Wedding & Honeymoon: The Wedding Gig
November 21, 2009
I have edited and posted most of the wedding set on YouTube to share with all y’all!
Thanks so much to the band:
Ed Greene – Lead Vocals
Molly Kao – Keyboards
Michael Cuffaro – Bass & Vocals
Howard Strong – Drums
And thanks so much to Chris Hyson for documenting the set. Chris had up to three camcorders running at times (one on a tripos at stage left, another clamped high up on a pillar at stage right, and something hand held during one song) which supported the editing I’ve done. I was also able to remove most of the guests – people tend to make a funny face when the realized they have accidentally wandered into view!
I also post-processed the audio in ProTools - syncing, sweetening, and mixing Howard’s rear stage digital audio and Chris’ Stage left camcorder audio into stereo.
The links:
All Along The Watchtower/California Dreamin’
Enjoy!
Wedding & Honeymoon – First Day in SFO
November 3, 2009
This takes things up to the sunset cruise. Some shots on the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel (sort of a ‘gonzo’ approach to taking images, and you get a lot of duds, but I think it is fun and you can get some interesting shots).
Had my eyes open for a couple of iconic stadiums. Got the old Candlestick Park – I had no idea, but apparently it is in one of the few really bad areas in San Francisco:
and AT&T Park:
which we quickly ended up right beside! Got this shot of of the statue of Hall-of-Famer Orlando Cepeda from the moving vehicle (suffers from some motion-blur but I was happy with the lucky composition I ended up with):
Then got a cool perspective of the recently-closed-for-safety-issues (twice!) Bay Bridge (we got over it safely on our last day – but last week a 5000 lb chuck of metal fell on to the roadway!):
The morning cloudiness evident in these shots would only last until early afternoon. We soon arrived at the Argonaut Hotel – a funky four-star boutique property in a an old converted warehouse:
Great Staff and service, all in a very nautical style – here was our Bellman:
And they gave us a honeymoon upgrade to a small suite! There was a wine tasting room on site:
which turned out to be more pricey than a lot of the ones we saw up in the Napa Valley – that’s what you get for being in a tourist zone! The hotel also the Blue Mermaid – amazing Dungeness Clam Chowder:
The hotel was right on Fisherman’s Wharf and had this street musician playing some really good solo instrumentals – sort of in a Santana style with Brazilian influences (with his dog perched ever close):
Of course we saw streetcars:
And the Hard Rock Cafe:
and famous Boudin Bakery:
Which is in the heart of the Wharf:
Very hectic tourist zone – with this dude laying down some sax in the midst of it all:
And we saw The Bushman!!! I had read about him in a couple of places before the trip! He was apparently a homeless person (there are a LOT in San Francisco and the ones on the Wharf are reputed to be quite aggressive). Well, the Bushman turns out to be a ‘Performance Artist’ who struck me more as entrepreneur than vagrant (and he claims an annual income of ‘over $60K’ so he probably has a OK place). Anyway, his gig is hiding behind some Eucalyptus branches:
and then attempting to scare tourists who wander close by yelling “ooga-booga”!
When I first read about this I was annoyed by the concept – but he really is a hoot to watch (and he draws quite a crowd), and almost all the ‘victims’ get his good-natured intent!
Of course on the other side of the all this is the water (with the Forbes Island Ferry and that Bridge from a previous blog entry):
and we were at Pier 39 to meet the Sunset Cruise. Turns out that Pier 39 has also become home to a sizable (and smelly) herd of very noisy Sea Lions (who moved in just after the 1989 earthquake) – they put out rafts for the Sea lions to sunbathe (they also like to lie all over each other):
This was my favorite bunch:
especially with this guy overseeing them – sort of a cross between a Pixar character and Baltimore Colts legend Art Donovan!
The Day tour is up next!
Wedding & Honeymoon – Post Ceremony Group Shot
October 29, 2009
Here is the group shot from right after the wedding ceremony that I so wanted to get since we decided to have the wedding there!
Our photographer, Kelly Temple, took the shot on my 50D with the Tokina Wide angle lens at 16 mm. Will try and get our attendees (and those who were unable to make it a larger copy when we get a chance).
Wedding & Honeymoon – The City from The Bay
October 21, 2009
EDIT: should have included the photo data for both of these shots – see below each for details.
As images on the blog are limited to 500 pixels wide I thought I’s share some of the cropping capabilities of the Canon 50D and the 70 – 200 F4.0 L IS lens (yes, this post is a bit photo-geeky, but I am sure all will enjoy the images). Using the The City pictures from the above post I pulled some tight crops.
