Photography By Richard A. Martin

Light speed to ................

2011-09-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Soaring in never ending circles high above a world of color and light on the Golden Zephyr at Disney California Adventure Park is an adventure not to be missed. It is a place to learn to see the world in new and unique ways. Under lessons learned: Looking through your camera while spinning around in circles high up in the air can be hard on your equilibrium!

Nikon D300 with 18mm-200mm Nikkor lens. 1/4 sec. at f/4.8. 50mm. ISO 800. Adjustments: NIK Software's Viveza 2.0, Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Define 2.0; Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Silent Runways

2011-08-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

The runways at MCAS El Toro have been silent for many years. However, the memories of fighters taking flight from the base and soaring across Orange County's skies have not faded. A visit to the base quickly rekindles memories of airshows attended by hundreds of thousands who were thrilled by performances of the Blue Angels. You can almost hear the echo of huge jets landing and taking off as the US built up to Desert Storm in the early 90s. Some may even remember the base being destroyed by aliens in the film Independence Day.

Now the silent runways are slowly fading away as the Orange County Great Park reclaims the fertile land. Soaring over the base in the Great Park Balloon is a wonderful way to reminisce about the former airbase and to look forward into the future of the park. On this day, a ride in the balloon several hundred feet above the ground was about the only place to find a cool breeze on a hot humid Southern California afternoon.

Nikon D300: 42mm, f10, 1/400. Adjustments in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, NIK Software Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 3.0.

They were working all night setting up a spider web for me!

2011-08-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

The mild damp summer this year has been good to spiders in Southern California. When I awoke to a cool dew soaked morning today I found that a spider had been busily working in my backyard spinning a huge web while I slept. I grabbed my D300 and hoped the spider was not too big. As I took this picture I was always wondering if the spider would show up. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet it. D300 at 200mm, 1/50 sec. at F/5.6. Adjustments to background in NIK Color Efex Pro3 and Viveza 2. Noise reduction in NIK Define 2.0. Sharpening in NIK Sharpener Pro 3.

The Best Shot is Often Right Outside the Window

2010-10-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

A fresh snow had fallen the night before we arrived in Pittsburgh. The midnight trip from the airport to the hotel was a real white knuckle ride for a couple of Californians who rarely see snow. The hotel we stayed at was on the banks of the Ohio River across from the city. Our room looked down on the railroad tracks running along the river bank. I took this image from our room as a train plowed through the fresh snow. The large stone structure in the background is what remains of an old bridge across the river. (105mm, F/6.3 at 1/160, +0.3 Exp. Comp., Spot Meter)

Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Pic For Me

2010-10-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine ye be travelin in a slow movin boat in almost pitch blackness as ye approach yer adversary. The only real light is produced by seemingly random flashes of a strobe light used to simulate lightening. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh, this is not a camera friendly atmosphere. This was the situation I faced when I captured one of my favorite images in Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. As our boat approached the Skelton Helmsman standing watch on the shipwreck in the Grotto of the Lost Souls, it seemed capturin a clear image would be well-nigh impossible. I set me camera to shutter priority (1/160). Using me flash was not an option since I am a fanatic about the “No Flash Photography” rule in Disney attractions. It is not a guideline, it’s a rule! I raised me camera and suddenly the lightening flashed and I pressed the shutter button. The aperture on me 50mm lens settled at f1.8. The shutter released at exactly the right moment to capture the Skelton’s eternal watch at the helm. Sometimes it really is better to be lucky than good. Savvy?

You Never Know When You Will Stumble Upon A Dragon Accident

2010-10-07T14:19:00.001-07:00

You never know when the opportunity to take a memorable photograph will pop up in front of you. That was the case for me on August 28, 2010 when I turned a corner and ran into a dragon accident. After watching fireworks at Disneyland with my family, we walked from Fantasyland to Frontierland so the kids could ride Big Thunder Mountain. As we entered Frontierland we noticed that something did not seem right with the Fantasmic show. Although it appeared the show was not in progress, the huge water fountains used for projection screens were all running. As we looked closer, behind the fountains of water we could see that the dragon from the finale was uncharacteristically on stage. Seeing an opportunity to take an unusual picture, I looked around and there were no cast members about and nothing indicating I should not take the photo. So I raised my camera and took a few shots. At the time I had no idea how much attention my photo would get.

Fantasmic's wounded dragon

Sunday morning I checked the Internet to see what had happened to the Fantasmic show the night before. It turns out the Dragon had crashed during the show. Since there were few pictures posted of the incident, I posted my picture in the MiceChat Forum for Disneyland. I did not realize that was just the beginning for my photo.

On Monday August 30th my photograph appeared in Andy Castro’s wonderful Dateline Disneyland on MiceChat and it was attributed to a Twitter account I had never heard of. I contacted Andy and let him know about the origin of my photo and he happily gave proper credit for the photo. I then contacted the Twitter account which had posted my photo with a watermark for that account and informed the owner that the account had posted my picture and proper credit should be given. I never heard anything from the owner of that account.

Things continued to get more exciting for my wounded dragon photo. Early in the afternoon of August 30, 2010, The Orange County Register used a copy of my photo in the Sarah Tully’s column Around Disney. The Register did credit my photo by using my screen name from MiceChat. Later in the day I received an email from Paloma Esquivel of the Los Angeles Times with a request to use my photo. I called Ms. Esquivel back and chatted with her about my experience at Disneyland and then I sent her a copy of the photo. On August 31, 2010, my photo appeared on the front page of the LATExtra section of the Los Angeles Times. I later learned that the photo was also used in a post by Ms. Esquivel for the Los Angeles Times' L.A. Now on August 30, 2010.

So you never know when an exciting photograph will pop up right in front of you and never forget how quickly your photographs can be spread around on the Internet!