Mission San Juan Bautista

D810, Zeiss 100mm, f16, 1/8 sec, ISO 64, -0.7Ev, converted to jpeg in NX-D, to BW & cropped in Photoshop.

After reviewing yesterday's photos, I suddenly had an idea of shooting the statue of San Juan Bautista with the Zeiss 100mm. Once the idea was conceived, I knew I got to do it! So yet again I drove to Mission San Juan Bautista, with the Zeiss 100mm and my tripod in hand (since I planned to use a small aperture to keep the Bell Tower in focus, hand holding my camera was not an option). I took about 10 shots, and this one was the only composition that worked. Though the light was too harsh to my liking (too much shadow), the photo at least partially achieved what I had in mind. The perfect shot, alas, will always be the next one.

P.S. come to think about it, a 135mm probably will work even better for this shot. However, the priority of that lens is low on my shopping list so I am not going to get one any time soon. I promise I will do a reshoot of this one and my beloved "Morticia Addams" when I get a 135mm.

Walton Lighthouse

Sail boats going out of the Santa Cruz Harbor.

No wonder this place is called Santa Cruz Breakwater.

I love afterglow.

The painting like quality rendered in D810 is lovely.

See the light from the windows? Walton is one of the few lighthouses built in the 21st century.

Used properly, the ghost effect of long exposure can actually make composition more interesting.

On the Garden Path

Revisited Hakone Garden in a Moody Afternoon

Something caught my eyes when I saw this bamboo door on the trail of Hakone Garden. I couldn't describe what it was but decided to take a photo. (It is probably the most impressionist photo I took yesterday.) When I reviewed the photo afterward, I realized it reminded me the poem, "Deer Park", by the great Chinese poet Wang Wei. The photo doesn't match what the poem describes. It is the sense of seeing and imagining what's not there that reminds me Wang Wei's poetry.

Bamboo Details

Mission Soledad, Our Lady of Sorrow

Revisited Mission Soledad to take a close-up of Our Lady of Sorrow.

Love the expression!

A painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the wall facing the altar.

When I was visiting Mission Soledad a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the wonderful, sad expression on the face of the Our Lady of Sorrow on the alter. (Ironically, I was not able to see it with my naked eyes. I only noticed it when I was magnifying a image to check focus.) At the time, I had only the 24mm and 35mm lenses with me, so I put the 35mm on Sony A6000, made it a 52mm (due to the crop factor of APS-C sensor), took as much a "close-up" as I could, and went home.

I visited another Mission (Mission San Antonio de Padua) one week later, took more photos, and learned more and more from my shooting experience. I also read a wonderful book "Rendezvous with Art", some of the ideas in the book made me rethink about ways of looking at California Missions. Then I remembered the shot I had missed. "Oh, I wish I had brought a longer lens", I thought. It was just a thought, I didn't intend to go back. After all, the Mission is 100 miles away from my home. It would be a 3-hour drive, round trip. However, that missing shot kept nagging me. I felt the vivid expression of the Madonna deserved to be seen, even just by a handful friends of mine (who read this blog).  

So I packed my three lenses (21mm, 35mm, and 100mm) and went back to Mission Soledad. Knowing there would be very few people visiting the Mission, I also took a tripod so I could shot in low ISO. Am I happy with the result this time? No, not quite. I soon realized a 135mm would be more suitable for this job (which I don't have, and I don't want to use a zoom lens for this photo), but with some cropping, I could finally move on. 

Conversation with Empty Chairs

Noon is conventionally not a good time for photo, so we can only take unconventional photos.