Author Archives: Lech

Toro Nagashi, the Lantern Festival

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Thousands of lanterns on the lake

While in Boston visiting family (Yana and Talia) last night, we were lucky to stumble upon Toro Nagashi, or the Lantern festival, held annually at the Forest Hill Cemetery of Jamaica Plain.  It immediately sounded like a great photography venue, but it was so much more.

When we arrived at sundown, the crowds were already heading for the exit, and we thought we had missed the main event. Rather, we were arriving at the perfect time since the park was completely packed and we could actually catch a few square feet of prime lakeside real estate. The sky was just fading into a dark blue and the lanterns, drifting around all parts of the lake were a brilliant little boxes of gold.  Truly, this was amazing and a not-to-miss event in Boston.  Um, it’s really a not-to-miss event for anywhere.

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I Still Believe in the Tooth Fairy

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Following up the longest blog post I’ve ever done – I’ll go short.  Real short.  This is my office at night.  Coyote Ridge.  I love long exposure and this one is my longest. Let’s call it 5 hours long.  But it’s not one exposure.  I used a software program called Startrails written by Achim Schaller from Freiburg, Germany.  It combines multiple exposures into a single image and it’s a powerful, powerful program.  Lots to play with in terms of both user controls as well as which images to input into the analysis.  I learned that one or two lighter images will really brighten up the finished product quickly. Thanks Achim – this program is a gem.  Click on photo to enlarge.

Can you guess what the brightness in the right part of the frame represents?

I Still Believe in the Tooth Fairy

Celebrating Independence… from Cars – Transit and Trail Triple Threat Photojournal

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Sky Islands in Mt. Hamilton country

I’ll start this one off by thanking the Bay Area Open Space Council & Transit and Trails for helping create a movement in which people are excited to enjoy the outdoors without contributing to our carbon-pregnant atmosphere.  This celebrates American independence in so many ways.  It celebrates ingenuity.  It celebrates access for all.   It celebrates the kinetic power of human flesh.  Our bodies are amazing tools for enjoying life.  We must take care of them.  Yeah, human flesh, that’s pretty cool huh?

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Triple Threat Photos coming…

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Folks, I shot some 200 billion million photos on June 18th, and they required my computer to request a vacation.

No really, I have a few shots I’ll share as a teaser – many more to come either via me/TnT/other mechanism… Here are a couple of teasers – for those who like to be teased.

Also, I’m trying out the logo thing on these.  Branding, oh branding, how it hurts. 🙂

Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering – this event was AWESOME – all 128 miles and nearly 11,000 vertical feet of Bay Area road biking.

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Giant Expectations with Carly and Jason and Family

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So this was my first time meeting Carly and Jason, and it was memorable afternoon outside of PacBell dodging baseball fans, cars, and singlespeeds.

Carly (the bride) is seen here hanging “on” her sister Layne.  They’re definitely a dynamic duo.  They like to smile, laugh, and generally incite “good-timedness”. We had a ball outside of the game trying on a few different “engagement session” poses. You kn0w, the usual stuff – the Willie Mays, Abbey Road.   Continue reading →

Big Congrats to the Monteau Family

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Log Cabin, Surfboards and Jeriel

So I’ve been shooting these friends for many years.  From engagement shots to some wedding action to lil’ bump to baby.  These two (now three!) serve as a real testament to courage and caring winning out the day.  Both have endured some major hiccups (like Ariel can’t drink hoppy beer, jk) and they’ve found a way to make their lives full and help other people fulfill their dreams at the same time.

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Nature Closed for Business

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There you have it.  California has officially closed nature.  The Governor, Jerry Brown, has signed AB95 into law which asks that $11 million (2011/12) and $22 million (2012/13) dollars be excised from the State Parks budget in order to meet our greater state need to balance its weighty books.  The parks in the Bay Area that will close include Henry Coe (pictured above), Castle Rock, and China Camp.  These parks will be closed to the public for at least two years – and I say “at least” because it may be much longer.  Here’s a State Parks Foundation map of all statewide closures.

Here are 3 reasons why this is utterly stupid. (and yes, I did say stupid)

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