Central City, Colorado

Central City and Black Hawk is the site of Colorado's first major gold rush in 1859. Today, you can take a bus up here to get rich at the many casinos that, for some, have ruined the charm of this historic area. Driving up past the casinos you can reach the summit (9,000 ft) to explore the original Central City cemetery and remnants of the gold mines. Today was a beautiful fall day and the Aspen trees were at their peak, as seen in the photo of the Boodle Mill. All photos, expect Boodle Mill, were shot with the Pentax *istDS and the DA14mm lens.

California Woody

Being one of the oldest surfing beaches in California, San Onofre is the mecca for examples of the "classic" surfing lifestyle. Here's the ultimate surf wagon - a 1946 Ford Woody. Today, these wagons sell for $60,000 to $80,000, even with a little rust and wear. Photos taken with a Pentax *istDS and DA16-45mm lens.

Profiles in Ikebukuro

My routine on the last morning in Japan, on most trips, is to get a Starbucks coffee and sit on the steps of the Crown Plaza hotel. I enjoy people watchng and the shade-covered sidewalk gives me a great view of the hustle and bustle of people on their way to and from Ikebukuro Station.
The temporary wall at the construction site across the street provided me with a perfect backdrop to photograph folks as they passed by. As these are quick visual sketches and not perfectly composed studies, I just picked one view or perspective and randomly photographed people as they passed across my field of view. All photographs shot with a Pentax *istD-S and the 16-45mm lens.

Omakase

Omakase, loosely translated from Japanese, means "chef's tasting special" or "chef, I'm in your hands". Typically, the sushi chef will prepare for you a series or flight of 6 or more plates of beautifully prepared morsels. You're putting your palate in his hands, but if he's good it can be a wonderful evening. These are a few examples of Omakase photographs I did for Takahasi Abe's restaurant in Newport Beach. The Omakase was shot on location with a Canon 1D, 28-70mm lens, and two 550 Speedlites. I printed and framed 16 x 20" prints from the Epson 4000 so we could hang these images in his restaurant to serve as a gallery showing the beauty of Abe's Omakase.