(click on image for full size image)
Tonite, Chip and I went out to Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. The sunset was glorious but all the golden light was gone before we arrived. Instead, we found a beautiful, calm bay with the reflections. This is the Dumbarton Bridge (Hwy 84) which I have crawled over many a time commuting home.

This is a serious crop of my original image. I wanted to focus on the reflection of the hanging basket. However, I could not get close-up so knew I would need to crop later. I like the idea of this one but do not like the foreground lily pads which pulled out of focus. I am returning this weekend hopefully and can try again.

Dug into archives for this infrared taken of Alameda creek.

Another from the Orchid Show at the Conservatory of Flowers. I am returning this Saturday so more shots are to follow.

This one looks like I fiddled with it but I did not. The water for the lily pads is in a big bowl. The grid pattern from the Conservatory’s glass makes these shapes when it is disturbed. I did darken the midtones/three-quarter tones.

Okay, decided to post a waterlily after all. This has been manipulated to throw emphasis on the flower and try to de-emphasize the patterns in the water. The light was low enough that I could not use my polarizer to minimize the reflections.

This week is going to orchid week until I get out and start shooting something new. If you think there is a flaw in the topmost petal’s edge. There isn’t. In fact, I went to clone it out and discovered it was a small bug clinging to the petal. I did not see when I was shooting.

Many of these orchids shots had an exposure compensation of +1 or even more. The background for these shots were the frosted white windows of the Conservatory. I decided to let the background go to pure white. These colors were not fiddled. In fact, I de-saturated the image trying to reduce the color intensity.

Today, Chip and I finally made it to the Orchid show at the Conservatory of Flowers. This show ends on Jan 8th so if you are in San Francisco it is worth visiting. We have been having storms all weekend. However, the city was not rainy, there was easy park right next to the Conservatory, so a successful visit.

This is alternate viewpoint to the earlier Canyon View trail. Taken in Sunol before Christmas.