DAY TWO HUNDRED FORTY THREE

I don't really like to eat beans but I figured that if I make them into a puree, I can dress them up how I like and I definitely like making a puree with them so much better! The fig and walnut chutney was bought from the Farmer's Market at the Ferry building in San Francisco. So good! The picture is not the best because it's really hard sometimes to take a picture of hot food and get the perfect shot before it gets cold when you're starving.

DAY TWO HUNDRED FORTY TWO

I was short on time tonight. Not very much time to grab a shot. :/

DAY TWO HUNDRED FORTY ONE

Such a classic.

DAY TWO HUNDRED FORTY

The Winchester Mystery House is a famous mansion in California. It was once owned by Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Winchester. I was told that Sarah thought the house was haunted by ghosts of people who were killed by Winchester rifles and only continuous construction would keep them at bay. This house is very weirdly constructed as it literally has doors to nowhere.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY NINE

While I was in San Francisco, I tried a cannoli mostly because one of my friends proclaimed that this cannoli from Stella Pastry & Cafe was The Holy Cannoli!

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT

These two precious kids belong to two of my friends in San Francisco. Sam is 14 years old and Bindi is 5 years old. My friends have a set of beautiful black and white photos in their home hanging over their couch so I decided to make this photo black and white as a special treat for them.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY SEVEN

I just don't even have any words. :-O

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY SIX

To fly or to drive?

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE

I plan to do some damage in the kitchen with this thing if I ever get time.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY FOUR

I am very behind on uploading and commenting. I've been busy with work, business, and traveling. I hope all is well with everyone.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY THREE

So unfortunately on this day I somehow forgot to take a picture for my 365. :-O I can't believe I did that. :( I was so heartbroken last night when I realized that I had not taken a picture. I can't believe that it slipped my mind but I couldn't let that get me down so I decided to upload this picture of Casa Grande at Hearst Castle for the absence of Day 233's photo.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY TWO

This visit was my 2nd to Hearst Castle. The summer tour I went on this time was a lot more fun than the first tour I went on. This tour only lasted 45 minutes and you could roam the castle grounds as much as you liked afterwards.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY ONE

This weekend I hung out with some friends in San Simeon, California and had the pleasure of taking in the beauty of the California coastline along Highway 1.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTY

I tried panning tonight while my friends were bowling. There are other people at the bowling alley but I was lucky enough to get a shot of Scott by himself. Scott actually gave me the great idea of getting out front to get the action shot. Thanks Scott!

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY NINE

If I was doing a project to photograph all of the letters of the alphabet, I've got L and A in the bag.

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY EIGHT

I think we all need one every once in a while even if you have to create the spa day at home.

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY SEVEN

I have this wand that a friend gave me for my birthday and as soon as I saw it tonight, I thought, what a great subject for bokeh. So I'm wishing upon a bokeh star that I get a good night's sleep and wake up to world peace. What do you wish upon a bokeh star?

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY SIX

I hung out with two of my friends today at a new restaurant called Avant Tapas and Wine. I really like the way they have wine tasting set up. They have chilled wine dispensers set up along a wall and they give you a card that you insert into the machine, pick 2, 4, or 6 oz, and it dispenses wine into your glass. Your total is computed on the card so even if you lose track of how many glasses you had, the card won't. ;)

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE

This evening I was determined to captured a sunset after I missed the gorgeous sunset we had in Santa Barbara yesterday. Instead of going to one of my favorite spots, I went to a beach that I haven't shot before but one i visit often. As I was walking to an area to capture the sunset, I saw this man on a horse and just knew I had to capture him. He was actually riding by as I took this shot.

Spoilers:
- I used HDR to capture the colors of the scene from 5 exposures from -2.0 to 2.0 and one exposure that was 2.33 (the 2.33 was an accident since I thought I had set my camera at 2). The photo of the guy was also used for the HDR so 7 exposures total. When removing ghosts in the HDR image, the man and the horse were removed in the final merge because they were considered ghosts since they weren't present in any of the other shots. I then had to add the man and the horse back in.

