Saturday afternoon and looking for a photo to take.

Allen and I drove around looking... about 80 miles worth. Today is just one of those days where you take 100 photos and really aren't that happy with anything you took.
So Project 365 gets an entry today that I am just not thrilled with, but it is what it is. You can't be Trey Ratcliff everyday.

Here is the Iron Ivan. An old steam locomotive

The Ravine

I went to a restaurant across the street from my house last evening and talked to the owner for a few minutes. After showing him examples of the HDR shots I have been taking of Bars and Restaurants in the area, he seemed intrigued enough that I jumped on it. I told him I could show up today and take some shots and if he liked them, we would talk business.

So, at 4:30 pm today, I set up the tripod and started snapping the shutter. All in all I spent about 3 hours there, and they were very pleased with the results. After I was packed up and ready to go the owners of The Ravine asked me to show the images to a couple of people sitting at one of the tables. It turns out that these people own a winery about 30 minutes from here and asked me to email them and possibly take some photos at their establishment! I was and am really REALLY excited.
How cool is it to be able to turn what you love doing into a way to make money!
Here is Jonathan and Gita's restaurant called The Ravine.

Paying Gigs

I have been showing my photos around to local restaurant and bar owners and today was my first official paying gig.
I shot a bar/restaurant here in Folsom and delivered 5 images to the owner. He was very pleased with the end product, and now I have more examples to add to my portfolio which will allow me to get more jobs. Woo hoo! The whole process took about an hour and a half, from walking in the door to putting the finished images on his computer for him.

Here are the shots.



View on black in a large size



View on black in a large size



View on black in a large size



View on black in a large size



View on black in a large size

Carpe Diem Coffee Shot

Carpe Diem is the coffee shop that I have had the opportunity to hang my photos in.
This week I replaced all the shots of the Golden Gate Bridge with Lighthouses, and so far everyone thinks they are beautiful so hopeful someone will buy a few!
After Putting the new photos up and chatting with Louie Sr. and Louie Jr. I decided to take a photo of the restaurant and see how it would come out. The results were pretty good and so Louie Jr. and I staged the restaurant to clean up the shot. We talked to the few customers that were there and asked them if they would mind being in the photo and they seemed all happy about it and so we took a few shots. The owners were so pleased with the results that they want me to get the photo printed on Canvas and enlarged to 4 feet wide. They want to hang it in the shop so it is one of the first things that customers will see when they walk in.
I am pretty excited about this project.



Click here to view it large on Black

Today's Photos

Today was a laid back day.. I tried to capture a bridge and climbed down an embankment and shot away.. but it really didn't turn out the way I wanted. Sylvester's truck ends up being the shot of the day.











These are a couple that I finished processing today

Project 365 day 25

Well it was Sunday and after an excellent breakfast with Allen at a new restaurant called Mooney's I went searching for a photo. I took a couple of some old trucks up in Georgetown and then I headed home. It was on the way home that I saw this scene out of the corner of my eye and locked on the brakes.


Here is one of the trucks as well

Local Night Life

There are two places in Folsom that really draw the crowds. The Powerhouse Pub and Scarlets. Here are a couple of shots from last night early before the party started.

365- Day 23

I took a drive this morning South West of Folsom, kinda heading towards Yosemite. I found this old beauty parked in a field.

Rainy Days and Thursdays

Today it is pouring rain out and that makes it much more difficult to find an interesting shot. This is the rainbow bridge in Folsom California. No rainbows around here today though.

Day 21... Project 365

Today when I woke up, the sky was gray, clouds were everywhere and just plain boring. After a breakfast with Allen, I drove into Old Sacramento to find something to shoot.

Day 20 of Project 365 The Lemon Drop

This is a little project that I have been wanting to work on for a long time now. I finally took a stab at it. It is a lot harder than it looks!

