Tom and Sam enjoying Lake Shasta. The top three feet of water is delightfully warm – but once they blast through the thermocline they’ll hit the ice water. Then they’ll climb up and do it again.

It was a long day, starting where a business trip left off in Burbank, to home in Northern California, then a six hour drive to Lake Shasta. All made wonderful because this is a trip I’ve been doing with two buddies for 10 or 15 years.

36°36’14.16″N 121°53’31.91″W
We sailed out of Monterey Bay at sunrise this morning for a memorial service for Irene. It was an incredibly beautiful morning on the water, filled with reflection.

36°59’48.15″N 121°35’4.49″W
Taken at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. This is what happens when you add cold calimari to hot oil. The bank of pyro chefs specialize in making big fire from small animals.

Big lesson in photography today. The Pyro Chefs are a signature event at the Festival, and a thrilling sight to see, so I thought it would make a great image for this photoblog. I shot dozens of pictures to get high dramatic flames, which is exactly what I got. But upon looking at the images at home I realized there really wasn’t a story behind the images. What I should have done is shoot images of the chefs, for that is where the story really is. The image you see here is the best I could do with what I had, it is a heavily cropped image showing less than 20% of the original photo. A better shot would have been focused on the cook rather than the flame, perhaps even cropped tighter, and would have expressed through lighting and heat distortion the furnace blast experience.

Next year I’ll get a great shot!