Old Glory, Nevada City, California

Photo: Old Glory in Old Cemetery, Nevada City, California

In my blog post a few days ago I pondered if most people are forgotten after their closest loved ones have passed. Well it didn't me take long to find one case of where the person hadn't been forgotten. From reading his grave marker, I believe this man's name was James Kitts and probably served in the U.S. military during the Mexican-American War. In addition to being a veteran, Mr. Kitts was a carpenter, bridge builder, gold prospector, hotel keeper, and stock broker during his lifetime. No date was provided on his tombstone though upon further research, I believe he may have died in 1901. Next to him is his 1st? wife, Eliza, who was buried in 1871.

The Pony Express Monument

Photo: The Pony Express Monument, Old Town Sacramento, California

The buildings that the Pony Express Monument is facing consists of an old Wells Fargo bank, the location of California's 1st Supreme Court, and the westernmost terminal of the legendary Pony Express mail delivery service which ran from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento from 1860 to 1861.

I thought this would be a cool picture to wrap up my little mini-series on Old Sacramento. Despite having too many cars cruising around on this evening, I was in a world of my own when I saw this scene. It is hard to believe that this historic district fell into disrepair and was known as Sacramento's "Skid Row" back in the 1960's. Tourism may aversely affect places like Yosemite Valley, but for places like Old Sacramento, these historic buildings wouldn't exist anymore without the draw of tourism.

P.S.: I would still like to see the pavement ripped out and replaced with dirt along with banning automobile traffic 365 days a year. :-)

Scarecrow Park

Photo: Halloween Decorations in Scarecrow Park, Old Sacramento, California

My favorite part of Halloween while growing up was Trick or Treating an entire pumpkin full of candy from around the neighborhood. It doesn't seem like parents take their kids out as much these days which is unfortunate. If I ever have kids, then they will be raised the right way and be out there on Halloween enjoying the same tradition that I enjoyed and many others did as kids. Well I guess unless cavities start developing... I only had one cavity while growing up so that was not really an issue for me.

This photo was taken last Saturday in Old Sacramento. They have decorated the district including this entire alley with various fall decorations this month so that was cool to see something new during my recent visit. I don't know if this had anything to do with the Fall Festival but later that night there was a Zombie Walk. A number of people were dressed up as ghouls and acting the part while taking pictures with tourists.

One thing for sure is that Sacramento is a vastly underrated travel destination. People always talk about traveling to San Francisco or L.A., but Sacramento has just as good of tourism sights as either of those cities if not better. Of course you wouldn't want to go to Sacramento from June through September though. It's way too hot in the Central Valley. Unfortunately the Gold Rush Days and California State Fair take place in August / September, and are arguably the two most interesting annual events in the area.

"The Big Four" Building, Old Sacramento SHP, California

Photo: Central Pacific Railroad Company and Huntington, Hopkins & Co. Hardware Store, Old Town Sacramento, California

You may have recognized this building as the backdrop for my website. The Big Four Building consists of the Huntington, Hopkins & Co Hardware store, Stanford Brothers Warehouse, and Nathaniel Dingley Steam Coffee & Spice Mill. Aside from the California Missions and the discovery of gold at Sutter Mill, this building is one of the most historically significant locations in the shaping of modern-day California.

In 1855, Collis Huntington and Mark Hopkins started their hardware store business then after a few years began plotting along with their neighboring business owners to build a transcontinental railroad. In the years prior there was no easy way to travel to California. The tragic story of the Donner Party in 1846 was a testament to that. The Central Pacific Railroad put an end to that however. The founders used their newfound wealth in many ways, with Leland Stanford eventually going on to establish Stanford University for example.

On Saturday afternoon, this was the first place I went to photograph in Old Town Sacramento. I’m a big fan of old architecture and this building is as good as Gold Rush architecture gets. I find older architectural styles to be artistic and have a sense of character that modern architecture lacks. This may sound weird but I fantasize about historic buildings like the Big Four Building at times. I imagine what it was like to be alive in those eras and what really went on back in the day. Probably far from glamorous. Then I wonder what happened to the people. Do their descendants still visit their gravesites or are they forgotten about after their loved ones have passed?

