HOPE

Caught this on a walk near Santa Monica. You know when you think about it, if that were a picture of McCain or Palin instead of Obama, the message just wouldn't work. If you can think of one word for that campaign, what would it be?

Army Act

Note how the background matches the army uniform. Matching your subject's colors to that of the background is a great quick and easy idea for a better photograph.

Big Morongo Trail

The first hiking trail you get to after leaving Palm Springs, CA on Highway 62 on the way to Joshua Tree National Park is the Big Morongo Trail. The trail is in the Big Morongo Canyon Reserve a beautiful area that includes grasses that grow in marshes and ponds with pupfish. There's also this old car buried by the test of time.

Yes, indeed, I'm back after a long book-writing break. I'll be posting text and images as often as possible while finishing up my book the 50 GREATEST PHOTO OPS IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Matt Bamberg Gallery

Please visit my gallery to see a sample of my work.

If you have any questions contact matthewbam@aol.com

I'm Back

Hello everyone, I'm back. After a slew of projects, things are winding down a bit. Biggest news is my new book--"The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco."

The book comes out next year. Today, I'm working on landscapes for the book. I've been back and forth from the city four times so far and have had some very good days shooting. Lots of pictures with long shutter speeds and, of course, the great San Francisco fog.

More later....

Succulent with Light Purple Flowers

These purple flowers can carpet areas near the beach all over California. They're flowers of a succulent plant, which I don't know the name of. Some of these succulents have bigger flowers that are yellow.

If anyone has more info on these succulents, please comment.

This photograph is part of a larger one that I cropped out. The picture was taken with a Canon 5D with a Canon L series 24-105mm lens.

Under the Boardwalk

Hmmm, I know that tune...but what are the words? Picture is under the boardwalk at San Clemente, CA.

The Drifters
"Under the Boardwalk"

Season 5
"The Good Fight"

Oh when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof.
And your shoes get so hot, you wish your tired feet were fire-proof.
Under the Boardwalk, down by the sea
On a blanket with my baby, is where I'll be.

(Under the Boardwalk)
Out of the sun.
(Under the Boardwalk)
Man, we'll be having some fun.
(Under the Boardwalk)
People walkin' above.
(Under the Boardwalk)
We'll be falling in love under the Boardwalk,

Boardwalk.

From the palms you hear the happy sounds of the carousel,
and you can almost taste the hot-dogs and french fries they sell.
Under the Boardwalk, down by the sea
on a blanket with my baby, is where I'll be.

(Under the Boardwalk)
Out of the sun.
(Under the Boardwalk)
Man, we'll be having some fun.
(Under the Boardwalk)
People walkin' above.
(Under the Boardwalk)
We'll be falling in love under the Boardwalk,

Boardwalk.

Under the Boardwalk, down by the sea
On a blanket with my baby, is where I'll be.

Under the Boardwalk, down by the sea
On a blanket with my baby, is where I'll be.

Ode to a California Sunset

You don't always need clouds for a beautiful sunset picture. The sun setting way behind the marine layer in the Pacific Ocean can disperse light in all kinds of ways.

Just Fishing

There's something relaxing about fishing. You cast out your line and ... wait.

The pier the fishermen are standing on was built in 1928.

So what are fishermen catching? Here's an answer that describes what one can catch on each part of the pier:

"Inshore, anglers should expect to see corbina, spotfin croaker, yellowfin croaker, a few sargo, barred surfperch, guitarfish, various rays, and small sharks. The mid-pier area will yield all of these (but in a lesser number) and, in addition, offer white croaker, queenfish, halibut, sand bass, silver and walleye surfperch, sculpin (California scorpionfish), salema and jacksmelt. The far end of the 1,296-foot-long pier will see all of these but also yield up more bonito, mackerel, jack mackerel, barracuda and, in some years, even a few small yellowtail."

This information comes from pierfishing.com

Revisiting Myanmar

I'm always recalling my trip to Myanmar.
With nearly 10,000 dead from the cyclone, I feel for the people of that country. There some of the nicest people in all the world.

The following is from the CIA factbook, "September 2007 crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators, including thousands of monks, further strained the economy as the tourism industry, which directly employs about 500,000 people, suffered dramatic declines in foreign visitor levels. In November 2007, the European Union announced new sanctions banning investment and trade in Burmese gems, timber and precious stones, while the United States expanded its sanctions list to include more Burmese government and military officials and their family members, as well as prominent regime business cronies, their family members, and associated companies."