First was the Image of the TransAmerica building (that’s the pointy one!) and cropped for the waterfront area, which turns out to be Pier 45:
EDIT – Canon 50D/70-200 F4 IS at 100mm, F5.0, ISO 640, 1/250th of a second – hand-held on a boat.
With a tight crop (not quite 100%) I was able to see that I had an image that included the Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien (Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II):
More info here. The image also included the USS Pampanito (SS-383), which is a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial, also at Pier 45:
More info here.
The image of the Coit Tower/Telegraph Hill area seemed to have quite a few interesting residences that probably sport quite the view of both The Bay and The City:
EDIT – Canon 50D/70-200 F4 IS at 173mm, F8.0, ISO 640, 1/125th of a second – hand-held on a boat.
An almost 100% crop of homes near the left edge, a little less than halfway up the hill:
A 100% crop of homes further up the hill, with the trees in the background:
A quick search confirms this is another San Francisco ‘high rent’ district (though notice three of the properties on just the first page have had recent 6-figure price drops!)!
I am obviously very happy with this zoom lens – and with the 15 mp resolution of the 50D a lot detail emerges! I was able to get perspectives of The City at angles one can only get from the water, and was able to learn a little more about what I was seeing after the fact! What fun!
Next up, a look at what we saw in the Fishermans Wharf area and the uber-cool 5 hour guided tour we did with “Dylan’s City Tours” (which both Michelle and I were so impressed with)! And to think we were only in San Francisco for about 30 hours.
Wedding & Honeymoon – Golden Gate Bridge Study
October 19, 2009
San Francisco was the first stop on the trip. The two happy honeymooners saw the famous bridge – from almost all angles possible!
From Crissy Field at the Presidio:
From on approach:
From on the dern thing:
From the Marin Headlands:
It was quite gusty up on the Marin Headlands:
But it was quite a view:
On our First night we took the wonderful Sunset Cruise offered by Adventure Cat Tours (using a Catamaran, so this was real sailing, as opposed to the power boats that the other tours all seem to use – kudos to Hans and Crew!):
Back to the Bridge – in silhouette:
From underneath with the Ultra Wide Angle Tokina Lens:
Us at Sea!
Us, with the Bay Bridge in the background:
What a romantic sunset!
And some overviews of The City at the Golden Hour with Golden Gate light – Coit Tower/Telegraph Hill area:
TransAmerica Building/Financial district:
This was followed by dinner at the wonderful Restaurant Gary Danko.
Lots more images of The City to follow!
Wedding & Honeymoon – Medium-Ass Black Bear!
October 18, 2009
After hiking to see the Largest Tree On the Planet (pics to follow) in Sequoia National Park, we waited in a line of cars for a Pilot Car (kinda like Chasing, eh!). We noticed some deer off maybe 80 feet at roughly 2 o’clock (pics to follow).
They were content to graze for a few minutes, but then they seemed a little agitated and moved away swiftly. A couple of minutes later Michelle looked up and said, “Oh My God – a Bear!”.
She had the 50D with the superb 70-200 F4 IS lens and promptly got off a series of shots with the Bruin bear (EDIT: turns outs the term ‘Bruin’ only applies to the Brown Bear, and our friend here is a brown Black Bear) quietly foraging about 50 feet from us at about 4 o’clock:
Apparently a lot of the Yosemite bears are night bears (an adaptation to all the human activity and associated increased opportunities for food availability) and have been ear-tagged (the more natural behavior for the black Bear is day-activity and most of these are not ear-tagged).
Looks like this might be one of the more non-adapted specimines – nice shot sweetie!
Wedding & Honeymoon – My Beautiful Bride and our Great Friends!
October 18, 2009
Michelle and I and our wedding party – big thanks to Kelly Temple for the great wedding photography!
Us:
Michelle:
Us again:
My guys – who I have all known since the 1960’s!
The Wedding Party:
Many more to follow!
We are back! Thanks to everyone who helped make the Wedding and Reception go so well!
Will start the image sharing with this self portrait of Michelle and I on the 7th at Pebble Beach Golf Links:
What a hole and what a beautiful course/place!!!
As you can see the weather was just perfect – and those conditions held throughout the trip (huge rains inundated California the day after we left) – what great luck we had.
Many more images to follow!
Concert Photography – 6 Sept. 2007 Brad Pailsey
September 2, 2009
Great Show at the John Labatt Centre, London, Ontario.
One of the greatest guitar players of all time so there shall be two pics -first features the grey-paisley Crook Telecaster:
and this is the blue-paisley Crook Esquire Custom:
I was quite pleased to learn that Bill Crook uses USA Custom Guitar’s necks in all the instruments he has built for Brad (each of the pieces that Seppo of Frankinstein Guitar Works built for me has a USA Custom Guitar’s neck)!
