For a GREAT Cause

On Wednesday, March 9 we photographed the 2011 Leukemia Cup Regatta kick-off event in Dana Point.

The Leukemia Cup Regatta is a series of thrilling events that combine the joy of boating with the critical task of raising money to fight cancer.  Last year the Orange County/Inland Empire Chapter's raised $170,000 to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's mission: To cure leukemia, lymphoma, hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

The goal for the Orange County/Inland Empire Chapter is to raise $200,000 in 2011!  To donate, please click on the link below.  You can easily donate on-line, and you can also see the Schedule of Events for 2011. 

They have some great events planned so take a look and join in!

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Web Site

Here I am with Gary Jobson

Gary on NBC covering the Olympics

Gary Jobson is a World Class Sailor who has won just about every sailing event there is!  He is also The Leukemia Cup Regatta's National Chairman who's goal is to raise over $4 million this year.  

Gary is also a ESPN commentator and an all around nice guy!  Gary is also a cancer survivor, and a great example of living live to the fullest.

Here's my wife looking at Sponsor information for "The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society"

Cancer survivor and Leukemia spokesperson Kellie Canaday

Gary Jobson with Kellie and Campaign Manager Tracy VanNostrand

See It All with HDR

What's HDR you ask?  It's High Dynamic Range.
The best digital SLR cameras have a dynamic range of about 9 f/stops.  The human eye has a range of over 20 f/stops!  This is quite a difference, and the reason why your eye can see all that detail in the shadows and still clearly see something very bright in the same scene.  Our eyes actually adjust between the brightest and darkest parts in a scene so fact that we don't even notice that it's happening.  Our eyes combined with the power of our brains to do this is far far better than any camera can hope for.

This is where HDR can help a bit.
The first picture below is a single frame.  The second photo is a combination of five shots merged together using the same f/stop of 8 but at various shutter speeds.  This added about 4 f/stops to the image, and is why you can see more detail in the wood grain without loosing detail in the sky.

center image of 5 shot bracket

combination of 5 images

You can use up to 9 images to create an HDR image with even more dynamic range.
It's amazing what you can do with software nowadays!
The software I used here is HDR Pro by NIK software said to be the best on the market right now.
The only drawback to all this HDR stuff is that you need to know how to bracket (easy) and you need to have a pretty powerful computer because the software is quite power hungry.

This software should be a serious consideration for landscape and architectural photographers because it really does work some magic.
I have not bought HDR Pro yet, I am only testing the free trial version.  Will I buy it?  I'm not sure yet.  It's $159.99 and I specialize in portraits of people not so much landscapes etc.  But it sure would be nice to have!

RCHS Sadie Hawkins

Here are just a few photos we took at the RIVERSIDE CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL Sadie Hawkins event at KNOTTS BERRY FARM on Saturday.

Sadie Hawkins is based on a comic strip character from the 1930's, where the girl asks the guy on a date. These Sadie Hawkins Day events have been popular ever since!

These high school seniors had a blast as you can see from the pictures below.  In fact, the teachers had a great time too (see the last photo)!

RCHS:  More photos to come soon on your "Kuhl Photos" Gallery.

Mid-Week Trip

This picture of my beautiful wife was taken by Lake Fulmor near Idyllwild Ca.  This is a great spot for fishing and picnicking!  This lake is quite small, but as you can see, quite beautiful as well!

The photo below is of our bathroom at The Creekside Inn.   Huge Jacuzzi tub and all, but the problem was that the bathroom was as big as the rest of the room.  So, If you stay at the Creekside Inn, skip the "Winter" room unless you don't mind a very small bedroom.

The next two photos are of a cool shop that imports all their goods from Peru.  Looks like Mary Ann is getting ready to buy a souvenir.

All these photos were taken without a flash and no edits of any kind were done in post processing.  Nice colors straight out of the camera.  Camera used was my Nikon D3 with Nikon 16-35mm lens.

7th Most Haunted Site In The United States!

On my way home yesterday, I decided to take side streets as I often do.  I drove through "Old Town Murrieta" and noticed a tall structure in the background.  I decided to get a closer look at this strange concrete building.  The name on the building was "KEA MILLING."
This place had a weird aura about it, spooky in fact!

When I got home I googled  this place.  Come to find out that the KEA MILL is the 7TH MOST HAUNTED SITE IN AMERICA!
Almost stranger than that is that we live within 5 miles of this place and have never heard or seen of it until I stubbled upon it by accident.

It is said that there is the ghost of a young girl wearing a blue dress that can be seen in the top center window on many nights!  We did not see her, yet!  Also, if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of a train whistle blowing.  Spooky since the last time a train ran anywhere near this site was in 1935!

We went back that night to take as few pictures.
My wife Mary Ann did a great job with to these photos below.
Exposure was f1.4 @ 1/4 sec, ISO 3200.  Camera used was Nikon D300

Wonderful Family

Mary Ann and I had an amazing time photographing the Romero Family!

Take a look at these photos and it is clear to see that this is a happy family.  

Wonderful!

LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER RECEIVES NATIONAL CERTIFICATION

I had a pretty "kuhl" thing happen.
I had an article published about me in a local newspaper.  The title of the story is "Local Photographer Receives National Certification." The article is even on the front page!

Thanks to Nancy and The Bugle for publishing this story about me.

Please take a look at the article by clicking on the link below.  The print copy of this paper will distributed on January 7, 2011.

WWW.thebugle.net/images/stories/webcbjan2011.pdf