Merry Christmas!

Evan and I woke up this morning, gathered our boxes of gifts and drove over the Bay Bridge to my mother's house in Berkeley. Interestingly, our neighborhood in SF was completely empty, but Berkeley was jam-packed! We spent an amazing day there. We started with a delicious brunch, then did some gift exchange (it always ends up being more than we thought it was going to be, somehow), then we went for a walk by the bay, which was so beautiful. I left my camera at home, but the sky and the water looked like they were merging into a soft blue haze. Gorgeous!

Then we hung out some more, had a quick dinner, and then Evan and I flew to Denver!

Yes, Colorado. So we got beautiful sunny weather and snow, all in one day.

It was the perfect day. Thanks to everyone who made it so great, you know who you are. I'm off to bed, and I will be back with more pictures tomorrow.

Dunes

I know it's Christmas Eve, but when I saw this among my still not quite organized pictures from Vietnam, I knew I had to post it. I took this in Mui Ne, Vietnam.

Night

A shot from San Francisco tonight. I was so pleased to capture the long exposure light stars. I rested the camera on a trash can (true story! but it was pretty clean) to keep it steady. Specs are:

Shutter: 1 second
Aperture: f/9
ISO: 200
Focal length: 50mm

Skulls

A view of the memorial at the Killing Fields near Phnom Penh. These skulls are what is left after the Khmer Rouge massacred their own people there.

A Few Links

I have some links I've been meaning to give you, so I think I'll just give them all to you at once. Most are photography related, some . . . not.

Thanks to Evan for sending me this photo of the cutest still life I've ever seen.

Like Abstract Photography? The Photo Argus has a great collection of 40 Abstract images. Worth checking out.

Need something to remind you of some basic photo guidelines during a shoot? Gavin Gough has an interesting looking photo card over on his blog. Probably worth printing out and bringing into the field with you.

Feeling a little burnt out from the holidays? Shutter Sisters has a list of 10 Holiday Pick Me Ups. Although, unless you have very steady hands, I'm not sure I recommend cutting your own bangs.

News of a Flickr plugin for Lightroom over at Canon Blogger. Think I'm going to check it out.

And, in honor of my recent return to San Francisco, Pictory (an interesting new online photo mag that showcases photos which have a story to tell) has created a new feature on SF. Just kidding. But I am going to pretend they did it for me.

And last but not least, check out these edible Santas. I want to make them, but I think they'd get eaten in five seconds around here, and I might not be able to take it.

All right, that's it for now. Hope you're having a great weekend!

Getting Rid of Clutter in Your Photos

Before
(Please, ignore the fact that my Before photo isn't really in focus. It was getting dark. Thanks!)

After
Sometimes the little things can make a big difference. For example, this leaf. I spied it on a street in Berkeley, one lone yellow leaf among lots of red leaves. Reflexively, I took a picture.

But my yellow leaf was getting lost among the clutter. So I sat down, on the street (fortunately no one else was really around to wonder why, but if they'd been there, I would probably have done the same thing) and pushed all the red leaves out of the frame. A little extra contrast to darken the background, and a bump up in saturation in Lightroom, and my yellow leaf kind of pops.

So next time you're taking a picture, try to get rid of the clutter. Either frame so you can't see it, or actually get in there and move it out of the way. I promise, it makes a world of difference.