Follow me to my new blogsite!

This is my last blog entry on this web address, though it is by no means my last blog entry. Thank you to everyone whose followed me here, or found my blog by a search term or even a random blog generator on WordPress and read on.

The time has gone to have my website, http://www.NotSoStillLife.com, host WordPress on its own. I’m using a new template source, one I can customize a lot (yet I’m still working on a lot at present), which will allow me to have my portfolios and blog entries all in one place. The photos can be displayed much larger as well.

Join me at: my first entry and my new blogsite. Hope to see you there!

~ Danielle

Brad Kava and Tony Lindsay

(This is my second entry for this week that is auto posted. While this is posting to my blog I’m running the marathon at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida).

I had the opportunity to photograph my friend, Brad Kava, a former journalist at The San Jose Mercury News for over 20 years, who now teaches at DeAnza College and is a Dean in the Journalism Program at Cabrillo College, on his two hour talk radio show at 1080 AM KSCO in Santa Cruz.

Anyone who knows Brad has seen him with his adorable Standard Poodle Riley. A lot of my favorite shots include Riley actively trying to participate in the action.

Though Riley also was less into the show at other times (the sound operator joked that Brad’s show puts dogs to sleep).

I took more pictures of Brad than I thought I would. One of the reasons was he was just so animated. It’s funny he told me he thought having me take photos might make him self aware, yet after a few minutes of me taking photos he was really into his callers, too bad they couldn’t see his gestures.

One of the main reasons I wanted to photograph the show that day was Brad’s guest, Tony Lindsay who is the lead singer for Santana (as well as having a solo career). Tony was a great sport about being photographed, he didn’t even know I was coming and walks into the studio happy to be on the air and captured in photos.

Brad and Tony had great chemisty in studio. Their show flowed as they talked about Tony’s adventures as a singer from flying to shows, meeting great people, and once literally singing the menu of a restaurant onstage.

This shot was obviously posed, and I only had one quick opportunity to take it before the prop was shaken off.

Brad and Tony both invited me to Tony’s next show, which was at The Crow’s Nest in Santa Cruz. Brad was brought up as a special guest on harp, and now he has a photo of himself playing next to Tom Politzer.

Tony is a great vocalist, perhaps doing my favorite cover ever of “September”. I had a great time in studio and at the show.

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.