Edwin Villanueva

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.

ISO400, 105mm, f5.6, 1/20sec

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.

ISO200, 53mm, f16, 30sec

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

What did I have in common with 25,000+ people Sunday, July 19th? We all participated in the 23rd Annual AIDSWalk San Francisco at Golden Gate Park. The event raised over 3.5 million dollars for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and dozens of other Bay Arean HIV/AIDS service organizations. Since 1987, AWSF has raised more than $70 million for HIV/AIDS programs and services in the Bay Area and has become Northern California’s largest AIDS fundraising event. Last year alone, 25,000 walkers raised a near-record $4.5 million for SFAF and more than 50 other Bay Area AIDS service organizations. The event once again brought together people from all walks of life for a common cause in the battle against AIDS and to support people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases.
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