Runfola Photography

Sailing on the Bay

2010-11-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

We went sailing with a couple friends on their sailboat this past weekend and had a great time! Also got to meet our friend's brother, Mike, and a mutual friend of theirs who has an identical sailboat a couple sloops over. Anthony got a little seasick, but he managed not to throw up, and is looking forward to going sailing (and doing some fishing) out on the open sea. Click any of the pictures to be taken to the gallery.

Anthony waiting to set sail on the bay

Hanging on for dear life while the boat leans

Richard steering the boat back home

L-R: Frank, Beth, Gena, Jesse, Richard, Chris
(Anthony fell asleep downstairs -- the fresh air knocked him out)

Schmooze, the Chargers, and Testing a New Lens

2010-11-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

Just posting a couple pics that I've taken since the last update -- I've been in a photographic funk lately and haven't really felt inspired by anything. Hopefully that will change soon.

My friend, Rex Castor, of the musical group "Schmooze", performing at Rebecca's Coffeehouse

Watching the San Diego Chargers take on the New England Patriots

Testing out my new lens, a Nikkor 55-200 f/4-5.6 VR

Is it hot enough for ya?

2010-09-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Below is a screen shot from my phone of the temperature in Mira Mesa, San Diego, California at 11:56 a.m., September 27, 2010. Mira Mesa, a community of San Diego, is about 8 miles from the coast, close enough to still be considered part of the coast, but only two miles from being considered "inland". I don't remember it ever being this hot in Mira Mesa/San Diego as long as I've lived here! But, considering the extremely mild summer we've had, this heat wave was kind of to be expected. On the bright side, we're actually expecting a litte rain this afternoon from a storm coming up from Mexico...

Leprechaun of the Seas

2010-09-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

My friend, Joe, finally took his new surfboard out on its maiden run at Torrey Pines State Beach last Sunday and I was there to take pictures of it before he waxed it up, which I've compiled into a short slideshow. CRANK UP YOUR SPEAKERS AND ENJOY THE MUSIC!

Surfboard and Cellphone Designs

2010-09-01T15:51:00.001-07:00

A couple months back I was asked by my "brother", Joseph, to come up with a graphical design for a new surfboard he was having shaped. He initially wanted something to reflect his Italian/Irish descent, but after not being able to settle on an Italian theme that appealed to him, he decided to go with something that would display his Irish heritage instead. As he was conferring with me over lunch about what he wanted, the little designing gears in my head started cranking and I had a design all planned out even before he finished talking to me. Later that evening, I created a rough sketch of the design in Photoshop and emailed it to him -- he loved it! After a few touch-ups here and there and some drop shadows, it was ready to go to the printers and then on the board. He finally picked up the finished board yesterday and sent me the following pictures for now -- we're planning on going to the beach next week to take some better photos, so check back after next weekend for the updates.

I even made him an iPhone 4 skin to go along with his new board:

Please leave feedback about the designs and, if you have any, suggestions for an Italian-themed board.

My First Post from my iPhone!

2010-08-26T16:08:00.001-07:00

So, as the title suggests, this is my first post from my iPhone. I thought it would be a great idea to be able to update my blog with information and pictures while "on location" without having to wait until I get home (or close to a computer). That being said, the only pictures I will be uploading while "on location" will be those taken with my iPhone; others will be posted as before with links to my website. For those who are curious about the app I'm using to blog, it's called BlogBooster and is available in the iTunes app store absolutely FREE! Well, now that we have the words out of the way, let's see if I'm able to insert a picture into my post. The first picture I'm posting is of the red sky at sunset behind some palm trees taken from the pool.

UPDATE: after about eleven attempts to upload the sunset picture, I finally succeeded! I'm not sure, at this point, whether the fault lies with the BlogBooster app, the 3G connection, the Wi-Fi connection, or a combination of all three, but it's definitely gonna take some familiarization with this app to figure out its nuances. The screen capture below shows the error message I was receiving:

Playing with (a) Light

2010-08-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Recently, when sticking his hand between the sofa cushions while watching TV, our son, Anthony, found the little LED ring light we had received when we attended Comic-Con 2010 and promptly "lost". This evening, as I was playing with it, I got the idea to suspend the light from the livingroom ceiling, position my camera directly underneath it and pointing up and, using an exposure time of one minute, decided to photograph it and see what it would look like. The first couple of attempts yielded poor results with the light just going in a circle that gradually got smaller and smaller and smaller. I then tried pushing the light just off-center to see what would happen, even adding a few puffs of air -- the results are below.

Perseides Meteor Shower & "The Green Tide"

2010-08-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my good friend, Jacque (HI, JACQUE!), who forwarded me some info on this year's Perseid meteor shower, I decided to head about 40 miles inland early Friday morning, the 13th, at 3 a.m., to get away from the lights of the city and suburbs and to hopefully get a nice shot of some meteors streaking across the sky. While driving to my destination, I saw several meteors and felt that I was going to get some good shots. Having finally arrived, I set my camera up on the tripod and pointed it in the general direction of the Perseids. My goal for this shoot was to get some shots of static stars instead of star trails, so I had to make sure that I used a slow enough shutter speed to minimize any trails -- I found that 15 seconds at f/2.8 ISO 400 seemed to be enough. While making the exposures, I noticed that the meteors seemed to be appearing just off to my right, so I repositioned the camera and started taking some more exposures. Now they were appearing to my left from where I had originally pointed the camera! HUH?! WHAT?! Anyways, and I am sad to say, I did not get a single meteor shot. And of all the pictures, only one turned out somewhat decent (see below). After one unsuccessful hour, I finally decided to pack up and head back home because I still needed to eat breakfast and get ready for work.

View towards Orion's Belt

That same day, I decided I wanted to go to La Jolla after work to take some pictures of the hundreds of Leopard sharks that were swarming along the south end of La Jolla Shores, so I went home and picked up Gena and Anthony and headed to the beach. By the time we got to the beach, the clouds had rolled in and were blocking the sun. In addition to that, some weird green algae had infested our waters making it so murky that we couldn't see the sharks. So, I decided to take some pictures of the green algae instead. You can read more about the algae here. Photographically speaking, it truly was a Friday the 13th for me :(

Green algae being pushed in by the tide

Interesting pattern created by the algae

My pristine white feet before being touched by the algae

"Algae touch Hulk's feet. Hulk mad!"

"Hulk stomp algae!"

Anti-Pasta Pasta

2010-07-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

The weather has been really unusual the past couple of weeks -- definitely not typical summer weather for San Diego. Two weeks ago, the weather was cool and cloudy on a daily basis with temperatures ranging between 65°F and 75°F. Last week it was extremely warm (hot?) with temps reaching into the 90s -- we had to turn on the air-conditioner in our home for the first time this year! Now, we're back into cooler temps again. Bizarre.

Anyway, last weekend, while the weather was still very warm, I decided to make something refreshing for dinner -- my famous anti-pasta pasta! My anti-pasta pasta is exactly what it sounds like: anti-pasta salad with pasta. I simply boil up some multi-colored rotini, shock 'em with cold water to stop them from cooking, and spread them over a bed of chopped lettuce. Then, I add tomatoes, sliced red onion, olives, fresh chopped basil, roasted bell pepper, salami, pepporoni, prosciutto, and fresh-ground salt and pepper. Next, I drizzle on either home-made or store-bought Italian dressing and top it all off with freshly grated Grana Padano parmesan cheese. Add to that a nice glass of home-made red wine and you've got yourself a refreshing summer meal! Buon Appetito!

New Jersey 2010

2010-06-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness! Look how much time has passed since my last posting! I keep meaning to update the blog on a quasi-regular basis, but life keeps getting in the way.

