Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival

Woke up at 3am and drove down to Temecula for their 26th annual Hot Air Balloon and Wine Festival.  Why so early? ...so we can capture the hot air balloon setup and lift off which was starting at 6am!  It was well worth getting up for even though it was cloudy when we first got there.  They moved the launch area about 2 miles down the road because it was a bit windy where we were.  By the time they were launching, the clouds parted and we got some sunshine which made for fantastic shots!  Check ...

Pasadena’s Doo Dah Parade

Ahhh...the Doo Dah Parade.  A bunch of crazy people walking the streets of Pasadena!  Interesting people, interesting costumes, interesing day.  See for yourself:

POV, Patterns, and Colors…Oh My!

3 essentials that I keep in mind when I go out and do some photowalking.  This time, headed over to LACMA as they are having a Vanity Fair Photo Exhibit (being displayed until March).   Exhibit consisted of portraits from their magazine from 1913 to 2008...very interesting collection.  Do check it out if you have a chance. Went and shot around outside afterwards...and of course, interesting architecture around the museum:

Old Town Pasadena

Did some photowalking yesterday in Old Town Pasadena and got a couple of shots off.  The telephoto lens I was using wasn't all so great...think I need to get a better one.  It wasn't all that dark yesterday and the biggest f-stop I could get was 4.5...even with that I had to go below 1/60th for these shots...hence the blur.  I'll live with it for now...my next purchase is going to be a wide-angle lens.    

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone.  Hope this year will be THE year!  I've got big hopes, big goals, and big dreams...one of which is to update my blog on a regular basis.  So, here's my first post of the year...and a picture to go along with it. This is the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.  Didn't get to go in as they were doing some retrofitting...but the view from the outside was nice.  This was taken with my iPhone...not bad huh?