Food related street fairs (like the Asparagus Festival, Artichoke Festival, and Campbell Oktoberfest [where this picture was taken]) are a lot of fun. It's a great excuse to eat overpriced but fun foods prepared at the fair - usually sausages, corn dogs, chicken on a stick, corn, and hamburgers. I took this picture of a flare up next to a fresh hamburger patty with smoking patties in the background.

Handheld, 1/1600 sec. at f/5.0 on ISO 200, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

These doors (at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Texas) caught my eye. The heavy wood planks braced by iron beams with light from the other side seeping through the cracks made this door interesting to my eye. Sometimes I take pictures because of the textures in the subject. I'm particularly drawn by the knots and grain of the wood surrounded by the rough stone.

Handheld, 1/30 sec at f/3.5 on ISO 200, 50mm f/1.8 lens

While hanging out at my friend Mark's vineyard, Camalie Vineyards, Tina and I went for a walk through the vines. The Cabernet Sauvignon had all been picked, but there were still several vines of Carménère yet to be picked. That's when I took this picture of the ultra-sweet grapes.

Handheld, 1/125 sec at f/3.2 on ISO 800, 105mm macro lens

While looking through my photo collection, I came across this one of an empty bowl. The photo was taken at Aqua in San Francisco. The dish? I don't remember - I wrote it down (on my phone) so I wouldn't have to remember and I had to do a phone reset and lost a bunch of my notes. It was a soup of some sort involving (I think) a vadouvan, pumpkin seeds, and lobster meat. It tasted amazing - which can be attested to by the cleanliness of the bowl.

Handheld, 1/30 sec at f/2.2 on ISO 400, 28mm f/1.8 lens

I am a big fan of charcuterie of all sorts. You give me a piece of lardo, headcheese, or plain old salami, and you'll get a smile out of me - no problem. I especially like the dry texture, salty meatiness, and springy chew of a piece of coppa. Man, I'm salivating right now…

Handheld, 1/250 sec at f/3.2 on ISO 800, 105mm f/2.8 macro lens

If I've got my camera in my hand and there are flowers around, there's a good chance that I start taking pictures of them. I don't know why I do it… maybe I think they're pretty. I never know what to do with the flower pictures afterward - especially since they end up as part of a larger set of photographs that are completely unrelated. Here's a photo of an iris - the context of which I found it in my library? The 2005 Castroville Artichoke Festival. My guess is that there was a farmer's market there and one of the booths sold flowers and while looking for another photo opportunity, I took this picture - because it was there.

Handheld, 1/500 sec at f/5.6 on ISO 200, 70-200mm f/2.8 with 2x teleconverter

Baby animals are (usually) very cute. This prairie dog (or should it be prairie puppy?) is no exception. I took this photo at the San Francisco Zoo in April several years ago.

Handheld, 1/2000 sec at f/2.8 on ISO 200, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

After finishing a tour of the Glow Worm Caves (really caverns) at Waitomo on the North Island of New Zealand, Tina and I walked over to the nearest place we could find for some lunch (which ended up being one of the most inedible pizzas we had ever had - but that's a different story). On the steps leading up this place we ate at was a sleeping dog with his legs sticking straight out. I just had to take a picture.

Handheld, 1/180 sec at f/4.8 on ISO 100, 17-35mm f/2.8 lens

Prairie dogs are fun animals to photograph at the zoo. There's always a bunch of kids around getting super excited about them and they are rarely still for more than a few seconds. In this photo, I took a shot of two (and half a second later - three) prairie dogs fighting over a piece of lettuce. Had I had the presence of mind to zoom out a little, it would have been revealed that the prairie dogs were fighting over their meal when there was an entire bowl of lettuce just two inches to the right of the frame. Since the infinite lettuce supply was right next to them, I figured they were just rough housing (although from the yipping and scrabbling that I saw it looked fairly violent). Later, when I looked through my shots, I realized that in the moments that I had captured, the prairie dogs looked like they were peacefully sharing food. So, I called the photo "Sharing" and that was that. Now you all know the real story.

Handheld, Unrecorded exposure on Kodak Gold 100, 170-500mm f/5-6.3 lens

Here's a couple photographs of the Merced River (taken near El Portal, California). I used these two shots to demonstrate to Tina the difference between a long exposure and a short one when moving elements (in this case water) is part of the scene. In addition, the long exposure shot also uses a circular polarizer, the effects of which can be scene on the rocks (reduces shininess from glare) and the relatively calm areas of water (water becomes transparent once the glare is removed with the polarizer).

Tripod, 1/750 sec at f/4.8 on ISO 200, 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

Tripod, 1/8 sec at f/22 on ISO 200, 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 lens with circular polarizer