Seeing historic landmarks is both fascinating and tragic at the same time because they are a reminder that our time on this planet is relatively short compared to the overall scheme of things. However our contributions can have forever lasting impact on the world during those few years of productivity we have. This is also what I like most about photography. It is both an art form and a medium where we can capture a fleeting moment in time forever.

And here is the link to my previous article about Chinese railroad workers.

Victorian Fall in the Gold Country

Photo: Historic Firehouse Number 1 in Fall Season, Nevada City, California

I think I have a new favorite place in California. The weather is so perfect in Nevada City during the fall season. The cool crisp feeling of 30 degree mornings with daytime temperatures in the high 60's - low 70's.

One of my goals the past couple years is to get some images with colorful fall foliage in scenes with a white picket fence. I certainly got those images on this trip but seeing the victorian-styled Historic Firehouse No. 1 stopped me in my tracks. I was looking for a place to stop and clean off my hazy windshield early Sunday morning when I saw this beautiful building so I abruptly parked the car and shot some photos before cleaning the windshield.

The firehouse building was home to Nevada City's fire department from 1861 to 1938. It has served as the Nevada County Historical Society Museum since 1947 when it was donated by the city council. The museum was closed for the season so I would definetely like to see the museum in the future.

This image would have been a perfect candidate for an HDR exposure since the top was slightly blown out but I don't really mind it this way either since the building is supposed to be white after all. Nevada City is such a beautiful place. You wouldn't realize it by visiting in the fall but it also gets very hot here during the summer.

I spent all day yesterday processing pictures from the Empire Mine but now I am getting to my Nevada City pictures. I plan to add a new web gallery once I'm done processing this next batch of images.

Empire Mine State Historic Park

Bourn Cottage, Empire Mine State Historic Park, Grass Valley, California

This weekend I did a quick fall season road trip to the Sierra Nevada Foothills which is best known as the Mother Lode or California Gold Country. My previous two trips to Gold Country were for whitewater rafting on the American River and the other was cut short due to a wildfire so this weekend represented my first serious attempt at photographing the Highway 49 region. It was a blast to photograph and I can't believe that I have waited this long to make the trip.

Empire Mine SHP was one of the most interesting places I've been to. (I love the name too!) The Empire Mine, which operated from 1850 to 1956 was the biggest gold mining operation in California. Most of the buildings had machinery in there and you can actually walk into the mine shaft. That was awesome. I think that is the first time I have ever been inside of a mine. The park is in the process of developing a mine shaft ride tour which promises to be an experience like no other.

I spent about three hours wandering around shooting photos on the property. The landscaping was so beautiful around the cottages and contrasted with the industrial mining area what more could you ask for? Oh and a lot of the trees were a blazing yellow and red. I certainly wouldn't mind living here either. :-)

This panoramic photo was a four image stitch.

Digital Photography Workflow: Have a Good Filing System

Digital workflow is a seldom discussed topic on photo blogs but it also happens to be one of the most important aspects for a professional photographer to be proficient at. Without a good workflow it would be difficult to locate images quickly, you’d be doing the same tasks repeatedly, and just a total waste of time that would be better spent doing other things. It’s best to establish a good workflow from the beginning because by the time you’ll actually start noticing a need for something consistent you’d likely already have a significant number of images in your collection. It would be a pain to have to re-incorporate all of those processed images back into your new workflow.

Now if I were starting off today with digital imaging the first thing I would do is establish an organized filing system both on your computer and on your backup storage. The most obvious reason to do this is so you can find your images easily. The 2nd reason is so you are able to tell the difference between images that have been backed up versus images that haven’t been. When I first started off with digital imaging in 2000 – 2001, I didn’t have a good filing system in place yet so I ended up saving over my original files repeatedly because I didn’t know any better and because I didn’t have separate distinct folder directors for original files versus processed images. When I got serious about photography and realized that had I saved over my original files that woke me up to the importance of establishing an effective workflow. I use a PC and Windows operating system and will discuss how my filing system works.

