Northern California

Heading Towards the Storm

The Road to Beelzebot

My first try at a great San Jose location. Couldn't have been luckier, both with the sky (freaking spectacular) and the company (running into Aaron M).

Strike

Land vs Sea

I've always loved the water motion in this shot crashing up against the golden lit rocks. As simple as that.

Cotton Candy Storm

Back in the pre-Escaype days I read the weather reports just looking for clouds. To be honest, I didn't know much of the other physics of getting a burning sunset or sunrise at the time, so I went out only knowing half the equation. But I got lucky sometimes. Of course the creepy guy who wanted to get high with me on the way back did harshen my buzz.

Marching Water Ants

Having been to this event once before, I knew that getting to the beach early was a necessity. Jens and I drove down and got there around 3 so we didn't have to stress about getting a parking space. We had a lovely time exploring the rest of Pfeiffer Beach before showtime. As the sun was going down and the tripods started multiplying on the beach, I could only imagine that there were even more photographers cursing in their cars unable to get into the tiny parking lot.

Last Light on Bonsai

Metastable

Stars, No Stripes

This was my first ever Milky Way shot. It was 4th of July weekend and I was at my buddy's place a block from Donner Lake. We walked down to the lake with some beers to hang out on one of the docks. I had no idea what to expect but I set up my tripod, jacked up the ISO and did a 30 second shot. When I looked at the result I was psyched. This is probably still one of my favorite Milky Way shots.

Milky Bonsai

Trenteadue

Icy Captain

Donner Stars

Sutro Sunset

A Bridge Was Here

Pacific Falls

The Crack

There's not a whole lot to say about this location since it's become a staple in the Bay Area. I'm just going to describe my most memorable experience here. It's not PG-13. Probably about an hour before sunset, I got to Davenport, walked down the beach towards the crack and noticed a bunch of probably high school aged kids. As I came around the corner there were two teenagers, one, umm, pleasuring the other. As soon as they saw me they jumped, cleaned up and ran back out to their friends apologizing. Let's just say that wasn't the crack I expected to see.