Archive for December, 2010

Ten Favorite Photos From 2010

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

As a way to wrap up the year, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite photos from 2010. Some of these will seem familiar (yes, more pictures of golden retrievers), and some not so much (wedding photos? Huh?).

This is Jasper, our golden retriever, running like a moron through a field of foxtails. Foxtails pose a real threat to dogs when they burrow into their eyes, ears, and nose, and if not caught in time can even result in death. Scary stuff. (As always, Jasper got a thorough going-over after this hike, and was happily foxtail-free.)

Dog running through foxtails

Dog (golden retriever) running through a field of foxtails in California. Foxtails can burrow into dogs through their nose, eyes, and even skin, and can be life-threatening.

Another potential danger for dogs on the trail is snakes. This is actually a gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer), and is completely harmless. (To dogs, anyway — not so friendly if you’re a mouse.)

Dogs and snake on hiking trail

A woman restraining her dogs (golden retrievers) to keep them away from a (non-poisonous) gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer), California

I started experimenting with underwater photography this year, and had a lot of fun photographing dogs underwater. This photo is from our local river (South Fork American River) which is quite cold. You learn to shoot quickly.

Dog swimming underwater

A dog (golden retriever) swimming, photographed from below.

But it wasn’t all dogs in 2010. I managed to get some landscape photography in, as well. I ended up spending a bunch of time in Half Moon Bay, CA this year for family reasons, and tried to balance it with trips to photograph Pescadero Marsh, Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pillar Point Harbor, and the redwoods in Purisima Creek Open Space.

Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, California

Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, California

Redwoods along Purisima Creek

Sun rising through redwoods along Purisima Creek, Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, California

Pigeon Point Lighthouse and full moon

Full moon setting behind Pigeon Point Lighthouse, California

Pillar Point Harbor, Half Moon Bay, California

Full moon rising over Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, California

Maple leaf in Purisima Creek

An autumn leaf of a bigleaf maple (Acer macrophylum) resting in Purisima Creek, Purisima Creek Open Space, near Half Moon Bay, CA

Lastly, I finally got serious about wedding photography. I’ve shot several weddings over the years for friends, but took it to the professional level this year with Sydnie and Scott’s wedding at the historic Bayley House in Cool, CA. It’s quite a different kind of photography for me, but I really do enjoy it and look forward to photographing more weddings in the future. Know anyone getting married?

Sydnie and Scott

Gorgeous Sydnie — she was a natural

Sydnie and Scott

Sydnie and Scott

Christmas, Half Moon Bay Style

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

During the holidays, people everywhere put up lights and decorations. Yet there are still regional differences that can make the displays unique. Take the habit of Arizonans dressing up their cacti.

The folks in Half Moon Bay, California, don’t have any cacti, but they do having fishing boats. And down at Pillar Point Harbor, there’s a tradition of stringing lights on the boats, making for a pretty festive scene.

Christmas lights on fishing boats

Christmas lights on fishing boat docked in Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, California.

This image doesn’t show the gaudy display of lights you sometimes find, and that’s actually one of the reasons I like it: Just a lone little boat with its Christmas lights.

I set the white balance manually here (5300K) to make sure the dominant color was cool to contrast with the warm holiday lights. Had I left the white balance on Auto, the camera would have tried to compensate for the blue hues, and made the overall image warmer. And while that may have been more accurate (probably in the 7500-8000K range), it wasn’t the look I was going for.

The real challenge was the length of the exposure. You see, boats tend to move around when they’re floating on the water. My exposure was 4 seconds, so I had to take several shots to get one that was reasonably sharp.

Final image specs

Nikon D300
Nikon 17-55 f/2.8
4 seconds at f/11

More Christmas lights

Photo gallery of more Christmas lights »

A New Perch: Now on Twitter

Thursday, December 16th, 2010
A Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) perches on a twig along the Northern California coast (Martin D. Beebee, Martin D. Beebee/Martin Beebee Photography)

A Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) perches on a twig along the Northern California coast

So I’m still wrestling through this social media thing (I’ve been on Facebook a little while), and my little sister finally convinced me to join the flock and sign up for Twitter. Hooray! I think.

The goal, of course, is to tweet useful or interesting or at least somewhat informative bits of information — not the inane chirping of what I had for breakfast, or how many clean socks I have left. I promise not to go there.

So: any tweet tips? I’d love to hear them. . . .

Check out my Twitter feed

Featured Photo: Christmas Cactus

Monday, December 13th, 2010

You have to understand that the holiday season in Tucson Arizona is not quite the traditional environment of snowy wreaths and hot chocolate. Daytime temps can be in the 80s, and nary a cloud is in the sky. So people get creative.

Take the habit of dressing up cacti. Saguaros, those classic cacti with the arms, are easily anthropomorphized (especially after a few rounds of tequila), so when Christmas arrives in Tucson, out come the Santa Claus hats and the cacti probably wish they could hide.

Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) with Santa hat, Tucson, Arizona (Martin D. Beebee/Martin Beebee Photography)

Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) with Santa hat, Tucson, Arizona

This jaunty image of a saguaro cactus wearing a Santa hat was relatively easy to make. The only thing I was interested in here was the subject – I didn’t want or need any fancy or special lighting, which might actually detract from the image. So I simply showed up mid-morning, stood on the sidewalk, and shot several images with a 70-200mm zoom lens.

To keep the image simple, I positioned myself to eliminate any background distractions so there were only two main elements: the green cactus and the blue sky. Following the basic rule of thirds, I placed the saguaro on the right-hand third and positioned the red Santa hat (which is the key element both because it’s red and because it’s a hat, which you normally don’t expect to see on a cactus) on the upper-right intersection of the thirds. The line of the cactus leads the eye right to the punch line (the Santa hat), so the image is simple, quick to interpret, and fun.

No deep meanings here – just good old-fashioned desert humor.

Final image specs

Nikon D70s
Nikon 70-200 f/2.8
1/640 at f/8