SkyFire-X-

The blog and portfolio of Kevin Etter, a San Francisco Bay Area hiking enthusiast and beginner photographer. Photos are licensed under Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

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Fires of Heaven - Suisun Photo Contest Winner

A couple months ago a friend had mentioned in passing that our town, Suisun, was holding a photo contest and that I should enter. If I won, she said, I had to buy her cheese fries. Well, the winners were announced. I won first place and two honorable mentions for Sunset in Suisun Marsh and Monochrome Fireworks.

There is a compelling story here. In my childhood in the 1980s, Suisun was quite literally a podunk Bay Area backwater. Most of the waterfront was occupied by an oil company, some of the buildings were run down 1800s relics in need of either demolition or preservation. City Hall was a mobile construction trailer. In the 90s the city made a concerted effort to revitalize and redevelop its waterfront area. I've been very fortunate to have such a scenic, pedestrian friendly area to practice my photography on. 

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Little Free Libraries

If you are a book lover and a techie like me, you probably have become invested in ebooks. Whether you use Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook or Apple iBooks makes little difference. The convienience of downloading and storing a book in digital format is a killer app compared to dead tree media aka paper books.

I have collected dozens and dozens of paperback and hardcover books since the 90s. Many of them in very good condition. Mostly they were stored away, collecting dust. Some of my favorites I have been repurchasing in Kindle format to read on my iPhone. Being short on physical storage space, I wanted to donate the physical books. The thought of throwing them in the trash nearly put me in a state of grief. 

I remember seeing something in a neighborhood that looked like a birdhouse with glass doors on the front. On the front it said "Little Free Library". What a clever idea, and good for community development. I could donate books here as well as my local community library (which has a used book store that accepts donations to fund the local library system). 

I have since discovered there are at least 4 Little Free Libraries near me. One can build or buy Little Free Library Bookcase and have it listed on the Little Free Library Map. While chatting with a steward of a LFL I asked how well the bookcase protects books during a rainy season (rare here in California). The cases do keep the books dry, some have latches that keep it closed and the doors seem tight. 

 Header image courtesy LittleFreeLibrary.org (https://littlefreelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Vernon-Winters-2621-Mountlake-Terrace-Washington.jpg)

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Concert in the Park: Zepparella

I was born just a few months before the passing of Led Zeppelin drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham in 1980. Still I grew up hearing the sounds of this legendary rock band on the radio. I've never heard them live, except for live albums like The Song Remains The Same or How The West Was Won. I was browsing Ticketmaster for Bay Area concerts and I discovered Zepparella, an all female Led Zeppelin cover band. 

I've seen so many photos of Led Zeppelin in Black & White, I figured I should do at least one of Zepparella too. As a teen, most of the photos of Zeppelin I saw were in Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. A colorful account of Led Zeppelin from beginning to end. The accuracy of the book has been repudiated by the band.

I saw they had a series of gigs in the Bay Area and some in Washington state. A show in San Jose looked promising except it was 21+ and I have a teenager very excited to hear Led Zeppelin music coming along with me. I saw an event listed in Concord, apparently that city has a Music and Market Series every Thursday in summer and hosts a free concert. The ladies of Zepparella said this was their fourth year performing there and the crowd just keeps getting bigger. 

As for the band's performance, they sounded great! You could hear in the quality of the music, the hours spent practicing. You could see in their expressions and body language that they were also having a lot of fun so their sound was genuine and loose, and not a stiff note for note take on a studio version of a song.

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#Monochrome #fireworks #suisunwaterfront @visitfairfieldca

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Monochrome Fireworks: Breaking the Rules

After compositing a set of fireworks photos together, I was struck by the notion of just how much color was there. Fireworks are pretty colorful and that's one reason why we love them. Why not turn that on its head. Break the rules. Fuck the King. Black & White? No, monochrome blue because I was freezing at the waterfront after the sun went down. 

With the loss of color, we gain clarity in shape and textures and since these are long exposures, movement. We can focus on lines as the fireworks burst and drift on the wind and die out. 

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Independence Day Fireworks

After a three year absence, I returned to the waterfront for Fourth of July fireworks. I found the event to be difficult due to traffic in a very small area. But since I have the A6000 now, I wanted to try it out in more low light situations. 

