SOJOURN FOTO » Landscape and Nature

Bolsa Chica Pelicans

Kimsua — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:34:27 +0000

So last Thursday the weather had warmed up enough for me to take a quick evening trip to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands (more info here) for some practice in tracking and shooting some birds in flight. The wetlands weren’t as active as they were the last time I was there but I was fortunate enough to find some Brown Pelicans diving for food just as the sun was setting. So while it may not be the most exciting way for most people to end their day, it was a great way for me to end my day as I was able to simply go out and shoot for the shear pleasure of it. As always, enjoy!

Fall in Southern California… Plus some Lorikeets from the Aquarium of the Pacific

Kimsua — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:14:32 +0000

Back when I was a kid, summer was my favorite time of the year. Though I’m sure that had to do more with the fact that I had two months just to run around and do anything a kid wanted to do without having to worry about school than the actual season of summer itself. As I grew older, summer was still a favorite of mine until I became a drunken fan of the white powdery champagne that falls every winter in Colorado. So much of a fan that I became a season pass holder who somehow ended up with three different snowboards and would average at least one to two trips up the mountain a week in search of the powdery white stuff. And now, after having spent the last 5 years working through some very miserable winters throughout the Midwest I’ve had a recent change of heart. Fall is now my favorite season of the year as the temperatures are mild and the colors are bright. I guess that’s what happens when you get older. The little things become more important than they used to and the once overlooked pleasures such as being able to walk around with shorts and a t shirt on comfortably take precedence over the other things we had valued when we were younger. C’est la vie!

Anyways, I’ve got more photos from some events coming up including some from Khmer Arts Academy’s opening act for Dengue Fever just the other day. I’m just short on time when it comes to working on the photos since I’ve got to squeeze them in that little bit of free time that I have between my actual career and just life in general. In the mean time, enjoy this random mix of photos from a lovely fall afternoon in Southern California.

And the winner is…

Kimsua — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:43:13 +0000

So the readers have spoken! The majority, actually all of those who responded, liked photo # 2 better than photo # 1. I also received a few good suggestions about the purple color cast in the skies and the yellow color cast on the rocks so I went ahead and fixed that in the final version so that they looked more natural. Oh and you’ll also notice that the colors are now deeper than they were before!

So here it is, the final version of “A California Sunset”. Enjoy!

A California Sunset

Kimsua — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:30:07 +0000

So which photo do you prefer? I can’t seem to make up my mind about which one of the two photos below that I like better so I’m going to put this as a vote to you, the readers. Both of these photos were taken this evening actually, but at different times. The main difference between the two photos is that the photo on the left, which I shall now refer to as photo # 1, was taken about 5 minutes before photo # 2 on the right.

The difference in colors that you see between the two photos is because of the setting sun and this time frame difference. This gave photo # 2 a more saturated and vivid look with it’s colors whereas photo # 1 has a more pastel/water color look to it. I should also mention that the foreground in photo # 2 is brighter and has more detail compared to photo # 1 because someone had setup an automatic flood light in their back yard that acted as a really good fill light for the foreground in photo # 2. You might also notice that the framing is slightly different as I had zoomed in a bit more in photo # 2 while I was trying different compositions.

Personally I like them both equally; however I can only pick one for my upcoming press photo book and will most likely only pick one out of the two to frame and place on the market for sale. So which do you prefer?