By air and by land
Tu and I went out for an adventure to the Salton Sea. Bill and his friend Chris met up with us at the Salton Sea airport which is pretty much just an abandoned patch of land. We got lots of awesome pictures from the air as well as the ground. Keep a look out for the great pictures coming up!
Sunset through a storm drain
Kind of scary little storm drain that looks like it goes under the city of La Jolla. It was covered with graffiti inside and I bet there were homeless people living in there.
Sometimes it’s cool to take a sunset shot from a different vantage point.
R-44 Flight
Here are some snippets of video taken during our epic trip down the coast in the R44. It was a beautiful flight down at sunset. It got pretty choppy because the wind was rushing and hitting the camera at about 150mph so it can be hard to control the camera.
365 Day Project
It’s called a 365 day project because you take one photo each day. It helps you practice photography but more importantly, you can look back at the end of the year and remember what you were doing everyday.
I collected most of my photos from last years 365 day project. The year flew by but quite a bit happened actually now that I look back on it.
The Point
This is Point Loma. It is the entrance to San Diego Harbor. The lighthouse shines to keep boats from hitting it when they come into the port during fog or the night. This photo was taken during the King Tides which are the lowest tides of the year.
So much sea rock is exposed at this time. You will rarely see it like this.
Unique Photography of Downtown Los Angeles
I’ve always wanted to do it, I just never had the chance. My brother is a pilot on a Robinson 44 Helicopter and we had always talked of heading up from San Diego to Los Angeles to take some birds eye view shots of one of the coolest cities in the world – Los Angeles.
We waited for a clear day and that day just happened to fall on a very cold day. It was 48 degrees in San Diego and to take the best photos from a helicopter you have to remove the doors. The wind would whip in threw the aircraft so it promised to close to bone chilling for the two hour journey.
We removed the doors of the chopper. I put on 5 jackets and chose my weapon of choice. My Nikon D4 and my super wide angle lens the Nikkor 14-24MM. Shooting a wide angle lens out of the small door opening of a helicopter can be tricky because it would mean potentially capturing the blades from overhead in the shot and often the rails underneath. Some cropping and careful composition would be needed.
It took about 1 hour to head up the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles and when we got there it was well worth the trip. The city looked awesome and we got some great bird eye views of the city. Using such a wide angle let me get some super wide shots of the city and capture what was happening around the city as well. The wide angle however makes us appear deceptively far from the city when in fact we were only about 200 feet above the helo-pad of the Bank of America building. When Bill would tilt the helicopter I was looking straight down the city only strapped in with a small seat belt. It was exhilarating and scary all at once. Even Bill said afterwards that he was getting nervous being so close to those huge buildings.
You can check out all of the images at this link. http://www.frankiefoto.com/Travel/Los-Angeles/27549755_zGrdsq
This is the shot of the city from the east looking towards the coast.
Los Angeles on Friday, you can see the traffic building.
Los Angeles is actually a pretty small downtown compared to other major cities.
Miniature Los Angeles. Looks like a city of Legos.
City Hall against the Los Angeles Skykline
Cool downtown perspective.
Some Black and Whites.
Birds Eye views of San Diego
Off came the doors of the helicopter again and Bill and I went up for sunset shots. It was gorgeous but freezing. I wore 5 jackets. I would have worn more if I had them.
Bill and I are discovering how to take pictures from the Helicopter which can be quite tricky and difficult. You have to keep in contact with air traffic control everywhere you go in San Diego because large commercial aircraft are always coming in and out of the city. Then you have to keep your eyes out for other aircraft, helicopters and small planes. It’s busy work but fun.
Here are some of the better shots that we took and a beautiful sunset. Another gorgeous winter day in Diego.
Happy Birthday #1 Isabella
One year ago she arrived. She was cute and everyone couldn’t figure out if she looked more like Michelle or Bill. Now Isabella is 1 and everyone still says the same thing.
I personally think that Isabella looks a lot like Michelle from the pictures of her when she was a baby. In any case, Isabella had a birthday party on the Bay and it was a smashing success.
Isabella has been getting rave reviews as a baby over the last year with people saying things like, “This is the cutest baby of all time”, and, “watch out world, Here comes Isabella and she will knock you out with her sweetness”. Critics all agree, Isabella is a hit!
You can check out all the pictures (and there are a lot of them at this link)
http://www.frankiefoto.com/Family/Isabella-Birthday/27529138_bgZXJb
And she got lots and lots and lots of presents. She was so good opening them up. She was so dainty and didn’t want to make a mess.
Isabella had a great time with her mom on the beach.
And she loved looking at all the sweets and treats with Camille too.
Happy Birthday Isabella. Can’t wait to see what the next year holds in store!
