Christmas in the Park – 30th Year in San Jose

I’m a big fan of San Jose’s Christmas in the Park having gone at least once every year since I moved to California 13 years ago. It’s an event in which local non-profit groups,businesses, and high schools get to adopt and decorate a tree in a creative fashion, which is displayed with others in downtown. Non-profit groups and high schools are given the trees, with a few of each chosen by lottery. The businesses need to purchase trees for $400 (they receive a placard identifying them as sponsor near the tree), the money collected funds college scholarships for art students.

The first time I went it was with a friend with two small pugs, one of whom was a little too clever and got off his leash and ran through the crowds. That was the last year I’ve been with a dog, it’s really not a good event for them, that aside, each year I’ve gone with one or more friends and been very impressed with all the creativity.

This year I went with Colleen and the very first tree we came to was one for the quite recognizable characters of the movie, Up. While sometimes it feels like I’m the only person who hasn’t seen this movie yet from Pixar, I did think the tree was very well done.

The trees alternated between serious and whimsical ideas. This one, celebrating Christmas and landmarks from over the world, was one of my favorites of the serious themed ones.

This year was the earliest in the season I’ve ever been to Christmas in the Park. We were there on opening day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, also known by retailers as Black Friday. Since it was the first day, not all the trees were decorated yet, I’d estimate only half were finished though yesterday was also an allowed day to decorate the trees. Still there were many great trees to look at on Friday.

This little fellow, juxtaposed with the white doves and message of peace, had me cracking up for a while.

Since this has been the year I’ve been the most physically fit of my life (including completing one 10K, two half marathons, and two full marathons), I of course gravitated to the physical fitness message tree complete with great advice such as eat apples, eat vegetables and climb a rock. The latter is a great reminder, I’ll have to make sure to at least try indoor rock climbing at some point in the new year.

While some trees had very simple messages, this one with one figure punching through the tree and another jumping out of it, still has me a little stumped. Still the “Jumping into the Holidays message” despite looking like a superhero movie advertisement, was a great visual.

This large display combined the idea of an African jungle with Christmas.

These little snowmen are running their own mining community.

Another great part of the Christmas in the Park Tradition is all the moving displays. This year’s included the singing frogs Caribbean Christmas and my favorite, the mice showing exactly how Swiss Cheese is made.

Happy Thanksgiving! Silicon Valley Turkey Trot

What a beautiful day it’s been in San Jose. My alarm woke me up at 5:00 and at 6:00 exactly, not by design, but since I wanted to charge my Garmin GPS watch a bit more, I left my house for my first Silicon Valley Turkey Trot.

What a difference a year makes! Last year on Thanksgiving, I took the day off fitness wise; having been in Community Bootcamp for only 5 months and not being used to endurance running I didn’t feel up to such a race. This year I ran the longest option, a 10K, and walked there and back, 2.5miles each way. Though it was very dark at 6:00, I knew I’d easily get to the registration tables before they opened. It took roughly 50 minutes to walk it, while red lights slowed me down a bit, this was close to predictions if walking speed on the Web.

All of today’s photos were taken with my iPhone. Everything was so colorful, I had to take lots of photos, and for the first time on this blog, I’m doing an all collage style entry to show them off.

This was the 5th annual race, and the announcer told us that while the first race had had only 1,000 racers, this race, which had had a goal of 9,500 races had 11,000 paid entrants. Before the run we had speakers and a costume contest.

The costume contest was very enjoyable. The holiday themed division won by a mother and daughter team dressed as a hungry pilgrim and scared turkey (wearing a sign proclaiming she wasn’t a turkey), respectively. They’re shown here waiting with the other contestant, another turkey, awaiting results.

The non-themed division was down to a Big Bird and a Human Whoopie Cushion. I love the shots of them trying to get crowd support for votes and especially their reactions.

The winner was the Whoopie Cushion who turned out to be Councilman Sam Liccardo of District 3 in San Jose. Sam ran by me early in the race and when I yelled, “Go, Sam!” even turned around, gave me a thumbs up and tried to encourage me to run faster.

I couldn’t help but notice the newsprint inspired runner. He is Mac Tully, publisher of The San Jose Mercury News, who was gracious enough to let me get a photo taken with him. We talked about journalism a bit, and he assures me the paper will be there next year at this time.

As I was taking a shot of him speaking I was marvelling that no one, not security, or the real press near me with SLRs and a video camera minded that I was there and shooting with my iPhone. Perhaps it helped that I made sure to stay out of their shots. Also in this collage, some runners at the start, and the front and back of the arch, yes it really was that crooked before the start.

