Los Angeles Zoo Snow Day 2011

So I went to the zoo this morning because they were having there annual Snow Day, I walked up to the Snow Leopard which was one of the exhibits that had snow, and the leopard was hiding in the back not  on the snow at all, guess LA snow leopards don't really like the cold. I walked towards the black bear exhibit and he was nowhere to be found, so I went down to the Bengal Tiger area and he was asleep in his den, that is where I got this image, right after taking this image it start to rain, a lot of rain actually, so I had to pack up and head home, figuring I could wait for the rain to pass and head back to the Zoo, good think I live 5-10 mins away, Alas the rain never stopped and I didn't have a chance to go back to the Zoo.... FAIL! I did make a little youtube vlog about this day, pretty funny check it out.

Camera Settings:
Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG APO Macro HSM
Focal Length: 91mm
ISO: 800
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec.

US Bank building with my New Lens

So I bought a new lens, the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG APO Macro HSM wow what a mouthful, LOL! So far I love this lens its sharp, fast and a great focal length range. Ok so this is the first image I have taken with this lens, taken from outside my house. This is the US Bank building in downtown LA and its about 1.5 miles from my house as the crow flies. I was shooting at a really high ISO because I was also doing some ISO tests on my Canon 60D, but even though the image has some high ISO noise I really like it, unlike most people I don't mind noise I actually like noise or grain in my images.

Camera Settings:
Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 II EX DG APO Macro HSM
Focal Length: 200mm
ISO: 6400
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec.

A very happy couple.

Vidya & Naveed cut their wedding cake, a photo by Jorge Araujo

Ok so I was in Detroit, Michigan this weekend to see Vidya & Naveed get hitched. It was an amazingly beautiful weeding, my first Indian (dots not feathers) wedding. We had a great time and really enjoyed the weeding. I want to thank Vidya and Naveed for the invitation as well as Sonia's Parents Jorge Just and Sonia Just for everything they did to make our weekend great. Also thanks to Heather for letting us stay with her in Ann Arbor. Ok so Michigan is way different than LA, Amazing homes and yards and green as green can be, the weather was perfect.

Ok so this image, well when they said and the couple will now cut the cake, I knew I had to take a picture, so I got up moved in close enough to get the shot but making sure not to invade on this special moment and I snapped of this shot. I'm really happy with the shot they both look great and very happy, and I am so happy for them.

Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM
Focal Length: 70mm
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec.

Rest In Peace Old Friend!

                                                     Sweet Old ECCO, a photo by Jorge Araujo

We had to put old Ecco down on Aug. 12th. It was a sad day and we still miss him very much, but it was the right time. He was such a strong dog and never showed any weakness until the end, he will be remember as one of the sweetest and most amazing dogs ever. Amazingly I think he knew it was his time and let us know that we were doing the right thing. We really knew it was time and we made the right choice when he stopped eating. I mean this dog would never not eat, no matter what if there was food in his plate, or anywhere else for that matter including a bag of bagels on top of a 7 foot tall rack he would eat it.... LOL! So when he stopped we knew it was really time. Again he will be remembered forever. So old friend have a safe journey and take your place with the great "Dog Lords" of the past and Rest In Peace.

Camera: Canon 60D

Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 3200

Aperture: F/2

Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec.

Big Horn Sheep (Reminds me of Baja)

Big Horn Sheep, a photo by Jorge Araujo

So I went to the LA Zoo with Sonia and we walked around taking pictures of a bunch of animals then I saw this Big Horn Sheep... and everytime I see these they remind me of BAJA. These are native to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But what really caught my eye photography wise was that I was on a ledge above the sheep and it was covered by trees... and I love shooting through stuff, as you can see when you focus in on something and blur everything else out using a small depth of field it almost feels like you can see through things... that is so cool. I can't wait to go back to the Zoo and find more animals to shoot.

Now for the camera settings so you can see what I did.
Camera: Canon 60D (I upgraded from my T2i)
Lens: Canon EF 80-200mm 4.5-5.6 II
Focal Length: 162mm
ISO: 400
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter: 1/400 sec

Hollywood Park Casino

Hollywood Park Casino, a photo by jorgearaujo2001 on Flickr.

Went to the Hollywood Park saturday for the Belmont Stakes, made some bets on the ponies then played some poker, but I also knew that I was going to use this time to take a picture of the Hollywood Park Casino sign since it will be perfect for a photography competition for GOOD LA, they are looking for Vintage LA signs. Now I know there are many older signs in LA but this one is great because it really shows the time period its from can you guess? You got it the 80's I mean it belongs on Miami Vice...LOL!

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/22
Shutter: 1.6 sec

Circle of Lights

Circle of Lights, a photo by jorge araujo

I looked out my window and saw this Ferris Wheel that looked to be about 5 blocks away so I took my camera and decided to go take an image of it.... I got there and set up for a shot from across the street, took a few slow shutter speed shots to get the movement of the Ferris Wheel, then I decided a shot from right under the wheel would look pretty cool, so I get right under it and set up my tripod and all of the sudden BOOM! the lights go off. The Ferris Wheel closed....SHIT! Well at least I got one angle. As a side note to the evening, something never change, while packing up bummed because I didn't get the shot from under the wheel a lady comes over and starts asking me what I am taking pictures of and 3 security guards come around and surround me. I tell her just the Ferris Wheel and show her the pictures she smiles and tells me OK. Basically she was the PRINCIPAL at the school where the Ferris Wheel was, which somehow I walked into without even noticing it was a school, and ofcourse she was worried of me taking pictures because there were kids and families there. All ended well and she was a nice lady.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm 3.5-5.6
Focal Length: 33mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 5 sec

Inquisitive Gizmo!