The period of June 16th - 23rd was quite exciting as it was spent in New Jersey with family and to attend my sister Joanna's wedding. It was really nice seeing everyone again and catching up since we last saw each other. We also had the pleasure of meeting my new brother-in-law, Michael Santore, who is a really cool guy. We wish Joanna and Michael many happy years together.

The pictures displayed below are a small collection that best showcase our daily activities while in NJ. You can view the rest of the collection by clicking any of the pictures.

June 16

Anthony looking through airplane window

Dinner with the Runfola Family
L-R: Augie, Me, Gena, Anthony, Gina, Michael, Joanna, Sal

June 17

Breakfast at the Avon Pavillion along the Jersey Shore

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

June 18

Chillaxin' on the deck while waiting for the BBQ'ed Italian Sausages

June 19 - WEDDING DAY!

Anthony and his Grandfather playing with a shortwave radio while the bride and her bridesmaids get beautified

The Bride, Joanna, with her Maiden-of-Honor, our sister, Gina on the dancefloor dancing to the song YMCA

June 21

Bottling a barrel of Sangiovese wine -- we got about 252 bottles from one barrel!

At the shooting range

June 22 - Pennsylvania

Near the spot where George Washington crossed the Delaware River

Getting ready to have lunch in New Hope, Pennsylvania

XKCD on Earthquakes and Twitter

2010-04-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

This strip was posted yesterday on xkcd.com, appropriately enough.

6.9 Earthquake Rattles Baja and San Diego on Easter Sunday

2010-04-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

At 1540hrs (that's 3:40 p.m. for you non-military folk ;)) Baja California, more specifically, Mexicali, was rattled by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake which was felt rather strongly here in San Diego and Los Angeles. You can read more about here.

Gena and I were sitting on the couch in the livingroom watching TV and relaxing from a large Easter lunch. I felt some light shaking and at first thought it was Gena shaking her foot. I glanced over at the cord hanging from our Rock Band drumset and saw that it was swaying (I've learned from experience that the cord tends to sway regardless of how weak a quake may be). Our dog, Leica, continued sleeping on Gena's lap and didn't react until I told Gena we were having an earthquake (what a great early warning system the dog is). At that point, the quake intensified and small figurines on top of our television set actually fell off!

Check out the USGS earthquake map showing the locality and magnitude of the quake:

BANZAI!

2010-03-29T21:13:00.001-07:00

Last Friday we, once again, spent the night at Barona Casino. Gena regularly receives free 1-night stay coupons in the mail which we don't always use and, because it has been a while since we last stayed at Barona, we decided to use the coupon. When we go, we usually stop at one of the many fine restaurants Barona has to offer to grab a bite to eat before Anthony and I head back to the room to play games and download movies from Netflix while Gena tries to strike it rich on the slot machines. This time was different.

Because we now have a puppy, we couldn't leave her home alone for 24 hours, so we took her with us and smuggled her into the hotel in one of Gena's big purses (I call it a duffel bag). Leica kept poking her head out of the purse, so we had to throw a sweater over Gena's shoulder and let it hang down in the front to cover the dog up. It worked!

As soon as we made it safely to our room without the dog being detected, Anthony went back downstairs to play near the fish pond for a short while before it got dark outside. While he was gone, I set the camera and lights up in preparation for taking a picture that I've been intending to do for quite a while. Once everything was set up, I asked Gena to sit on the corner of the bed so I could "test" a feature of the camera. I positioned myself a few feet behind her, then ran and dove onto the bed. The first picture shows her patiently waiting while I "tested" the camera, not expecting me to jump on the bed.

I then told her that I had to adjust something on the camera and needed to take another picture like the first. This time, knowing what to expect, she prepared herself the moment she heard me running towards the bed, as you can see in the second picture. When I saw her reaction, I knew I had the shot in the bag!

Five minutes later, Anthony returned and we ordered room service while watching "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on Netflix.

Homegrown CSI

2010-03-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so, Gena's favorite TV shows are CSI (all versions), NCIS, Law & Order, etc. (do you see a pattern here?). This weekend, while catching her watching what I call "The CSI Channel", and seeing two of the main characters searching a room with a UV light, I was hit with the realization that, using a UV light source, I could easily find urine stains on the carpet. Having bought a UV flashlight a couple years ago for a camping trip to the desert with hopes of finding scorpions at night (they glow green, y'know), and not having found any, I had put the flashlight away and kind of forgotten about it. Until this evening...

I jumped up off the couch and went into the garage to look for the box with camping gear. It was pretty easy to find because it was rather large-ish and had "Camping Gear" written on the side. Opening the box, I immediately found the 9" long UV flashlight, a Streamlight TwinTask 3C, sitting on top of the larger items just waiting for its moment to shine (literally and figuratively).

I returned to the kitchen where I donned rubber gloves and then proceeded to turn off all the lights in the apartment (because that was how they did it on CSI). Turning the flashlight on, I immediately saw a couple small urine stains on the livingroom carpet. Scanning the apartment, I found approximately ten small stains throughout glowing bright green-yellow -- these must've been ones that we missed because more recent "accidents" that I've cleaned up were not visible (we've been spraying her "accidents" with Nature's Miracle Stain & Odor Remover after dabbing the area dry, which does a fantastic job of cleaning up).

Check out one of the pictures I took of the stain:

Looks like we'll be renting a steam cleaner soon...

My New Leica

2010-02-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

Actually, the title should read "Our New Leica" because Leica isn't exactly a camera in this instance -- she's the newest member of the Runfola family and is what is considered a "teacup" chihuahua because of her extremely small size.

Born December 3, 2009, Leica was given to us by a family friend whose chihuahua (one of seven different breeds of dogs he has) had two puppies. His wife, apparently, didn't want any more dogs, so he offered us one of the two pups. We acquired her on January 28, nearly two months after she was born.

Since becoming part of the family, she has brought everyone much joy, as well as grief. The grief has been brought on by the difficulty of housebreaking her, but with all three of us taking an active roll in the process, she has already progressed immensely and is running to her "puppy pad" to evacuate. Because she is still a puppy, she isn't always able to control her bodily functions (just like a human baby) and makes on the carpet, but we're always there to clean up after her and spray the area with an odor neutralizing spray.

I've taken charge of the majority of the training and have already, in less than two weeks, taught her to sit. We are now working on "stay" and, after only a couple days, I am able to walk 8-10 feet away without her moving. Daily walks are done without a leash, for now, and she does really well walking by my side and keeping pace. Occasionally, she'll fall behind when something catches her attention, or she'll run a few feet ahead and wait for me to catch up. Walking back, she knows exactly which path to take to get back to our apartment. Leash training will commence soon.

As mentioned before, we're having lots of fun with her and look forward to many years of more fun.

Rainfall Totals for Mira Mesa, California

2010-01-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

As promised, the rains have finally hit San Diego. For those of you watching the news, you are aware of some of the devastation caused by the heavy rains, mudslides, winds, and surf, especially those counties north of San Diego. We haven't seen this kind of storm in a loooong time, and my son and I are actually enjoying it! Just this evening as the brunt of the storm was overhead, he asked me if we could go driving in the rain. Naturally, I had to oblige as I love driving in the rain -- what a blast it was (yes, I did drive safely).

We also received a digital rain meter from a friend which we have been diligently monitoring every 12 hours since the storm started, from 6am-6pm-6am. However, I'm only entering rainfall totals over a 24-hour period. Be sure to check back daily as we continue to update it.

