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HMS Surprise

2010-09-29T07:08:56Z

My parents are over from England on their annual pilgrimage to see their little 40 year old son. It's been a year since I last saw them and that just amazes me how quickly time goes by. My dad wanted to head to the beach one day, so now that I live in Temecula, San Diego was the place to go. We went to Cardiff-by-the-Sea first and then ended up at the port in San Diego. As we walked along after dinner, the light was perfect against the rigging of this boat. Perfect photo opportunity.

The photo of today is of HMS Surprise which is a replica of an 18th Century Royal Navy 24 Gun Frigate. She was built in 1970 and now resides at the San Diego Maritime Museum.

Lifeguard Tower

2010-09-07T04:52:06Z

I thought for Tuesday I would give you all something different to look at and enjoy. This was taken last week on a quick trip to Santa Monica. The sunset was beautiful and this tower made the perfect silhouette photograph, but just to add to it the seagull's took flight. I just love Santa Monica and just how english it feels. Hope you enjoy it.

The Clubhouse

2010-09-02T13:58:36Z

Thought I'd throw out a little golf photograph for you all today. This one was taken at Vellano Country Club when I played there a month or so ago. The large building is the clubhouse, which is quite a spectacular building.

Segments of the Moon

2010-09-01T03:00:28Z

Thought I'd post something a little different today, but first a question. Have you ever tried to take a photograph of the moon? If the answer is yes then you'll know how tough it is. If the answer is no then I'll tell you how tough it is....TOUGH!!!!! Finally I took a night photography class and got some tips from my instructor. I'll tell you what the advice is:

Get the moon early in it's rise before it gets too bright. Once it gets bright it's a tough photograph to get
Set you camera on manual
Set your ISO (ASA) to 100
Set your shutter speed to 1/200th of a second
Set you aperture to f11

Once you have that setup go ahead and shoot and there is a good chance you will get a photograph like the one above. There was still daylight when this was taken, but it was so underexposed to get the moon right, that the sky looks black.

I was amazed what I saw after I got this photograph home and on my computer. The moon looks like it has segments that lead to a navel, like an orange.

Balloon Chasing

2010-08-31T02:52:02Z

How do most people spend their Sunday mornings? Hmm, let me see, sleeping in, having breakfast, reading the Sunday newspaper and maybe going to church. Me on the other hand, no, that is not for me. Most Sunday's I'll get up and play golf, which is always fun. This past Sunday though was a little bit different. I was up after 3 hours of sleep at 4am. Picked up my friend and we headed to Wine Country in Temecula. Our mission, to photograph the hot air balloons taking off bright and early at 6am. So there we were at just after 6 watching the balloons slowly inflate and stand proud. Then they took off, closely followed by us and their chase vehicles. We chased these balloons all over Temecula countryside and got some pretty good photographs. It was a fun way to spend a few hours and I look forward to doing it again, but next time I want a ride in one of those balloons and you can be sure I'll photograph a whole lot along the way.

The photograph above was taken shortly after this balloon touched down in one of the vineyards.

Inspiration

2010-08-24T04:28:49Z

Life's been really crazy for me lately in some good and some not so good ways. It's weird how things happen in your life and you just have to sit back and take stock of what is happening around you. In my case my personal life appears to be taking a new direction right now. A few months ago I probably would not have coped well with that change. Then I found something (or it found me), it's called "Inspiration". That Inspiration has changed everything about what I do, what I see, what I feel and what I think in ways I never thought possible. Now I don't know where this road that I'm on is going to take me, but you know what? I'm not sure I care. It's a road that I have never travelled before and where it leads to, I have no idea. All I do know is, it's going to be a fun journey and probably very fulfilling in ways that I have never experienced or ever expected to.

The sign post above I thought was appropriate for how my life is right now. I can travel anywhere. This signpost is on Highway 62, by what was once the town of Rice. I guess people just come along and put their signs up to show them the way.

By the way check back tomorrow for another great picture from Wine Country Temecula.

My Friends Eye

2010-08-12T02:59:56Z

As many of you know I've been working with my golf instructor Mary Ritchie to take photographs for her new website. We have been working on this pretty constantly for just about 2 months now and during that time I have found a friend. I have been missing that in my life since I moved from England 11 years ago and left my best friend Stephen behind. On Tuesday Mary, myself and a couple of our colleagues went out to play a round of golf at Goose Creek Golf Course. It's a beautiful course and the golf was fun, well for me anyway as I broke 80 for the first time with a 78. Mary has an interest in photography too, so while the 3 boys were waiting to tee off, Mary grabbed my camera and wandered off to take some photographs. Well the photograph above is what she came up with, pretty beautiful if you ask me, one I'd certainly hang on my wall.

Mary this post is all about you, your dedication and our friendship. You have a GREAT eye for a photograph.

If you want to check out some of Mary's insight into golf, along with tips and advice or ask her a golf question, then head over to her Facebook Fan Page here.

Golf And Photography

2010-07-29T03:49:24Z

One of the things I have thought about doing is travelling, playing golf and photographing all the golf courses I play at. Of course there are a couple of flaws to this pursuit. One is that to play the really nice courses you either have to know someone who's a member there or be a member yourself. This leads to flaw number two, money! The best golf courses cost a lot of money to play at. That is unless you get lucky like me and win a round of golf for two at one of these private courses. I was fortunate to win just that for a round of golf at Vellano. It's private, it's expensive, it's tough and it's spectacular. It was fun though.

Oh one other thing, I promise I will not just be posting golf course photos on here. I will find other subjects. Anyway this is the view from one of the easier tee boxes at Vellano.

I Must Apologize

2010-07-28T03:12:53Z

I must apologize for my lack of photograph posting recently. It's been mainly because of my golf taking more of my time to get better at it and having found a new friend and golf buddy, that helps a lot with playing better golf. Thanks Mary. :-)

This was a photograph that I took at a private country club in Chino Hills, called Vellano. This has to be the most difficult golf course I have EVER played but, it was a pretty amazing experience and a lot of fun to play. The weather was beautiful and the course itself was spectacular. Would I play it again if I had the chance, yeah sure, just once.

Thanks again everyone for being patient with me, I appreciate you viewing my pics.

Golf Lessons

2010-06-28T03:38:39Z

So I thought I should post something on here to tell you why you haven't seen too many photographs from me lately. My excuse is my other passion....golf. About four months ago my golf got really bad, I mean BAD!! So at the time photography became a great outlet and saved me a lot of frustration. Then finally I decided I was tired of playing bad golf and wanted to play better golf, so I decided it was time for help. I signed up for some classes with a great instructor, called Mary at my home golf course at Moreno Valley. Well I can safely say that Mary has managed to reignite my passion for the game and my scores are reflecting that. Of course that also means that I've been spending more time at the golf course and less out and about photographing, well except for this past Saturday. I promise I will get to post more photographs, more often, I just need to practice more of what I'm learning. Oh and by the way, if you ever need a great golf instructor give Mary a call.