Happy Holidays!

I hope you are having a great holiday season!  We spent the Christmas holiday in Suffolk, VA this year.  While we were there, it snowed over 14 inches on Christmas day.  Got to love a white Christmas!  I only had my Canon G10 point and shoot with me, but I tried to make the most of the opportunity.  This was the lamppost in the next door neighbor's driveway...I liked the old fashioned christmas lights surrounded by a fresh backdrop of new snow. 

Winter by the Creek

I walked down  to the creek behind the house.  The Christmas snow had transformed the place into a winter wonderland.  I decided to try shooting black and white, however, the overcast day did not lend itself to much contrast, but did provide a lot of diffuse light.  Here I did like the white snow shapes on the tree branches, against the "black ice" of the creek below, which had black and white designs encapsulated in the frozen water.

Snowy Creek

Another shot of the creek.

Dog Snow Day!

Samoyeds, who originated from Siberia, by nature love both cold weather and snow.  Angel is no exception.  Here she is in her element, and is covered in steadily falling snow, while lounging around in the front driveway.  The photo has more grain and noise than I prefer, due to my attempt at tonemapping this already noisy original, but I still liked the composition here of my dog covered in snow, with our Jeep and trees in the background.

Angel

Another Snowy Portrait...

Gardens of Snow

I always liked the look of garden statues covered in snow.  This photo is high dynamic range photo where three different exposures were merged and then tonemapped using a details enhancer set for black and white.  It was also shot in black and white.

Snow Birds

I liked the composition of the birdhouse covered in snow framed by snowy trees...just needed a bird peeking out!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2010

My wife and I along with friends were treated to street level seats at this year's Tournament of Roses Parade. Having grown up in Michigan, where as a kid we used to watch the parade on TV every year and then watch the Wolverines mix it up with the PAC 10 in the Rose Bowl, this was definitely a very exciting moment. All of the following parade photos were shot with the Canon G10 point and shoot.

Tournament of Roses Parade

The day started out very early. We left at 5:30 AM to get to the parade on time. The parade started on time at 8:00 Am with a somewhat chilly but beautiful sunny morning. With a parade as big as this one, with anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million spectators, you have to remain in your assigned seats during the parade, as a crowd control measure. Our seats were in the first turn of the parade route, across the from the official grandstand. You can also see the scaffolding in the background which was built for many of the media television cameras.

The first float to pass was this large toy soldier surrounded by a band, brass shining in the morning sun, and twirling red flags.

Tournament of Roses - Amazing Floats!

The main attraction of the parade is the very colorful floats. The floats are decorated with all natural materials, with flowers of all kinds, as well as other more exotic things, such as coconut husks, nut shells, seashells, etc. This particular float is made to be the likeness of the Rose Bowl stadium, filled to the top with Roses. The parade is held on the streets of Pasadena, with the Rose Bowl stadium not far away.

Tournament of Roses - Streetcar of Flowers

City of Alahambra's float of a trolley car. One thing you can see from this photo is that our seats were opposite the sun when viewing the parade. As a result, our side of the floats were very shaded. Since you can't move around, this meant shooting the floats while they were still a fair distance away from a front aspect. I used photoshop to lighten the shadows and darken the highlights, which brought the contrast of these photos into an acceptable range.

Tournament of Roses - Technocolor Dancers!

Many of the floats were accompanied by dancers in very colorful traditional ethnic costumes. I tried to capture several combination shots that showed both the float and the dancers. These scenes made very colorful scenes. I did not boost the saturation on any of these photos, as the colors were already so vibrant!

Tournament of Roses - Marching Bands

The parade had much more entertainment than just floats, including many excellent marching bands. Here is a neat shot of one of the LA-based bands. There were also a number of bands from around the US and the globe.

Tournament of Roses - China

This float was one of my favorites, and featured Terra Cotta Warriors from China, several pagodas, and colorful chinese dancers.

Tournament of Roses - Chinese Dancers

One thing I would have liked to have done is take more closeups of the amazing dancers in their colorful costumes. Their garb was often quite ornate and festive. Unfortunately, my camera battery was very low and actually died about three fourths through the parade. As such, I had to limit my shots mainly to the major floats. I did capture a nice shot of these lovely Chinese dancers as they walked by.

Tournament of Roses - Spanish Riders

In addition to the floats and bands, there were many riding groups. I managed to capture a nice shot of a Mexican cowboy who had a lasso twirling around his horse for what seemed forever. He had a very ornate elaborate outfit as well. He was very skilled with his rope lasso.

Tournament of Roses - Animation

Most of the floats featured some form of animation. This particular float, called Barnyard Aces, sponsored by the City of Burbank, features a biplane that raised up and down, and did barrel rolls as well. The float also has a contrail of smoke behind the plane made of flowers that shows the plane has just flown through the barn and is shooting skyward.

Tournament of Roses - Mexican Dancers

This colorful float was sponsored by Mexico and featured many colorful dancers.

Tournament of Roses - Birds and Butterflies

This float sponsored by the City of Torrance featured many beautiful birds and butterflies gathered by a fountain where the "flowing water" was made of white orchids.

Tournament of Roses - Dragons

This float sponsored by a Taiwanese organization featured a beautiful dragon and a warrior prince.

Tournament of Roses - Hot Air Balloons

This float sponsored by the state of New Mexico featured hot air balloons that is the trademark festival of Albuquerque. There were also several Warner Bros cartoon characters on the float. This post is for my mom, who lives in Albuquerque. Hi Mom!

Tournament of Roses - Confetti for All

This is the last photo for this event. This float was actually at the beginning of the parade, but was taken from a completely different angle that I thought was a nice finishing look. As the float passed on behind us, it shot confetti with a bang high into the air. I turned around to see brightly backlit confetti floating in the air all around the float, along with swirling red flags, similarly backlit by the morning sun.
This was undoubtedly the best parade I have ever seen in person. The floats, bands, and other entries were all simply amazing. The weater was beautiful, and I could not believe how fast two and a half hours passed. Simply awesome!