Something's gotta give here. Things can't get much worse.

The Walter Pyramid

Who'd have figured that Long Beach would have had such weird architecture? This is the Walter Pyramid. It's a sports complex at Cal State University--Long Beach.

Don Gibbs designed the thing and the Nielson Construction of San Diego built it. It cost $22 million to build.

San Clemente Municipal Pier

Just north of San Diego are a string of beach cities, one of which is San Clemente. If you remember San Clemente was where Nixon escaped the hum-drum life in the White House.

I can see why he did, it's a gorgeous place, sweet breezes, swaying Washingtonian palm trees, and a great pier (see picture).

Downtown isn't far from the beach and there are dozens of shops to mill through.

While I wouldn't want to spend more than a day in San Clemente, it's definitely worth a stop for a great photo op.

Fire in Apache Peak area near Idyllwild

Here's the Idyllwild fire as seen from my home in Palm Springs. It's a 15 second exposure.

Tokyo Park

The good people at the Tokyo park system say: "The park is (the) living room in the city."

Above please find a picture of one of Tokyo's lovely parks.

High ISO Speeds

Here's yet another abandoned house from my abandoned home collection. This photo was taken at sunset. Don't you just love the color of the home (robin's egg blue).

I took this photo at 1000 ISO, that is at a film speed where you can get clear photos in limited light.

Many point-and-shoot cameras are coming with ISO controls. They tout it too, advertising that they have films speeds of up to 3200 ISO.

What they don't tell you is at that film speed, you're going to get tons of noise. Noise happens when you get those tiny multicolored dots in your image. You can really see it if you blow up your photos to full size on your monitor.

To see your photographs at full size, all you do is type in 100 in the bottom left of the window.

By looking at your photos in this way, you'll see all the little aberrations that appear when you print out copies of them.

At any rate about the highest film speed you can go is about 1000 in order to not get much noise.

Some cameras are better than others at not having noise at high ISO speeds. Canon really does a good job. When you take a picture at high ISO speeds with one of their dSLR cameras you get hardly any noise whatsoever, like in this photo above.

Chairs

Getting near that time of year, when you can sit for hours and pass the time doing nothing.

Where I am (in Palm Springs, CA) this is the last time you'll be able to sit outside during the day for awhile cause in a few weeks it's gonna get hot.

In May we get above a hundred toward the later end of the month. In June it can climb to 105 degrees F. In July and Aug, the average high can run up to 111 with days when it's 122.

No kidding!

Is This a Mobile Home?

Nothing really gets my goat than writing about mobile homes. There's so much stereotyping about who lives in them and why?

If you're going to say "there's no place like my mobile home" you might as well be in Palm Springs, CA, home to some of the most extravagant mobile homes in the world.

Take a look at the mobile home in the picture above. It's gorgeous. It's not what you'd think a mobile home would look like. (Usually one thinks of a mobile home as a long trailer made of cheap materials.)

If anyone wants to give me a good advance for a book about the mobile homes of Palm Springs, I'll take it and photograph and comment on all of the beautiful mobile homes that the city has to offer.

Convertable

This old car whipped around me as I was photographing in San Francisco last week.

I'm working on a new book, but can't divulge the title now.

As far as the picture is concerned, I can't figure out if I like the hazy light that covers the frame.

It was just before dusk when I photographed this car with a strong sun that was setting, sending blazing yellow light everywhere.

During postprocessing, I tried to clear up the haze, but when I did the photography just didn't look right.

So here it is just as I shot it.

El Portal Theater in North Hollywood

El Portal Theatre is a historic landmark in the San Fernando Valley city of North Hollywood. The theater was originally built as a vaudeville house in 1926, The theater has featured Vaudeville acts, silent movies, and then film

The theater was divided into three theaters when it was rebuilt in the late 90's. It hosts performers like Debbie Reynolds (who is coming there in July) and stage plays like the Wonderettes, which I happen to see and found very entertaining.

The Art Deco marquee has the traditional curved, colored neon lines that were popular during that era. The symmetry of the artful patters was terrific back then.

LA Skyline of Two Lakes

This picture that I took from a plane baffles me. What are those two bodies of water? Could they be Lake Matthews and Lake Elsinore?

Someone help please...