A few weeks ago a received a call from Lisa Jensen, Councilman Sam Liccardo’s campaign manager. I’d taken photos of Sam in costume at The Silicon Valley Turkey Trot, at the time not recognizing him as the Councilman of my district (probably as I was in the pre-race zone), and she after finding them on this blog, wanted to use them for his birthday cake for his combination birthday party and re-election kick off party. I was thrilled to help out, being a fan of Sam’s work, by letting them be an in-kind campaign contribution.

I was also excited to be invited to his party which took place this Friday evening on the patios between Mezcal and Billy Berks. Upon arriving I found out that my photos had actually been used on two different cakes.

Sam made a quick introduction speech by standing on a chair and speaking without a microphone.

After his speech it was time to quickly light the candles so that Sam could blow them out. It was a cute statement that people worked together to light them.

Lisa described Sam as having a wonderful sense of humor (and anyone who runs in a Whoopie Cushion costume has one in my book). Though she knew he would be a great sport about the cakes, she wanted the designs to be a total surprise, and they were. His reactions were priceless.

Sam asked for two adorable sisters to help him blow out his second cake. I later learned these two were the first to (with a lift from their mom) dunk him in a dunking booth earlier this year). Still there were no hard feelings, and after they helped him blow them out, he gave them smiles and high fives.

It was great meeting Sam, Lisa and there many supporters in person. Lisa even took one great photo of Sam and I with the cakes. I wish Sam the best of luck, he has my vote, and if you are in District 3 of San Jose, please consider giving him your attention and vote as well.

While the brunches featured the same food, we had a lot of fun at the latter which included wonderful music from The Magnolia Jazz Band. Colleen felt inspired to dance with the Easter Bunny.

“Here Comes Peter Cotton Tale” – The Magnolia Jazz Band from Danielle Stolman on Vimeo.

“Fly Me to the Moon” performed by The Magnolia Jazz Band from Danielle Stolman on Vimeo.

As we listened to the beautiful jazz music and enjoyed a large table all to ourselves (due the really early brunch time I’d chosen), we each went up a few times to get food. Fresh salads featuring asparagus, spinach and strawberries, breakfast items including made to order omelets, and a magnificent dessert bar were all beautiful and tasty.

As always, the seafood station was my favorite of all. 

I had a wonderful time on a model shoot this weekend with three lovely models and a motorcycle. Here are some sneak peaks of the shoot with the lovely Iris and expert makeup artist Dulce Uranga and Iris again.

As you can see in the first photo the decorations were absolutely amazing. At one point early in the evening all power went off and all the lights went down. Though power was quickly restored I took this photo of a centerpiece in candlelight.

These amazing and intricate designed Nouvelle Vogue dresses are a tribute to stylish eras gone by with a modern twist to them. They were a perfect addition to the library. I gave the photo a Polaroid inspired processing action to celebrate and reflect their mood.

The three excellent DJ’s from Spintronix had helped create just the right musical atmosphere for talking and partying.

Since I have so few in action photos of me, and very few in a dress I made sure to ask Amy Frugoli of Twitterpated Weddings to take one of me.

The party was definitely the place to be. Even well behaved canine Ellie came out to help celebrate the launch.

At the end of the night, Izzy’s founder, Melissa Bagley, of Melissa Ann Bagley Photography (shown in the first photo on the left) with her good friend, Allie, gave out some amazing raffle prizes.  I had a wonderful time at the party meeting people and reconnecting with some industry friends.  I can’t wait to see more issues of Izzy.

Sometime, life takes you places you weren’t planning to go, and it turns out really great, like the hiking adventure I had a few weekends ago. I had planned to go on a hike in Livermore to the largest falls around with a group. The leader of the group was forced to cancel due to injury, and I decided taking a 12 mile hike by myself in an unfamiliar area, and most likely without any cell phone reception, wasn’t a great idea. So it was with excitement that I found a different hike to join the next day, to Sam McDonald Park in Pescadero.

Our guide was Steve, in yellow, a gregarious and knowledgeable guide. Not only did I learn a lot, I retained a lot also, so I remember a lot of the reasons why I took some of these photos, not just to show how beautiful nature is, but also as kind of a series of lecture notes to share. Marc, shown with Steve, also brought a camera, yet when Steve saw us both he focussed on my Leica and said “You’re a photographer, you’re going to take lots of pictures.” I’m not sure if he read my Meetup profile, or just guessed based on the equipment I brought, yet he was right I took a lot.

One thing we learned was that a tree like this below, with it branches pointing up is nicknamed a wolf tree. It is almost never harvested for lumber because branches like this make it much less usable and valuable.

Later in the hike we saw other wolf trees. This one really stood out.

The park is named for the man who helped save it. Sam McDonald loved trees and helped by part of the forest, and helped raise awareness among residents so this amazing resource was not cut down. When a tree is to be cut down, a blue X is put at its base (so it can later be verified that the right trees were chopped). You can still see pieces of blue Xs here and there of trees that owe their lives to Sam.

