Noriko

Friend of mine, the lovely Noriko, came over for a photo shoot today.



Noriko is a composer/musician. Very talented young lady.



Violin is not her main instrument, but it fits in my studio more easily than a piano or an organ.



I think I just realised today that the more pictures I take, the more I'm into unconventional compositions. Like this one:



The above would be perfect for a poster, as Noriko pointed out. Plenty of room to list concert details on the right.

Another thing I've noticed I like are the completely un-posed shots - even in the studio.



But, sometimes you get quite nice posed ones, too.

Beth

I'm posting two versions of the following photo. The first one edited in Lightroom, and the second one tweaked in Photoshop. Opinions/preferences welcome!

More poppies

Well, had to go back to the poppy fields today before they all die out.


















OK, enough poppies for this year!



Let's move onto reeds.

Poppies

We're a little late for the local poppy season, but luckily they haven't stopped blooming just yet!

Back at home!

Wow, what a long journey home. We are absolutely pooped. Still, it was great to see Zebedee again! I've missed the little rascal so much. And also we realised that our neck of the woods is alright after all... When Kippy and Jeremy were showing us around in the Nevada/California area, we thought to ourselves that we won't be able to show anything as grand as that to them when they come over to visit us in England. Everything we saw seemed to dwarf anything we have back home. But still, it IS nice and beautiful over here, too - just in a different way. And it is good to be home. After an absolutely fantastic holiday, it's good to be home, too.

In the evening we went to Piddinghoe with Zebedee to have a play and a swim.









We were testing out Zebedee's new water toy (which is just one of the six new toys we brought him...).






Love the grasses along the river...
















...and love the silly dog, of course.



Life is good. :)

California & Nevada Day 15

We stayed the last night of our trip in a hotel with a view over Bay Bridge. For some reason I woke up around six in the morning, only to witness a beautiful sunrise.



I was still half asleep so I wasn't quite aware of the fact that I was watching a sunrise, but as soon as I realised that I was, I got out of the bed and grabbed my camera.



I'm glad I did, as I really was only half conscious while I took these photos... and then went back to bed and fell asleep. And it's only afterwards, when I woke up properly, that I saw what I had taken photos of.



We got up at about 11, by which time it was daylight, of course.









The last photo from our hotel window...



We had just time to drive to Sausalito before heading off to SFO airport for a first flight on our way back to the UK. Sadly, I didn't do my research beforehand, so we didn't know exactly where the best part of Sausalito was, and ended up having our lunch without being next to the harbour and without overlooking San Francisco skyline. So... here is just a random dog being petted by an upside-down woman.



After lunch we did drive through the area where we should have had our lunch, and saw SF skyline and Alcatraz in front of Bay Bridge.



...and pelicans... Sadly, this is the best photo I got of pelicans during the whole trip. Oh, well.



So, here's a pelican I took a photo of in the Galapagos Islands in 2000. God, I wish I could go there again now that I know a little more about photography!

California & Nevada Day 14

Today we drove from Mariposa back to San Francisco. And saw a few birds on the way. First, the turkey vulture who has been following me since we last left San Francisco. This vulture is responsible for scaring off all little birds before I get a shot of them. Yeah. He follows me around and scares off birds I want to take a photo of - right before I get close enough to shoot them. No, really.



A few wild wild west horses by the road.



And a hawk! Finally!



I hope Kippy will identify this hawk for me. :)



In the evening we went to Yoshi's for a "Japanese" dinner and some latin jazz. And quite a few Margaritas. Was good.