The race itself was amazing. Every race I do, I set for myself a reach goal. I usually set them a little too high, and often don’t share them with others. Today’s goal was very special. I wanted to run the whole time, no walk breaks minimal slow downs even for water (there were two stops, no Gu or energy bars, drinks etc.)

I debated how I’d tackle this on my blog if I didn’t make it, since I wanted to write about results no matter what. At the first mile, I felt really accomplished. Then it started getting harder.

My training has been run-walk-run, and I’ve never even tried a 4:1 pace, let alone tried to run straight through. Miles 3 and 4 were the hardest with overlapping portions making it seem even longer. Still I was determined to run, even if it was a slow run until I couldn’t help but walk. The two water stations were even a fast walk/run for minimal seconds. I found myself praying for the first time during a race for strength and endurance.

My left leg felt a little sore at mile 5, still I kept running. I knew at that point I could and would make it. I dismissed the idea of photographing the mile 6 marker as I didn’t want to stop. Seeing the finishing arc, I sprinted the last bit. What an incredible feeling it was reaching this goal and setting a personal record for this distance (1:08:54 tag time with a 11:06 pace). While my Galloway training made me strong, I literally could not have done this today without God’s help, and I am grateful.

After battling a long pushing and shoving swarm to get my technical shirt, beautiful in color and design, I had some quick photos taken of me. Rounding out the last collage are cans signifying the food drive that went on, and the squeaky toy given out to finishers.

This race made this one of my most memorable Thanksgivings ever. I will definitely do it again next year. I am grateful this year for friends, family, my business, my health and fitness, and God. Hope your day was wonderful as well!

Topical Tuesday (4)

This Topical Tuesday is subtitled, “A Year with the iPhone”.  I’ve had my phone for a little over a year now. I have the 3G, not the 3GS, and will hang onto this model at least until January, when I can figure out what new phone Apple may be introducing at this year’s MacWorld, so I can decide which, the 3GS or the newest model if any, I want to buy.  So in this vein, all of today’s photos were taken with my iPhone.

I’ve heard from many photographers that it’s hard to edit at home due to distractions. I totally agree with this. At home there is a Pit Bull mix (most likely with Black Lab and another terrier type – not sure what yet the latter is the source of the spots) named Katrina. Though she is a joy a lot of the time to be around, she also likes attention all the time, especially if you are focussed on something else.  One day she put her head over my computer to give me that “you really are going to pay attention to me soon, aren’t you?” look dogs are so good at.

I’m excited that Thanksgiving is just a few days away.  I’m looking forward to running in The Silicon Valley Turkey Trot, and of course all the delicious meals.  The above picture is from a pre-Thanksgiving meal I had complete with pumpkin ravioli, turkey, asparagus, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.

One thing I don’t do enough of, and will do in 2010, is to visit enough museums.  I did go to the amazing exhibit at The Tech Museum in San Jose this year for the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit.  It was truly breathtaking to see all of the inventions and artistic works he was involved in.  The photos show the Milan Cathedral and the Gran Cavallo, the latter a statue so large that parts of the horse had to be made individually and then pieced together.

I’ve been told by almost every photography professor I’ve ever had to take a camera with you everywhere. While it’s great advice, I admit I don’t follow it, and one time in which I almost never have a camera with me right there to take that shot is when I’m eating a meal. This is not to say that great shooting moments can’t happen in restaurants, however, many establishments don’t allow cameras. I have found most OK with using an iPhone, however, and couldn’t resist photographing the carousel horse at Applebees in Milpitas.

I recently read  “Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales“. I was somewhat familiar with his work, I hadn’t read that many of his stories before this week.

I was especially intrigued by the stories “The Rocket” which showed just how far a father would go to show his love for his children, “Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned”, an unsual look at the confession process, “The Miracles of Jamie”, a story about a young man who may or may not be able to change the world around him just with his mind and “The Square Pegs”, an ingenious story of how society could possibly help mentally ill individuals in the far off future.

One camera type that didn’t work out for me at all was a CMOS keychain digital camera. I realize you get what you pay for and wasn’t expecting all that much for the $10 I spent on it, just something I could use to take some photos while running (I was thinking in particular of the Walt Disney World Marathon that I will be running in January). While I guessed correctly that there would be no viewing screen on the back, I didn’t anticipate that you would have to look through a tiny pop up window to take the photo, or that it would be the consistency of a magnifying glass and hard to see through.

