Mammoth day 2 - Convict lake

The forecast for the weekend was showing that sunrise was going to be clear every morning, so after seeing the sky filled with stars the morning before I decided to get out to Convict Lake a bit before sunrise to try out some star shots. I never really had the chance to try it, so thought this would be a good chance to practice.

Took a bit of messing around with the settings to get the exposure somewhat right. By the time I snapped a few decent ones and let the noise reduction run, the sun was already starting to wash out the stars. I left the shutter open too long, so the stars started streaking. Next time I am back in the area, I'll try to keep the shutter to 30 seconds. I ran the photo through Topaz Denoise since the image was taken at ISO-1600. Props to JJ who helped with the final touches.


All in all it came out ok. Still a bit of detail in the foreground. The Milky way was a bonus, along with a few shooting stars. I'd like to try and full silhouette of Laurel Mountain next time, as well as one that is better exposed. May have to try and blended photo.

The rest of these were taken at various times over the period of 2 days:
Pre dawn.The foreground ice was painted with my headlamp


First light hitting laurel Mountain






A few during the day with the various ice patterns


Close to sunset. With all the wind, all of the clouds blew away by the time sunset rolled around

I also went around the Mammoth lakes area to check out Twin lakes. I wanted to get to a spot above Twin lakes to the falls, but Lake Mary road was still closed for the winter. The falls are still frozen over anyways. Twin lakes was starting to melt, showing a bit of reflections in the water.





J went with the Ito's and JJ's to play in the snow. I was a bit tired from waking up and staying out so I stayed back and slept.








They also hit up Toomey's; another favorite:









I still have to process the files from Alkali lake, so I'll post those next.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com

Mammoth Lakes day 1 - Mono and June lake loop

Took an extended weekend trip up to Mammoth Lakes in the eastern sierras this past weekend with the JJ's and the Ito's to try and get some winter photos. We were there for 3 days so I decided to check out Mono Lake, Convict Lake, and Alkali Lake for both sunrise and sunset. The first night I headed out to the Mono south tufa area early to scope out some locations. Unfortunately it was really windy so you couldn't really see the tufa reflections in the water. I hung around and snapped a few anyway since I was going to come back the next morning for sunrise.



Headed back to the condo and we went to eat dinner at Roberto's. Still one of our favorite places in Mammoth. I had the carne asada burrito and J had the tamale. We all shared a fried ice cream. Baby Ito and Baby JJ had fun playing together.











I got to Mono the next day about 30 minutes before sunrise, and made my way down the south tufa trail towards the lake. There was little wind, but the sky was cloudless. As I walked down the path, I could see the Milky way and the entire sky filled with stars. Unfortunately by the time I got to the lake, the sun was rising and most of the visible stars were gone. I hung around for about an hour and snapped a few while the light was still good.










Since June lake loop was on the way home I checked out both June and Silver lake. I wanted to see if it was an area to come one night for sunset, but all of the lakes were mostly frozen over.


Frozen June Lake




Frozen Silver Lake

I figured Convict lake would be more interesting and possibly have some good compositions due to the ice and snow so I decided I was going to check it out next for sunset and sunrise. I'll update those on the next post.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com

Long Beach waterfront

Took a quick trip down to Long Beach this weekend to capture the long beach lighthouse at sunset. Headed out there around 5, and ended up on a spot at the waterfront across from Shoreline Park. It was a bit windy, so a lot of the clouds blew away when the sky lit up so it wasn't the best sunset but managed to capture a few.

Silhouette of the lighthouse and surrounding palms as the sun is setting


Right as the sun dipped below the horizon


Blue hour about 15 minutes after sunset

Crazy how much the sky changes within about an hour. I'll be back out here if the sky looks good next weekend. Maybe try shooting from across the harbor near Harry Bridges Memorial Park to get the skyline at sunset.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com

Santa Barbara

We decided to take a trip back to SB for J's bday to visit the old stomping grounds, and eat at our favorite places from the good ol' college days. Lot of familiar sites and buildings, but a lot has also changed since 2004. We got in and headed to the waterfront to eat at Brophy Bros on the harbor.



J had the crab cakes, I had the fish n chips. Not bad but nothing special.


After lunch we headed onto campus to check out the UCEN, bookstore, arbor and walk around a bit. Nicoletti's is still there, where my bro used to work while attending UCSB. The hub also has a Wahoo's and replaced Wendy's with some other fresh sandwich place.



Walked around the arbor to see the hot dog cart closing up for the day. Noticed that they now have a Woodstock pizza window so I had to order a slice. Good and greasy just like I remember.

Headed out to campus point to snap some seascapes but the sky was pretty clear and not very dramatic. I snapped a few anyway:



We headed back into Isla Vista for dinner at Freebirds. J has to have her Freebirds nachos fix once a year at least and not the crap nachos that are served up in the Freebirds popping up all over.

The next morning I got up for sunrise hoping for a better sky, but it was as clear as the night before. I snapped a few long exposure shots with my ND filter. Tide was high so I was a bit limited to where I could stand without getting wet.



Breakfast was at Cantina, best bfast burrito in town which is now served all day....they even have a sign stating the fact now haha. I don't know what it is about the burrito, but it's so damn good.



After breakfast we headed out to state street to do some shopping and walking around. We stopped by Norton's for lunch because we saw it on triple D.



Mom's PLT - with crispy pastrami that mimics bacon. Sandwich was good, a bit salty but very tasty.

Pastrami chili cheese fries...not the best I've had but decent.

After a bit of walking around we headed back to campus point to snap a few more pics. Same cloudless sky, but at least we had great weather all weekend.



We even saw a sea lion on the rocks. J named it Joey.

By this time we ate so much we weren't all that hungry, but we had dinner reservations at Olio Pizzeria so we headed back downtown.



Ended up getting the margherita d.o.c.: fresh bufala mozzarella / san marzano tomato sauce / parmesan / basil / e.v.o.o. and the carbonara: mascarpone / pecorino / guanciale / egg. If we ever go back I want to try the parma: fresh mozzarella / prosciutto di parma / arugula /scaglie di parmiggiano.

Overall, the pizzas were good. Not as crispy and thin as we like, but tasty and the dough had a nice chew and flavor. Ended the night watching Snitch at the theatres. Next morning we packed up to head back home, stopping by the Camarillo outlets but not before getting another one for the road:



J fed me while I was driving, but I think she probably ate most of it...haha. We had a good time, it was a nice relaxing trip to visit some of the places we miss the most.

Next up is Mammoth Lakes in March. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, so I can heard out to Convict, Mono, and June lake to snap a few photos with the snow covered mountains.


Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com