The fireworks were fired off at 9:00ish, about a half hour after sunset. Blue hour time. I adjusted my f/stop to f/18 and ISO to 100 and shot bulb. As the night sky grew darker, I adjusted my f/stop down to f/9 at the end. White balance was set to daylight in camera, but in post I moved closer (but not quite at) the fluorescent preset. 

I shot hundreds of fireworks photos, most from 1-4 seconds long. For the above photo, I used a base photo of the central fireworks but the sky to the left and right were pretty bare. Most of the fireworks were shot into the same area in the sky above the lighthouse or drifted right due to the high wind. I added more fireworks on the left and right sides by layering in Pixelmator and using the blend mode of lighten. 

Download the photo for wallpaper or purchase a print on Zazzle.

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Independence Day Fireworks

After a three year absence, I returned to the waterfront for Fourth of July fireworks. I found the event to be difficult due to traffic in a very small area. But since I have the A6000 now, I wanted to try it out in more low light situations. 

The fireworks were fired off at 9:00ish, about a half hour after sunset. Blue hour time. I adjusted my f/stop to f/18 and ISO to 100 and shot bulb. As the night sky grew darker, I adjusted my f/stop down to f/9 at the end. White balance was set to daylight in camera, but in post I moved closer (but not quite at) the fluorescent preset. 

I shot hundreds of fireworks photos, most from 1-4 seconds long. For the above photo, I used a base photo of the central fireworks but the sky to the left and right were pretty bare. Most of the fireworks were shot into the same area in the sky above the lighthouse or drifted right due to the high wind. I added more fireworks on the left and right sides by layering in Pixelmator and using the blend mode of lighten. 

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#independenceday #fireworks #suisun #suisunwaterfront @visitfairfieldca

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Northern California Pirate Festival 2016

This past Father's Day weekend saw the 10th annual Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo. 2 days and one night of revelry, mischief, drinking, a sailor singing sea shanties, mermaids swimming in a lagoon, the Barbary Coast Burlesque, sword dancers and snakes, and 2 Irish rock bands.

More Pirate Fest from 2013.

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Northern California Pirate Festival 2016

This past Father's Day weekend saw the 10th annual Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo. 2 days and one night of revelry, mischief, drinking, a sailor singing sea shanties, mermaids swimming in a lagoon, the Barbary Coast Burlesque, sword dancers and snakes, and 2 Irish rock bands.

More Pirate Fest from 2013.

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#northerncaliforniapiratefestival2016 #pirate #renfaire #vallejo #ferrybuilding #bayarea

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The Lonely Tree

"I wield the flail of the lashing hail, And whiten the green plains under, And then again I dissolve it in rain, And laugh as I pass in thunder. "  -- "The Cloud" Percy Bysshe Shelley

A lone tree stands against an immense spring storm.

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And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. #vacaville #penaadobe #hiking

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Sunlight & Shadows on a Broad Scale

"And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."  -- "Kubla Khan" Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What initially prompted me to take this photo was the creek pointing towards the green hills under a spectacular stormy sky. Upon closer inspection there are some pleasant details. The picnic table near the creek. The shadows cast upon the hills by storm clouds during a fast moving thunderstorm.

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Tiny Puddle, Big Possibilities

I went for a hike at Pena Adobe during a fast moving storm. The rain poured, and at the top of a hill lined with trees and boulders a view had opened: The valley below and the city of Vacaville beyond. Puddles formed on top of the boulders, giving a chance to play with reflections.

The photo is comprised of 3 bracketed photos, manually blended with layer masks in Pixelmator. 

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Dreamscapes - First Shots With Sony A6000

I recently pulled the trigger on a new camera purchase: Sony A6000. It was not only on sale at Amazon for $630USD but also bundled with a free case (meh), free 16GB memory card from Sony (always need more memory cards), and most importantly: 2 free batteries and charger from Wasabi Power. All of Sony's mirrorless cameras seem to eat up batteries like no tomorrow. 

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SF Skyline in Black & White

Time now to get your photos in of the soon to be classic San Francisco Skyline dominated by the Transamerica Pyramid. Salesforce Tower has its foundation poured, and before you know it, the skyline will be much different.

I edited this in Lightroom to start, and took it into Macphun's Tonality for black and white treatment. Finished it off in Noiseless. I had preordered the Creative Kit from Macphun recently and I've been impressed with Noiseless' noise reduction method. Now Macphun has released Aurora HDR, which was developed and tested alongside Trey Ratcliff.