Rainfall Totals in Inches for Zip Code 92126 (will be updated daily as long as it rains)
Date	Daily Total	Cum. Total
Jan. 17,2010	0.02	0.02
Jan. 18,2010	0.95	0.97
Jan. 19,2010	0.58	1.55
Jan. 20,2010	0.81	2.36
Jan. 21,2010	1.35	3.71
Jan. 22,2010	0.29	3.99

Large Storm Headed Towards SoCal and San Diego

2010-01-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Looks like we'll be getting the heaviest storm I've ever witnessed here in San Diego starting this Sunday. According to the Special Weather Statement released by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), we could receive record rainfall! Check out NOAA's statement, below, and then my screenshot of this evening's weather report following this statement (those measurements are inches of rain, not snow!

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
159 PM PST FRI JAN 15 2010

CAZ042-043-048-050-055>058-060>062-162200-
ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-THE INLAND EMPIRE-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS-SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-APPLE AND LUCERNE VALLEYS-
COACHELLA VALLEY-SAN DIEGO COUNTY DESERTS-
159 PM PST FRI JAN 15 2010

...BIG CHANGES IN THE WEATHER NEXT WEEK...

A SERIES OF STORMS WILL BRING PERIODS OF LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN AND
STRONG WINDS NEXT WEEK WITH SNOW AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

THERE IS STILL A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE EXACT TIMING AND
RAINFALL AMOUNTS...BUT THESE STORMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE QUITE
VIGOROUS...AND BRING LARGE RAINFALL TOTALS TO THE LOWER ELEVATIONS
AND HEAVY SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS.

THIS ALL WEEK LONG EVENT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE RAINFALL OF 5
TO 8 INCHES NEAR THE COAST...TO 20 OR MORE INCHES ON THE COASTAL
MOUNTAIN SLOPES. TYPICALLY WETTER LOCATIONS ON THE COASTAL MOUNTAINS
SLOPES COULD RECEIVE 30 OR MORE INCHES OF RAINFALL. EVEN THE DESERT
LOCATIONS ARE LIKELY TO RECEIVE BETWEEN 2 AND 4 INCHES OF RAIN.

SNOW LEVELS WILL MOSTLY FLUCTUATE BETWEEN 5500 AND 6500 FEET WHICH
WOULD CONFINE HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS TO THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS IN
THE SAN BERNARDINO AND SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS. AROUND 4 FEET OF
SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE AT THE HEAVIEST LOCATIONS.

WITH THE RAINFALL AMOUNTS EXPECTED...THERE IS HIGH LIKELIHOOD
OF FLASH FLOODING...ALONG WITH MUD AND DEBRIS FLOWS...ESPECIALLY IN
AND BELOW RECENTLY BURNED AREAS. THERE COULD ALSO BE ROCK SLIDES
ALONG MOUNTAIN HIGHWAYS...MAKING TRAVEL IMPASSABLE AT TIMES.

THE HEAVY SNOW FALL AMOUNTS EXCEPTED...THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF
AVALANCHES FOR AREAS LOCATED BELOW THE STEEPER SLOPES OF THE HIGHER
SAN BERNARDINO AND SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS.

THE STRENGTH OF THE JET STREAM DRIVING THESE STORMS IS OVER 200 MPH
AND THE STORMS THEMSELVES WILL BE MOVING RAPIDLY ONSHORE IN QUICK
SUCCESSION.

AS A RESULT THERE ARE LIKELY TO BE STRONG WINDS THROUGH MUCH OF NEXT
WEEK. OVER THE COASTAL WATERS GALE FORCE OR HIGHER WINDS ARE
EXPECTED. OVER LAND...DAMAGING WINDS ARE LIKELY TO PRECEDE THE
ARRIVAL OF EACH STORM. WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 50 AND 60 MPH ARE POSSIBLE
FOR THE COASTS AND VALLEYS...WHILE THE MOUNTAINS AND DESERTS MAY
HAVE GUSTS 70 MPH OR HIGHER.

PEOPLE SHOULD STAY UPDATED WITH THE LATEST FORECASTS. LISTEN TO NOAA
WEATHER RADIO OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WEATHER.GOV/SANDIEGO FOR THE
LATEST UPDATES OF FORECASTS AND WARNINGS.

$$
SMALL/BALFOUR

Weather Report Screen Shot -- that's inches of rain, not snow!

Ocean Beach Pier

2010-01-14T23:03:00.001-08:00

Inspired by my good friend Bob, and by the 15' waves San Diego has been experiencing the past couple of days, I decided to head with my wife down to the Ocean Beach Pier this evening after work. Thanks to rush-hour traffic, we arrived at the pier just in time to catch the last few rays of sunshine before the sun set over the horizon. Hoping to at least catch the Green Flash to make our visit worthwhile, I set the camera to Continuous Mode and rapidly shot off about 50 frames in rapid succession. Unfortunately, atmospheric conditions were not conducive to rendering a Green Flash :( Additionally, the pier was closed due to wave damage, so we decided to walk down the steps to the beach.

With daylight quickly diminishing, I scanned around for interesting subjects to "paint". Except for a few lonely people, the beach and boardwalk were rather empty. Seeing a lady walking towards us with her dog, I decided to "paint" a few pictures of her -- the "paintings" didn't quite turn out how I had pictured them, but I was pretty happy with the results nonetheless. After the lady with the dog passed by, a young man walked in front of us and I managed to get a couple shots of him as well. Below are two of my favorite photos from this evening.

Evening Beach Stroll with Dog

Lonely Beach Stroll

The Best of 2009

2009-12-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

As 2009 comes to a close, I'd like to share a small selection of my favorite photographs that I've taken this past year. Some of these photos made it either to my website or this blog, while others did not. Many of those that did not make it to my website were either not "artistic" enough or I just didn't feel like sharing them. Either way, they still hold a special place in my heart, which is why I'm sharing them now in this slideshow.

The song selected for this slideshow is "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection. I first heard this song in the movie "Reservoir Dogs", and then again while watching "So You Think You Can Dance" in which Pauline Mata and Peter Sabasino performed while in front of a giant backdrop of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Their dance was one of my favorites and you can watch it here.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Christmas Portraits

2009-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I was asked by two friends to take some Christmas portraits of their sons and some of the whole family, as well as a couple of maternity shots. I had just bought some new equipment a few days prior and was eager to try it out (for those interested, I bought a new Nikon SB-600 flash, two flash stands, and one backdrop kit to hold the roll of 6' wide backdrop paper my Dad had sent me some time ago). Below are but a few of the pictures taken.

BTW, the second picture of Andrew has been Photoshopped. Can you tell which part? If you guessed the Christmas tree, you're wrong. It's the present sitting/standing/leaning on the overturned box! Andrew was becoming a bit irritable (most likely from the heat of the costume) and wasn't cooperating fully. We managed to get a smile out of him by fake coughing and gagging. In the rush to shoot the picture, we left the gift out of the picture, but I added it later by copying and pasting it from another picture I took after this one.

Halloween 2002

2009-11-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

I was recently discussing with a friend a Halloween costume I had made for my wife back in 2002 for her company Halloween costume contest. At the time, she was working for Qualex, a subsidiary of Kodak, which was mainly responsible for processing film dropped off by customers of larger chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc. I used to work for Qualex, too, but left the company in 2000 to enter the world of fiber-optic technology.

Two weeks before Halloween, Gena came home from work and informed me of the upcoming company Halloween party and costume contest, and also of the grand prize: a 4.0MP Kodak Easyshare DX4900 digital camera, which was announced by Kodak February 22, 2002, and retailed for approximately $500. No sooner had she finished telling me all this when I was struck by inspiration and told her I would make a costume guaranteeing that she would win the camera (hint: anything company-themed is a good guarantee of a win).

