Category: USA

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Shot of the Week: The Grandest of Canyons (Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA)

Shot of the Week: The Grandest of Canyons (Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA)

Shot of the Week: The Grandest of Canyons (Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA)

One week into our road trip, and we finally made it to the Grand Canyon! Before this visit, I’d been there for a brief stop along one of my many journeys between St. Louis and LA in college, and Ian had only flown over it in a plane. It was time for both of us to really see this place. And see it we did, in the sun, rain, sleet, hail and snow!

We camped for two days at the South Rim’s Desert View Campground — a deal at just $12/night — and endured cold, snowy weather inside our warm sleeping bags and tent (see more of our camping essentials here). After roughing it at Lake Mead and Williams the two previous nights, I was SO happy to finally be staying at a place that had showers (thought it did require a 20+ mile drive to the other side of the park). It was also the perfect, iconic place to round out week one of our all-American road trip.

This photo of the Grand Canyon was taken on Thursday May 14th with the Sony a7 II and Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 Heliar III lens. (Continue to view full photo.)  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: The Grandest of Canyons (Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: Busy Bee (Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, USA)

Shot of the Week: Flying Bee and orange flowers at Huntington Botanical Gardens, California, USA

Shot of the Week: Flying Bee and orange flowers at Huntington Botanical Gardens, California, USA

One hundred thirty-six. If you’ve ever wondered how many shots it takes to capture a killer, in-focus — and in-flight — bee photo, that’s your answer.  We don’t typically do this type of photography, but the setting we found ourselves in earlier this week gave us the perfect opportunity to practice. My cousin Val is visiting California this week, and luckily (for once) I was in town! While searching for something to do together near to where she’s staying, I remembered the Huntington Gardens. I’d been once or twice before, several years ago, and I always enjoyed spending a few hours meandering around the Garden’s huge variety of flowers, plants and trees.

The weather’s been chilly here in California the last few days, but Monday treated us to a beautiful sunny California day. Hummingbirds were flitting about, the gardeners were busy pruning, and bees were buzzing around all the vibrantly colored flowers.

Ian, having just borrowed a new lens to review from B&H Photo, was eager to take photos. While flowers are a fine subject on their own, they’re certainly more interesting when there’s something flying around them. But these little buggers just wouldn’t hold still! This photo is #121 out of 136 bee photos he took in this spot. (Just ask me how many external hard drives we have — completely filled with photo files…)

This photo was taken on Monday, May 4th with the Sony a7 II and Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 Heliar III lens with the Hawk’s Helicoid V5 close focus adapter. (Continue to view full photo.)  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Busy Bee (Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: Morning Levitation (Trona Pinnacles National Monument, California, USA)

Shot of the Week: Morning Levitation, Trona Pinnacles National Monument, California, USA

Shot of the Week: Morning Levitation, Trona Pinnacles National Monument, California, USA

It’d been awhile since our last trip to Trona Pinnacles. We’d been engaging in a good amount of chatter around photos we’d taken there — one photo now makes up the cover of a Papa Roach single, and three were on exhibit in a gallery in Mexico — but at least 6 months had passed since we’d last visited.

After a month in the city (Mexico City), we were excited to have some dark skies awaiting us when we returned to California. We brought the whole crew — Tiger, too — and headed north to capture our first Milky Way photos with the a7 II. Tiger had an awesome time, as expected, though he did nearly step on the largest scorpion we’d ever seen in the wild (unbeknownst to him). That kinda ended Tiger’s and my frolicking around in the dark. I took him back to the tent and we hung out inside while Ian continued shooting.

Since Ian was in the process of editing his final video lessons for our latest Skillshare class — Levitation Photography — we couldn’t miss the opportunity to get one more levitation photo in this exotic desert landscape the next morning. We hadn’t tried many in direct sunlight, so the shadow was a bit of a challenge, but the natural landscape made for a nice contrast to all the urban shots we’d been getting for the class. Want to know more about levitation photography? Check out our class on Skillshare — at least watch the intro video; it’s pretty cool — and view sample photos from the class over on The Photon Collective.

This photo was taken on April 24th with the Sony a7 II and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens. Continue to view full photo.  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Morning Levitation (Trona Pinnacles National Monument, California, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: The Purple Orchid (El Segundo, USA)

The Purple Orchid, El Segundo, California

The Purple Orchid, El Segundo, California

El Segundo has got to be one of my favorite LA cities; it’s definitely in my top three. I lived in El Segundo for a year and a half, back in 2012-2014 when I was still working in Santa Monica. I’d moved there after my place in Marina del Rey became a little too pricey, which increased my bike commute from 30 to 60 minutes but cut my rent in half (totally worth it!). I knew almost nothing about the place when I moved there, but I grew quite fond of it over time. It’s a safe LA city near the airport with a small-town feel — and a surprising amount of nightlife for the size of it. It’s got the only beach I know of in LA with fire rings for beach bonfires, the annual Easter Keg Hunt, and plenty of local bars and restaurants in the main part of town.

