Yes Sir!
I was at the USD basketball game awhile ago and about 25% of the bleachers were filled with new Marine recruits from Camp Pendleton. I guess they let the guys out for a little fun that night. I took a picture of a group of Marines standing at attention and I couldn’t help but notice that they all looked very similar. Now it might be something to do with the great chow they feed the guys or perhaps the regulation eye glasses that they make them wear. One thing is for certain these guys are certainly disciplined.
Its a Goal!
When we were kids my dad made us watch British Soccer Games on ABC on Saturday afternoons. The games were actually pretty boring but the announcers of the games were very lively in their British accents and made the games interesting to watch. Our favorite moments on those Saturday afternoons were when one of the teams scored a goal and the announcer would scream quite loudly into their microphone… “Its a goooooaaaaal”, drawing out all of the vowels as the British do.
Today was a soccer day for me. First and foremost I had a chance to watch my awesome nephew Geno play soccer for the first time. He is an awesome athlete and very competitive so I was very proud to watch him doing his best on the field. Later that day my other two awesome nephews, Charlie and Irish took me to the San Diego Soccers Indoor National Championship game – and they won. It was an all around great day for Soccer in San Diego and the weather as usual was picture perfect. Click on the link below to see the full gallery of Geno playing his heart out in the soccer game.
http://www.frankiefoto.com/Portraits/Soccer-Boy/21896010_SkrPXn
The Magical House and Fairy Garden
After a long search of hundreds of houses across San Diego Tu finally found her dream house and moved into the beautiful home this week. Tu knew the instant that she walked into the fairy tale backyard of the house that it was her dream home. She called me to come over and take a look at the house. She never told me why. The minute I walked into the backyard I was instantly overcome by a sense of calm serenity and peacefulness. The backyard reminded me of a Japanese Tea Garden and at the center of the garden stood a Banzai Tree which was planted over 50 years ago. The garden was a complete masterpiece – a work of art and something that evoked emotion and feeling from the instant you stood in it.
Well, the backyard was not the only incredible thing about the house. The entire interior of this beautiful property was painstakingly remodeled from floor to ceiling. Hardwood floors, completely new kitchen, new appliances and entirely renovated bathrooms were the cherry on top of the whipped cream on top of the cake of this place.
While the garden was magical and the house beautiful, the real energy and soul of the place was the history of the family that lived there and grew up together there. In 1961, 50 years ago a young couple Del and Grace purchased the small home in Clairemont with the vision of raising a family in the beautiful town on San Diego. Over the next 50 years they did have the family they dreamed of having 3 boys and 2 girls – Christopher, Geary, Michael Leslie, Lisa and Denise.
I had the chance to meet with Lisa on various occasions and she filled me in on the history of the house and shared with me many stories about what happened there as they grew up. As she told me the stories, I thought back to my own childhood home and realized that selling the home must have been a very emotional experience. It was not just a house to them, but a place where almost all of their best memories happened. I felt honored that they would entrust us with something so special. Having viewed many of the homes that Tu was interested in, I had a chance to view lots of homes with very little soul or character – flips where sometimes unscrupulous buyers would buy properties cheap from distressed homeowners, do a few cosmetic changes and then try to sell the property for tens and thousands more than they bought it for. I think that is what made this house incrementally more special to me. It was a diamond amidst the rough housing market. Lisa told me the story of the garden and how her father came home from work each night and trimmed the trees and roses, how her mother had carefully selected clippings of special plants from places she had visited and planted them in their garden. Each plant held special meaning in this garden and things that would not grow anywhere else in San Diego defied the odds and grew in this backyard. Maybe the plants and tree’s grew not only on sun, soil and water but on love. Lisa mentioned to me that she began the renovations over 6 months ago and that it was an outlet for her after she lost her partner. I realized that this renovation on her families property was not about money but love. It was a labor of love for her father, her mother, her family and loved ones and for the memory of her childhood. This was about bringing the home to its most beautiful state before saying goodbye. Well it was quite touching and made me realize that this home must be taken care of and protected to protect the legacy of so much that has happened before.
The day before the closing – Lisa’s father came by the house to drop off a gift for Tu. It was a Buddha statue from a ruined temple in Vietnam. The statue was beautiful and we placed it in the center of the garden. It was the perfect place for the statue. The whole garden seemed to come together after this perfect and thoughtful gift. Later that day, I looked out in the garden and saw two hummingbirds playing and flying from tree to tree. As I watched outside, I thought to myself that this truly was a magical house.
http://www.frankiefoto.com/Photography/The-Magic-House/21655974_ss6tNJ
William Fitzsimmons tonight
I went to see William Fitzsimmons in San Diego again tonight. I have been a big fan of his music since he released an album called the Sparrow and the Crow and I felt it was a pretty influential album on the folk music scene. If you have ever seen William Fitzsimmons you know that he is known for his 1890’s beard style and soft singing style. Actually both of his parents were deaf and that is why he says that he learned to sing softly. Since there were never loud noises in the house he learned to play very quietly. William Fitzsimmons is a true artist and always sings his songs differently each time he plays them. Sometimes this can be a hit or miss strategy but in the case of his singing and style it is always beautiful. As an added bonus we got to see Chris, Vanessa, Tierney and Landry tonight at the event. It was a really great show and a great night.
