We went to San Francisco twice last weekend, in anticipation of a big project I am working on and hope to complete before summer. 

I photographed the Presidio and Fort Point. I was very lucky, since Fort Point celebrated Living History Days with civil war actors in period customs. It was a lot of fun and while we were there, I also photographed some of the spectacular views you can find at the Presidio and the Main Post, from where the Presidio grew to its current spread.

I parked my car and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge to boost my Golden Gate Portfolio. 

Both locations are a lot of fun to discover and the pictures really turned out exceptional (all shot with the Canon 7D). Check them out and come back for more, the project is far from done.

Which of these do you like best?

Confronted with an unprecedented range of software programs and sliders, digital photographers sometimes struggle finding the right balance. Browsing through the websites of my esteemed photography colleagues, I get the feeling that the opinions on color treatment seem to diverge, rather than converge. New software companies, like Topaz Labs, satisfy the need of the extreme end of the spectrum, while purists contest the unnatural appearance of these pictures. Composition and lighting alone used to make good photographs, but today it seems that color treatment becomes just as important. Since all our senses are overloaded every day, it becomes harder and harder to make a visual impact. Attracting a viewers attention may require a bold statement, but how bold is too bold and how much is too much? 

I have uploaded two new Galleries of pictures from my recent trip to the Four Courner States and Nevadea. I shot these pictures with my new Canon 7D. Since the camera is brand new, I had to change my workflow, mostly because my version of Photoshop does not support it and Lightroom 3 Beta does not give me good results with white balance. I worked things out though and finally learned how to use Silkypix Pro (review coming).

Meanwhile, here are some galleries for you to enjoy.

The first Gallery is Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. This is a very diverse park with plenty of alien looking rock formations to explore. Had I known how much fun it was to explore this jewel, I would have come here sooner.

The second Gallery is Colorado National Monument. I have been in the vicinity twice before and couldn't make it here either. Colorado National Monument also was a pleasant surprise. Nearby parks in Utah overshadow this little pleasant park.

I am working on more galleries and some interesting blog posts. Meanwhile, enjoy these two.

During the Thanksgiving weekend we drove to Los Angeles. I just finished uploading a number of photographs and created a few new galleries in my Los Angeles section. The image above is from the Japanese Garden in the Huntington Library. It is just one of the magnificent places we discovered. The Getty Center was fascinating as well. The striking architecture of the Center, sitting on top of a mountain overlooking Downtown L.A. and Westood is a tourist magnet.

One our way home we took a small detour through Simi Valley, where we discovered the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Among the fascinating exhibits is the original Air Force One Plane of President Reagan. The library is definitely worth a visit should you ever get to this area.

After I suffered yet another computer crash I finally decided to head over to Fry's and walk home with a Quad Processor Computer, 8GB of RAM and Windows 7. Seems like the motherboard on my old computer was finally fried after it refused to recognize any of my hard drives. I added two monitors to the computer and can now enjoy the editing process again.

I have not even installed Photoshop on my new computer yet, but I am already editing photos like a champ. I downloaded the new Lightroom 3.0 Beta version from Adobe. It took some time to get used to the interface, but I am coming around to like it very much. I think I am going to write a review of Lightroom, maybe pitching it against another one of my favorite RAW editors, Silkypix PRO.

I am completely fed up by the licensing policies of Adobe, which may ultimately keep me from buying Lightroom. I am not sure yet. As my raid array disintegreated, I had to reinstall Photoshop. Then later I decided to build a raid again and install Photoshop again. Apparently the software kept recognizing a new computer each time, possibly because of the raid. Now I have to call Adobe and explain the situation every time I wish to re-install Photoshop again. My requests to erase all licenses from their Servers and let me re-install was simply denied, leaving me frustrated with a useless $600 software.

The most recent photographs I uploaded to my Golden Gate Park Gallery are done with Lightroom only. Those images also do not have any watermarks anymore. For the last few years I have included watermarks that were barely visible, but now they are gone altogether. I am working on an idea to make all images on this website publicly available for free, but I do require attribution (hyperlink on websites and url on prints). Stay tuned for more information on free pictures.

Every year a huge crowd of people gathers at the San Diego Convention Center to celebrate pop culture and movies in an exceptional spectacle called Comic-Con. Many attendees dress up in beautiful costumes, handcrafted in countless hours with an astonishing devotion and attention to detail.

For us photographers the colorful figures exert a strong pull to visit and photograph the event. Two years ago, I decided to fly to San Diego to see what the fuzz was all about and of course to take photographs.

How to photograph People at Comic-Con

I find that many photographers are troubled about taking the photograph of a stranger without asking for permission. Street photography is very different from landscape photography. We feel restricted through norms of society and our own inhibition.

A large gathering like Comic-Con with many like-minded photographers makes it very easy to overcome those fears. If you cannot pull the trigger here, street photography clearly is not your game. That is perfectly ok.

Oregon is California's rainy neighbor in the north. I like traveling to Oregon. The state is very diverse and full of color, even in summer when California is mostly brownish.

But Oregon has much more to offer than wet coastal regions. Eastern Oregon is also very dry, but the colorful John Day Fossil Beds and the very different landscape invite travelers seeking for the path less traveled.

The incredibly scenic views and deep rich colors Crater Lake National Park offfer a fascinating introduction into the seismic volcanic history of Oregon. Once you have aroused your curiousity for everything volcanic, check out Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

After a tour through the wonderful landscapes of southern and eastern Oregon, relax in Portland, Oregon most populous and lively cities. From here you can explore the Columbia River Gorge with its many waterfalls on a casual day trip.

I finally found the time to upload new pictures that were on my computer far too long. Enjoy!