May 2012 Super Moon rising over Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco in the distance. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

So life changes have been keeping me busy and away from photo processing for most of the year. And likely for a large portion of the rest of the year as any day now we’re expecting the arrival of our daughter.  However, I was able to sneak out a few weekends ago to photograph the Supermoon rising over San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge and find enough time to process and publish these images in the archive.

Me and what felt like 1000 of my new best photographer friends were out that evening.  I’ve spent may a sunset in the Marin Headlands but never have I seen so many people on the road leading up to Fort Cronkhite.  It seemed like every pull out and inch of the road with a view of Golden Gate Bridge had a photographer situated for the rising of the moon.  I ended up getting there a bit later than ideal to land the location I had in mind.  But it all ended up wonderfully in the end as the moon ended up rising right above the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge for me.

May 2012 Super Moon rising over Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco in the distance. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

What ended up being one of my favorite images was taken well after most everyone had packed up and headed back to their cars.  The moon had already risen well above the horizon and it created the massive reflection across the Bay.

May 2012 Super Moon reflection in San Francisco Bay with Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Skyline as seen from Marin Headlands. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

Click through to see large versions of these photos.  All of these photos, and a few others from the night, can be found in my San Francisco archive gallery where you can purchase prints or license images for use.

And forgive the silence on the blog over the next few weeks as we settle into new family dynamics!

5/18/2012 Update: My wife reminded me of the best part about my evening photographing the Super Moon.  About 3 hours before the moon rise I made the mistake of having scheduled an eye exam.  The Optometrist didn’t’ bother to ask “what are you doing later” when he dilated my eyes for what ever test he ran.  I think my blurry vision finally disappeared completely about the time we left the Marin Headlands (luckily my friend drove).

So I really had to trust my autofocus that evening… :-)

Michael Daigian Design installation at the 2012 Bouquets to Art at de Young Museum, San Francisco (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

Anti-Mass is the name of the art work and it consists of burnt wood from a church which is suspended so that they look like they are floating in air.  When she told me this was the piece that she request and got I looked at my wife a bit quizzically (more like “are you nuts?”) but she wanted to challenge herself and eventually her inspiration struck when she came across some cactus stalk skeletons that looked ashen grey.  Pairing those with flame like flowers at the base  and what is one of the coolest pedestals I’ve seen makes for a winning arrangement (yes, I know I’m biased).

Nixon Tran installation at the 2012 Bouquets to Art at de Young Museum, San Francisco (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

I also really liked her co-worker’s piece which paired nicely with the The Niagara River at the Cataract painting. He used clear plastic as a pedestal to integrate clusters of succulents and air plants right into the painting itself (they’re on the left…).

I had an entire afternoon to browse as many of the works as possible. It did seem to me that this year there were a lot of floral designs that literally imitated the artwork, more than in past years.  Either way the event is one of the most popular of the year at the de Young Museum. You can view additional floral designs from the event at my 2012 Bouquets to Art gallery where prints can be purchased or images licensed.

She recently informed me that she had submitted the logo for consideration in the Graphis Logo Design series which “features the finest selection of original logs, corporate symbols and trademarks from around the world”.

The exciting new is that the latoga photography logo was selected from among the stiff international competition as one of the Gold Winners!

Kaleena’s work is featured in the Logo Design 8 reference book published by Graphis.

Huge Congratulations to Kaleena!

I did want to share another view of (most of) 2011, below is a collection of photos that I put together showing Matthew (or MG) from 1 day old (upper right) to 1 year old (lower left) in roughly 1 month intervals.

Matthew Greg Lato - Birth to 1 Year Old

As luck would have it, tonight my wife found the stocking cap that Matthew came home from the hospital in (featured in 1 day old photo)…wow, hard to believe that ever fit his current big head!

Amazingly, a good half of the photos above (and of all the photos I took of him) were taken on the iPhone. Not sure if that makes me a bad photographer parent or not; since you trade accessibility of the iPhone for the quality and control of the big glass.

So two photographic New Year’s resolutions for me:

1. Focus on taking picture more regularly. There are some big gaps in time between these images as the rest of life got in the way of photography.
2. Focus on hiring another photographer for family portraits. It’s too darn hard to try and be on both sides of the camera at the same time when dealing with children; not worth the risk!  :-)

Each of my 12 favorites below became a favorite as it representas a special moment, unique scene, or most successful translation of what I saw in my mind’s eye into the final photo as well as an attempt to show a wider range of photographic subject matter.  Enjoy!