This past Friday, the day before we left for Costa Rica, Ian and I decided to head out for one last evening in LA. We stopped first at Rock & Brews and got our fill of beer, pizza, rock music and pretzels. (Rock & Brews is a local favorite started by KISS‘s Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley plus 3 friends; read about R&B’s history here). Then we finished the evening off at none other than The Purple Orchid. The Purple Orchid is a ‘tiki lounge,’ but it’s perhaps better described as a dive bar with a Polynesian theme. Here you can (and should) order a volcano bowl to share amongst friends, complete with a flaming shot of 151. Grab as many straws as you need!

The above photo was taken with the Sony a7 II and 35mm f/2.8 lens.  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: The Purple Orchid (El Segundo, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: The Photon Collective (Los Angeles, USA)

Shot of the Week: The Photon Collective

Shot of the Week: The Photon Collective

Aside from our smartphones, Ian and I were both camera-less for the first time ever last weekend. (Oh no!) As a result, this shot of the week is less a pretty travel photo and more about the gear we’re using for our travel photography. To prepare for our upcoming travels to Costa Rica and Mexico City (and to have new stuff to review for our latest web project), we swapped out some of our camera gear. (Very exciting!)

This photo of Ian with his new camera is one of the first photos I took with my new camera (with some Photoshop involved). And the text is part of our new logo for The Photon Collective — designed by Ian. What do you think?

So what’s this new web project and what new gear did we choose? Read on to find out more about our new and exciting photography endeavors!  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: The Photon Collective (Los Angeles, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: Desert Shenanigans (Jawbone Canyon, USA)

Shot of the Week: Christmas Tree Burn in Jawbone Canyon 2015

Shot of the Week: Christmas Tree Burn in Jawbone Canyon 2015

What do you get when you combine fire, truckloads of Christmas trees, ample libations, a 10-ball roman candle, Santa, a full-size school bus, an acoustic guitar, and a ton of people you know — plus even more you don’t know — summing up to a crowd of (probably) over 100 people? (Did anyone count?)

A recipe for disaster? Maybe. But we survived. And the answer’s not Burning Man, either. But it’s similar… (read on to find out!)

The above photo was taken with the Sony a7s and Sony E 10-18 f/4 OSS.  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Desert Shenanigans (Jawbone Canyon, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: Hump Day Jump Day (Malibu, USA)

Shot of the Week: Diana jump at Zuma Beach in Malibu, California

Shot of the Week: Diana jump at Zuma Beach in Malibu, California

The two of us have been keeping VERY busy this week prepping for the launch of our new photography website, The Photon Collective. As a result, we’ve visited a variety of landscapes. Lake Tahoe over the weekend, Rocky Peak on Monday… And on Wednesday, it was the beach, in my old college town of Malibu, California.

This week’s photo is a shot of me jumping as the daylight faded away at Zuma Beach. We’d just finished capturing some footage for our website’s video teaser, which we cut together last night! (Keep reading for the video at the bottom of this post.)

The above photo was taken with the Sony a7s and Sony 55mm f/1.8.  Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Hump Day Jump Day (Malibu, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: Bonsai Beach Winter Sunset (Lake Tahoe, USA)

Shot of the Week: Bonsai Beach Winter Sunset (Lake Tahoe, USA)

Bonsai Beach Winter Sunset (Lake Tahoe, USA)

We’ve been spending this past week up around Lake Tahoe, and it’s been amazing! Since it hasn’t been brutally cold this trip, we’ve enjoyed the outdoors quite a bit: skiing, flying in a seaplane, taking photos… it’s been super relaxing. (And our little Yaris is doing just fine with no snow or ice on the roads!) When choosing this week’s photo, I wanted to share the chilly, calm feeling of winter in Lake Tahoe, and I think this shot captures it perfectly.

This week’s shot is a photo of me that Ian took this afternoon.  We were out shooting photos near the infamous Bonsai Rock along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. (Said rock is the large rock on the left side of the photo. It’s hard to see with the lack of light, but there’s a small tree growing out of the top of the rock, giving Bonsai Rock its name.) While Ian took photos, I had a good time rock-hopping like a 5-year-old! And with the low lake level this season, my favorite winter boots kept my feet dry when I landed in the water near the shore.

The above photo was taken with the Sony a7s and Sony E 10-18 f/4 OSS and edited with the Down preset from The Quantum Collection, our free pack of Lightroom presets available beginning February 10, 2015 on our new photo website, The Photon Collective.

Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Bonsai Beach Winter Sunset (Lake Tahoe, USA)”

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Shot of the Week: Love and Traffic in Los Angeles (USA)

Shot of the Week: Love and Traffic in Los Angeles

Shot of the Week: Love and Traffic in Los Angeles

Ian and I have set forth on a new photo challenge for the new year — a 365 project — with the goal of taking one photo each day for a year. And guess what that means for our shot of the week post series… This year it’ll be even better!

Our first choice is actually not one photo, but two. It’s a combination of a long exposure image of the 118 freeway at night in L.A. and a silhouette image of the two of us just before sunset on the Rocky Peak Trail in Simi Valley.

Both photos were taken with the Sony a7s and Sony 55mm f/1.8, and we combined the two using Adobe Photoshop. Want to learn this photo technique? Ian will soon be posting a tutorial on our new creative photography website, The Photon Collective, launching next month! Continue reading “Shot of the Week: Love and Traffic in Los Angeles (USA)”