Since I knew I would be in a no cell phone area (so my iPhone GPS would be useless) I budgeted a lot of getting lost time, ended up taking one huge wrong turn, yet still got to the park very early. I decided to eat my food as a pre-hike snack instead of a lunch (less grease on my camera, and I was very hungry), when I spotted a large grey creature run by. So, later I told this to Steve and called it a wolf. He told me wolves were extinct in the area, and that I probably saw a silver fox. Still, he made wolf jokes a lot of the way.

Based on that, when I told Marc that I saw a face like shape in the moss of a tree, I shouldn’t have been surprised when Steve overhead and said, “Oh, really Danielle, a face?” Still, I held my ground, and even Steve had to admit this looked quite facelike.

We also learned about mushrooms, quite a lot, as Steve studies them. We learned about ones that would be used as a tea, as gum, as food, etc. This one here, which sort of resembles a gummy bear consistency is edible, though of course all plant life in this park is protected and just for viewing.

As it turns out, it was a whole day of getting lost. Somehow, we lost our way and had to choose between a different trail back, and the highway. We chose the highway. Near the end of our journey I was struck by the textures and colors and just had to take this shot.

Steve waited for me to do so, then showed me a special tree with a great message. This tree is growing up from the roots and nutrients of the dead tree who came before it. Steve was just amazed by how this tree set up space where one tree could not or did not survive and thrived. I thought it was a beautiful message, also.

This last shot is another special one for Steve. A particular mushroom species nicknamed artist table, is dried and carved on by artists. The mushrooms are very sturdy and hold the patterns well. Steve said this was the youngest whitest one he’d ever seen and would also make a great photo. I had a wonderful time on my hike, got some good exercise and some unique photos. IN hindsight this was the best hike I could take that day.

As the group at Harold Davis’ Night photography workshop eagerly waited for it to get darker, Jennifer and I scouted around for a few more fun shots to take. I love the menacing paint job on this shark boat, though somehow the shark in the reflection even seems a bit more menacing. 

For a few very brief moments the a cluster of pink clouds formed allowing me to take this.

Yet very soon after it was quite dark, allowing me to shoot this almost silhouette of a bridge.

This was one of the last shoots I took before our night lecture, it was taken through the gaps in a fence. This town looks so peaceful as it sits right over the water. 

Harold really encouraged us to explore different angles, views, and colors in the night and all around us. With just changing my shutter speed and taking quite long exposures with a tripod, I was able to capture a lot of different colors in the buildings and sky.

Although Harold has written several books, one entitled Creative Night Photography, his advice to us was very simple and usable right away. With some basic guidelines: f11, shutter speed 20 seconds or more (the length increased as the night wore on), ISO 100 with noise reduction on, I was really proud of the results I and my fellow photographers got. I would have though the workshop was a great learning experience had that been all, yet Harold had a few quite unique ideas left.

He wanted us to get some unusual shots with moving lights. First in our don’t do this at home activity, we had one of the photographers drive his car in front of us several times while really giving the brakes and the tires a workout. In the shot on the left he came by a few more times, than the one on the right. Harold said that though you could see camera shake in them (even on a tripod it was hard to keep the camera steady for 2.5 minutes..in part due to laughing at the crazy driving), yet the light streaks came up quite clear and it looked pretty cool regardless.

Ever the industrious bunch, one of the photographers mentioned he had neon sticks in his car. So we set people up with two sticks each (there was a red, blue, green and white one) to dance around and take more long exposure photos. My best was the one at 1 and a half minutes, below, again some camera shake in part due to laughing (next time I’ll have to get a cable release and let it hold it down). At the end I even took part in the dancing. This is probably one of my favorite shots from the day. 

At first there had been some concern as to whether the workshop was even going to happen at all as there had been so many rainy days beforehand and even the day of was slated to be a potentially rainy day. Luckily, even though it was sprinkling the workshop was still on. Harold told us it was fortunate that it had rained as it gave us a great first thing to shoot, the puddles still left on the ground and the reflections in them.

At first I just photographed literally the assignment of the buildings reflected. Then serrendipity struck when another photographer happened to walk so that his reflection accidentally ended up in the puddle I was shooting. As I looked at the result I realized I had a great new assignment for myself, photograph the other photographers and their water reflections. Some of my favorites were those of Harold taking a photo, and later, after I told him and showed him my photos thus far, posing with his camera.

This next shot I debated putting on my blog. Most of my photos I have the whole person in them, or at least if they are cut off here or there it’s in a traditional way (i.e. a head and shoulders shot). Yet, in this non-camera aware photo taken a split second before she moved, one with the top of Susa’s head not included, I love the expression, the toughness in the part of her face you can see, her strong clothes and posture even as she pauses to take a photo, so I included it. I think it’s an better photo of her than a camera aware full image of her would be.

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of all the don’ts on the signs and the inviting colors of the day all around. 

Another of my favorite puddle photos was this one which had some small ones and a larger one spanning the photo.

