Silicon Valley Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis - Our walk to support our daughter, Ali.

This weekend was the "Silicon Valley Take Steps for Crohn's & Colitis" walk to help raise money to fight these diseases. As some of you might know, my daughter was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease 4 years, and so this walk meant a lot to our family. My wife decided that it would be fun to make team shirts for our family and friends. And so was the beginning of "Ali's Crohnie Crew".

We got together in our backyard and took a team photo before heading off for the walk.

Here is Ali with her boyfriend, Marc.

And Ali and my wife, Annette, being goofy.

Here are my wife, my daughter and our best friend, Tracey, who made it all happen. .

We got to the park in downtown San Jose a little early so all the kids found a shady spot to hang out. I rearranged them a bit, and created this perfect photo opportunity.

I was standing by my son and saw the reflection in his sunglasses. I asked Ali and her friends to come over by Connor, and took this shot. (Photographer's note: Always do your best to find creative ways to shoot group shots. This makes the photo different from your standard old group shot, and it will be more memorable.)

After a while the walk got started and we were off trekking around downtown San Jose.

Everyone was positive and having a good time. The collective group raised more than $110,000 which will go to finding for a cure for these diseases.

I was walking with everyone when I saw the "San Pedro Square" sign and thought that this was a perfect shot. I quickly ran a little way down the street and shot this "Abbey Road" type of shot.

Crossing the finish line...

They had a great band playing for the walkers.

A view of the fountains downtown. After walking around the city, I realized that I need to venture into San Jose to take more photos. Wow! This city has changed a lot since I went to college here in the 80s.

After everything was done, we headed back to the cars...

...and we ran into Connor's friend, Nate, who was heading to his prom. The poor guy and his date had to pose with all of us before making a fast break for the dance! Oh...we love to traumatize people! :)

Ali and the rest of the Cable family would like to thank all of you who donated to this cause. We were completely overwhelmed with the generosity of our friends and co-workers. Just like Ali, you are all amazing!

New York Nights - Times Square and Columbus Circle

A couple of weeks ago I made yet another trip to New York City. On this particular trip, I decided that I was not going to take any Taxis or Subways. My goal was to walk to all my presentations, meetings, restaurants...and when possible, shoot images along the way.

As it turned out, I walked an average of 8 miles a day, but only had free time to shoot images during the evenings, since most of the daytime walking was rushing to get from one location to the next. But, as many of you know, this is my favorite time to shoot photos in cities, so off I went.

If you are a regular blog reader, you know that I usually stay in or near Times Square in the city. I have photographed here many times in the past, and try to capture something different every time.

This time, I decided to photograph some of the characters in Times Square. Here is Bart Simpson looking a lit lost in the city.

Elmo crossing the street (no, not Sesame Street).

I was shooting some slow motion panning shots when I saw these four characters walking across the street in front of me. Knowing that this would be a tough shot, I zoomed to 250mm, (sticking with my 1/2 second exposure since I had no time to change the settings), I panned along with the subjects and got this shot. It is not perfectly in focus but still makes me laugh.

I came across these two ladies who were modeling in the center of Times Square and grabbed a couple of shots.

This photo was taken from my hotel room (on the 41st floor of the Marriott Marquis). I saw this ever changing reflection on a building located about two blocks away, so I zoomed in 300mm and shot this.

The next night, I was walking back from a dinner meeting on 88th, heading back to 42nd Street, when I came across Columbus Circle. I have been to this location in the past, but never seen it look so nice with blooming tulips surrounding the fountains.

At this point, I did not have my 5D Mark III with me, so I used my iPhone to capture the image above.

I liked the composition of the image but really wanted to shoot this at the best time of the evening and with a really good camera. So...the next evening, my presentation ended early enough for me to grab my equipment and make the long walk back up to 66th. This time I made it in time to catch the deep blue skies after sunset.

Much better than the iPhone shot!

Some different perspectives, but equally beautiful.

A view looking down Broadway with the last remaining light in the sky.

