Eric and I went to the Palo Alto wetlands for some more kite aerial photography. He and I, and Shane the Dog, are in the top center of the parking lot.

The wind was picking up the entire time we were there. In this image the kite was only about 2/3s of the way out, but the wind was starting to really blow, so the kite was very high. We got concerned about the strength of the line and started pulling it in. I’m glad we did because by the time we got it in the wind was really strong. I haven’t learned by Beaufort numbers yet, but it was maybe 4?

An image from my maiden Kite Aerial Photography voyage. I got the Servo-BEAK from brooxes.com, assembled it this morning and went out this afternoon. What a blast! I used my Olympus Stylus 770SW on the rig, and a Flow Form 8 kite.

The kite wasn’t all the way out for this shot, I don’t appear in the ones where it’s out the farthest because I had the tilt set wrong for that.

Kudos to Brooks for his great kit – an hour to two to assemble, and it worked perfectly the first time. Thank you!

Playing around with my macro lens. This is a closeup of a Porsche ball point pen. The external mesh of the pen is the same material used for covering cables in the engine.

My Canon AE-1, which I used in high school, college, and many years beyond. The background is a projected slide that I took with this camera around 1973 at either Hollywood Park or Santa Anita Racetrack.

I found my old Canon AE-1 camera in a box the other day. This camera was my constant companion in high school and college, and for many years after that.

I had a great concept for this shot, but fouled out when the projector bulb burnt out right before the first shot. Tomorrow I’m getting a new bulb (assuming one can be found) and will try again.

Here’s the idea: I went through a bunch of my old slides and picked a representative shot from my high school portfolio (around 1976). I’m projecting that as the background and then light painting the Canon in the foreground. It should be stunning!

Ahh, well, sometimes ideas need some time to come to fruition.

Sarah and I went to visit her father’s memorial stone today. The Golden Gate National Cemetery is a military cemetery, so each grave site was decorated with a flag for Memorial Day.

Ran into Adam at the local cineplex today giving out free haircuts. Why not?

I went through a few more lightbulbs than planned to get this, the clear ones are much more dramatic than frosted.

Using my HiViz sound trigger.

I got a sound trigger kit from HiViz the other day and finally put it together. Any loud sound causes it to trigger the flash.

This is one of my first trials with it. I put flour in the balloon before inflating it, then rubbed it to create static electricity to make the flour stick all around the inside. Then a time exposure and a pin. Fun!

Two ducklings showed up in our pool this afternoon. We were concerned for awhile until the mom showed up half an hour later. Right now she’s napping by the pool while the kids swim around.

I looked it up, and ducklings can fly when they’re about 8 weeks old. These two must be at least that because there’s no way they walked here. Actually they’re way younger than that – they must have hatched in our backyard.