Home again... finally

It took 31 hours to get from Miami to Sacramento. I am finally home and completely spent.
Allen picked me up at the airport and on the way home, we stopped for a steak which was perfect. So, now I am full and sleepy and going to hit the hay. I just didn't want to leave everyone hanging as to whether or not I got home. The last time I didn't blog that I was home I heard about it....You know who you are!

Day two still in Miami

The alarm went off at 4:30 am. Even though I was staying in a hotel room right above concourse E, I thought it best to still follow the 2 hour time frame so in case the airport was busy, I would still make my 6:50 am flight.
Surprisingly enough, although American Airlines had a super long line and crowds of people going through what I did yesterday (they all had the same zombie look too) Security was pretty light today so I was sitting at the gate around 5:15 or so.

We boarded our plane on time, and I had bought yet another neck pillow.. I always forget to take them with me from home, so I have a collection of "Only used once" Neck pillows. I settled into the window seat and fell asleep.
I always love falling asleep and waking up hours later not even remembering the take off.
I woke up to my seat mate shaking me and telling me that I needed to get off the plane because they had a mechanical problem and had taken the flight out of service.
I got off the plane and saw the line building up rapidly at the Agent desk so I jumped in and now I am supposed to get to Dallas around 11:00 am and then will sit there until 4:30 pm finally arriving in Sacramento at 6:00 pm.

I do have to recognize that Sandra, the Agent at the C9 Counter was lovely, she was empathetic and spoke softly rather than yelling or just being annoying.
I am sure she won't be around long in the American Airlines company.. people like her just don't fit in!

United.. American... All airlines are awful except ANA (in my humble opinion)

If you had a client that payed you a lot of money to drive them somewhere... hmm.. like a limo company, they would give you guidelines as to how they would get you from point A to point B. They might tell you that you had to be at their office two hours priort to the departure time, but that is pretty much it! They certainly wouldn't tell you that if you wanted to place an item in the trunk it would cost you 15 dollars, and oh.. for your second item... 25 dollars. And if your item is over 50 lbs, would they charge you even more?

Lets look at this from the client's perspective....

Let's just say for the sake of argument, that you did show up at their office 2 hours prior to the departure... oh actually, 2 hours and 15 minutes early. When you walked in the front door and saw thousands of people running around in front of you, and no signs anywhere or people willing to guide you where to go, would that surprise you?

So, you finally see the area that you are supposed to wait in line for, and you see about 25 computer terminals in front of about 300 people, and with no organization you realize that you have to just fight for a place in front of one. Now, if you don't have this special code, NQZROSV with you, then you really won't be able to use any of these computers to find your reservation, and then you will have to wait in an even longer line for problem customers.. like you.

Thankfully enough, you pull out your trusty iPhone and retrieve your record locator number, and with in about 15 minutes, you are printed your boarding pass to get your ride. Then you wonder where to go to get your luggage in the vehicle and you realize that there are three lines of about 75 to 100 people waiting to get to a counter where there are 4 people trying to print these little stickers to keep track of your luggage. So you get in line and 50 minutes later, you finally get waved to the counter where a company employee looks at you, does not smile and barks an order at you. "Let me have your boarding pass"

Then she tells you to put your luggage on a scale, and when you follow her orders and put your 2 bags on the scale, she barks another time and scolds you. You find out, that she meant, put one bag on the scale, and then put your other bag on the other scale. You realize you are an idiot and should know better. So, you follow her orders. Then she hands you the two stickers that you have waited almost an hour for, and then this employee of the company that you are hiring to provide YOU a SERVICE, tells YOU to carry your luggage through the crowd of hundreds of people and deliver it to a worker who doesn't speak english, and is going to throw your $2000 worth of luggage and belongings onto a conveyor belt with no care as to whether or not it is damaged or not.

Then you realize that your ride is supposed to leave in about 1 hour and you are confused as to where to go and meet your vehicle. So, you ask one of the employees as they walk by you, and without stopping they just point in a direction and tell you over there...

