Beams of light dance through a thin veil of fog in the trees above Kirby Cove at the Golden Gate bridge. I arrived before dawn and scrambled up Slacker Hill, hoping for a decent sunrise, but the fog was a little too high and only the tip of the north tower was visible. I stayed put until it was obvious I had been skunked.

Then, while making my usual walk of shame down the hill and into the car, I pulled over quickly to grab this pano from the roadside. Sometimes minimal effort does pays off. One guy left his car running across the road as he was shooting this; gotta dig that confidence.

This is a multi frame pano using the FA150mm f/2.8 on the 645Z.

Hope you like it!

Tags:   California San Francisco Sausalito Marin county bay Golden Gate Bridge fog sunrise mist hills water ocean Pacific outdoor Pentax 645 645Z FA150 pano www.mikeoria.com Kirby Cove GGB foggy

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Sunset behind Deer Valley near Antioch, CA. This is one of my favorite go-to hills with a tree for a silhouette, and it just fit the bill last evening as I was scrambling around town to find a shot. As often happens on my ill-planned last minute outings, I arrived at this position just in time to catch the light at its peak. This was the very first shutter click and very soon the wonderfully back lit oat grass lost its pizzazz.

The dark orange stuff on the left is safflower, with its sharp spiny husks that cut right through my clothes and into my skin. About halfway up the hill, I changed my mind and decided the pain was no longer worth it, but the thought of traveling just as far back through this treachery provided little comfort, so I reluctantly pressed on. For my suffering, I was determined to compose a little corner of the stuff in my photo, so there. Safflower now ranks # 2, just behind mosquitoes. You knew that was coming.


Wow, "treachery" and "pizzazz" all in the same installment. I'd better sign off for now.
Lens is the DFA 55mm f/2.8 on the 645Z. 2-exposure bracket & manual blend.
Thanks for looking!

Tags:   California Contra Costa county Antioch Brentwood Deer Valley Round Valley Horse Valley Balfour Briones tree hill sunset sunrise outdoor wheat oat oat grass grass dry brown gold sun sunlight field Diablo silhouette Pentax 645 645Z DFA55 55mm www.mikeoria.com safflower spines

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[press L to view it on black]

The Milky Way passes over a creepy abandoned house in the mercury mining ghost town of New Idria, CA. For the sky watchers, that brightest object is Mars on the lower left sky and Saturn along the centerline. Just out of frame to the right was Jupiter. All three planets were in a line. Sky is a Bortle-2.

Last night's original plan was to get a reflection shot from San Luis Reservoir in Merced county but I could no longer wait for the heavy wind gusts to die down; instead, I hatched a plan B, driving south another 2 hours on a lonely road, so quiet, I never saw another vehicle nor person anywhere.

Arriving at the New Idria mining town, it was far too dark to do very effective scouting since I couldn't see much beyond the range of my headlamp. I gravitated toward this abandoned residence in a row of houses and got to work. I applied lighting using a small LED panel. The "LLLS: low level lighting on a stick" rides again!

Lens is the DFA 25mm f/4 on the 645Z. EXIF is inaccurate here but the long exposure was for my light painting(f/7.1 ISO 1,000) and then I median blended 25 star frames that were 15sec each @f/5 ISO 10,000 to achieve some sky noise reduction.

Thanks for visiting

Tags:   California New Idria Idria cinnabar quicksilver mercury Hg poison mine abandoned disused house empty neglect night long exposure astro astrophotography galaxy universe star stars jupiter planet meteor mars constellation milky way MW Pentax 645 645Z DFA25 25mm Saturn

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It was a cold winter morning along the California Delta as I hunted alone in the dark searching for a possible shot. I spotted this boat with some back light that was just begging to be photographed, so I walked out on a rickety frosty dock to grab my shot, knowing full well that if I silently slipped into the icy drink, the Harbormaster was very much off duty.

True crime followers, this spot is where several duffle bags containing the body parts of three victims were retrieved, back in 2000. The responsible individuals were captured and brought to justice. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Body-Parts-Identified-Rema...

This is a pano using the DFA 150mm f/2.8 on the 645Z.

Thanks for looking.

Tags:   California San Joaquin river Sacramento River reflection boat boating Delta Mokelumne Brannan Brannan Island dock still calm outdoor Marina marine Pentax Pentax 645Z 645 645Z Mike Oria Mike Oria Photography www.mikeoria.com Seascape landscape

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Here's one from the other night at the 'Brith. I joined visiting Pentax medium format shooter Ed Hurst (from Australia & UK) for a quick look-see around SF. We even got to do some offroading on Yerba Buena Island, imagine that.

This is a section of a longer pano using the DFA 90mm f/2.8 macro on the 645Z. Just for fun, here is a 100% crop of the foreground to show detail. whoa: www.mikeoria.com/img/s/v-3/p2928266455-6.jpg

Hope you like it!

Tags:   San Francisco California Russian Hill skyline night long exposure Mike Oria Ina Coolbrith Salesforce US Bank bank financial district SF SFCA San Fran ransamerica pyramid tower BofA' Bank of America 645 645Z 90mm pano www.mikeoria.com sfdc salesforce.com Building skyscraper Hill PENTAX Pentax 645Z DFA90 90/2.8 panorama panoramic Bay Bridge BRIDGE Mike Oria Photography cityscape City LANDSCAPE

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