The San Diego area is getting more rain tonight and later on in the week. It’s not nearly the same amount as last week but will probably be the last significant amount we get in this area for the remainder of the year. It was fun while it lasted.

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.

While spending some time with my nephew at Universal Studios, I got the chance to do some indoor skydiving at iFlyHollywood at Universal Studios CityWalk Hollywood. This was the best thing ever. The chance to “fly” without actually jumping out of a plane. If you have something similar around your area, definitely try it.

I was going over the 3000+ pictures that I took this year and I came across this one in Lightroom. I wish I had something meaningful to say about this picture but the fact of the matter is, it’s one of those pictures that just catches my eye. Maybe it was the moment that I snapped the picture or the occasion. Who knows. All I know is that every time I come across this picture, I stop and just look at it.

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.

More photos to come…

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.