So, you head "Over there" and when you get "Over there" you see another crowd of people waiting in yet another line. You wait with these people for 40 minutes taking a couple of steps every so often, and then when you finally get to the end of this line, they make you empty your pockets of anything medal, and you damn well do it because if this little speaker beeps when you walk through this cage, they are going to make you feel like you committed a crime, and if you give them any attitude, they are going to make you stand perfectly still, with your arms spread wide, and wave a wand that makes noise, all over your body. They are going to do this right in front of everyone to make an example of you as well. They are going to make you take your shoes off, your coat off, and if you are wearing a hat, that goes off too. Then they are going to scrutinize your purse, backpack or whatever you are carrying, with an X ray machine, that you are paying for with your tax dollars, and if there is anything that even resembles something that they might consider could be used as a weapon...... well you don't wanna know what they are going to do to you or how long it is going to take!

So, you finally get through this line, and realize that you only have 15 minutes or so to get to your ride! You rush down corridor after corridor, and after what seems like a marathon, you get to the place where you are supposed to get into your ride, and the person at the door makes an announcement over a sound system that is so loud it makes your ears bleed, and yet somehow, you can't understand what she is saying. You now wait in another line and when you finally get to the counter, you find out that your ride... isn't really here yet, and because it isn't here yet, you are going to miss the next ride that you paid for. They do however have a solution for you. They are going to let you get in a different vehicle, going to a different place than you agreed to when you purchased your original ride, and they are going to get you to your destination 1 hour later. Oh, and they are only going to get you half way there, because they don't provide transportation to where you are going at that hour. They tell you that they are going to hand you off to a different company once you get halfway there, and they will get you the rest of the way. You ask about the items that you put in the trunk... that you paid 40 dollars for them to transport for you and they look you right in the eye and tell you that you won't be seeing them today, and that once you arrive at your destination, you can file a claim, and then they will try to find them for you.

You agree to all this, and they send you to another area where this vehicle is supposed to be, and when you get there, you hear that this vehicle is not going to be ready at the promised time either. You put two and two together and realize that this is going to make you miss your next vehicle again, and so you stand in line at another counter and meet another employee and tell them your dilemma all over again. This new employee turns away from you because he likes one of his co-workers better than you and it is more important for him to give her a hug and laugh with her, than it is to provide you the service that you paid for. When he is finished with his own priorities, he types away on the computer and then tells you the bad news. There are no more vehicles going to where you paid to go. He then asks you if you can change your destination to a place two hours away from where you paid them to take you. You are pretty shocked that he would think this would be an acceptable solution and you tell him that you can not do that.

He continues typing away, pretty much ignoring you, then stops and asks you again if you would be willing to change your destination to that place two hours away from where you want to go. You tell him no, and then he tells you that you just are not going to get there today. Then he steps back from the computer and waits for you to start the conversation again. You are pretty shocked, and starting to get annoyed, and you ask him the question.... When can I get there? You realize that he won his little game... making you beg for his help.... but you don't care, you just have nothing left in you that cares. He tells you that you can leave tomorrow morning, pretty early, and you realize that you are going to have to wait in a lot of long lines again.

You are a bit concerned with where you will stay tonight, actually, you are more concerned with who is going to pay for the hotel that you are going to stay in tonight. The employee rambles off a list of hotel names that you have no idea where they are, or if they are good places to stay, and you ask which one is closest. He tells you there is a hotel right in the lobby of the building you are standing in, and you tell him that you want to stay there. He gives you a voucher for 10 dollars so that you can eat dinner, and you go walking away not really understanding how a company, that doesn't actually do anything that they say they do, can possibly stay in business.
The thought crosses your mind that if you serviced your clients even once like this, no one would ever hire you again.

And so here I sit in my hotel room in the Miami International Airport... Thanks American Airlines!

General Session

Waiting for Rehearsals

The General Session room... Almost setup. We are waiting for Rehearsals to start and finishing last minute things.