(You can also review my past favorites from 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007)

Quail Lake in Southern California's Angels National Forest (January, 2011)

Sunrise at Keys View, Joshua Tree National Park, California. (January, 2011)

Breaking light from a storm near the California-Nevada Border. (January, 2011)

Read the backstory for the above photo…

Petroglyph Canyon at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. (February, 2011)

Fremont Cottonwood trees along the Virgin River at Zion National Park, Utah. (February, 2011)

Sunset near Zion Canyon entrance at Zion National Park, Utah. (February, 2011)

Window abstract at de Young Museum in San Francisco, California. (March, 2011)

Visitors at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, California. (March, 2011)

Halema'uma'u Crater in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Kona, Hawai'i. (April, 2011)

Read the backstory for the above photo…

Carousel at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, California. (December, 2011)

Read the backstory for the above photo…

Sunset through sea arch at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California. (December, 2011)

Sunset through Big Sur Portal at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California. (December, 2011)

If any of the above photos spoke to you as well, you can click on the photo to order Art Prints.  As always, I appreciate your support of my photography!

Note: this yearly ritual started thanks to my friend Jim Goldstein and his anual Your Best Photos of the Year blog project.  Huge thanks to Jim for his continued time and effort to run this blog project year after year!  If you found this posting via his project, please take the time to subscribe to the blog feed or follow me on your social network of choice (see links in the sidebar).

Cumulus cloud over desert mountain range bathed in breaking light from a storm near the California-Nevada Border. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

We’ve all had photos that were the result of the universe putting us in the right spot at the right time. This photo is a close runner up in that category.

I was meandering my way through the Mojave desert heading toward Las Vegas and kept playing tag with sporadic rain storms.  Which made for a great day of photography with the wonderful breaking light from the passing storm clouds.  I was finally making my way over toward I-15 for the final drive into Las Vegas and had two routes: one which cut over to the Interstate sooner, and one that would have me merge onto the interstate right before the California-Nevada state line.

I chose the first route.  I chose wrong.

For those who have never done this drive, I-15 climbs up a mountain range and then starts a 10-15 mile descent down to Primm Nevada which is just across the border. My chosen route put me on the interstate well before said mountain range.  The route not chosen would have put me on the interstate right at the summit of that mountain range.

As I crested the summit of that mountain range on I-15, this wonderful breaking light on the next mountain range and huge Cumulus cloud greeted me off in the distance (photo above).  Off to the left of the mountain range was Primm, NV (first town in Nevada and essentially a small oasis of casino high rises in the middle of the desert) bathed in breaking light with darkness all around it.  And I just drove past the summit which provided the best vantage point to photograph the scene; the next exit was something like 10 miles away and about 1500 feet below me.

There was no way I was going to be able to descend the summit, turn around, and drive back up and still have the same light.  So,  I pulled off at that next exit and was able to come home with the photograph above.

You win some.  You lose some.  Sometimes you land in between.

(Technical Note: Taken with the front camera on the iPhone, which caused the lower quality video.)

Little boy and adult man standing side by side watching a carousel at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, California. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

Tilden Regional Park, in the hills above Berkeley, features a functioning carousel that gets all decked out for the holidays.  Went for a short visit with the family last weekend and caught this classic moment…somethings are timeless, like the joy of watching a carousel.

For the record, the little guy is my son. And I have no idea who the big guy is–it’s not me, I’m not good enough to be on both sides of the camera at the same time!  Not sure which was scarier (as a parent): how fearless MG was walking through such a crowded place or how the gentleman standing next to him hardly even noticed he was there…

MG is one of the biggest reasons things have been so quiet here on the blog.  Where has the last 16 months gone?  Most of my photo time this year has been with him and been enjoying every minute of it.

A sidewalk winds off toward the distant rising sun at Keys View, Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Back in February I drove down to Las Vegas for a business meeting via Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave Desert.  After 8 months, I think that these photos have properly aged…  :-)

The best part of Keys View at day break in the winter is that you are usually alone to enjoy the view.

This weekend was Matthew’s first birthday.  So there was a lot of thinking about the past year.  It’s amazing how little time you have after work; keeping him fed, changed, and out of trouble; dealing with the other necessities of daily life; and trying to spend some time with your spouse.

I had the idea for this video after the first month with Matthew.  I filmed the video segments last year in October and used the holiday weekend to finally get around to producing the video.  (So that makes this a special Monday Morning Sunday Morning Short ). I have to apologize for the slight audio hum, I didn’t realize how much interference the baby monitor created with my microphone and I did my best to remove it in production…but I couldn’t get rid of it entirely.

As I sit back and think about how little photography I’ve been able to get done over the past year, I’d love to know any tricks or secrets that other photographers learned once they had kids…please share in the comments.