I really don’t know how anyone can take photos with even the slightest bit of confidence with the thing at all. I tried a few photos, and ended up giving it to a friend for a early holidays present for her two kids, instead of even taking it to Thursday’s race. As bringing the Leica along for a race has many obstacles both to running and the safety of the camera,  I’ll stick with the iPhone and the Flip! for now for photos.

This last photo just made me smile when I saw it. There was a car in a parking lot with a private security company. This was their logo, which really looks to me like it should be that of a S.W.A.T. team.

Memories of Fall – Catching up on Blog

I’m originally from the East Coast, having lived in New Jersey, New York, Iowa and Connecticut at different points in my life before moving to California. (Connecticut was one of the harder moves as the name was hard for me to spell, I still remember being called up to the blackboards with other kids to sound and write it out and finding it quite difficult even with the teacher helping break it into the three words of Connect, I and Cut).

Since I live in a much warmer state now than any previously, I’m usually wearing short sleeves year round, and rarely wear a coat even though I really like my trench length leather jacket. People are always asking if I’m cold and I’ll usually say no, having not really thought about the temperature till then.

One thing that reminds me of how cold it is, and how it’s getting, is seeing dogs wearing their sweaters. I can’t remember having seen a lot of dogs wearing clothing back east, yet its possible I just wasn’t paying attention. This little fellow above, Monte, frequents a few coffee shops I go to. When I saw him wearing his fall sweater for the first time a few weeks ago, I started really feeling cold.

Fall is also a time of celebration for the anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library at San Jose State University. When the library was first proposed, it was opposed by many faculty, staff and students, who thought the quality of the library would suffer as it was to be shared for the most part with the residents of the city (certain materials still can only be checked out by students).

As someone whose had the privilege to use the library both as a SJSU student and community member, I think it’s a great project and I’m thankful for it. I was just at the library yesterday taking out a lot of books as usual, it occurred to me that the library’s 6th anniversary had happened not so long ago this fall. I don’t remember seeing any invitations for events happening for the anniversary this year, so I found a few shots of performers from last year’s event to share.

Though I did stay for and photograph some of the speakers, my favorite parts of the celebration were the performers, who of course also made the best photos visually.

They included jugglers who performed for small groups and individuals and a martial arts group who performed a style that was a combination of dance and fighting moves to music.

WordPress Networking at Red Rock Coffee Company

As I wrote in Tuesday’s post, I’m always amazed by the power of the Internet.  On Saturday I was reading about a meetup for WordPress users and thought what a great that idea that was.  I thought it would be great if I could find a group near me, so I plugged in my zip code into Meetup, and found a group that was meeting the next day for their second meeting ever.  It must have been fate.

The meeting was being held at Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View. I’ve passed by the place a few times (quite often when I lived in Mountain View and would go to Castro street for books, candles, and Mongolian BBQ), yet had never been there before for coffee.

At first I worried I would not be able to find the group, yet I soon found the meeting organizer, Christopher Price the CEO of MechaWorks, at table on the second floor wearing a name tag. The tag helped, and I knew I was in the right place.  (The second floor has a large number of tables for groups).

Mechaworks staff use WordPress every day literally. Their blog reports on the changing technological world. They use photos, many of which are on the page as small, click to enlarge thumbnail size ones.

One of the great things about this meeting was that the people who came were all at different levels of WordPress blog usage and requirements.

Christopher was of course very WordPress savvy and gave me some good tips for finding plug ins that would allow users to click on photos to make them larger (though I will have to host my blog on my own site for that), as well as how to turn off comments on a particular post (I love comments and appreciate them, so that is more of a theoretical bit of information).

It’s funny, when I’m at an event that I’m not an official photographer at,  like this one, sometimes I’ll be shy about asking if I can take pictures. I was at the meeting for about half an hour, learning and listening, before I even asked the group if they minded if I took a few. Everyone agreed, and in fact gave me business cards at the end to get their photos.

I learned at lot at this meeting and look forward to future meetups, with hopefully even more people attending. The coffee (MechaWorks provided free coffee), was good, I had a white mocha which I usually get at places new to me, next time I might try something more adventurous.

While there I also noticed the place was very much into causes and community. The large white board style calendar downstairs was filled with group meeting information for almost every day. Additionally, both the artwork outside on the windows, as well as table literature was focussed on various causes in which the place supports.

Topical Tuesday (3)

Welcome to my third Topical Tuesday. As you may have guessed already, I’m making some changes to how I’m working with my photos that I post here. I was talking to my good friend Rachel about how to make the photos on my blog stand out and look more professional while still using this current template platform (changes on that coming in January). I came up with a way to frame my photos (literally) along with a quick reference on how to tell which ones were taken with my main cameras, and which were taken with others (i.e. my iPhone or a point and shoot).