Day one in Miami

I got up this morning and walked around the harbor area in Miami called "Bayside"
I got yelled at by a security lady in a golf cart for using my tripod. What is with this country? I also got yelled at in Times Square for using a tripod by a NYPD Officer.

De-Icing a plane in Sacramento

While waiting in the airport to fly to Miami, I caught this shot of the crew de-icing a plane.

Touchdown MIA

All my flights went easy breezy, and I landed in Miami 20 minutes early!
My ride to the hotel was waiting and I am now comfortably sitting in my hotel room overlooking the harbor and waiting for room service.
Mac and cheese and chicken fingers are on the way in 35 minutes or less.

Tomorrow I meet the crew for lunch and start work at 1:00 pm.
Good times!

Heading to Miami

It is 34 degrees outside in Sacramento right now... brrr! I can not complain however because I am headed to Miami Florida where it is 76 degrees with a high of 78. Yea!

My flight leaves at 8:30 am and I fly from SMF to DFW with a layover there of almost 2 hours. Hopefully todays flying will go easy breezy. I am flying America Airlines today which is a bit of a challenge because I normally fly United and that is where all my status is. No jumping to the head of the line today, and I had to pay 40 dollars to get my luggage on the plane. The cost of the plane ticket plus the extra 80 dollars for luggage fees probably makes it cheaper for the company to fly me on my own airline.. and at least I would get the air-miles that way.
I will finally land in Miami around 7:20 pm tonight and then off to the Intercontinental Hotel. It looks like a nice hotel and I believe it is located in a pretty cool area for me to get some photos. So for that I am pretty excited.

Next Stop... Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The Folsom Zoo

I went to the Folsom Zoo today, and Gus the Peacock asked me to do a photoshoot of him. He was a real pain though. He wouldn't look into the camera!

Sneakers

Allen ran 300 miles in these sneakers and just retired them for some brand new ones.
He wanted a photo of them! I set up the studio lights and the tent and there they are.

Ron the Trumpeter

I hadn't gotten my shot for today so I dragged Allen into downtown Sacramento about 25 minutes from home to find a shot.
He was not too happy about it and I can hardly blame him. When he asked what I was looking to shoot, all I could tell him was that I would know it when I saw it.
Funny thing was.. I didn't see any of it.
Finally I spotted a building that was lit very nicely and I thought I may have found my shot! Then I realized that it was a restaurant, and not only a restaurant, but a chain restaurant too.
Well, we shot it for a few minutes, and then started to wander around a little looking for other shots.
It was then that I heard the sound of a trumpet down the street and around the corner.
I wandered over there and met Ron. Ron was playing his horn in the entrance of the parking garage because it had a ton of reverb in there.
I asked him if I could take his photo, and he laughed a little... asked me why I wanted it, and then said.. "Well, OK"

Ron was a talker, Allen showed up a little while later and we both patiently listened to Ron ramble a bit.
We said good night to him and slipped him 10 bucks and off we went.
I liked Ron... he was a pretty nice guy.

Whiskey and Bullets

Today was one of those days that stayed cloudy all day.. and it was cold... and I didn't feel like wandering the state looking for a photo. So I setup shop in the Kitchen on the little island with the photo tent, studio flashes and tried to come up with something interesting.

Motorcycle riding

I took the Honda out for a little ride today and the battery went dead. It made me kickstart the thing about 10 times before it turned over. Bad Honda! So, it's photo gets some special treatment today.

Rainy days

I got up this morning wondering what my photo of the day was going to be, and right in my back yard I saw the drops of rain resting comfortably on the leaves.

The Folsom Bridge

I took a little jaunt down by the Folsom Powerhouse and then down by the river and it was very peaceful sitting by the river as the sun went down.

Jeep'n

About 5 miles from the house is an OHV park. OHV stands for Off Highway Vehicle. There is a lot of terrain to take the jeep out and play. After spending about an hour there, the jeep needs a Car Wash.