I have a folder within the “My Pictures” directory that is called “Photography”. This is where I store low res processed images usually sized to 800 x 533 or thereabouts saved as compression 8 jpegs. The file sizes are usually about 100 – 300k. Good enough for review, email and comps without hogging up the entire hard drive. The jpegs are grouped within sub-directories according to their subject or geographic location such as: My Pictures < Photography < California Missions < Mission San Juan Capistrano. Other photographers might prefer to group their images by a coded image filing system such as CAMSJC001.jpg, CAMSJC002.jpg, CAMSB001.jpg, CAMSB002.jpg, etc... as opposed to a file folder based system such as my own.



The full-res Master files are stored in another directory by numerical order (RW001_Master, RW002_Master, etc…): My Pictures < RW_Master. The file names correspond with my photo ID numbers so I can easily dig up the full-resolution file and have it ready for immediate distribution or output when there is a need for it.

Original un-archived files go into an external hard drive directory: My Pictures < Originals < La Jolla Cove. I keep the originals in this directory until I have backed up them up onto discs and external hard drives. After backing these files up, then I’ll put them into: My Pictures < Burned < La Jolla Cove. The purpose for this is so that I know what I need to back up and what has already been backed up. Without an organized system such as this, then I probably would be missing a significant number of images as I clear off hard drive space.

Within the low resolution folder directory, I also keep a super low resolution catalog of my processed images sized to 250 x 1** so I can register my images at the U.S. Copyright Office on a single CD. It would be impractical to submit 5000 high resolution images to the copyright office and a waste of time to have to go back and create small files each time I want to register my images. This folder also allows me to quick reference a photo by the ID# for requests. This folder is located at: My Pictures < Photography < RW_List.

Another reason why I created my filing system this way is because it is the quickest way for me to save the different copies of each image when I am creating the files all the while maintaining separate folder directories for each. All I have to do is hit a backward folder or two to save each of the versions. Time management is very important when it comes to dealing with a large quantity of images. The goal for me is to create an efficient filing system workflow where I don’t have to think about what I am doing. As a result, my system is very organized and efficient for me to use. I’m not saving over important files by accident and I’m ensured that every image is being properly archived for storage.

Nowadays there are a number of “Digital Asset Management” (DAM) software programs that help streamline the cataloging process such as iViewMedia Pro and Adobe Lightroom. Once the images are keyworded then they can be searched through the catalog’s search engine. With a keyword-based catalog system such as iView, having properly keyworded images is absolutely essential however otherwise the images won’t be found easily. Even if you use DAM software however, it is still important to have an established filing structure for all of the above aforementioned reasons. I haven’t had a need to use these programs as these are primarily geared toward newspaper photojournalists and wedding photographers that need a quick turnaround time.

Time Management: I currently to submit to two stock agencies regularly and two others infrequently. I also upload high resolution jpegs to my PhotoShelter archive so I must keep in mind these additional forms of output when dealing with my image processing workflow. Every additional outlet for which I create files must be carefully evaluated because every single thing is time consuming over the course of thousands of images. My least favorite aspect to photography in the digital-era is the amount of computer work associated with it. So in general if there is little sales potential, profit margin or marketing benefits associated with that outlet then I have no interest in pursuing it. I am primarily interested in pursuing activities that can help grow my business whether that is promoting my website, selling through established rights-managed stock photo venues, or adding to the searchable photo archive on my site. (Hint: Please stop soliciting me to join start-up stock photo agencies or trade organizations. The email goes straight to the junk bin.)

I will be writing another article or two on the workflow topic in the future and it will probably include more of my views on keywording.