London Ontario Images
September 2, 2009
Thought I’d open a new category of some general images over time from around this pretty city!
Archie Bunker, eat your heart out (scroll down and see Notes section here).
Random Sports Pic – Are You Ready For Some Hockey?
September 2, 2009
It’s September – so I know I am!
Here is a little Cup Detail:
Hap Day, Syl Apps, Frank Selke… now that’s Old Time Hockey!
Go Knights- Go Caps!
Thoughts on Last Week’s Ontario Tornado Outbreak
August 26, 2009
Firstly Kudos to EC staff for being on top of things and to fellow Chaser Mark Robinson for raising awareness with the media of the Outbreak warning problem in Ontario.
My opinion is that the current best practice is the Integrated Warning System concept championed by former NWS forecaster Al Moller (one of the greatest forecasters EVER!). The IWS recognizes the necessity and interdependence of:
- Adequate technology and situationally-aware competent staffing at NWS/EC offices.
- Ground Truth availability from competent and reliable Chasers/Chaser-Spotters/Spotters.
- Prompt communication to competent mass-media with the appropriate mandate and ability to deliver the relevant meteorological information to the public.
- A competent public who takes responsibility for understanding the range of threats possible in a given region (and events likely/possible on a *meteorological* time-scale in that region), and having a plan they can use almost instinctively.
EC staff covered off the first point on this event, getting warnings out early (though, and I know some disagree, I personally contend that there should be more offices in Canada with more staff and more of an emphasis on old-school analysis/diagnosis).
Chasers, Chaser-Spotters, and Spotters are usually out in sufficient numbers that there will usually be enough willing help with Ground Truth on most events (and I think Chasers have a duty to give back by reporting events when possible/feasible).
Canadian Broadcast Media seems focused on only the bottom line and, from my perspective, not interested in staffing with people who truly understand severe-wx, and in most cases are unwilling to react to break away from scheduled programming (though it appears CP24 gave this event more live coverage than is normal up here). Going “wall-to-wall” is common with US Plains stations – even to the point of *over* hyping events. My impression is the TV industry here feel a automated crawl system is sufficient – I disagree!
Even the Michigan stations we get from Detroit are an order-of-magnitude more serious about covering weather than Ontario’s local stations (and they are usually not too bad with hype!).
Canadians need to be educated on the range of threats possible in a given region (and what is normal/likely on a *meteorological* time-scale in that region).
There may be an opportunity for some TV formats to move in the direction I allude to above (seems to suit the CP24-style format), but I have some doubts about the public ‘getting it en masse’ (Idol/UFC seems to takes precedence!).
I still think “we” (whoever “we” are) should continue to try to increase threat awareness/knowledge of how to react – over time more and more will absorb it if the effort is appropriate and sustained. Technology based delivery (Twitter/overhead signs/etc) can certainly augment dissemination (but can’t replace an event-reactive media and a ‘with it’ public).
I also think we need sirens in all urban area (again, used appropriately).
That being said, the 7 August, 1979 cluster outbreak of long track violent tornadoes (with at least TWO as bad as you ever get in Texas/Oklahoma) east of Woodstock, Ontario is NORMAL and COMMON for Southern Ontario on a Meteorological time-scale.
We are overdue for a ‘big one’, and there are more of us in more places/larges cities. If that even were repeated today, but in a heavily urbanized area at the wrong time (large groups in buildings/snarled traffic) we could easily see THOUSANDS killed with one event.
Just sayin’.
9 August, 2009 “Chase”
August 11, 2009
Well strong convective inhibition had a big influence, holding off initiation in SE Michigan/SW Ontario, so chasing meant going just beyond the screen door (what a waste of a 77F dewpoint underneath adequate 0-6 km shear!)!
Did get a shot of a nice example of the optical phenomenon “Silver Lining” on a convective tower that was limited in growth by the inversion (noticed it while BBQ-ing!):
Had tripod issues when the weakening linear convection arrived after dark, so went handheld with the IS 18-55. Technically this is a poor lightning shot, as quite a lot of the subject matter is blown out (this was handheld at 1/6 of a second, ISO 3200) – but I like it!
So I ended up happy with the day!
Concert Photography – KISS in Sarnia, ON – 10 July, 2009
August 11, 2009
A fun show – still the biggest spectacle in rock – an aural and visual sensation!
Great set list covering most of the “Alive” album in order, with the long encore being later hits (i.e. 1976 -1980-ish). It was not the same without Ace Frehley (though Tommy Thayer is an excellent guitarist).
Sunset with Polarizer and Extender
August 11, 2009
Just for fun, and as a study in colour:
Sure the Sun itself is blown out, but I like it none-the-less. Handheld with the 70-200 F4 IS with 1.4x Kenko Pro Extender.