For this last shot, I quickly moved to a spot where the blue skies still remained (facing the West) and framed this shot. A friend of mine told me that there was a nice view of this globe from down the stairs entering he subway station. I took his advice (thanks Adam) and shot this photo, which turned out to be one of my favorites of the trip.

(All of the photos were taken with the Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 28-300mm lens, Gitzo tripod, 128GB Lexar Professional 1000x CF card)

Toronto - A visit to "Graffiti Alley"

Last week I posted a blog showing some of the scenes of downtown Toronto. This week I want to show you all images of one small part of the city. The area is unofficially called "Graffiti Alley" and it is a really cool place to shoot photos. I found out about this alley (just off of Nassau Street)  while researching the Internet for cool places to photograph in Toronto. Come along for a colorful view of Graffiti Alley.

I wanted to take a wide shot of the alley so that you could get a feel for the environment. (Photographer's note: It is important to include environmental shots along with your detail photos, since this helps tell the whole story. This is true when photographing events, sports, landscapes, and sometimes portraits too.)

All of these photos were taken with the Canon 5D Mark III. This was the maiden voyage with the Canon EF 28-300mm lens, which I chose to bring with me on this trip, with the goal of using one lens for everything.

I decided to shoot this image at an angle, including the black staircase, since it seemed to add an additional element to the scene.

"I'm just walking my dog singing my song..." Funny stuff.

This cracked me up. An alleyway full of graffiti and two toilets... The smiley heart just added to the fun. :)

I shot this image, because I was drawn to the light on this one pipe. The pipe that was lit from the sun, while the rest of the wall was in shadow. Something different.

A very cool fence door. It makes you wonder what is behind it.

I really liked this piece of graffiti because it included "Toronto" on the wall, helping me show the city of origin.

Awesome colors!

I hope you enjoyed my walk through "Graffiti Alley".

I can now say that I have photographed this unique wall art in San Francisco and Toronto. Where else have you seen cool street art like this? Let me know.

Toronto: A walk around one of my favorite cities

I used to travel to Toronto all the time, but over the last couple of years, I had not made a visit to this great city. So, I was happy when I was asked to return and train the folks at Henry's (a great chain of camera stores in Canada). At the end of March, I flew to Toronto and caught the last of their long Winter.

I was staying right by Nathan Phillips Square, so I decided to head out one evening and shoot the square just after sunset. As you can see from these images, there are some really cool arches over the unused ice rink.

I had fun moving to different locations around the ice rink to see how I could photograph the arches from completely different perspectives.

For this last shot of the arches, I set up at the far end of the rink and waited for the ambient light to drop.  I dialed my exposure compensation down 1/3 stop to emphasize the shadows and changed the white balance to bring out the blue color in the sky. (Photo shot at f/18, 15 secs, ISO 100, with the Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 28-300mm lens, Lexar 1000x CF, Gitzo tripod)

I was walking away from the square, when I turned around and saw the blue and pink skies in the distance. Time for one last shot of the evening.

I swear that it snowed for 90% of this trip. But on my last day, I had an hour of clear skies and I was able to grab a nice shot of the CN Tower in the background, nicely framed by the buildings and flags. (Photographer's note: When shooting photos of common landmarks and buildings, try to find something different from the "typical" photo. Sure, I could have walked to a location to photograph the CN Tower unobstructed, but most people take that photo and I want to photograph the tower in a more dramatic way. I saw the sunlight highlighting the flags and saw that as the perfect foreground to my image.)

I love the contrast between old and new architecture...

While walking around downtown, I came across this really cool art museum, with a very modern building built directly on top of this older building.

On this evening, I had walked about 5 miles and was pretty tired and cold, but when the sun set and the deep blue skies appeared, I could not help myself. I had to stay out and shoot some more. I found an interesting location (in front of the Superior Court of Justice building) and framed this shot.

After shooting the first evening shot, I then moved next to University Avenue and grabbed this photo. This particular shot has the shutter open for 25 seconds. I was surprised and happy to see the Canadian flag so clear during such a long exposure.

And here is a tease for the next blog post. Next week you will see images from my exploration of Toronto's "Graffiti Alley".