Wedding & Honeymoon: Monterey and Whale Watching (cancelled)

Some scenes along historic Cannery Row, which is cool but now a little touristy for my  tastes:

Why Cannery Row is famous:

The wonderful Monterey Plaza and Spa:

Text

It could get a little cool at night so they had heaters out on the deck at Schooners – great place to have dinner outdoors:

Moon over Monterey:

I had negotiated a generous daily breakfast credit at The Duck Club when booking – here is some decor just before dawn:

The absolute crack of dawn – look closely on the left side of the image:

Rising:

Sun over Monterey:

So we arrived at the Monterey Whale Watch Center – only to find our pre-booked tour was canceled due to high winds out in the Pacific (remember the upper level sort wave trough heading SE from the Aleutians).  The tour we booked is guided by a Marine Biologist, and I was looking forward to photographing the tails of Humpback and Grey Whales sticking straight out of the water.  Oh well.

The Monterey Marina and Fishermans Wharf offered some nice early morning scenes.

This is a working wharf and much less touristy that the famous one up in San Francisco.

Gotta love the Brown Pelicans!!

This marina scene oddly reminds me of some of the scenes in the opening of ‘Gilligan s Island’ – a ‘three hour tour’!

Wedding & Honeymoon: Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a GREAT Aquarium!  Situated on historic Cannery Row on the Pacific Ocean shore,  I recommend it if you are every near by!

Well, I actually got the ‘Tail Shot’!

We’ll start with a Kelp Bass:

And a California Sheephead:

It was fun watching this school of Pacific Sardines move in near-perfect unison!

This is a Leopard Shark – and looks kind of mean – but these are really no threat to humans:

A perspective on the “Kelp Forest” (as it was the first tank in an aquarium to be able to grow and maintain California Giant Kelp), which is the tank inhabited by the creatures photographed above:

Missed noting what the next two are – let me know if you can identify them and I’ll do an update.  These are orange!

And so are these!!

OK, this is a Sheep Crab.  Unfortunately, the nearby Giant Pacific Octopus was hiding – oh well, can’t get them all!

A Bat Ray:

I may have missed getting my ‘Whale Tail’, but this more than made up for it.  We were lucky enough to be there when they had a Great White Shark on exhibit – only the fifth the Monterey Bay Aquarium has shown (all had been returned to the wild, as was this one November 4th when it started to get more aggressive with some of the other sharks in the Outer Bay Exhibit).  There have only been a couple of other instances of Great Whites in captivity so I was lucky to get these shots – and that the tank didn’t break!

Incoming!!!

While some of the other sharking in the Outer Bay tank moved in somewhat predictable patterns, the Great White was not as predictable.  Here is a good profile:

They have a look in their eyes that I can only describe as ‘living machine’:

And to borrow a Monty Pythonism, this crop shows ” ‘e’s got big teeth”

The Outer Bay tank also has the Galapagos Shark:

Who looks to be a little freaked out about having no (visible) teeth and sharing a tank with a Great White!

Also hard to photograph was this Scalloped Hammerhead Shark:

Also sharing the tank with the Great White were the Loser Fish (well actually the Pacific Bluefin Tuna)!

On to the Jellies!

The Black Sea Nettle:

The Moon Jelly:

The Purple-striped Jelly:

These are Squid Egg Cases, with each ‘finger’ holding hundreds of eggs:

They had an awesome Seahorse exhibit!

Seahorses are fish, and the males get pregnant have the babies:

The Sea Dragon is type of seahorse:

As is the Leafy Sea Dragon – what a display of camouflage!

Saw some nice Coral:

And the really cool Cuttlefish!

2009 Chase Season – Some Additional Images

Wanted to share a few more of the 2009 Chase Season images – some offering slightly different interpretations of earlier scenes, and some ones I missed posting in the in field.  Here is a picturesque mesocyclone SE of Lubbock TX, on June 2nd:

End of the Rainbow in E Colorado, June 4th:

Blocky Wall cloud before the Goshen County, Wyoming, Tornadoes, June 5th:

The first (very brief) Goshen County, Wyoming tornado.  It was not initially clear-cut that there was a circulation on the ground, but a few days later Matt Crowther and I were discussing this event with Josh Wurman and he stated that the their Vortex II data showed the circulation on the ground “a couple of times” before the long duration tornado.