With only two weeks to plan, design, and build the costume, I had no time to waste and worked on it every day up to one hour before the contest when I pulled up to the side door of the company to drop off the costume. The production manager opened the door for me and was so blown away by the costume that she immediately paged the whole company over the intercom to come to the Film department. Once everybody was gathered around, they all agreed, hands down, that Gena should receive the grand prize -- no voting was needed.

And that was my first foray into the world of digital photography.

Below are some pictures of Gena's costume, as well as the digital camera that we won (all taken with the new camera).

PACQUIAO WON!!!

2009-11-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

Rather than going into the highlights of the match which can be found all over the Internet, I just wanted to express my excitement at Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao's win over Miquel Cotto and commemorate the win with this, my favorite, fight poster (click on image for a 1250x1830 pixel poster).

Yellow Belt Promotion

2009-11-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Anthony was promoted from white to yellow belt in tae kwondo on November 10th. It took a bit longer than expected because of a few missed classes, but he finally reached the requisite number of class hours, as well as skills, to graduate to the next level. Needless to say, he was really quite excited about his achievement. Congratulations, Anthony!

Of Photographic Challenges and Stereotypes

2009-07-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Too often the quality of a photograph is based on stereotypes such as sharpness/clearness and exposure, with subject matter being of least importance. One might have captured a controversial image of a starving infant in Africa, for example, but if that image doesn't meet the stereotypes, nobody will really see the message. What you WILL hear are comments such as "The image is out of focus" or "The exposure is off". Who came up with these ridiculous "rules"?

I recently read about some photographers who add "texture" to their photographs in post-processing. For example, to an image of a homeless person on the street, one might add a gravel texture to enhance the "hardness" of the image and make the message louder. Or to the image of a bride and groom, one might add a paisley texture. The combinations are endless and result in some interesting photographs that illicit a slew of emotions. I don't see anything wrong with using this process to enhance a photograph, and I kinda like it myself.

What I find wrong, however, is that the author of this particular article posted a "how to" and stated that is impossible to achieve this sort of layered effect in-camera. I took that as a personal challenge and created the image you see below, which by a few people has been likened to an oil painting. Let me remind you: this effect was achieved in-camera, not in post-processing!

Tobacco Hornworm

2009-07-23T09:06:00.001-07:00

I found this little guy munching away at the leaves of my tomato plant -- I've noticed little holes appearing in the leaves and have diligently been checking for caterpillars regulary, picking them off and flicking them away or feeding them to ants whenever I find some (they're usually about 1/4" long). Recently, though, I've noticed entire leaves missing and suspected there must be a caterpillar that has been eluding me. Sure enough, near a stem that has had all its leaves eaten off of it, I found this Tobacco Hornworm. Easily confused with a Tomato Hornworm, the Tobacco Hornworm "horn" is red, while a Tomato Hornworm's is black.

Tobacco Hornworm

4.0 Earthquake with a Surprising Aftershock -- SQUIDS!

2009-07-12T10:45:00.001-07:00

This morning, at 7:34 a.m. PST, San Diego awoke to the shaking of a 4.0 earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean approximately 19 miles off the coast of San Diego. Many residents reported feeling the quake, although we didn't feel anything.

Shortly after the quake, beachgoers began spotting squid, jumbo Humboldt squid, to be precise, beaching themselves on the sand at La Jolla Shores. At this point, nobody's really sure about this unusual behavior of the squid, but some speculate it was a result of the earthquake, while others think it's because of the rapidly changing water temperatures we've been experiencing lately.

Following are a couple videos courtesy of San Diego's NBC 7/39.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video.

Evian's Rollerskating Babies (International Version)

2009-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Somebody sent me a link to this video yesterday and I liked it so much that I wanted to share it with everyone. It kinda reminds me of the dancing baby video of the 90s, which absolutely freaked me out (I hated that video!), but I like this one.

Catching Up

2009-07-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated this blog, and I hope you regular readers don't feel like I've neglected you. Things have been pretty busy for me lately; aside from work, I've been busy with my photography, shooting a charity event for the 15th anniversary celebration of the George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Center, celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary with a dinner cruise around San Diego Bay, photographing a musical performance and, finally, photographing 4th of July fireworks! Oh, yeah, and I've got my regular job, too.

Below are a couple pictures from each event. Except for our anniversary dinner cruise pictures, clicking on any other pictures will take you to that gallery.

L-R: Cheryl Williams, Representative for Assemblywoman Mary Salas; Kelly Focht, GGGAFC CEO; Dawn DeStefani, GGGAFC Program Director

Gena, Anthony, and Me on the Deck of the Inspiration Hornblower

L-R: Rex Castor, Ken St. John, and Roby Robertson of the trio Schmooze performing for the first time in four years at Rebecca's Coffeehouse

Fireworks over San Diego Bay

Husband for Sale

2009-06-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

I came across the following entirely by accident while Googling some photography-related material. The following appeared today, June 25, 2009, in the Toronto Craigslist. I'm not sure how long it will remain online, so I've copied & pasted the ad in its entirity here. I thought it was hilarious (here's the direct link).

WTT: Ken Rockwell-Obsessed Husband (North York)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reply to: sale-hpcn7-1239135682@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]Date: 2009-06-25, 12:36PM EDT

One gently-used caucasian male. 36 years-old. Slightly defective. Remembers the names of Ken Rockwell's kids but not our own. Constantly buying high-end photo gear then selling it on craigslist the second Canon or Nikon releases something new. Complains endlessly about lowballers, tire-kickers and pixel peepers. Sold car to buy a Leica body and now wants to mortage house to buy lenses, all at Ken Rockwell's insistence. Maybe you can reprogram him. I have no time because I have to cart our kids around on the TTC and work two jobs while while he fiddles with film and DSLR to achieve super-saturated highlights.

Reasonable offers accepted: Food, clothing, 1992 Subaru Justy. Offers of photo equipment will promptly be deleted! Lowball kickers are welcome! A swift one in the nuts will do him some good.

Location: North York
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1239135682

Mobile Upload Test

2009-06-21T10:42:00.001-07:00

This is my umpteenth attempt at mobile uploading -- previous attempts have failed miserably and I was unable to get any help in the Blogger Help Forums. If this upload is successful, then I will add a comment about the picture later. I hope this works...

Sweet success! It finally worked! OMG, you have no idea how many times I've had to register my phone and perform an upload test only to receive an error message stating that I needed to register my phone -- it was a vicious circle, but everything seems to be working fine (knock on wood). Now I just need to figure out how to eliminate the white top and bottom borders of the picture, and how to center the picture automatically (I had to manually center the above picture).

Oh, yeah, I was going to comment on the above picture -- this picture was taken during my lunch break at work. I had a can of Cherry Coke and a bag of black cherries when I decided to put the two together to create a "still-life". Aside from the lousy lighting and lousy resolution of my phone's camera, I think the picture turned out pretty good.

Anthony and Jack Hanna

2009-06-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

Going through some old computer files this evening, I came across these pictures from the late morning of April 24, 2004 of Anthony with the celebrity zoologist, Jack Hanna. Jack was on a tour and made a stop at San Diego's University Towne Centre mall to talk about animals and the importance of global awareness. We had no idea he would be there and were pleasantly surpised when we found out -- of course, Anthony was excited about meeting Jack, especially since he and I watched Jack's nature shows on TV together. Jack talked with Anthony for a bit while his assistants were busy setting up the stage, and ended up giving Anthony a little book and binder about animals which he personally signed "To my Pal, Anthony. Jack Hanna".