Panoramic Photos

Today I took a quick drive up to the forest in the northern edge of my town to see if any of the oak trees had fall color. Given the weird weather this year, it wasn't a surprise to see that the trees had gone from green to brown. The best trees in town are these three maple trees next to the Angeles National Forest fire station and they were at peak. Two years ago one tree was red, another orange and the other yellow. I don't think people aren't really supposed to wander in there past the gates so I didn't take any pictures today regretfully.

When I got home, I took a look at my fall pictures from last October when I was getting ready to move from Kentucky back to California. Looking in my folder for Clifty Falls State Park, I noticed a series of four images that appeared to be meant for a panoramic photo. My life was pretty hectic a year ago so I probably forgot about these images until today.

Panoramic photo of Clifty Falls State Park Fall Foliage, Indiana

I use AutoPano panoramic stitching software to create my panoramics. Shooting pictures for panoramics requires a great deal of pre-visualization because you cannot see the final composition until you get home and stitch the individual frames together. I try to take the individual images with significant overlap so that I am not missing any details from the scene. This image here was taken at about 50mm focal length. Any wider angle than this would not be taking advantage of all the detail available in the scene. Another advantage to using a medium focal length is that it minimizes perspective distortion because it forces you to stand further back from the scene therefore "flattening" the perspective. AutoPano usually does an amazing job with the panoramics with the exception of moving objects such as boats and people. I also woudln't recommend using a polarizer for panoramic images that have a blue sky.

I've read that some photographers like using tilt and shift lenses for panoramics because shifting the lens allows you to create the images without having the move the camera. That makes sense because when you are forced to move the camera you still have to keep the horizon perfectly even in relation to the other images. However, spending over $1,000 for that specialty lens isn't too appealing unless you plan on using it for other things. A panoramic tripod head is another effective way to create images for panoramics but the least convenient option in my opinion because you'd either have to pack two tripods or keep swapping heads on your tripod everytime you need a panoramic.

To see more panoramic pictures, see my web gallery.

Ventura and Santa Barbara

On Saturday morning I went to photograph Faulkner Farm. It was opening day of the pumpkin season and they were just setting up the gift shop as I arrived. I hoped to capture some pumpkin patch and barn landscapes without too many people getting into my images. Compared to my previous visit to Faulkner Farm in 2005, this year there are a variety of different pumpkins available from white pumpkins to golden hubbard squash. I also made sure to photograph the Faulkner House this time as well since the house was in shadow last time I tried to photograph it.

The guy collecting admission in the parking lot mentioned that was a retired photography pro that once attended Brooks Institute of Photography. He specialized portraits and weddings before leaving the business several years ago because he wasn't able to adapt to the onset of digital imaging. I kind of felt sorry for the guy because he said he didn't grow up using computers so it made the learning curve too difficult for him to keep up with.

After Faulkner Farm, I went over to Mission San Buenaventura. I had previously tried to photograph the mission in 2005 after photographing the farm but I couldn't find the entrance. The entrance was through their gift shop store on Main Street... This time I made sure to not repeat the mistake.

I didn't find Mission San Buenaventura to be that photogenic compared to some of the other 14 California Missions I have photographed. Complicating matters was a wedding about to take place in the chapel. I sat in the back waiting for the wedding to end so I could walk around freely. Unfortunately the lights were turned off once the wedding ended so I wasn't really able to get good chapel photos. In the gift shop museum however I found the old bookshelf display to be interesting. There were bibles dating from the 1770's. I assume that Father Junipero Serra himself probably used them himself at some point as Mission San Buenaventura was the 9th and final mission that he founded during his lifetime.

I went up to Santa Barbara afterwards to scope out the area around Stearn's Wharf. The light was too harsh when I got there so I drove through State Street and ended up at Mission Santa Barbara. The famous exterior and rose garden is best photographed early in the morning so obviously I wasn't able to do that. The door to the church was open however so I went in. The church is as beautiful as Mission San Juan Bautista's but it has none of the ambience. The reason why I say that is because Santa Barbara is overrun with tourists. I'd been to the Santa Barbara Mission twice before but it wasn't as crowded as it was on Saturday. People seemingly just kept coming in to take snapshots or walking through. When I photograph the mission churches I keep a low profile and stay out of the way. When tour buses come however, the tourists usually don't respect others right to privacy. I saw people walking through the pews shooting pictures right in front of people who were paying their respects. It was madness.

