites to communicate the unspoiled natural environment of the Sacramento Valley.

I made a recent trip to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge to record some of the wildlife. It wasn't my most successful trip, but here are a few of the more interesting images:

Female green heron

Ducks at Sunset

Snow geese in Flight

See my full selection of wildlife photos on my main Website. Here are some images from other visits to the refuge:

Snow Geese in Flight

White-faced Ibis

Snowy Egret

Great Blue Heron

Snow Geese at Sunrise

Though the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge near Willows is one of my favorite places to go, there are many other refuges, both federal and state, in the valley to visit.

Fall in Chico's Bidwell Park

2009-11-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

Bidwell Park is the jewel of Chico, and one of the best seasons to visit and photograph the park is during the fall when the trees are changing color.

As a result, I've made an effort to visit the park several times over the past couple of weeks to record the changing seasons. There is still color in the trees in the park; hopefully I'll get a chance to visit at least once more before the leaves fall.

These photos say a lot about the natural environment of Chico and the north state, and can be used to communicate the lifestyle of Northern California. These images could be used by any business promoting the quality of life in Chico and Northern California, including banks, realtors, local business, job recruiters, or anyone trying to demonstrate that Chico is an attractive place to do business and live.

Here are a few images from my recent visits:

Mt. Shasta - Recent Shoot

2009-11-16T09:29:00.000-08:00

Mount Shasta is without a doubt one of the most dramatic landmarks in northern California, and a popular icon of the north state. Many of my images of Mt. Shasta have been used in calendars, business cards, websites, magazine covers, mural-sized prints, and many other publications.

A few weeks ago we had our first real storm of the season and I decided that the resulting snowfall on the mountain would make for some nice additions to my catalog of Mt. Shasta images, With winter rapidly approaching, my clients need fresh seasonal images of Mt. Shasta and our region. This shoot was a good chance to get a head start.

On my main website, you can view my full catalog of Mt. Shasta images, but here are a few from my most recent trip:

My strategy for shooting Mt. Shasta is fairly simple: try to keep the sun at a 90° angle to the camera view of the mountain, shoot in either the very late afternoon or early morning, and try to find interesting foregrounds to contrast with the mountain.

Ready for Winter?

2009-11-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Winter is coming and my clients always have a need for images that evoke winter and the holiday season in our region. I have a wide variety of winter season landscape images from northern California, including the Sierra Nevada, Mt. Lassen, Mt. Shasta and the Sacramento Valley.

Here are a few choice images from my stock selection.

For a complete list of winter-themed photos, visit my main website.