After a week long rain-fest, we finally saw the sun today. I wasn’t about to miss out on this opportunity to soak up some sun, so I grabbed my camera and hung out at the beach. The one thing I love about heavy rain fall is that typically the day after, the light is amazing. Today was no different as the sun was golden during the late afternoon and early evening.

Yesterday afternoon/evening, I met up with a fellow photographer to do some night photography at Coronado, CA. We are both new to night photography so we really didn’t have too many expectations. We did, however, have an idea as to what we wanted to take pictures of – the Coronado Bridge and the San Diego Skyline. The lighting on the bridge wasn’t really ideal so we ended up focusing on capturing the San Diego Skyline.

With night photography, a tripod is a must but what I wasn’t prepared for was the need for a shutter release cable. This was evident in the later part of the evening when the shutter speed reached over 30 seconds long. I had to make due with making adjustments to the ISO and aperture to get proper exposure.

The picture above was one of the better ones that I captured during the later part of the evening. The picture below was taken about 45 minutes after the sunset. Love the purplish lighting. By the way, this is not a true panoramic. The original photo had to much dead space and broke the rule of thirds, so I decided to make it look like a pano.

ISO200, 35mm, f16, 30sec

Beautiful weather, great scenery, and 25,000+ people showing their support for a great cause – what more can you ask for? Below are some of the images I captured throughout the day. You can check out the full set here. Enjoy!

The start of the walk.

The memorial wall.

There was entertainment throughout the walk.

I love the interesting people I met.

It’s not AIDSWalk without the outrageous people. The guy on the right did the walk in heels!

And since this was at Golden Gate Park, there were alot of unique buildings, plant life and beautiful scenery.

Last Saturday, I participated in Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in San Jose. It was a historic event as 32,000+ photographers attended 900+ similar walks around the world. In some of the larger cities and locations, there were multiple walks scheduled throughout the day. San Jose was one of those cities.

Our group was led by Frederick Van Johnson – Photographer, Writer, Instructor and Host of This Week in Photography Podcast (TWiP). Based on some of the gear fellow photographers were sporting, I’d say we had a good mixture of professionals and hobbyists.

The walk began and ended at Gordon Biersch, a well known brewery in the heart of downtown San Jose. From there, we were left to explore the wonders of downtown San Jose. There were so many things to shoot from modern buildings, art museums, parks, shops, clubs and even a cathedral. Throughout the walk, I got a chance to observe and speak to other photographers. It was a great opportunity for me to see first hand how other photographers shoot and compose shots. The pictures I’ve seen from the group have been fantastic. You can checkout some of the photos in the San Jose Flickr Group. Also checkout this short highlight video put together by Ni Ki Cruz Photography.

Personally, I had a blast even though I couldn’t attend the meet up afterwards at Gordon Biersch. Below are some of the photos I captured during the walk. You can checkout the full set here. Enjoy!

What a great weekend for shooting and being outdoors. I was back in San Jose this weekend to attend a couple events. The first was on Saturday for Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in downtown San Jose. The second event was AIDSWalk San Francisco 2009 on Sunday held at Golden Gate Park. I’ll be blogging and posting more pictures from both events soon.

For now, I wanted to share my favorite picture from Saturday. This is one of my entries for Scott Kelby’s Photo Walk contest where he will select a Grand Prize winner and 10 Honorable Mention photos from thousands of participants all of the world who participated in this historic event.

While doing the Journey Into Africa Tour a couple of weeks ago at W.A.P, we had a brief encounter with this little guy on the trail. He was actually “outside the fences” so I’m not really sure he was part of the attraction. Nonetheless, he gave us a great photo opportunity.

Next to the Lion Camp and Cheetah exhibits, I love watching the Gorillas at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I’ve always been fascinated by them since I was a little kid and being able to see them in such a close proximity has been a dream come true. I can literally sit for hours just watching them interact with each other.

Here are few facts about Gorillas:

- Gorillas are the largest of the living primates.

-The DNA of gorillas is 98%–99% identical to that of a human, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after the chimpanzee species.

-Gorillas live in tropical or subtropical forests.

For more information, check out the Wikipedia on Gorillas.

I met up with my brother-in-law Ramel and nephew Tobey at the golf range after lunch today. Tobey is pretty active in different sports like gymnastics, swimming, tennis, karate and of course, golf. I took some pictures of his swing and finally had the opportunity to use the 6.3 fps (frames per second) of the 50D. With the exception of wearing two gloves (my dads influence on him), he’s not doing to bad.

Tiger Woods in the making? I think he’s heading in the right direction.

Original Photo Straight Out of the Camera.

Photo after making exposure, contrast and saturation adjustments in Lightroom.

The final image after running some actions in Photoshop.

I had friends and family visiting throughout the month of May and I was planning on taking lots of pictures. Considering the itinerary of places we were planning to go, I would be taking different types of pictures ranging from portraits, landscape and wildlife. For the Canon 50D, the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 IS zoom lenses would cover all of the focal ranges that I would be expecting to take. With the prices of good lenses reaching $1000+, it was a no brainer to go the rental route.

First off, the company caters specifically to Canon and Nikon dslr cameras. The website and online reservation system are pretty user friendly. When you click on the brand of camera, Canon or Nikon, you are given a list of lenses that they carry. The page indicates if the item is in stock with a simple yes or no. Yes – they carry the lens and there is at least one copy in stock. No – they carry the lens but all copies of the lens are currently out of stock. If the item is not in stock, you’re encouraged to call and speak to a customer service representative to reserve for a future date or you can leave your email to be notified when the item becomes available. Pricing and rental time are also provided on the page. Shipping price in both direction is already included in the price. A big surprise is no tax.

After the order is placed, you will be notified via email when the order is shipped and provided the tracking number. All shipping is through FedEx and is 2 day shipping. Overnight shipping is also available for those who need the lens immediately but you will need to speak to a customer rep to reserve the lens. All lenses are shipped in pelican cases to avoid any damage while in transit and the actual rental period starts when FedEx electronically confirms delivery or attempts delivery. The package also includes the return shipping label that you will use when you return the lens.

The lenses that I rented were both in working order but did show signs of wear which is typical anytime you rent. They came with both front and rear caps. I was a little disappointed they didn’t come with UV filters and the 17-55mm didn’t come with a lens hood. With the cost of repairs, you would think they would provide those items to prevent accidental damage to the glass. This was a minor con since I like to take good care of my gear.

Towards the end of the rental period, they send an email reminder when the lens is due and also give you an option to extend the rental period. To return the lens, just repack all items in the pelican case and the box that it came in, stick the return shipping label on the box and drop it off to FedEx. The transit times to and from LensProToGo do NOT count toward the rental period.

Overall, my first online rental transaction with LensProToGo was quite positive and I will definitely use them again in the future.

You can check out their new blog and follow them on Twitter.