Me, Anthony, and Jack Hanna

Jack Hanna

Anthony Feeding a Parrot

Double-Exposure Portrait

2009-06-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with my homemade snoot and decided to take a couple shots of my friend, Bob. This particular photograph was taken at work with all the lights in the room turned on, but the aperture was stopped down to f/36. I attached the snoot to the flash which Bob held off-camera for me. Took a couple test shots to dial in the flash power and ended up shooting at 1/16 power -- the snoot really concentrates the light! Once the flash power and Kelvin temp were properly dialed in, it was just a matter of positioning Bob during the double-exposure. This was my favorite picture, however, I should've paid more attention to Bob's head position/angle in the second (smaller) shot. Thanks for being such a great sport throughout the shoot, Bob!

Bob Cacho

Heading to Farms for Summer Internships

2009-06-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

My sister, Gina, made the New York Times! The NYT did a short piece on liberal arts students who are heading to farms as interns for the summer, in search of both work and social change, and she was one of the featured students. Check out the pictures of Gina on the NYT website! Way to go, Gina! Love ya, Beans!

If Ya Can't Stand the Heat...

2009-05-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about these pictures except that they were shot through the heat radiating from the flames of the grill. These were taken on Memorial Day at Lake Poway. I really liked the effect the radiation had on the background, but didn't notice it until I got home and viewed the pictures on the monitor. Had I realized the effects I was getting, I would've taken more shots with more interesting backgrounds. There will be more barbecues before the summer is over...

Heat Radiation

Radiant Background

Houttuynia Cordata

2009-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

We spent Saturday afternoon at Mission Trails Regional Park trying to get some photos to enter into an international photography contest. I went there with the goal of getting some "paintings" of the old indian dam and landscape, but was surprised by the number of visitors there -- this was the first time I had seen so many people around that area in all the years I've been going there. With so many people around and on the dam, getting the photograph I envisioned was impossible. I tried making the best of the situation by incorporating some people into the photographs, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I did, however, manage to get some pictures of some flowers, Houttuynia cordata, that I'm pretty satisfied with, but I don't think they're international photography contest caliber. Would love to hear your thoughts...

Houttuynia Cordata Dream

Houttuynia Cordata Painting

Attack of the dinosaur... skeleton?!

2009-05-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Since its arrival at the San Diego Natural History Museum, Anthony has been begging us to go see Body Worlds, the exhibit that displays human bodies in various forms. The exhibit is really quite amazing and extremely educational, and seeing a real human body sans skin, and all the internal organs, is an experience one must not miss. One of the things that really stood out for me was seeing a smoker's lungs laying beside healthy lungs -- the difference was like black and white... literally. The healthy lungs where a shade of light gray, while the smoker's lungs where a deep dark gray, nearly black. I would've liked to have taken some pictures, but photography was not permitted.

After touring the exhibit, we made our way to the main hall to tour the rest of the museum. As we stepped out into the main hall, we noticed visitors screaming and running for the nearest exits -- it seemed a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton had come alive and was running amuck through the museum!

As we were standing by the doorway dumbfounded, a lady ran by in front of us and yelled, "Run for it!" She didn't need to tell us twice -- I grabbed Gena, and Gena grabbed Anthony, and we hauled ass to the nearest exit. As we were running, I heard heavy footsteps behind us. I looked over my shoulder and noticed the T. Rex skeleton bearing down on us -- I barely had time to aim my camera over my shoulder and capture the image you see below before making it safely out of the building. I guess the events in the movie "A Night at the Museum" really can happen... ;)

The T. Rex Skeleton Chasing Us

Sicilian Festival

2009-05-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

After our little blunder of getting the date of the Sicilian Festival mixed up and going down to Little Italy the day before the event (see previous post), we finally made it down there on the correct day. And what a day it was! After driving around downtown for nearly 30 minutes looking for a parking space, we finally found one in an underground garage, a 2-minute walk from the Festival. One could already smell the Italian food and hear the live Italian singers and musicians performing on three stages! Vendors lined both sides of the streets selling Italian shirts, caps, keychains, license plates, books, you name it! But of course, the food was the most popular item, with people lining up 30 deep just to get some lasagne, spaghetti, ravioli, and a ton of other pasta and non-pasta dishes, as well as delicious Italian deserts (gelato being one of my favorites). What a great atmosphere! Check out some of the pictures below...

Entrance to the Sicilian Festival

Fresh-caught Fish

Spaghetti Eating Contest

A Traditional Pupazzo (or Marionette)

Cool Older Sicilian Gentleman with a Cool Hat

Another Cool Sicilian with a Cool Hat

I love this license plate!

Anthony feeding a stuffed horse

Little Italy Spaghetteria

2009-05-17T18:28:00.001-07:00

If I'm not careful, this just might turn into a restaurant review blog! But I can't help it -- this weekend we visited two restaurants with which we were thoroughly impressed: Phil's BBQ (see prior post), and now the Little Italy Spaghetteria. However, we didn't actually eat at the Spaghetteria, we only went inside to order an antipasta and calamari fritti to go. We heard about the Sicilian Festival that was supposed to take place this weekend, but we got the days mixed up and drove down to Little Italy a day early. So as not to make this a wasted trip, and because Gena had a craving for calamari fritti, we decided to check out the Spaghetteria just because it was right next to wear we parked.

The first thing that catches one's eye is the cute little Ferrari-red Fiat 500 parked in the middle of the dining room floor. Judging from pictures we've seen, the Fiat actually makes its way around the restaurant a couple times per year (not by itself, of course).

Once your eyes have taken in the cute little Fiat, they next start to wander around the restaurant, from the red and white checkered tablecloths to the portraits of Italian celebreties on the walls, then to a giant cupboard laden with dry pasta noodles, cans of tomato paste, garlic, bottles of wine, and other good stuff reminiscent of grandma's kitchen. Oh, did I mention the moped sitting on the wall separating the booths?

Tucked away in the back corner, and a little bit in the dark, is the bar, a neat little place for friends to hang out and throw back a few while watching one of seven shows being displayed on their seven plasma televisions above the bar.

After taking everything in visually, our to-go order finally arrived and I had time to shoot off a couple more pics of Gena and Anthony before heading home to enjoy the food. We decided that we would all have to come here one evening and dine in this remarkable restaurant.

Phil's BBQ

2009-05-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

After hearing friends and coworkers rave about Phil's BBQ, we finally decided to check it out Friday evening and go there for dinner. OMG! The place is awesome! And the food is super delicious! Apparently, Phil's has been in San Diego for about 10 years now -- how is it that we never heard of it?! Actually, we have heard of it.

Phil's BBQ is located in a strip mall right next to Kobey's Swap Meet on Sports Arena Boulevard. We visit Kobey's Swap Meet a couple times a year and have seen Phil's delivery and catering trucks parked on the opposite side of the fence. Thinking it was just a "regular" BBQ and rib restaurant like any other, we never really gave it a second glance. Y'see, other BBQ restaurants left a bad taste in our mouths -- they're overpriced, their portions are small, and their ribs don't have any meat on 'em. Plus, their side dishes left a lot to be desired.

Now, I'm not getting paid for saying all this, but we were thoroughly impressed with Phil's from the moment we turned into the parking lot -- there was a line of people in front of the restaurant waiting to get in, and at one corner of the building was a sign that read "20 minute wait from this point". Phil's doesn't take reservations -- you walk in, order your food, find a table and, after about 20 minutes, they will buzz you to pick up your food at the counter.

Eating such a meal as in the pictures below can get quite messy, and napkins or paper towels don't always get everything off. With so many customers dining in, the restrooms would quickly fill to capacity with people waiting to wash their hands. Leave it to Phil's to think of the customer: they installed a huge washbasin outside of the restrooms where several customers can wash their hands at once!

