North County - Color or not

There are still some colorful spots around San Luis Obispo county, but the leaves are falling rapidly and vineyards are becoming bare.  Street and parking lot trees are still the most colorful items around.  The recent rains have added green grass back into the color pallet - the prolonged drought gave us dead brown hills until these last few storms.

Small trees - Santa Margarita

Old oak - HW 227 near Creston

Templeton Panoramas

I took these photos on Sunday - light was relatively even, and I was experimenting with hand held linear (not rotating) panoramas.

The first one shows the siding from an industrial building which has been painted with a terrific mural.

The second pano shows Santa and his friends enjoying some "down time".

Pours 4 Purrs - North County Winery Photos

I visited 12 wineries this weekend for the Pours 4 Purrs fundraising weekend for the North County Humane Society cat shelter.  Here are a few photos from the weekend.

There are additional photos on the North County Humane Society web page.

Fall Colors at Hidden Oaks

Graveyard Vineyards

Brochelle Vineyards tasting room

San Miguel Mission

Kittens

They are cute.  Rascally.  Always moving.  Always getting into something.  Adorable.  And tough to photograph.

Here are a few of the kittens from the North County Humane Society in Atascadero, CA.

Raymond

Maynard

Taffy

Taz

New Times 2014

The photo below was taken in old Harmony, CA.  The Harmony creamery has been converted to space for local artisans, and there is a small recording studio - Painted Sky Studios - which holds occasional concerts.  This picture was composed during the intermission of a concert - the moon light and light fixtures made for interesting lighting, and the textures in the building, trees and brickwork are very cool.

Technically, the photo is a 3 shot raw HDR processed in Photomatix.  There was not much color in the scene, so it was converted to black and white using NIK Silver EFX.

This photo took 1st place in the adult, open division of the New Times 2014 Winning Images photo contest.

Lunar Eclipse

Here are a re photos from the recent lunar eclipse on October 8, 2014.  Photos were taken from my front porch using a 400mm lens and 1.4 extender - all on a very steady tripod.

Pinedorado Parade 2014

The annual Pinedorado Parade in Cambria, CA was held on Saturday morning August 30.  Here are a few of the highlight photos.

Moonlight, Part 2

Here are a couple more moonlight shots taken around the Cambria, CA area.

The large moon rising over San Simeon Creek was taken from Van Gordon road, and is a composite of 2 photos - sometimes you just have to do that to capture the dynamic light range.

The ocean photo is taken at Leffingwell Point and is about a 2 minute exposure lit by both the moonlight and the street lights along Moonstone Beach Drive.

Ocean by Moonlight

Here is a  recent long time exposure of moonlight and waves from near Monterey, CA.

Cat's Eye View of the North County Humane Society Shelter

Here is the view a cat would see when walking around the North County Humane Society shelter (in Atascadero, CA).

 

Templeton Stars

I saw a few meteors in the Persiad meteor shower on Wednesday morning, but I could not capture any on the camera.  The moon was quite bright and the sky not quite dark enough for good photos of the meteors.

The photo below shows the stars and oaks under the moonlight a little bit before sunrise.

The Coast is Clear

It was remarkably clear on the coastline earlier this week - and the breezes were gentle - perfect coastal exploring weather.

The photo below shows the view from Cambria down to Point Buchon (Montana de Oro) - I'm guessing that it is about 30 miles as the crow flies.

Cambria Sunset

Sunset over Leffingwell Landing in Cambria on Saturday 7/19/2014.

Coaster

Here is another cute kitten who needs a good home.  He is at the North County Humane Society in Atascadero.

"Super Moon" over Templeton, CA

The "super moon" on 7/12/14 came up behind a cloud bank - so much for that spectacular photo I was preparing to take.  It was a little too dark - more light in the sky would have helped - which means I should have taken the photo one day earlier.

Anyway, I used some HDR compositing to help balance the light.  The photo does not quite look "real", but it is pretty close to what I saw.

Cambria - Zebra and Supermoon

The moon rising over Cambria, California last evening was huge.  I caught a photo of it over my favorite old barn.

And the zebra near Hearst Castle were out in force - as were the tourist snapping pictures of zebra close to Highway 1.  I should have taken a photo of all the cars stopped along the side of the highway.

North County Humane Society Kittens

Here are some of the kittens currently available at the North County Humane Society in Atascadero.

More Fireworks in the Fog - Cambria California

Fireworks in the fog is becoming an annual photographic event up in Cambria.  The fog held out, for the most part, so that we could view the show from the hill above town.  Here are a few of the photos.

Fremont Theater Neon

The photo below won a 3rd place award in last year's New Times photo contest.  Here are a few more photos of the Fremont Theater marquee from the same evening.

Morro Bay Power Plant

As the power plant in Morro Bay prepares to close after 60 years of operation, we have been going through some of the old historic photos.  Here are a few that stand out.

Succulents in the Rain

Here are a few photos of succulent enjoying a long awaited rainfall.  This garden is in Cambria, CA.