Downtown San Diego Skyline
I went to take nighttime photos with my friend Armand tonight. It’s no secret that the San Diego skyline is among the most beautiful in the world so it was great to find a spot in Coronado where we could capture it in all its beauty. It was a cloudless night which I think makes for the best atmosphere to take skyline photos. It was another beautiful night in San Diego – America’s finest city.
The 35mm lens. Simplicity. Perfection.
After two years of testing, renting, buying and selling just about every level of Nikon and Canon lenses and cameras I have learned quite a bit about what works and what doesn’t. Pretty much you can’t go wrong with Canon or Nikon and just about everything they make is top notch. You can buy one or the other and in the end you’ll have a great product even though I give Nikon a slight advantage in most categories. One thing I have learned is that the more you spend the better the quality of the lens, the camera and the final pictures you take. Well, that is until this week. This week I discovered the Nikkor 35MM Manual Focus lens. This lens has been around so long that it has reached legendary status (I believe it has been around since 1982 which is amazing considering how much technology and cameras have evolved from that point). The lens was originally created for press photography and is one of the fastest wide angle lenses that you can buy even to this day. This lens has one of the most superior color renditions of any lens I have used and creates great contrasty images with amazing depth of field when you dial the aperture to its lowest levels.
For years I have tried different focal lengths on lenses from super wide angle and fisheye to super 500MM zoom to find the perfect picture. Even though I tried them all, I never had a 35mm lens. I was convinced that the best focal lengths for portraits was my trusted 85mm lens and the best focal length for landscapes was my 16mm to 35mm lens. I had 50mm lenses and almost everything in between but never a 35mm lens. Now that I have one, I am surprised at what I was missing and I have changed my mind. 35MM lenses are a must have in my opinion for any photographer and videographer. I have a variety of reasons for saying that, and if you are looking for a great 35mm lens, I think the Nikkor 35mm AIS is as fine as any lens out there even more expensive ones. Here are some of the reasons I am a big believer in 35mm lens photography.
Focal Length – In terms of composition, the 35mm lens is the closest to the focal composition of the human eye. That is why it is used so often in movies because it gives a much more realistic vantage point for the viewer. In terms of photography using a fixed 35mm lens requires you to get creative in terms of how you move your body around to get the right composition. You can’t be lazy but when you catch a shot with a 35mm lens it has a more artistic look to it than any other lens that I have tried.
Versatility – The 35mm lens can be used for almost anything: Landscapes, portraits, travel shots, macro photography, street photography, real estate photography, product photography – just about everything. The 35mm I use allows me to get great close up images but also allows me to get pretty decent wide angle shots. Many photographers refer to the 35mm as the wedding photography lens because of its versatility indoors and outdoors.
Video – I originally purchased the Nikkor 35mm lens exclusively for creating videos with my D3S. I had read a few articles on the fact that it was the best lens for videography for a variety of reasons. All of those reasons were spot on and I could see the difference I snapped the lens on the camera. The focal length was wide enough where I virtually had no camera shake but not so wide that I could not focus on my subject. I could walk a foot away and get great close-ups and the video had an almost cinematic quality when you dialed in the aperture to its lowest levels. I attached a test video to the end of this entry. In short the video is just beautiful with a lens in this focal length. If you use a DLSR for your video you know that the autofocus feature is nearly useless and will cause your videos to go in and out of focus quickly. The fact that this 35mm lens only provides manual focus and no autofocus engine is not a problem since I rarely use the autofocus feature for my videos anyway.
Best Capture of Subject and Environment – One of the best features of a 35mm lens is that it allows you to capture your subject relative to their environment. I think this is another reason that it is used so broadly in film – it helps you tell a story with your video or your photograph. I brought the 35mm lens to a show I went to for my brothers band. I was positive that I would not use it since the music was fast and I was positive I could never dial in the right focus to capture what was happening since autofocus was not on the lens. When I got home I was amazed since my best pictures of the night came out of the lens. The reason was that I was able to capture the subject and what was happening around them to the perfect degree.
Forced Interaction – You can always tell from someone’s photos if they were passively or actively engaged with there surroundings. The best photos I see is where the photographer is actively involved in their environment – not changing the scene but involved in it somehow by getting in the middle of the action. Zoom lenses can make a photographer a little lazy since they can zoom into their subject from far away and not get in the middle the action. The 35mm is a lens really requires you to get in the middle of a situation to get a good photograph. If you stand far away from your subject it won’t work since the angle is pretty wide and you won’t have a real subject in the end photo. I find that the 35mm is perfect since it requires you to jump right in to find the perfect picture.
Low Light Performance – I am referring in particular to the Nikkor 35MM AIS when I refer to the stunning speed and low light performance of the 35mm lens. I find that the combination of my D3S and 35MM lens which can be dialed back to 1.4 aperture level provides me with unreal low light performance. I can take pictures in near dark rooms and the photos appear that they have been taken in great lighting conditions. This is beneficial not only for photography but videography as well. I find that the videos taken with the 35mm lens have far less noise and are far less grainy than pictures taken with my other lenses.