So from now on any photos taken with a main camera with have this lavender and silver triple frame along with NSSL letters, (Not So Still Life Photography) as a signature on the bottom (and a simpler frame for other photos, to be shown at the end of this entry).

I debated going back and using this frame method on all the photos I’ve posted so far, then decided not to. This blog is a work in progress and this entry, along with others shows improvements as I’m going along. Thanks to my readers for being on this journey with me.

The photo subject for today’s entry is 300, a bowling alley in San Jose. Though I had seen it from the outside previously, I had never gone in until this weekend. At my last Silicon Valley NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) meeting, I met Suzanne Frazier, who is the Sales Manager of Group Events who told me what a great place this was to have a party. Since I had my Sweet 16 party in a bowling alley, and Suzanne told me this would be like any alley I’ve been to before, I had to visit it when I was on that side of town.

I was given permission to take photos there with the caveat that I would not have people in them so as to respect the privacy of the guests. I counted several parties going on that day, mostly for young children.

It’s a very dark alley, with a music video playing on every screen above each lane.

Even the bar and lounge area are quite dark, yet inviting and beautiful at the same time. I especially liked the rainbow of all the literally glowing bottles of alcohol.

This sign got my attention. I’m familiar with a Back 9 in golf (the last set of holes), yet not in bowling. So, not even seeing a sign on the door saying it was closed for a private party, I went in.

Inside were nine bowling lanes (hence the name) that were currently not lit and ready to go and this cozy little bar. When some staff members came out to set up for the party (from the sign I missed), I quickly and quietly left.

This morning I woke up an hour early accidentally. I think my body wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the special Fitness Scavenger Hunt at Community Bootcamp. While some of the items we had to find were easy (paper clip, candy or food wrapper), some were downright hard, like the pine cone. I never did find one, though neither did a lot of others. I did get a lot of exercise in running from building to building, doing the exercises after finding each item (i.e. push ups, step ups, lunges, etc.). My Garmin watch clocked 1.33 miles for the activity, however, as it depends on satellites and I was indoors a bit looking for the items, it was probably more like 1.5 miles. It was a great workout, and I’m always glad to try new workouts.

I’ve been on the fence about the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. This morning brought a San Jose Groupon offer to my email box, and so I was able to register for only $25 instead of $40 in person (or $35 online). Groupon works by offering great coupons you can purchase (i.e. 40% off something local, but only if a set number of people sign up and prepay). At first I didn’t think we’d get 25 people to buy the offer and lock in the price, then it tipped over (reached 25) at 10:35 a.m. The power of the Internet continues to amaze me daily.

Yesterday was the first day that I’ve had this blog that I didn’t blog. I’m OK with that. I could have squeaked out an entry late last night, yet I realized blogging 3 times a week minimum is probably more realistic (and I may still do more depending on the weeks). I’m going to definitely keep Tuesdays going and probably do Thursdays and Sundays as well.

For photos taken with my iPhone (a term WordPress still thinks is spelled incorrectly as it even apparently does WordPress which is even funnier according to the dotted red line I see when typing either) or other non professional cameras, I’ll just use a simple black frame as I did for this closeup of a Lego car I photographed. Be on the lookout for an entry with many such frames soon.

Volunteering: Hotel de Zink

 

Sunday is usually my day to sleep in late, yet today found my alarm going off at 4:00 a.m. this morning. This month Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, is the host church for the Hotel de Zink, a program which houses members of the homeless community and provides three nutritious meals daily for them. The program is named after a kind police officer who during the depression allowed homeless individuals to stay in his police station on rainy evenings.

Although I’d heard of the program before, this year when I received an email from Joyce and Ron who were coordinating the volunteers for this morning’s breakfast, I knew it was time for me to help out. Colleen and I were at the church at 6:00 a.m. with pumpkin and chocolate and orange scones (Colleen) and grape and orange juice (me) as requested. When we arrived we found out Joyce and Ron had been there even earlier cooking pancakes. Their facial expressions ranged from serious to joyful as they made perfectly golden pancakes and tasty scrambled eggs with ham.

 

It was great meeting others who were volunteering as well including Cat and Ian. A quick group portrait before breakfast is served.

The homeless individuals (who I was not allowed to photograph to protect their privacy) had many great choices of things to eat. The grocery bags on the bottom shelf are filled with lunches for them to take with them. The lunches included a full meal, and homemade cards of encouragements. It was an honor to be able to work with such dedicated volunteers in the early morning hours.