The main tornado assumed a near equilateral triangle cone morphology:

I initially was not happy with the shots during the rain-wrapped phase.  I now really like these, as there is a menacing vibe with the tornado partially concealed.  The tornado assumed it maximum width during this period:

We moved only once during this event and observed the rope out from this location.  There just happened to be a Minuteman III Silo right across the highway (the fenced area), so here is a narrow stovepipe tornado moving towards us with a 300 Kiloton Thermonuclear Warhead in the path (absolutely no threat as the sites are extremely hardened):

The rope-out included this nice sheathed presentation:

Much later in the chase (about 0202 UTC, June 6th), captured this image of a string of chase vehicles blasting south away from this menacing HP core.   11 mm at ISO 1250, as it was getting quite dark (hand held):

Noticed this funnel-esque feature (with what appears to be an RFD cut – time stamp on image is 0215 UTC) – 16 mm at ISO 1250 as it was getting even darker (also hand held).  Not clear -cut as to what is actually happening here, but interesting none-the-less:

Doppler On Wheels (DOW) goes screaming by us (while we are watching a developing cell) on an isolated highway in extreme SW Kansas -  June 10:

Nice purple intra-anvil lightning NW of Liberal, Kansas – June 10th:

NSSL Probe (with Vortex II project) outside motel in Lamar, Colorado:

Nice Structure with Pioneer Wagon on Rock Pedestal, Four Corners, Colorado, June 11th (maybe I should try and Clone Stamp out the power lines):

Wedding & Honeymoon: 17 Mile Drive

Did the 17 Mile Drive along the coast, west from Monterey, around the Monterey peninsula.

There was a fairly strong short wave trough heading southeast  from the Aleutians which produced a response at the surface with a dry cold front and a surface winds of around 35 knots out in the Pacific.  So we had some good surf (I’m sure there had been much, much better!), and interesting seascape images:

With some cool breaking waves:

Making for some cool backdrops for portraits:

Some fast shutter speed close-ups:

and wave-scapes:

Monterey Peninsula Golf Course has some very nice holes right along 17 Mile Drive, with some nice green/ocean juxtapositions:

And one with breaking waves!

Some parts of the drive had a very rocky shoreline:

With more opportunities for Portraits:

Run to the Hills!

And still more opportunities for waves as we approached Cyprus Point Golf Course

And some nice ocean views:

And more shoreline vistas:

Here are a couple of images of ‘The Lone Cyprus’, which is the official symbol of Pebble Beach:

We enjoyed this scenic drive, but it would eclipsed in a few days by our Highway 1 drive through Big Sur.

Wedding & Honeymoon: Pebble Beach Golf Links

Some more images from Pebble Beach Golf Links:

These really speak for themselves – what a beautiful place:

Someone enjoying a sail in Stillwater Cove:

The little pier out into Stillwater Cove:

Every hole offered great scenery:

We saw this crow trying to steal someone’s scorecard!

Looking back at the 18th from the 6th Fairway:

The 7th, my favorite!

Another view of Stillwater Cove:

Could not believe the gigantic houses, (a little research showed a number of these for sale, starting in the $5 to $7 Million range, and up – way up):

A lotta house:

A whole lotta house:

Surrounded by Cyprus trees:

The 17th green and the Pacific Ocean:

The 18th fairway (we saw a property on sale that backs onto this part of the 18th fairway – I see it is listed here for $35 Million):

The coast from the 18th fairway:

The Lodge:

The US Open Trophy in the Pro Shop (the 2010 US Open is at Pebble Beach):

With some famous names:

Wedding & Honeymoon: To Monterey

After a fun few days up in Napa/Yountville, we headed south around the east side of San Francisco Bay and over the very long San Mateo bridge.

We then headed west to Half Moon Bay and my very first view of the Pacific Ocean!

We drove south down Highway 1, which offered many nice beach/ocean views (to be far outdone later by Big Sur):

We then checked out Santa Cruz, which we both decided we did not like.

We high tailed it to Monterrey and checked into the wonderful Monterrey Plaza Hotel and Spa – which was right on Monterrey Bay, and was Michelle’s favorite hotel of the trip.  It was an awesome property (and a trend was developing as we were getting the ‘Newlywed’ treatment with a bottle of decent Champagne waiting on ice upon our arrival – it pays to mention things!):

Lots more Monterrey to follow!

Wedding & Honeymoon: Pier 39 SeaLions Gone!

Wow!  It turns out that the Sea Lions we saw before our Sunset Cruise from Pier 39 in San Francisco (photos at the bottom this post) have suddenly and mysteriously disappeared!  They had been hanging out there for 20 years (their initial arrival was apparently just as unexpected)!