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed the food, atmosphere, and experience and will definitely be dining their regularly.

California, Here We Come!

2009-05-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening (May 14, 2009), the fourth graders of Anthony's school put on a musical/play about the history of California, "California, Here We Come!" From it's discovery by the first European (the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542), to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) which secured American control over California, to being admitted to the United States in 1850, the play included the California Gold Rush, Hollywood, and all things leading up to the present day that made California the great state it is today (and the eighth largest economy in the world). The students put on an excellent performance filled with energy that had the audience tapping their toes in time to the music and laughing at the jokes that were slipped in. They even sang the hit song "California, Here We Come" by Phantom Planet! And they did all this in half an hour! Of all the plays I've watched Anthony perform in, this was my favorite!

Below are a few pictures from the play; clicking on any one of them will take you to the gallery page where you can view more.

Part of the cast of "California Here We Come!

A young Juan Cabrillo

Anthony explaining the importance of water to California

Gena in the Flowers

2009-05-01T09:10:00.001-07:00

Going through some older photos, I came across these two of Gena sitting in a field of flowers. These were taken at the same location as the other flower photos -- about two blocks from where I work, in front of one of Qualcomm's many buildings. These were taken a week after the flower photos, but the grass had already started turning brown by then.

(Clicking on a picture will take you to the gallery)

"Gena Amongst the Flowers"

Bass Player "Painting"

2009-04-30T17:50:00.001-07:00

I spent last Sunday morning down in Balboa Park with friends from my photography course revisiting techniques we had previously learned. Everyone took a variety of great photographs, and I was actually taken aback by a few that I took entirely by accident! The photo below of a bass player is perhaps my favorite of the day.

(Clicking on a picture will take you to the gallery)

"Painted Bass Player"

Exploits of a Mom

2009-04-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Those who know SQL will appreciate this (I don't know SQL, but it cracked me up anyway):

RSS Feeds Now Available! Hurry! While Supplies Last!

2009-04-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

I finally added an RSS feed service to my blog this week to allow visitors to be easily notified of updates. If you'd like to be informed of updates to my blog, click the orange RSS icon under my profile picture to the right -- you'll have a choice of subsribing via a feed, or having my blog updates delivered to you by email.

If you have any questions about subscribing to my feed or (Heaven forbid!) cancelling my feed, please send me an email and I will try to help the best I can.

"Paintings"

2009-04-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of my first attempts at "painting" with a lens -- a camera lens, that is. Painting with a lens allows the photographer to photograph the world around him in ways that rival actual paintings and unintentionally misleads viewers into believing the work was accomplished with photo editing software. The first picture is simply an attempt at "punching", or placing color behind your subject to draw attention to it. With the second picture, I actually tried to render a brush-stroke effect (don't mind the blurry flower). What do you think?

(Clicking on a picture will take you to the gallery)

"Punching"

Attempt at Brush Strokes Effect

Las Vegas, Baby!

2009-04-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

The weekend following my Aunty's memorial service in San Diego, we drove to Las Vegas with some friends. Monday morning, before heading back to San Diego, we hooked up with my Uncle Ben and my cousins for breakfast at one of the local casinos off the strip. It was really nice seeing them again, and we plan to see them on future trips to Las Vegas.

The Cabiles and Runfola Families

The Runfola and DeStefani Families

It's SPRINGTIME!

2009-04-09T13:31:00.001-07:00

And the flowers are in full bloom all over San Diego!

About two weeks ago, a field full of wildflowers was in full bloom in front of an office building about 1/4 mile from where I work. Because it was such a beautiful day, my friend, Bob, and I decided to go and take some pictures of the flowers during our lunch break. Apart from getting "regular" shots of the flowers, we also tried "painting" with our cameras, a technique that requires thinking outside of the box and which many people mistake for Photoshopped.

That same weekend, we traveled to Las Vegas with some friends where Gena and I visited the Arboretum at Bellagio. The third and fourth pictures are of a "crystal" ball in the center with water flowing out of the top and down the sides and is surrounded by tulips.

Below are a couple of my favorites:

"Painted" Golden Poppies

Dizzy Daisies

Spinning Tulips

Tulips in Warp Drive

Doljanchi

2009-04-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

I was asked to take pictures for my friend's son's dol, his first birthday celebration. Dol, or doljanchi, is a Korean tradition that celebrates the birthday of a 1-year old child. The birthday babies wear a hanbok and a traditional hat; jobawi or gulle for girls, and bokgeon or hogeon for boys.

The highlight of the dol is a "ritual" where the child is placed in front of a table of foods and objects such as string, books, brushes, ink and money. The child is then urged to pick up an object from the table, where it is believed the one selected will foretell the child's future. For example, if the child picks up a brush or book, he is destined to be a scholar. If he picks up money or rice, he will be wealthy; cakes or other food, a government official; a sword or bow, a military commander. If the child picks up the thread, it is believed he will live a long life. This is followed by feasting, singing, and playing with the toddler. Most often, guests will present gifts of money, clothes, or gold rings to the parents for the child at this time. Click the pictures to view the gallery.

Andrew DeStefani

Deciding what to pick up...

Proud Mom and Dad, Joe and Dawn, with Andrew

Borrego Springs Camping Trip

2009-03-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we went camping with some friends from a local photo club, SDPhotoForum.com, at the Palm Canyon Campground in Borrego Springs. It was our first time actually camping together as a family -- unfortunately, Anthony had caught a cold at school the day we left and wasn't feeling very well. We eventually ended up going home early Sunday morning.

While we were there, we learned about landscape and flower photography and used our newfound knowledge on a 1.5 mile hike into Palm Canyon to reach a 7-foot waterfall (wow). The sights witnessed during the hike made the waterfall rather anticlimactic, but we all tried to make the best of it by taking as many creative photos as we could. Unfortunately for me, upon review, I was dissatisfied with the quality of my pictures and deleted the majority of them. The ones you see posted here are a few of my favorites.

We actually had a really good time in the desert and plan to go again later this year.

Our Tent

Mac preparing breakfast

Some pictures of cactuses (cactii?) and wildflowers

Starting the 1.5 mile hike into the badlands

A babbling brook about halfway up

Greeted by an oasis the end of the 1.5 mile hike

Enjoying the company of friends and good food

What the Duck!?

2009-02-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a photography-oriented comic strip entirely by accident. To be honest, I can't even recall how and where I found it! The comic strip is called "What the Duck" and is drawn by Aaron Jackson. It features a camera-wielding duck that finds himself in situations that we have all experienced at one time or another, or will experience. Check out his website, What the Duck, for some great and hilarious comics. I've included two of my favorites below (so far).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-01-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

It is now 2009 and hopefully everyone's new year is off to a good start. Let 2009 be a better year than 2008!

I called my step-dad in Spokane, Washington on Christmas Day via Skype and we talked about the weather -- I mentioned the two feet of snow we got in our local mountains a couple weeks ago (see blog post below) and what fun we had playing in it. While we were talking, my step-sister, Yelena, went outside and filmed the area around their front and backyards that is covered in snow and then emailed it to me -- unbelievable! The snow in the video is nearly four feet high, while the berm created by the snow plows is nearly seven feet high!

I called them again on New Year's Eve and they said they had received even more snow than what was in the video -- at least one and a half to two feet more! Check out the video below from Christmas Day:

SNOW DAY!

2008-12-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

So after the winter storm we had last week which dumped up to 2" of rain in parts of San Diego, and up to two feet of snow in our local mountains, the family and I decided to take a trip up to Mt. Laguna for some fun in the snow. We woke up early, had a nice breakfast, and then drove about 45 minutes inland to the Lagunas.