I was out in the back yard playing with Gizmo and I was taking his picture, all of the sudden he realized i was sitting on the ground with a camera and he had to come up and inspect it. He is always really interested and willing to learn about everything...and I think he loves to have his picture taken, LOL!
About the actual shot, I love taking pictures of faces with shallow depth of field. I used my Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII lens and set it to F/1.8 to really give me that shallow DOF. I focused on his left eye and took the shot, ofcourse it really helps that he is a very good puppy and listens when I tell him to sit, stay and not move. Well for the most part he will follow those commands. After I processed the shot using Adobe Lightroom again converting it to B&W and pushing the contrast up a bit. I have been trying to do more and more in the camera and less on the computer which is real nice, but just so you know I will always do a little post processing work to make the exposures just a little better.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)

Lens: Canon EF 50mm 2.8 MkII

Focal Length: 50mm

Aperture: f/1.8

Shutter: 1/100sec

Lazy Sunday!

Good old Ecco loves nothing more than to plop himself down on the cool hardwood floor on lazy Sunday mornings. We were watching TV on sunday morning and the light comes into our apartments and creates great white light that shines on the floor, sitting there I saw Ecco laying down and decided to get down on the floor with him and take this image. Ofcourse I had to shoo Gizmo (our puppy) away, LOL! I focused in on Eccos left eye and took the shot. As you probably all know by now I love Black & White, color is just so regular, its what everybody sees! B&W baby!

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: F/3.5
Shutter: 1/15sec

The city shines bright under the moonlight.

Took an unplanned trip to Griffith Observatory the other night and waited for the sun to go down, I started taking sunset shots but this city is really the most beautiful at full night time. I took many shots of the city, the Hollywood sign, etc. but my favorite shot was this one, city way off in the distance the the moon shinning down on it. Post processing done on this image was minimal, mainly converting to Black & White, adding a little contrast but that was pretty much it.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 200
Aperture: F/3.5
Shutter: 2.5 sec

Downtown LA from Historic filipino town.

Looking down Glendale Blvd towards downtown LA. I love the city at night sometimes it feels peaceful and scary at the same time. Walking around alone in a city that never sleeps is great fun. Sometimes the city looks ugly sometimes amazing but always has lots of character.

Post processing was easy on this image, B&W... and as Jared Polin would say I "boom-ified" basically lots of contrast and darken the sky. I find that in LA when you photograph the city at night you have to darken the sky instead of lightening it since there is so much reflected light from the city.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: F/3.5
Shutter: 1/2 sec

Echo Park Lake

Driving home as I passed the Echo Park Lake I noticed that the sky was full of "puffy" clouds which is actually pretty rare in LA, we usually have flat blue skies on sunny days. I thought this would be a great time to take an image of the lake with the city in the BG.

Post processing was all done in Lightroom 3, obviously I made in B&W, bumped up the contrast and other small cleanups.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Focal Length: 55mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter: 1/500 sec

The city of Angels is always in a hurry.

Found a great location to take a long exposure of cars heading in to the city. Just about the 110 freeway up in Elysian Park. I drove up there and waited for it to get dark before I could take these shots. I guess it must have been around 9pm not that it matters since in this city the streets are always packed, but I didn't want to take any chances on there not being enough cars. The second image is really great because of the cars coming toward us from inside the tunnel.

All post processing on both images was done in Lightroom 3. These were pretty simple mostly just contrast and small saturation increases in the sky.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Focal Length: 46mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: F/22
Shutter: 30 sec

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)

Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm

Focal Length: 46mm

ISO: 100

Aperture: F/22

Shutter: 20 sec

Portland Head Light - Cape Elizabeth Maine

On a trip to Portland, Maine for Jay's wedding we went for a picnic to Cape Elizabeth's Fort Williams where this lighthouse is. While walking down to the lighthouse with Sonia's sister Erica, I took this image of the lighthouse with my iPhone 4.

Camera: iPhone 4
Lens: iPhone 4 back lens
Focal Length: 3.85mm
ISO: 80
Aperture: F/2.8
Shutter: 1/850

Post processing: I did a lot of work on this image, the most obvious being turning it to B&W, but I also sharpened, contrasted and I also corrected the horizon as it was a little slanted. I'm not going to list all the changes on this one because since it was shot with the iPhone most of the changes were simple tweaks.

Los Angeles from the 1st Street Bridge over LA River.

I drove out to this location and waited for the sun to go down behind the city, I was planning on getting a shot of Downtown LA skyline, but once I found this location I thought it would be more interesting to get the perspective of the street leading up to the city. After a while of planning I saw a metro train roll by and decided I would wait for the next train which run pretty often at the 6:00pm to 8:00pm hours. I was hoping to get a shot of the moving train with the sun setting behind the city.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (550D)
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: F/22
Shutter: 1/30

Post Processing: I used Adobe Lightroom and did a lot of modifications to get this image.  Here is list of the modifications I did.
Temp: 5550
Tint: +16
Recovery: 100
Fill Light: 10
Blacks: 35
Brightness: +150
Contrast: +100
Clarity: +50
Vibrance: +25
Saturation: -30
Tone Curve: Medium Contrast
Sharpening: Amount 40, Radius .8, Detail 35
Noise Reduction: Luminance 100, Detail 50, Color 100.
Lens Correction: Canon EF-S 18-55mm Profile.