Reason for this seems to be unknown, but some are positing following some new food source.  Who knows for sure – but I am glad we had a chance to document them!

Wedding & Honeymoon: Yountville & Napa Valley

Dylan was kind enough to drop us off at the car rental near Union Square at the end of the San Francisco tour.

We picked up our ride for the next two weeks, which turned out to be a sweet Cadillac CTS with Nevada plates (we both really enjoyed the dual climate control and Satellite Radio, and it turned out to be nice and nimble on winding mountain roads!):

We then had an easy drive out of The City and North over the Golden Gate (again!).   Napa is a surprisingly short drive – only about an hour-and-a-half from San Francisco.  We stayed in the small town of Yountville (population about 3,000), which is about five miles north of the city of Napa (population about 75,000).

Here is the lounge of the Yountville Inn where we stayed for two nights (very nice place with fabulous breakfasts):

Had Lunch at Bottega (Italian cuisine, owned by some chef who has a show on the US Food Network).  The food was great, but the service a little snooty – though we thought maybe we were spoiled by the insanely great service we had at Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco.

That notion was dispelled later on when we dined at REDD, which was exquisite in both food and service.

Off to the Wineries Tour!

First was Consentino, which was just north of Yountville.  We chatted with a couple from Tennessee, and had some nice wines, and they had a pretty good Zinfandel, which is my favorite varietal.  We then headed east to Goosecross Cellars, and on the way we happened upon this idyllic scene:

Goosecross offered the prototypical Napa Valley vineyard vista:

Met another friendly American couple (Drew had a very interesting job!), in Goosecross, which was a fun winery to visit:

Unfortunately, Goosecross were not currently producing a Zinfandel, but Drew & Beth recommended Rombauer Vineyards up in the northen portion of the St Helenas region as a great Zinfandel producer (they were right!).

The view of the northern Napa Valley upon arriving at Rombauer was spectacular:

The entrance:

The Rombauer estate was also a floral treasure trove:

My bride!

Moose Rombauer, the official winery greeter:

Drew and Beth showed up shortly after arriving:

Koerner Rombauer was a pilot before founding the winery (flying Sabers in the National Guard in the 1950’s and with Braniff commercially in the 1970’s), so the Tasting Room has lots of great flying memorabilia:

It was also interesting to learn that Koerner Rombauer’s aunt wrote the classic cookbook “The Joy of Cooking”.

We were so happy to discover Rombauer Vineyards, and it ended up being our favorite!

Concert Photography: Rush Returns to London Ontario!

Thought it was time for a post from a different category – this time back to the Concert Photography category!

Rush played The John Labatt Centre September 12, 2007, in their first show in London, Ontario since the Moving Pictures Tour gig out at the old London Gardens (I was at that show too!!).

Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart played a jaw-dropping set that was over two-and-three-quarter hours long!

Here is Alex Lifeson with a nice Gibson Custom and Historic Shop Les Paul and a mounted bouzouki:

Geddy, Neil, & Alex in the pocket:

What a great show – I still think they have the best musicianship live of any rock band!!

Wedding & Honeymoon: San Franciso Day Tour

Sorry for the delay in getting more stuff out there, it has just been very busy!

Michelle and I can give a big recommendation to anyone ever going to San Francisco who is considering a city tour to go on ‘Dylan’s City Tours’:

http://www.dylanscitytours.com/citytours.html

There are many tours of The City available, may are large using large buses, or ‘novelty’ vehicles, but what sets Dylan’s City Tours apart is the personality of the proprietor and tour guide, Dylan.  He know and loves The City and shares that passion and shows you the real San Francisco.

He also advertises though the youth hostel and the tour usually has a lot of young travelers from around the word which provides a really hip and cool vibe.  We had folks from Ireland, England, Germany (2 different parts!), Russia, Slovenia, Palestine, and a couple from Pittsburgh!  Dylan gets every one to introduce themselves and it sets a really friendly tone for the rest of the day!

We start with a streetscape out side the youth hostel on Post St (this is in what is referred to as the “Tenderloin District“, and is a rough neighborhood), looking down towards Union Square and the Financial District:

We saw various Cable cars (that pigeon just about got munched) and Streetcars:

We then headed SW along Market St, Dylan getting the conversation with introductions from all the guests.  He turned down a side street and then stopped in front of this building and had us try and guess what was inside – and no one could:

Well it turns out that it is one of the Medical Marijuana dispensaries that have popped up in California after some recent legal decisions.