The base of the "mountain" was dry without any snow in sight. We then continued up the hill for about five miles when we came to a roadblock -- the CHP (California Highway Patrol) was directing all vehicles into a turnout and instructing drivers to install snow chains. Vehicles with 4WD were allowed to continue without installing chains, while those without 4WD or snow chains were told to turn around and go back.

Road Leading up the Mountain

Once we had our chains on, we continued up the mountain. It wasn't too long before we hit snow-covered roads. The snow plow had already made a couple passes prior to our arrival, but had left some packed snow on the road surface as there was ice underneath, and everybody knows that driving on packed snow is safer than driving on ice.

Snow-Covered Sunrise Highway

We finally reached a clearing with snow-covered hills on which some people were already enjoying themselves. We parked our truck, bundled ourselves up nice and warm, and headed out into the snow for some fun. What a blast we had, especially Anthony because he hadn't been in the snow since he was four or five years old.

Click any of the pictures to be taken directly to my website where you can view more pictures.

Gena, Anthony, and Chris

Time-Lapse Video Questions

2008-11-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

Since posting the Monarch butterfly time-lapse video, I've received many questions from family, friends, and visitors. I was expecting the majority to be technical questions, but instead I received mostly questions about the butterfly and the "weird contraption".

So, here are a few of the questions received and my answers to them (thanks to Kevin for helping to answer some of them):

1. Was the butterfly a boy or a girl? The butterfly in the video was a male. One can tell the difference between male and female by looking at the tops of the two smaller rear wings -- a male will have what appears to be a black dot along the "vein" on both rear wings, while the female is missing this characteristic. Check out the pictures below for a comparison.

Male Monarch Butterfly

Female Monarch Butterfly
2. What is that weird contraption...? LOL! That "weird contraption" was built by Kevin to increase the success rate of releasing Monarchs. Kevin removes the chrysalis from the underside of a milkweed leaf from his backyard, attaches it to a piece of paper, and suspends it from the mesh wire enclosure. When the butterfly emerges, it first grabs on to the ridges of the chrysalis and then makes its way up to the mesh where it grasps the wires and hangs upside-down to allow the fluids from its abdomen to enter and fill the wings. In nature, the caterpillar lays a circle of silk a couple inches in diameter on the underside of a leaf, from the center of which it then suspends the chrysalis. When the butterfly emerges, it is then able to grasp onto the silk. Through careful observation, Kevin has determined that 1/4" mesh wire is ideal for the butterflies in that they are essentially forced to spread their legs farther apart to grasp the wires. By spreading their legs farther apart, their center of gravity is more centralized and reduces the risk of them falling which can be devastating or deadly if the wings become damaged, especially if they haven't dried completely.

3. How long does it take the butterfly to hatch? The butterfly takes about 8-14 days (depending on environmental conditions, particulary temperature) to mature enough for it to emerge from its chrysalis. The actual emergence out of the chrysalis takes 10-15 minutes.

4. What does your friend do with the chrysalises? Kevin sends the chrysalises to various organizations that request them for the purpose of public education.

5. How can you tell when a butterfly is ready to emerge? Check out the picture below -- it shows two chrysalis, one jade green and the other transparent. When the chrysalis appears slightly opaque, and the butterfly's colors are already showing through, that is a sure-fire indicator that the butterfly will emerge the following morning. In the picture, the chrysalis is completely transparent and about to emerge within minutes.

Chrysalises Suspended from Mesh Wire
(the butterfly on the right will emerge soon)

Monarch Butterfly Emergence Time-Lapse Video

2008-11-16T10:45:00.001-08:00

Exciting news! I've completed my first time-lapse video! While in retrospect I believe I could've done a better job, I must say that this video turned out rather good considering it's my first one. This video, or rather, the capturing of the images, is what has kept me busy since the last posting.

About a month ago, shortly after my last post, Gena, Anthony, and I visited the home of my friend and collegue, Kevin. Kevin is a great guy with many interests, one of which is raising and keeping butterflies. His butterfly sanctuary is unlike anything I have ever seen before -- it's completely out in the open without any nets or cages to keep the butterflies in! His backyard is filled with a plethora of host plants strategically planted to attract a variety of butterflies. The butterflies, when passing by his property, see the sources of food growing there and the protection offered by the various plants, that they decide to make Kevin's backyard their home. It's really quite impressive and must be experienced by everyone!

A few days after our visit, Kevin gave Anthony two Monarch chrysalises (or chrysalides) to watch and learn about butterflies. Both butterflies emerged after a few days and, while I wanted to photograph the emergence of at least one of them, I completely missed it... by about an hour. Kevin then gave Anthony two more chrysalises and, again, I missed the emergence of the first one by only a few minutes. I had woken up early the morning of the emergence (one can tell when the butterfly is ready to emerge) and set the camera up to record the event. After returning from a quick restroom break, the butterfly had already emerged -- AAAARGH! Missed it agiain!

Exactly one week later, the second butterfly was ready to emerge and, once again, I woke up early to get everything set up to capture the momentous event. SUCCESS! Oh, sweet victory! I finally managed to capture the entire event! I had my intervalometer set to capture an image every two seconds, had the camera set to manual focus, Aperture Priority, and Auto White Balance (because of the quickly varying color temperature of the morning sun). Why did I select a delay of two seconds? My intention was to create an approximately 30-second video at 24 fps (frames per second). The emergence event takes about 10-15 minutes, so my calculations gave me a delay of two seconds (and nearly 700 frames!). I didn't expect the butterfly to move around that much, so that kinda explains the choppy video. My next attempt will be to create a smoother video which would require 1-second delays between exposures and twice as many frames!

So, without any further adieu, check out the video below!

Major Changes

2008-10-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

There have been some major changes to my blog since my last posting back in July of this year, most notably the layout and design. For those that have been following my blog, you've probably noticed that the background color has changed from black to a dark gray (graphite), and that I now have a custom header with navbar that matches my website.

The second thing you may have noticed is the wider margin -- I did this with the idea to be able to post two or more pictures side-by-side. Please let me know what you think of this new layout/design.

A big THANK YOU goes out Denise Goldberg, a fellow SmugMugger and DGrinner, for her great patience in helping me out with the HTML and CSS coding to get my blog to match my website -- without her help, this blog would not exist. Please take a moment to check out her beautiful pictures and leave a comment or two in her Guestbook.

Oh, yeah. Did you catch that in the previous paragraph? I mentioned that I have a website. That's right, I've finally made it official and have put my photographic services up for sale. At this point in time, however, I haven't found a clear niche that I want to specialize in -- heck, I'm having so much fun doing a little bit of everything, I just might keep it that way ;-) You can visit my website, Runfola Photography, by clicking the link. If you need a photographer for a special event (except weddings), you can find my contact information on my website.

So, what I have been up to since my last posting? Well, in August I enrolled in a creative photography course recommended to me by my good friend Bob Cacho. After seeing how much Bob had learned, I decided to check it out for myself and enrolled in the not-quite-beginner course. Because I've been using cameras since the age of 10, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of the techniques and terminology, which really helped me a lot in this course, but I couldn't have been more wrong about my knowledge of techniques -- it turned out that there was so much more to learn!

The great thing about this course is that I learned to think outside of the box of traditional photography that dictates that everything must be perfectly exposed, perfectly sharp, perfectly centered or to always use the 1/3 or 80/20 rule. Who said I can't shoot into the sun? Who said never to shoot at high noon, and that the best light is in the early morning and early evening? You'd be surprised what great shots one can achieve when one decides to break these mindsets! Keep a look out for some of these pictures which, if they aren't already, will be posted soon.

