February Old timers dance

We went to the Sunnyvale Elks Lodge for a Jazz band dance.. I was sure glad I brought my little canon point and shoot camera... Lots of people were dressed in the 1920's era clothing.. Here are some photographs  of some of the band members.

Here are some of the Dancers..first the shoe shot..

now the dancers..

This last photograph is of a couple who reminded me of a Norman Rockwell painting.. 

They were dancing and I walked up and asked them if I could take their photograph..before they could 

answer I took the photograph, which I love..

I put it in photoshop and made my interpretation of a Norman Rockwell look:

(Click to enlarge)

February Fun

I can't believe that this is the last day of the month.. Time flys when you are having fun..

The othere day I was taking a walk and I spotted this flower in a bush. I took it into photoshop and used topaz simplify...(Click to enlarge)

When I got home I looked at some flowers on a cactus bush..so I took a couple of photographs.

I used Topaz simplify to give it another effect.

One more photograph of a group of these tiny flowers.

Last spring we went to Yosemite national park for a few days.. I always like to take photographs of the 

small waterfalls on the way down into Yosemite valley.. Here is a sample photograph.

I decided I wanted it to look a little painterly so I worked on the image in Topaz Simplify..

(Click to enlarge)

In 1972 I was standing on a bridge, looking at Half Dome. I took this photo with my old practica camera.

I was so excited that I could hardly wait for the slides to come back from the lab..I wasn't disappointed.

With todays photography software you can manipulate an image to your liking..here is a painterly effect.

                              

   (Click to enlarge)                             

A mini vacation in Monterey and Big Sur

This month we went to Monterey in our Rv and stayed at the Elks Club... The Monterey Elks club has an Rv
park for its members...From the Elks club you can travel all over Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur... We met
our friends Kay Bravo and Nan Pipstem for a photo shoot at the Garapata State Beach..It is really a beautiful
location... Here are some photographs that I took there...The First photo I converted to Black and White...The
final sunset was Beautiful. (Click Photo to enlarge)

The first evening we went to the Pacific Grove Beach..it is one of my favorite spots:

The last evening we went looking for some Birds and Surfers. The only surfer I found was one
playing with his Dog:

Thats all for this month..Can't wait for February..

The end of a wonderful year

I can't believe that this year is ending already...wow..time flys..especially when you are having fun..

Last January we took a trip to Yuma and San Diego...April we went to Yosemite..

The end of May we went to the Gold Country.

In August and September we took a great trip to Canada.....

Here are some fall color photographs that I took in the middle of this month.

This last photograph is of leaves in the water...

Happy New Year Everybody...

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody

October and November are my favorite months for fall colors..Last week we took a ride to Morgan Hill and took
some more photographs of vineyards. The first photograph is the original and they second has been artistically rendered in Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter:

This month is car month at the Morgan Hill Camera Club so I worked on a couple of car photographs.. the first on is before and the second is after post processing in Photoshop and Painter:

On our last trip we stayed at the Elks Club in Spokane, Wa... We went to a dinner-dance..We sat with some interesting people and I had a wonderful conversation with an 87yr old lady...I took a snap shot of her and decided to make a painting of it.. I am going to print it and mail it to the Elks club for her.. The first photo is the original and the second is a painting I made in Corel Painter..Enjoy

Last but not least is a photo that I took of Yvonne's grandchildren playing at the ocean:

Happy Thanksgiving

Fall Colors

Fall Colors....I love Fall Colors... it is my favorite time of the year...I was taking a walk the other day and couldn't resist taking photographs of fall colors...The same kind I took last year..HaHa.

This month, the villages camera club, has old houses as the subject. For the last month we have been going to various areas to take photographs of Old Houses..

The first houses I want to show you were taken in Santa Clara:

The first one is called the Dr Paul Mansion and is really a neat example of Old Houses:
(click to enlarge) ( one is in color and the other is an old fashioned look)

The next home is the Dr Henry Zanger home...His children started and owned the Casa DeFruta outside of Hollister,Ca...

The next home is in downtown San Jose, Ca...I just happened to see it...I made a black and white old fashioned photo of it but kept the chair blue:

Now we are heading to hollister to take some photos of some old houses that were in the neighborhood where I grew up.

The first house is the one I grew up in from age 8 until I got married..It is now a bed and breakfast on the corner of west and 7th street...

The next home is one block away from where I grew up and is what I call the "Sparling House."

Last but not least is what I call the "Mays" house.. It was owned by a friend of my Father..Lou Mays..