Weblog

I finally finished going through the honeymoon pictures! It took a long, long time, but they are done and posted. I ended up with 58 images that I liked enough to give a top rating, which is a record for a single trip. You can find all of the pictures filed under Austria, Italy and Germany.

Since the honeymoon, we've also managed a few shorter trips. At the beginning of August, we went with a bunch of friends to Glacier National Park in Montana. We rented a house in Columbia Falls and had a blast, including various hikes and also a sunrise photo expedition, at my suggestion of course. Also, just this past weekend, Nhu and I went with my parents to Oregon. We visited Crater Lake, and also drove up nearly the entire Oregon coast, from Crescent City to Cannon Beach. It was quite stunning, certainly a trip I'd recommend.

I'm now going to San Diego for work instead of San Jose. Normally, that would be a blessing, but it seems that the month of May in San Diego is notoriously cloudy. Everybody here calls it "May Gray.&qout; So much for the "70 and sunny" I was promised!

Just prior to coming out to San Diego, I spent a weekend in Napa with some people from work. We had quite the group; we ended up with 16 people on the first day. We started the day at Chateau Montelena to taste their award-winning Chardonnay. I ended up buying one of their Zinfandels. We then moved on to Sterling, where we had a tram ride and a self-guided tour, and I purchased a Sangiovese. We then went to V. Sattui for lunch, followed by a final tasting at Gustavo Thrace in downtown Napa. Finally, we went to Rutherford Grill for dinner. The following day, four of us continued on to Sonoma. The first tasting room, Tin Barn, was actually in a warehouse. All of their wines were amazing, and I had a difficult time deciding what to purchase, but I eventually bought a Zinfandel and a Pinot Noir. We then went to the Mayo Reserve Room, where I found two more I liked: another Zinfandel and a Port. We then had some local pizza for lunch, and headed for the airport.

This last weekend, I went to Portland. I had never been there before, and I decided I wanted to go. Apparently, it's usually grey and drizzly this time of year, but I lucked out, as it was sunny the whole weekend. I spent Saturday hitting up the sights in the city, from the rose garden to the Japanese garden, to going up Mt. Tabor. I finished the evening by taking sunset photos of the city from across the river. The following day, I drove to Mt. Hood, and then made my way back to Portland along the Columbia River, stopping to see some of the area's beautiful waterfalls. I then made my way to the airport.

I'm now getting ready for my next trip, two weeks in Vietnam!

The photos from my recent trip to Crater Lake and the Redwood parks have now been posted. I am incredibly pleased with how the pictures from Crater Lake turned out; the water is indeed stunningly blue, and it contrasts beautifully with the thick layer of white snow that touches everything else. The redwood pictures are a bit more difficult to judge, as the lighting makes exposing an entire frame properly almost impossible. Because of this, I usually bracketed my shots. I may eventually end up creating a few HDR images from the multiple exposures, but since I usually post my shots with no processing other than a quick color balance and export to JPG, I have gone ahead and posted only the primary exposures.

Now that my new site is done and I have a good tool for data edting, I have gone back and started to title and tag my older pictures as well. I have in fact finished a good number of photos, though I still have quite a few to go through, mostly from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and my New York City road trip of last year. I am hoping to have them finished in the coming weeks as well.