New Then and Now page

Be sure to check out the new Then and now page I have added. Its a picture of my grandfather’s Ford Model A, combined with my 2007 Toyota Rav taken on the same street here in Santa Cruz. Its surprising just how much the area has not changed. Many of the houses are still the original homes built in 1924. […]

As summer comes to an end…

Since summers coming to an end I figured I would share a couple of shots I took from the beach out in front of the Boardwalk here in Santa Cruz, and take a moment to reflect on the summers shooting and what I learned. This shot of the log ride and ferris wheel was taken at ISO 100, 39mm f8.0 […]

Reader question: How do you do it?

First, let me say thanks again for all the great feedback on the blog. I’m enjoying doing this and I’m glad your enjoying the images. I was going through some of the messages yesterday and the most common question or comment I get is, How can you take pictures if your blind? Well, first I’m not totally blind, I have […]

Sometimes the weather cooperates…sometimes not.

Last night I was out shooting(thanks to my wife Carrie for taking me out even though she didn’t feel like driving), trying to get the “now” shot for a couple of the retouched images I have been working on. It was just as sunset hit when the fog rolled in like oranges. As a result I didn’t get the shot […]

The light at the end of the tunnel..

The first stop on our trip was The Devils Tower Wyoming – rising 1,200 feet above the Belle Fourche River,  inspired the imagination of the Indians. They called it Mateo Tepee, meaning Grizzly Bear Lodge, and had several legends regarding its origin. According to the Kiowas, who at one time are reputed to have lived in the region, their tribe once […]

The best part of traveling is…

Its always fun to go, and its always fun to come home but my favorite part of traveling is (aside from spending time with friends and family which is obvious) processing all the photos I took. I have just returned home from a week long trip to Colorodo. We took a nice photo taking drive up in the mountains above […]

Then and now update

Whew! thanks for all the great comments on the new project! I have six more shots I’m working on at the moment, now, if the weather would only cooperate and give me some non-foggy skies I can do the “now” shots to go with the retouched shots I have ready to go. The plan for this week is to get […]

Santa Cruz Then and now…

Happy Friday! well as promised I have gotten the first page up for the Then and Now section of the site. It took me a bit longer then antivipated…I wanted to make sure I had the facts for the dedication portion  all straight. Anyway, its weird to link to my own site but here goes… http://www.tahquechi.com/tan/tanindex.htm Next week I have […]

Photowalk 2009 the shot I chose.

At 10:00 am on the 18th of July it was overcast and misty (not at all unusual for Santa Cruz), thankfully as the photowalk started the fog cleared and left us with some high wispy clouds.  About 25 of us gathered at the clock tower at the end of Pacific Ave. here in Santa Cruz. The route took us down […]

Photowalk, Friday and camera gear.

Happy friday! As promised another shot from this weeks hike. This was taken at Natural Bridges State Beach.  The plan at the moment is to get the first then and now page up on the main site. The page will contain the 2 shots of the arch at Natural Bridges and some history on the shots and the arch.  Hopefully […]

Summer travel

Well, Just got back from a week in Reno. I’m back into the swing of things. I went out shooting today and as I usually try and do, I set a goal for myself – the goal today was to  not shoot any beach scenes. I really can’t help it, I love the beach heh. Walking in the paths in […]

Its that time of year….

I was digging through some shots I did and realized that I forgot to post the cool shot I took of a nesting gull.  This was taken at Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz. It was a gloomy cloudy day (not unlike today) so I figured I would go in search of other things to shoot than the landscape. Anyway out […]

A break from the june gloom

Hooray!  The tides, clouds and my schedule finally all worked out for a change. I have been working hard to get a decent shot of the arch at Natural Bridges state beach to go along with my last post which had a cool scanned image of the arch taken around 1924.  I tried a few mornings over the last couple […]

The Arch at Natural Bridges

This is a scanned photo of the stone arch at Natural Bridges state beach. There was no date on the picture but from all the data I have collected, and where the picture was in the photo book it appears the shot was taken around 1927. It was taken with a brownie camera and developed in a home darkroom (kitchen […]

Natural Bridges.

Late last week I ventured to Natural Bridges quite late in the morning. As a result the sun was waaay too harsh and the pictures I was looking for didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. While sifting through the stack of historical photos I came upon a couple of great shots of the arch at Natural Bridges. […]

The first shot.

Well here we go. This is the first one I have done. The origianl was a bit blurry so I scanned sharpened and retouched as much as I could. Now, the tough part{ trying  to figure out if this is from the Municipal Wharf aare. I know when Im in trouble, so I have sent off an email to http://www.sandylydon.com/  Local […]

Its not the camera that makes the images, its the photographer.

As promised, I am uploading a new image taken right before the storms set in last week.  Its a shot taken from the steps leading down to Steamers Lane looking at the wharf. Thanks so much for the feedback you have sent. I’m trying really hard to make the best images I can. Some asked me what camera gear I […]

Storm Moving in…

This morning I went out shooting. A storm was moving in so I figured I would get it done before the rains hit and boy was a glad I did. I got a couple of pretty neat shots… This one was taken near Steamers lane looking out towards Monterey. Also check out the new lighthouse shot on the front page […]

Scouting for the perfect shots.

Scouted some of the areas along west cliff, which will allow me to get shots of the wharf from a different perspective. I guess I need to wait for low tide 😎 Getting hold of all the pictures I need for the project is turning out to be quite the task. I havesent out calls to local friends of  the […]