Fire Hydrant

Dripping Pipe

Until next time,

Chris

I'm Ba-ack! (Originally posted 7/12/08)

2008-10-02T20:33:00.001-07:00

I'm Ba-ack!

Actually, I never left. It's been a while since I've updated my photo blog (about four months) and Bob has been giving me heat about it, so I thought I'd better post something just to get him off my back (just kidding, Bob -- you know I love ya!). The pictures posted below are just a few of the many that I took within those four months and are in no particular order. So, without any further adieu, here are a couple of pictures that I've taken in the past four months (please leave comments):

Gena and Anthony

A lily at one of the local parks.

A friend of a friend's daughter at her Quinceañera
-- I was asked to take pictures.

A Great Blue Heron flying across the pond at the Barona Indian Reservation.

I saw this scene near a baseball field and thought it would make an interesting picture.

Adirondack chairs beside the Barona Indian Reservation's pond --
I would love to build one of these on my own...

One of many frequent visitors to the Barona Indian Reservation's pond.

I liked the look of these stairs.

Me swinging from a rope suspended over a creek in the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve.

Some girl riding a boogie board on the WaveRider at Belmont Park's Wave House
where Gena's company held their annual picnic this year.

Whispiness (Originally posted 3/08/08)

2008-10-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

I took the picture below in December 2007 and only today decided to post it. The clouds had an interesting "whispiness" to them which I thought would make a good picture.

Color-to-B&W Conversion Study (Originally posted 3/07/8)

2008-10-02T20:31:00.002-07:00

I was discussing photography with a friend from work; he enrolled in a photography class and has learned quite a bit and is taking some really great pictures (check out "Bob Cacho's Photo Blog", or click on the link to the right). One of his more recent assignments was to photograph in black and white using different filters and noting their effects. I mentioned to him that I converted a color picture of a cactus into B&W for a friend some time ago, and that I would post it here for him to see. So, Bob, here is the original color picture I was telling you about (scroll down for the B&W's):

This second picture is a basic, run-of-the-mill B&W conversion (notice how "blah" everything looks).

Finally, here is the final product. Unlike the previous picture which had simply been converted to grayscale, the image below is still an RGB file with a layer mask applied in Photoshop. I then adjusted the red, green, and blue channels in the Channel Mixer to get the results you see below.

Google Docs Blog Test (Originally posted 2/21/08)

2008-10-02T20:31:00.001-07:00

Okay, so here I am again, but this time I'm using Google Docs to attempt to post to Blogger. Obviously, my attempt at using Word 2007 to type a blog and upload pictures as well failed miserably, and I wasn't able to find clear instructions in the Blogger Help Groups, either. I did, however learn that I could publish to Blogger using Google Docs, so here I am.

I've inserted a coupld of close-up pictures of some blossoms from our nectarine tree which started blossoming this past weekend. Using Google Docs, I resized the images to a more manageable size, only because Google Docs won't accept anything over 2MB. Additionally, I've right-aligned one picture and left-aligned the second, both with "wrap text around image" turned on (not sure if this is gonna work with Blogger, but we'll see).

So, if you're able to see two close-up pictures of nectarine blossoms, then you'll know that Google Docs works for publishing to Blogger.

Office 2007 Blog Test (Originally posted 2/18/08)

2008-10-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

This is a test of the Microsoft Office Word 2007 Blog feature, which is supposed to allow me to create and publish to my Blogger account using Word 2007. I'm not sure if it will upload the two test images I've included in this draft, but it apparently has the capability to do so. We'll see… The two test images above show a ceramic before and after MEMS chip attachment. Although it is difficult to see, the image on the right has already been wirebonded.

Some Older Pictures (Originally posted 2/11/08)

2008-10-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

After posting the last set of sunrise pictures, I was reminded of some sunset pictures I had taken early last year shorty after purchasing my camera. Up until that point, I was shooting everything in Auto mode. It wasn't until recently that I started shooting mostly in Manual mode, with the occasional photo taken in Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority (I haven't really explored Program mode).

The picture above is of my son taken in the backyard as the afternoon sun was setting and casting a warm glow on everything; it's one of my favorites.

The next two pictures were taken on a different day. I was hoping for a nice orange glow, but got a lot of brown instead. It was until later that I realized that I was metering off the sun -- a big NO-NO! -- which resulted in underexposure of the images. Nonetheless, they still turned out rather interesting, don't you think?

My First Blog! (Originally posted 2/6/08)

2008-10-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

The Runfola's

Chris, Gena and Anthony

Okay, so, here I am creating my first blog and I have absolutely no idea what to say. Let's start with a simple question: why? Why have I decided to create a blog? Well, I was inspired to create this blog after seeing my friend and co-worker Bob's photo blog, as well as his nephew, Blaine's (you've absolutely gotta check his pictures out). I really liked the look of their blogs and the simple fact that I can customize the layout any way I want. Currently, I have several photo sets posted to Flickr, but Flickr doesn't give me this level of control.

Bob and Blaine's blog have also inspired me to go out and take more pictures! Since I purchased my Nikon D80 nearly one year ago, I haven't really taken as many creative photos with it as I had hoped to -- but I have taken nearly 4000 photos in that time!

So, with that out of the way, let me start my photography blog with these two sunrise photos which I took this morning through our slighty fogged up bedroom window (it was too cold to go outside in my jammies -- I know, I know: I've gotta make sacrifices to get those postcard photos).

Runfola Photography

Sailing on the Bay

Schmooze, the Chargers, and Testing a New Lens

Is it hot enough for ya?

Leprechaun of the Seas

Surfboard and Cellphone Designs

My First Post from my iPhone!

Playing with (a) Light

Perseides Meteor Shower & "The Green Tide"

Anti-Pasta Pasta

New Jersey 2010

XKCD on Earthquakes and Twitter

6.9 Earthquake Rattles Baja and San Diego on Easter Sunday

BANZAI!

Homegrown CSI

My New Leica

Rainfall Totals for Mira Mesa, California

Rainfall Totals in Inches for Zip Code 92126

Date

Daily Total

Cum. Total

Large Storm Headed Towards SoCal and San Diego

Ocean Beach Pier

The Best of 2009

Christmas Portraits

Halloween 2002

PACQUIAO WON!!!

Yellow Belt Promotion

Of Photographic Challenges and Stereotypes

Tobacco Hornworm

4.0 Earthquake with a Surprising Aftershock -- SQUIDS!

Evian's Rollerskating Babies (International Version)

Catching Up

Husband for Sale

Mobile Upload Test

Anthony and Jack Hanna

Double-Exposure Portrait

Heading to Farms for Summer Internships

If Ya Can't Stand the Heat...

Houttuynia Cordata

Attack of the dinosaur... skeleton?!

Sicilian Festival

Little Italy Spaghetteria

Phil's BBQ

California, Here We Come!

Gena in the Flowers

Bass Player "Painting"

Exploits of a Mom

RSS Feeds Now Available! Hurry! While Supplies Last!

"Paintings"

Las Vegas, Baby!

It's SPRINGTIME!

Doljanchi

Borrego Springs Camping Trip

What the Duck!?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

SNOW DAY!

Time-Lapse Video Questions

Monarch Butterfly Emergence Time-Lapse Video

Major Changes

I'm Ba-ack! (Originally posted 7/12/08)

Whispiness (Originally posted 3/08/08)

Color-to-B&W Conversion Study (Originally posted 3/07/8)

Google Docs Blog Test (Originally posted 2/21/08)

Office 2007 Blog Test (Originally posted 2/18/08)

Some Older Pictures (Originally posted 2/11/08)

My First Blog! (Originally posted 2/6/08)