Last Saturday I took my son hiking at Bridgeport, CA in the South Yuba River State Park, here in Northern CA.  It's the longest covered bridge in North America, and my son called it the "house bridge".



Beyond the bridge to the left is a trail called Point Defiance Trail, which is about a mile long.  Here's a view of the bridge from about 1/4 mile up the trail.



Independence Trail has a wonderful mix of terrain, which became a playground for my son.  Here he is scaling the "baby rocks", as he called them.



At 3 years old, this kid was making it up the steep inclines with ease.  I didn't even have to tell him what to do, he got on all fours by himself.



"Cheese!" he exclaimed as I took his picture along one of the straightaways.



He did great on the way up, but on the way back it wasn't so great.  I had to carry him about half the way.  I didn't mind it though, we had lots of fun.  I've vowed to take him camping as often as I can before the weather changes too much.

Thanks for looking!

Before you even ask, no, I haven't slept yet. Last night was the peak for the annual Perseids, and I found the PERFECT spot to shoot and view the stars. It's in Nevada City, CA, and is an abandoned airport. For some strange reason they never developed it, so it's this giant runway-sized plot of dirt. It appears to never have been paved. It's great! Away from city lights, high altitude, and nothing blocking the view of the sky.

Each shot was approximately 3 minutes in length, f/4.5, ISO 800, shutter release & tripod.  I shot 66 frames, and managed to catch 2 shooting stars.  I wanted to get a fireball captured, but every one I saw (5 or 6 of them) were out of frame.  The first one I saw lit up the whole sky and lingered for 4 or 5 seconds.

Anyway, here are the photos.  In this first one, the perseid in question is on the right, just above the large tree:



In this one, it's about 1/3 of the way from the right side of the frame, at the top.



The last one isn't of perseids at all, but I loved what happened when the glow of the sun started to become visible in the distance.



Thanks for looking!

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of shooting Colin Hay from Men At Work.  My friend was the concert promoter, and our standing agreement is he lets me into all his shows for free if I take the pictures.  So... I did, hehe.

At the beginning of the show, I positioned myself next to the stage and up close.  I would have been more towards the center, but the way the auditorium seats are, they're barely 2 or 3 feet from the stage, so there just wouldn't be room for me.  After this song he looked at me and asked me if I was trying to steal his soul.  He then said he wishes someone had at least asked him ahead of time.  This sort of freaked me out, since my friend was supposed to have taken care of all this.  More on it in a minute.


After Colin gave me these comments, my friend came up and told me the "terms" so to speak, which as Colin said, it would have been nice to have been told ahead of time.  He said they only wanted me to take pictures during the first few songs and the last few, but none in the middle.  That's pretty standard for concerts, so I wasn't upset.  It just would have been nice if my friend had been a little more prepared.



After the first few songs, he went electric and brought out his band, which includes his wife, named Cecilia Noel.  She has a band in the Los Angeles area called Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clam, which is salsa music.  She dances and sings, reminded me a lot of Stevie Nicks.


I had thought the set would weigh heavily on the Men At Work songs, since it was called the "Man At Work Tour", but really they only played a few of those.  The main focus was on Colin's solo work, which is really good.



After the show, Colin and Cecilia signed autographs for everyone.  I talked to him and apologized to him for "stealing his soul", and in talking, I realized that he thought I was videotaping him!  I said no, it's a still camera, and he said oh, I have no problem with that!  So it all worked out in the end.



I have the entire gallery online if you're interested in seeing the rest:

http://www.thechances.com/gallery/ColinHay070905/index.html

There are 78 images total, both in B&W and color.  This is what I delivered to my friend on a CD.

Thanks for looking!

Here are some pictures of Gregory, the little firestarter. What a difference a year makes, last year he was scared to death of sparklers!



Another of the wild one.



I hope you had as good a time as he did!