I went down to Stearns Wharf afterward, which wasn't quite as bad of an experience but still touristy. I was a bit confused at seeing all the cars come and go because there really isn't all that much to see or do at the wharf other than a whale watching tour and the Natural History museum. About an hour later I drove down to the Ventura Pier in time for the sunset.

My parents used to take my brother and I fishing on the Ventura Pier when we were growing up. On our last family visit probably about twelve years ago, my dad caught a shark. It was so big that four other fishermen had to climb over the railing to help pull it up. We gave it to them because we didn't really know what to do with it. Other fishes we caught in past also include barricuda which we did bring home but I don't think we ate it.

When I arrived at the pier, the sun was almost setting but not quite so I walked around the beach for a bit until the light got warmer then I proceeded to walk onto the pier. Half of the waterfront was roped off due to a fundraiser which I heard was being hosted by Democrats. I took some landscape pictures of that from the pier and a number of other pier pictures before it got dark. The light wasn't all that spectacular since the air quality was so clear but it was alright. Ventura Pier isn't touristy unlike Santa Monica or even Stearns Wharf so it was definitely more pleasant to shoot.

Photo of Ventura Pier Sunset, California

This year I've been re-visiting a lot of the places I had fond memories of as a kid and have been making an effort to photograph them. Ventura Pier was definitely one of those places. Last month when I went to photograph the Redondo Beach Pier, that was my first visit in about twenty years. It's been interesting to see how these places have changed over the years.

Shooting Pictures by Season

One way to attract more people to your website is to have photos of the various seasonal events during the course of the year. People are likely to want to do picture or travel research anywhere from several months ahead of time to the month of the event. So if you are known as a source for quality photos during these times of the year then your website will likely gain a boost in seasonal traffic accordingly. As an example, I will post the top 20 searched terms on my website for the current month and of September.

September

1. pumpkin patch
2. fall foliage
3. fortune teller
4. la county fair
5. monterey bay aquarium
6. pumpkin farm
7. john deere
8. zoltar
9. fall colors
10. puddingstone lake
11. l.a. county fair
12. monterey california
13. pomona california
14. pumpkin patches
15. pictures of weddings
16. romantic kiss
17. santa barbara beach california
18. christian cross
19. los angeles skyline
20. John deere tractors

October

1. pumpkin patch
2. fortune teller
3. pumpkin farm
4. monterey bay aquarium
5. fall foliage
6. john deere
7. fall colors
8. pumpkin patches
9. zoltar
10. john deere tractors
11. kentucky fall foliage
12. lucha libre
13. puddingstone lake
14. abilene kansas
15. asian railroad workers
16. aspen foliage
17. bird eating fruit
18. christian cross
19. dia de los muertos
20. downtown Louisville

In particular, observe the top ten list. The L.A. County Fair just ended this past Sunday and draws over 1.5 million visitors annually. Pumpkin patches obviously start to show up at the end of September, and fall foliage is about to kick into full swing soon to last through November. Observing your web statistics is a good way to find new ideas of what to photograph as well. Take Dia de Los Muertos for example. That is the Mexican celebration for "The Day of the Dead" which traditionally takes place on November 1st and 2nd. I haven't photographed it yet, but there is a big evening event at the end of the month at Olvera Street which I hope to photograph. I've wanted to photograph this particular event for the past several years but I haven't been in town on that week to photograph.

I'm a location photographer so my seasonal list skews toward events, places and nature-related subjects. A surfing photographer would obviously have a different list of subjects such as the Mavericks surf competition, The Wedge in Newport Beach, North Shore, etc... The point of this article is that we all have our pet subjects so utilize the peak moments of their popularity to your advantage.