We learned that the program has very stringent medical condition requirements for getting a prescription, like Glaucoma, or maybe insomnia, or maybe a sore knee!  I zoomed in on the posted ‘rules’ in the doorway – interesting to see that the ’sunglasses’ rule has larger print than the ‘re-selling’ rule:

We then headed down Mission Street and saw many a wide range of restaurants from Senegalese (we passed on the ‘Cha-Cha-Cha’):

to Central American:

We learned that The City has quite a number of murals on building walls – this one has a theme that is possibly Zappatista related:

Some were more ambiguous:

We saw some cool architecture too – here are a couple of images of City Hall:

We stopped at the Women’s Building, which has a spectacular mural on at least two sides (time to use the ultra-wide angle Tokina lens!):

Some crops:

It seems that many of the churches in San Francisco are topped with very coulorful Mosaics – here are a couple of cropped examples:

We then drove through Castro, which is the Gay District:

This store had a humorous name!

and of course, more murals:

We then headed towards ‘Twin Peaks’ and I noticed this house on stilts – not sure this would be where I would want to live when the ground starts to shake!

Twin Peaks are a pair of ~900 foot high hills near the center of San Fransisco that offer a wonderful vista:

All these images were taken with super-sharp Canon 70-200 F4.0 IS lens:

The iconic triangular TransAmerica Building:

The Bay Bridge, which drove over on our return to the airport, at the end of the Honeymoon:

And the Golden Gate Bridge from Twin Peaks:

The Happy Honeymooners on top of The City!

Next stop was Haight-Ashbury, where I got the obligatory street sign image:

Dylan had some interesting stories about Haight-Ashbury – it has morphed from a Hippie refuge to a tourist area (with a Ben and Jerry’s at the corner), and now populated, in part, by ‘Trustifarians’ (Trust Fund kiddies who are hippie/Rastafarian wanna-bes)!  We stopped in front of the house The Grateful Dead once shared (just another house), and the place a few doors down where Janice Joplin also lived.  Dylan had answers for all my questions like, “Where does Carlos Santana/Sammy Hagar/Neil Schon live”!

Got a cool image of a mural of Jimi Hendrix! Not sure why they did this with him with what appears to be a Les Paul and he mostly used a Strat and later on a Gibson Flying V:

Then off to Alamo Square were we took images of the “6 Sisters”, which are a row of beautifully restored Victorian homes – the park also offered great views of the Financial District:

We then headed north and drove through the ultra-pricey Pacific Heights neighborhood, where may of the huge houses look like Banks!  We learned that many movies had been filmed in the neighborhood (including Mrs Doubtfire), and that the current Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, lives in the neighborhood:

We were adverted from driving on our panned route through The Presidio by some annoying Traffic Calming study, but, in a ’small world’ moment, we sighted the Mom of the tour owner, Dylan!  She is a teacher, and was out with the little ones on at field trip – she sighted Dylan’s van!  Pretty cool I thought – you don’t get that on the big-bus tours!

Then we headed for the Golden Gate to make our way up to Muir Woods.  It seems WordPress *will* let me post Portrait images that are within their 500 pixel width limit (which means a larger image!):

Muir Wood National Monument is just 15 minutes north of The City and offers 240 acres of old growth Coastal Redwoods, which is the ‘tall and skinny type of Seqouia ‘ (Sequoia sempervirens).  These can grow to over 350 feet tall (think about that!), but the biggest one here is about 260 feet tall (the ones at JMNM range in age form 500 – 800 years old with some as old as 1200 years old).

This was also the perfect opportunity to pick up a pair of National Park Annual Passes, which would come in handy on the second week of the trip!

All these images are with the ultra-wide Tokina lens:

and looking straight up:

Pics of the ‘other’ type of Sequoia (and the biggest tree on the planet) to follow!

Dylan then took us up to the Marin Headlands where we got still another perspective on the bridge (see previous post) – and a pic with Dylan!  Thanks Dylan, for a fun and fantastic Tour!  Highly Recommended!!!

Will end with this image I got of the Pacific form the Headlands – hello Asia!

Wedding & Honeymoon: The Wedding Gig

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:

Sultans of Swing

Michelle

Heaven

Only You Can Rock Me

Heart of Gold

Space Cowboy

All Along The Watchtower/California Dreamin’

Enjoy!

Wedding & Honeymoon – First Day in SFO

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

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

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

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!