Mission San Antonio in Black and White

So now I'm just banging away in the middle of an insomnia attack. 2:30 in the morning and I'm gray scaling photos. I guess there are worse things I could be doing :)

I liked this one for the depth. The light was very pleasing also. What a great location to shoot.

For anyone interested in going up to Mission San Antonio, do it in the fall, winter or spring. There are a few reasons for that. In the first place, the sun being directly over head in the summer makes for lousy pictures, no shadows etc. Secondly, it gets blazing hot up there in the summer.

More Light and Contrast in B&W at Mission San Antonio

It was an interesting challenge to get the exposure so that the area in the sun did not blow out. Lightroom brought back the texture in the sunny area reasonably well. I enjoy these high contrast images.

Light and Contrast in B&W at Mission San Antonio, California

This view of the inside the gate of the juncture of the wall and roof of the Mission San Antonio caught my eye. There was nice light and contrast. It just appealed to me, so here it is.

A Bunch of Stuff from Thanksgiving Weekend

The following images were made during this past weekend. On Friday we made a family road trip to the San Antonio Valley, Big Sur and Cambria. It made for a lovely variety of things to see.

Scroll down and enjoy some of what we saw.

Snakes?!

Wandering the hills and mountains of California has its, er... challenges. I found this nailed to one of the doors of the Mission San Antonio high in the Santa Lucia Mountains. One's choice of footwear needs to be carefully considered.

Candles at Mission San Antonio and Other Delights

Today was an absolutely beautiful day on The Central Coast of California. Anita, Tressa, Christine and I all headed up the Salinas Valley. We crossed the mountains to the Coast at King City. We went up to Fort Hunter Liggett where the Hearst Ranch House and Mission San Anonio are located. We explored these places and then ascended the Santa Lucia on Nacimiento Road which winds and switchbacks over the mountains to the Big Sur Coast.

That was an adventure as we climbed to about 4500 feet, most of which seemed to have no guard rails on the cliffs that dropped vertically to the canyon floors below. Beautiful and electrifying. A fabulous trip.

Once on the coast we drove south past The Hearst Castle at San Simeon to Cambria. There Anita got her birthday wish and went through each and every store. I shot a few pix in the toursty little town.

We then headed back up to Paso Robles and up the 101 to home.

A fine time was had by all.