Adventure Florida via Amtrak

The next 15days my boyfriend and I are on adventure via Amtrak. Here is the route we will be going (in red).



Follow our
BLOG for a glimpse of being on the road. We will see sites in such as Chicago as well as eat a deep dish pizza, explore the National mall in Washington D.C., ride the roller coasters at Walt Disney World and eat good food in New Orleans.

Helen Lake- Lassen National Park

Vacation Image #1

Just after reaching 8,551 ft, the highest road point in Lassen National Park. We started driving down the mountain. Around a few turns we see this Lake, frozen over with the most beautiful shades of blue water. My breath was taken away by this site, the photo does only partial justice. Please Enjoy!

Eureka III

Well the 3rd day of our Eureka trip didn't actually take place in Eureka. We decided on our way home to stop at Sundial Bridge in Redding, Ca. Again when you have shot a place so many times, you have to look for something new to shoot. Oh and I was out of Macro Mode on this last day...

Eureka II

My computer was down for about a week.... and Oh boy was I going threw withdrawals. But I Lucky for me the computer issue was nothing too severe and ultimately it didn't cost me anything to fix. But during the time I did not have my computer I was forced to fall behind on a few things in my life. One of them being this blog. I have not been able to feed the monster:( So today I am going to spend most of the day catching up.

Now to go back over a month ago to my Eureka trip. Day two of the trip we found ourselves in Fern Gully (fern canyon...) I was using my friend Dons macro lens for this entire day. the lens is 100mm Prime f/2.8. This day was dedicated to me attempting to shoot macro photography, which is not nearly as easy as I thought it was. After Fern Gully we went over to Agate Beach. Again I was using Dons macro lens. But I was so busy finding ALL the Agates I didn't really take many pictures. The one of the feather is my favorite from this day and possibly the entire trip.

Day 2: My Macro Experience:)

Eureka I

So as you all know I recently went on a little "vaca" to Eureka. I went with about 25 other photography students from Butte College. It is actually a class offered out at Butte College called Photo Field. The class is taught by the wonderful Clancy Gherke. There were about 25 students but primarily a group of us stuck together. Me, Sean, Vinny, Kim, and Katie managed to find our way around the hippie streets of Eureka. It was an amazing Adventure I will never forget.

This 1st post focuses on our 1st stop. The Blue Ox mill. All of these images are HDR images. Which is, as mentioned in previous posts, taking multiple images at different exposure and merging them together later in an HDR program. Here is the 1st set of images from my trip. I have more to come!

Photoshop Fun- Deer Creek

Today I went on a little adventure with a friend of mine. We drove up Hwy 32 and found ourselves a quiet resting place, for our "day-cation". This image was taken right after I almost fell off of a cliff. I wasn't going to take any HDR images on this adventure cause I new I wasn't going to want to process them. But since I almost died I decided I would take a picture that would be worth the pain on my leg:) I hope you all enjoy this image cause I got a bruise and 2inch long gouge on my leg for it;)

Oh and post processing was done in an HDR program and PhotoShop!

Yosemite!

Hi everyone,
As most of you know, I went on a mini vacation this last weekend to Yosemite. It was my first time in Yosemite and as expected its beauty was breathtaking. Not only was it my first time in Yosemite it was also my first run with my NEW camera. I recently purchased the Canon 5d Mark II. There were 11 Chico photographers on this trip, and let me say each and every one of us brings something to the experience.

The trip down was, oh so exciting, once we finally made it. We got stuck in the snow and had to us two sets of chains! LOL. Something this Truckee girl is not used to. Once we finally made it into the park our first stop was at tunnel view.
Here is a picture of the outside of the tunnel looking in



And if you turn away from the tunnel you get the view that is most commonly seen in Yosemite photographs. El Capitan and Half dome. Here are some pictures of this view. Since this is a prime photographic location it was up to us as photographers to attempt to make the photo something not everyone has seen. So what most of us did was take HDR images. HDR is a set of 3-9 photos taken at different exposures to expose for all the highlights and all the shadows. Then the images are later merged together in an HDR program, such as Photoshop or Photomatix. Here are some of these images.









Along the road we found some nice icicles. I turned these into spiffy spicified icicles in photoshop. I really like the results.



The next day we spent most of our time down in the Valley. Here is a picture from the "singing" bridge (actually its called swinging, but by the end of the trip it was called sining). The waterfall in the distance is the upper Yosemite falls. This image was taken with a neutral density filter and is a raw image.



These two waterfalls were a lot of fun to take pictures of. 3 of us trekked through the snow and around a log to get a closer view of them.



I think this picture or ElCapitan was taken at Mirror Pond, but since this was my first time there I am not totally sure.



On the day before it was time to leave some of us got up really early in hopes to catch a sunrise, with no luck. It was very gray out all day. So it was up to us as photographers to explore the valley and get creative with our images. I really like how this one turned out with the tree in the foreground and the falls in the background. It is a little busy but I think it set a mood for the particular season we were in. The barren tree and the cold waterfall together say winter, as well as this lonesome path. At 7:00am in the morning no one else was out to take pictures but us.





Here is a group of us the same day with our lovely snowman. I was designated to set the 15 second timer on 3 cameras, then run and dive into position for the cameras. Took 3 tries to get it right.



I took this image the same day as the last images. My tripod was literally in the water and I was on the edge of the cove reaching for my cable release. All so the waterfall could peek through the trees. Its faint, but if you look closely, it is there. luckily the water wasn't gushing otherwise I would've had a harder time getting this shot.



This image is probably my favorite. All of us went to the Ansel Adams Gallery and were inspired afterward to take this photo. This is a timed exposure at around 4 minutes. I love the fog, the water, the hills. Its is a very peaceful image to me and I am very happy with the results.



Now for the last day. Our goal to leave the Valley at 11, failed miserably. For some reason we always get into what we call "gorilla" photography mode. taking as many of those last minute photos as possible. It was snowing like crazy but it was so much fun. For those of you that know Don, thats him in his shorts, yes shorts, and boots. We walked into the middle of a meadow just to take a picture of this tree.





Well, All and All it was an amazing wonderful trip and I can't wait to go there again. The beauty is breathtaking. I hope you all enjoy these images and they bring joy to your heart as they have to mine.

Potoshop Fun- Train Tracks

When I am not working on people photos I find myself still working in Photoshop. I made this photo the other night. Thought I would share it with everyone. The picture of the train is not my picture. So I could never sell this image. But every so often, I like to test my photoshop skills and make a fun photo.