I was struck by all the beauty around me of different colors, patterns and objects, like the cranes.

Perhaps not surprisingly some of the best and most interesting things to photographer were well protected by gates and chains. Both of these were photographed with my small lenses right through the respective gaps in the fence.

Although we were really supposed to stay in general sight of each other another photographer, Jennifer, and I decided to go exploring all over. I really enjoyed the beauty I found in this alley way from the texture of the bricks, to the colors of the moss, and with the sun peeking in at just the right angle. 

Another great photo I found was this behind the buildings. Even though this area was overgrown and had some debris in it, the reflections and colors really made it stand out for me.

This last photo captured the effects of the windy, rainy days preceding it. Coming tomorrow, some of the night time shots from the workshop. 

I definitely think I’d fall into the category of people known as foodies. I love good food especially food that is beautiful in terms of presentation as well as tasting wonderful. I recently had two very different meals in which the presentation was just perfect.

The first was at my favorite burger place ever, The Counter in Palo Alto. The Counter allows customers to really customize their meal in ways that even places like Burger King, with their famous “Have it your way” slogan, don’t even come close to approaching. The Counter lets customers choose their burger type (beef, chicken, turkey or veggie), then bun type or greens, and finally toppings, cheese and dressing, each with a staggering number of choices. I’m also partial to the sweet potato fries.

While at The Counter I only had my iPhone handy. I know there’s an iPhone App called Best Camera, after the fact that the camera you have with you is the best one for the situation.  That being acknowledged, each camera has some limitations, and as far as I know the iPhone one does not have any way of taking great macro shots, yet.  I was reasonably happy with its close up work on the burger and I like the shot I was able to get of the whole plate as an overall shot.

The second meal was at a new restaurant and food type for me. While many of the Meetup groups I belong to are for photographers and wedding professionals, a new one I joined, Dining Around the World, is open to anyone who enjoys trying new food. The group only allows a small number of attendees at each so everyone can have a chance to talk with each other. The first one I was able to attend was Maylasian food at Layang Layang.

When I’m at new places I like to really search the menu for something to have. While sometimes I play it conservative and order a dish I’m very familiar with, I decided to order only things I couldn’t easily get at another place to really try out the food culture.

I started with a Kacang Merah, a red bean ice drink. I’ve had red bean ice cream before, so I figured it would be delicious and I was right.

When I photographed the dinner, this time with a Canon Elph point and shoot so I could get more macro details then I had with the iPhone, I photographed it highlighting the top of the drink, and used the fact that the straw would be distorted by the lens shape to make it look as if it were leading into the glass. One of my dinner companions, Stephanie, then took a photo of me with the glass in which you can see the beans better in the bottom. If I had not had this photo taken of me, I would have taken another highlighting the beans in the glass, the way I did with the burger above, however, after I saw the photo (even with the characteristic red eye of point and shoot cameras), I realized it was a great accompanying photo by itself.

Many people at our table ordered fish. It was amazing seeing the differences in colors and textures and how elegantly they were arranged with the entire fish, eyes and all, in both platters.

The group shared a few dishes so I was able to try some fish, shrimp and soft bread with a wonderful exotic dipping sauce.  For my own entree I zeroed in on something I’d heard about yet had never even seen outside of a menu: an entree served in a food shaped nest. After I found out I could definitely eat the tarot nest, I ordered this, Sarang Vegetables.  It was as flavorful as it was beautiful.  As with the other photos, the camera allowed me to get some great details.

Even though I live about an hour away from The San Francisco Zoo, and my friend Colleen lives about half an hour away, it isn’t somewhere either of us have visited often, so on our recent trip when we went to visit the animals and take photos, we took a long time walking around and stopping at all the exhibits.

As we parked across the street at Ocean Beach, we first observed some surfers. It was a very cold day, and rumored to be quite rainy so there were not many out. This surfer in the above photo appears to be all alone out on ocean in this photo, and was pretty much the only person standing on a board at that time. Then we made the harrowing trek to the zoo (across two lanes of traffic) to visit the animals.

The lucky giraffes don’t have to look hard for their food – branches are brought in and placed around where they roam so they have easy access to it. This one looked especially hungry.

Hasani, the young gorilla below, has an extended family in the zoo. His mother, Monifa, doesn’t display maternal instincts, most likely as she’s never seen another gorilla mother and child (as she would have in the wild). So first the zookeepers, then an experienced gorrilla mother, Bawang were brought in to mother the little tyke. He seems to be doing quite well, and even has the attentions of many other gorillas to watch him.

These animals were content to ignore all the people looking at them and taking their photos as they groomed one another. At first I was shooting this at their level, then I notice a huge flight of stairs that allowed people a much better view.This zookeeper gave a great talk on the American Bald Eagle. The bird seemed to be trying to listen to the story, and even looked directly in the eyes of his handler.

One of the best parts of the zoo is seeing animals relatively up close that you would run from in the wild. This rhino, whose skin texture is complimentary to the rock background, instead of charging at an enemy, spent time pushing a ball around the enclosure.