Small, light and compact – When I put the 35mm lens on my camera it makes my camera feel small and light. When I compare that to my more expensive prime lenses which make my camera feel about twice the weight it is really an added bonus to this lens. Since the lens is so light, compact and versatile it makes the perfect walk around lens for taking street photography or any type of photography when you are traveling. Sure you might be tempted to break out your fish eye or zoom but this lens will force you to deal with your situation and take the best picture possible with what you have. I find that always makes for more interesting photography.
Wide angle with constraint – I was editing pictures once and a friend of mine advised that I turn the contrast up to exactly where I wanted it and then to dial it back slightly. Constraint is ultimately very important in photography and is what differentiates an average picture from a great picture. The 35mm lens is considered the very beginning of wide angle lenses. It is the most subtle wide angle on the market and that is why it consistently delivers great shots. It is certainly not fish eye, certainly not super wide angle, but it is wide enough to capture a subject interacting with their environment. I am often tempted to use a wide angle lens. The 35mm lens is analogous to slightly dialing back the level of contrast that I feel is appropriate. The 35mm keeps my wide angle nature in check.
Adult Crash opens at Standards Record Store Vista
When you think of Vista you probably don’t think of it as the center of Punk music here in San Diego but if Colin Tappe can make his dream a success that is exactly what you will be thinking this time next year. I first met Colin when he was lead singer in a band my brother played in. I think at the time they might have been called “Excellent Covers” but I can’t be sure. Colin has turned his passion for punk and become an entrepreneur by putting his own money down and opening a new record store called Standards in Vista on East Broadway. The area is pretty cool with some interesting restaurants and businesses in the area. There is an old fashioned Frosty’s around the corner. I thought they had all closed years ago. The record store is called “Standards” because Colin wants to focus on selling the standard stuff you would expect to find in record stores when your looking for old records you want to buy. He also has a huge stock of classic punk t-shirts – stuff like the white Minor Threat Out of Step T Shirt that I bought there last night. Man this place can help you relive some great moments in history.
Standards opened yesterday with a Punk Show featuring Adult Crash (my brothers band). The place was packed wall to wall and actually turned out to be an excellent venue for a punk show. Colin was sure to tell everyone at the start of the show to be respectful and low key so that he could have more shows in the future. Judging from the steady stream of police cruisers that were passing by the store almost constantly you could tell the city was in no mood for any trouble. As far as I could tell there wasn’t any and I’m sure Colin could breathe a sigh of relief.
If you have ever had a chance to see Adult Crash you’ll know that there are three things that really define them – loud, tight and super fast sets. The average set runs about 12 minutes and its a blur of old fashioned punk played by original straight-edgesters from Chula Vista. I am always impressed by the flawless performance of the band and also at my brother Patrick. The set is only 12 minutes but he gulps down a gallon of water in that time and tears all the skin off his hands because he is pounding the drums so hard. Now that’s Punk. I am hoping that Colin can turn this place into a success because he’s got something really special here. Check them out if you want to see something cool happening.
Check out Adult Crash’s Website Here
http://www.frankiefoto.com/Music/Standard-Records/21335495_PzvHmx
http://www.facebook.com/standardsrecordstore
Stunning Photograph’s of Antelope Canyon
I just returned from Arizona and had a chance to visit a very beautiful place called Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is called Tsé bighánílíní, “the place where water runs through rocks” by the Navajo and the formations under the ground are some of the most beautiful you will see. The canyon is deep but it still allows for lots of natural sunlight to come through the slots. That makes this a more beautiful place than many caves that I have visited which are lit up by a variety of colored lights. All the light in this canyon is natural which makes it the most beautiful to photograph. There are two canyons, Upper and Lower Antelope Valley. The Upper canyon is very famous for light beams that shoot from directly above into the canyon and make for some marvelous photos. The lower canyon which I had basically to myself for 2 hours is a more difficult and narrow canyon than upper canyon and does not have the same light beams. People usually come to this place during the summer months because the sun is literally overhead and provides the most dramatic light into the canyons. That’s probably why I had this place to myself. But the pictures came out very well and I had as much time as I needed in the various places.
It was cold in the canyon (about 30 degrees that day) but it was very calm and peaceful inside the canyon. I could literally hear every breath that I took since I was all alone. The canyon is owned by the Navajo Indians and they charge $26 dollars for a photographers pass but you need to bring a tripod and an SLR lens to get that pass. Also the photographer pass allows you to go on your own without a guide so you can avoid the crowds. The canyon can be a bit dangerous because it is subject to flash floods and the slots can fill up very quickly when the rains come. If it starts raining you need to exit very quickly to avoid drowning in the canyon. In 1997 12 tourist died in the canyon when flash floods two hours earlier miles away poured into the canyon. The ladders in place at the time were swept away by the flooding waters through the cave so they had no way to get out of the cave as the raging water swept them to their death. This canyon is beautiful but can be dangerous.
http://www.frankiefoto.com/Travel/Antelope-Valley/20623144_F3WstH
