We moved our gym across the street over the weekend. There’s still work to be done, but the kids can continue to train. We have our first meet for the season September 12, so besides the kids, I need to start practicing again! Realized pretty quick that taking pictures against the window is NOT the best location!

I couldn’t help taking a picture of Hailey…

Really Right Stuff Goodies!
After 5 years of having to screw on/off my camera to my tripod head, I bought a RRS B2-Pro clamp for my Manfrotto 488 head; B5D-L L-Plate for my 5D; and a L84 lens plate for my 300mm f4L lens. No more missed shots! Our family will be camping for two nights in Yosemite mid-September, so I can’t wait to try it out!

New Season of Gymnastics!
The new season of Gymnastics starts September 12 at “Gymfinity” in Livermore CA. The team has been practicing hard, but I’m still a bit rusty! We also moved to our new gym this weekend. Should be a bit more room and the ceiling is higher, but as a photographer I like the fact that there’s lots of windows! Can’t wait to try it out!

Go Tumble Time Gymnastics!

On my way home from Lone Pine, I stopped in at the Rock Creek Campground. It was near noon, so lighting was pretty harsh. I found a small pond with some wildflowers and composed a few pictures.

Pond at Rock Creek

After taking a few pictures, I found some shade and made lunch.

Anyone familiar with highway 395 near Lee Vining, should recognize this building. I’ve driven by many times in the past and never stopped to take any pictures. Since I had nothing else to do, I stopped this time and got this. Converted it to a black and white.

Homestead in Black and White

I had to take a trip down to the Alabama Hills while I was there in Lone Pine. I probably should have gotten up early instead of waiting until evening, but I got a few pictures before the sun went behind the mountains – and I mean fast! One minute the sun was there and the sun was gone.

Bigfoot

Had to include the moon for this rock formation. After shooting this, I drove on, but noticed there was no sun. I went back here only to find shade.

Moon Over the Alabama Hills

I saw this as I was driving. Had to stop and quickly get my camera and tripod before the sun set any lower.

I like the juxtaposition between Mount Whitney the larger rocks/piles in the middle ground and the small pile of rocks in the foreground. There wasn’t much color, so I converted this to black and white.

On my way down from the Whitney Portal to my camp spot at Lone Pine, I stopped along the road to capture a few snapshots of the Owens Valley. There was a lot of haze that evening, so I wasn’t expecting anything, just a few shots from the journey. I was pretty much done shooting and I was talking to two guys from Denmark and I happened to look to the right of me (southeast) and saw some cool pastel colors over Owens Lake. Got my 300mm lens and captured this…

Owens Valley in Pastel

Took a 4-day car camping trip to Lone Pine CA to visit a friend. Really didn’t plan on focusing my trip around photography, but I did set out in the evening to see what I could capture. On this evening, we took a drive up to the Whitney Portal and stopped part way up at one of the overlook spots and captured this.

Moon Over Lone Pine California

I’m still processing the pictures from the trip, so I’ll post some more later.

I decided change my website a bit. Since I’m a nature photographer, I wanted the site to reflect a more natural or outdoor look. I changed the color scene for a more earthy tone and I modeled the black and white photo, “Wintertime at the Tioga Lake in BW” as the top header. I used one of my archived “grass.gif” from my first backpacking website, Mike’s Hikes and Stuff and changed the color to fit the new scheme.

While I was changing the look, I added some new pictures to my online gallery:

Twilight on Mammoth Peak
Saint Catherine’s Church with Clouds
Liquid Gold
Frozen
Geometric Ice I
Geometric Ice II
Stalking Great Egret
Saint Catherine’s Church with Clouds in BW
View of the Kuna Crest in Black and White

It’s funny because I wasn’t even going to take more photos in the near-dark sky, but I couldn’t help myself taking just one more picture! I really like the white snow glowing in the sky.

So I started the drive back to Lee Vining and the rest of my family. I kept looking at the moon and turned the bend, right past the Tioga Pass Resort and saw a photo op! Grabbed the tripod from the back of the van and took this as that final image.

Along with Hannah’s 12th birthday on Thursday, she also had her dance recital, Festival of Dance 2010, at the Merced Community College that evening. She preformed 5 numbers including her solo, So Bring It On, for her Jazz scholarship award; and Alice in Wonderland as Alice.

This year I decided to take all of the pictures at the dress rehearsal so I could watch the program without my camera. What a great idea!

So Bring It On – Solo

Hard Knock Life

Sesame Street – Junior STARZ and Mini STARZ

Sweet Escape – Junior STARZ

Alice in Wonderland

Has it been 12 years already? I really feel old now. It was a busy day yesterday. Hannah has been sick for over two weeks, which is probably why she looks thin – or more so than usual. So yesterday was her first time in the gym in over 2 weeks. After that, we all had a early dinner with cake and presents and off to her dance recital.

Looking at her new bike…

The Bike

The Cake

Hannah and the Cake