The outtake is below.

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR

These are the purple and pink mini cupcake soaps that I make and sell online. Every year a boutique owner in France holds an event called Cupcake Mania where she sells all kinds of cupcake themed items and I have the honor of being one of the designers/manufacturers. In the spirit of cupcake mania, I'm holding a sale of my own!

C'est pas du gâteau!
(Translation: It's a piece of cake!)

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY THREE

Here are the second pair of earrings that my friend got me from Peru. I had to take a quick picture so that I could go to sleep immediately when my body was ready as opposed to fighting sleep to set up a photo. Since this pic was posted days after it was shot, I can tell you it was some of the best sleep I've had in a while. :)

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY TWO

I had my bubble busted tonight twice! I had two shots in mind and a fence stopped me from taking one and security stopped me from taking the other. But you know what, I've got more bubbles and they can't pop them all!

Strobist Info:
- LP160, 50mm, 1/2 power, thru shoot thru umbrella, 1 ft away, 3 ft high, behind camera
- Fired with Alienbees Cybersyncs

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY ONE

Remember those raspberries from yesterday? Well, today they're raspberry sorbet and just as good as they were yesterday! And best of all, I made it myself! No more store bought sorbet ever again!

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 24mm, full power, thru shoot thru umbrella, camera right, 6 ft hight, 1 ft away
- Fired with Alienbees Cybersyncs
- White reflector, camera left

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWENTY

You always hear the term ruby red but I much prefer raspberry red. :)

Strobist Info
- SB-600, fired through shoot thru umbrella, 24mm, full power, 5 ft high, 1 ft away, camera right, pointed down at subject
- Fired with Alienbees Cybersyncs

DAY TWO HUNDRED NINETEEN

I must say that I'm also a sucker for hair accessories and since I have big hair, I love big hair accessories.

DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTEEN

Fiesta is currently going on in Santa Barbara and I was in the area where Fiesta was taking place last night and decided to talk a quick walk down the street since the breeze felt so great against my skin. This is Allan Fiedtkou who was playing during the time I took this photo and normally I would chit chat before/after I photograph my subjects but I decided not to interrupt a musician that everyone was enjoying so much.

DAY TWO HUNDRED SEVENTEEN

I was walking into CVS the other day and I guy stopped me and asked me if I wanted to buy a chocolate bar to help battered women so I bought one bar and gave it to a friend of mine who loves chocolate. I almost forgot that I had put it in my bag and I was cleaning receipts out of my bag and took a picture of it for my 365 [out of desperation] and to remind myself to give the candy to my friend before it melted.

DAY TWO HUNDRED SIXTEEN

I believe everyone should have a night light. It says many of unsuspecting victims from stubbed toes. I feel like my creative light has been very dim lately and I'm in such a funk as far as photography so I'm stubbed. :/

DAY TWO HUNDRED FIFTEEN

I went under the Goleta Pier to take a photo but couldn't stay long because I couldn't really see anything and something was definitely crawling up my legs. Needless to say, I got the H-E- double hockey sticks out of there!

DAY TWO HUNDRED FOURTEEN

I finally got some sleep and was able to get out and get a HDR shot of the harbor. While I was setting up for my shot, a lady stopped me and asked, "Why did you see differently than the rest of us don't see?" I chuckled and said, "Well, I like the interesting angle the ships create in this area." And she said, "Oh I see. I took a picture over there but there was no angle."

This shot was composed of 9 exposures in Aperture priority mode and adjusted the exposure compensation from -4 to 4.

DAY TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN

I took this photo using my Camera 360 app on my Droid X. I have been coming home in the evening dog tired and then I get energy to do setups for my 365 project which gives me enough energy to last through the night. Then I have such trouble going to sleep so on this day, I decided to take a photo for my 365:2011 group theme and go get my beauty rest.