What to Toss at Bride and Groom Exit?

One of the few things on a wedding day of which a bride and groom have little control of, is the toss of items (birdseed, rice, confetti, bubbles etc.), at them as they make their exit. Though they may have it available for their guests to use, its up to those guests, and often one or two people to make sure everyone is ready for their part at the right moment. I’ve been to a few weddings, both as a guest and as a professional, where everyone or almost everyone forgot or didn’t know they were to use the props. When it does work out well, however, it can make for some amazing photos.

Sarah and Matt almost didn’t have this moment happen, as the guests were having a somewhat heated discussion as to whether tossing rice was safe for the birds. Sarah’s uncle (shown in the maroon shirt) insisted however, and as their second shooter for the day (under the main photographer Amoreena Berg of Amoreena Photography) I’m glad he did as the moment and their expressions were priceless.

 

Several websites including Snopes.com, which I often use to double check the rumors I hear often as part of mass emailing friend of a friend of a friend story, debunks the idea that rice is harmful to birds (though birdseed would  be even better for them).

Earlier this year when I had the pleasure of being a third shooter to Terrence Bishop, the couple Diana and Chih were surrounded by bubbles blown by their guests.

 

As their guests were scattered out more in a long line, I was able to also get photos of the guests still blowing bubbles eagerly even as the bride and groom had passed by.

 

Opened Time Capsule: My Second Wedding

As I was going through some archived files, I started remembering some of the first weddings I ever photographed.  The very first one was just a few months after I bought my first digital camera, a Canon 10D.  I was second shooting for a photographer who did on site photography and printing, his final products included photos in frames.

It was not only my first wedding as a photographer, it was also his. We had a great time and had one truly unforgettable experience: a guest took his photos (probably digital, we didn’t ask)  to be processed while we were shooting the formals, and we arrived to the reception to see guests already looking at prints of the ceremony.

I’d love to post some photos of my first wedding here, however, the contract that the main shooter had with  bride and groom did not allow any online publication.

Luckily, I am permitted to post photos I took from the second wedding I was second shooter at, and they are here on this entry. This was the first Indian wedding I had ever attended in any capacity. Their location, The Decathalon Club, in San Jose, was transformed by beautiful colors and sights.

As I learned from this event, a wedding can be filled with mixed emotions. Though the families were happy for the union, there was some sadness in the “losing a daughter” concept that is felt by the bride, Sarah”s family. It was truly a sacred and serious occasion for many of the guests and participants, as seen in the bride’s face above, and the faces of the groom, Rami, and his parents as they are showered by flowers at their entrance below.

Gold and red  were prominent colors in the wedding. I was especially captivated by all the beauty of the intricate details worn by Sarah.

Rami”s grandmother even got to play a role in the ceremony. She couldn’t keep her smile off her face, even at this serious moment.

In this wedding, as was true of many Indian weddings, the bride and groom did not pose for a lot of photos together. However, you can truly see the love between Sarah and Rami even in this moment in the ceremony.

Since this wedding of years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot some other Indian ceremonies as well. I’ve really appreciated all the unique and ornate details they have in them.

Stand Up Comedy: Raf (and others)

Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from two friends, both in the wedding industry, that they’ve been attending comedy school. It makes a lot of sense fo them business wise as well as personally, it would help them with timing, interacting with the public and just sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

I had the opportunity to photograph one of my other friends, Raf, at a few of his first few comedy stand up engagements, two at Rooster T. Feathers (the photos with the red curtains) in Sunnyvale, and one at Tommy T’s Comedy House (those with no curtains), in Fremont.  

As one of the only people who went to three in a row, there was a running joke was that I was I was his biggest fan. 

While I’ve always thought Raf was funny, I was really impressed he had the guts to get onstage and go for it.  I appreciate especially how much fun he was having on stage.

I think it’s fair to say that he was laughing along with the audience almost as much as they were.

 

The staff at both shows were great about letting me take photos as long as I didn’t use a flash (no problem, though the lighting was much better at Roosters).  Ironically my lack of flash usage had the side benefit of Raf not knowing I was taking photos the first time at Roosters, so he was relaxed enough to look natural in the set.

Raf is a very visual comedian, using lots of facial expressions and gestures.

This is great for me as a photographer as it made for some interesting shots. Additonally, when I’m shooting I sometimes don’t hear every word that’s said around me, so I didn’t get to fully hear all of the jokes any of the times I took photos, I am however, looking forward to seeing the videos that were taken of him as well.