Blog – Page 2 – C Chin Photo

Lava Beds National Monument

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Jul 152011

Surprisingly, even in July, roads are closed due to snow. We attempted to head up to Lava Beds National Monument in Northeastern California last week. Driving in from the south, one would have to pass by Medicine Lake. Unknown to us, the roads by medicine lake were closed due to snow, hence making the trip to Lava Beds National Monument a non-event. Fortunately, not all was lost. On Medicine Lake road, the paved part, we managed to run into an pseudo ice caved off the side of the road. It was nice to cool off in this cave!

It’s Cherry Picking Time!

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Jun 182011

Destination Ideas for the Bay Area: Brentwood, CA.

In the Bay Area, Memorial Day kicks off the annual Cherry Picking Season. Brentwood, one of the most popular Cherry Picking Destinations, has seen a steady increase in traffic over the years in terms of visitors during this specific time of year(estimated to be @150,000 per year). Brentwood, located about 56 miles east of San Francisco, offers a day-trippable destination that has year round u-pick and farm stand choices.

Harvest season for cherries in Brentwood generally runs from Memorial Day Weekend through July 4th weekend. This year, due to the unusual weather and rains, peak season has varied. The rains during the weekend of 6/7 forced closure of many u-pick farms. This past weekend, June 11, 12, was primo for cherry picking. The skies were partially cloudy and sunny, the weather temperate (at least for the Brentwood area in summer) and the fruit plentiful. There are numerous venues for different tastes. In the U-Pick category, our favorite was Bacchini’s Fruit Tree, for Strawberries, you have to go to Chan’s Fruit Stand and in the farm stand category, there’s just too many to choose from.

At Bacchini’s, there was a lot of ripe Bing, Sour and Ranier cherries to choose from as well as white peaches. The plums were almost barren and others such as Pluots were also almost sold out.

For more information, you can find maps, harvest times and other bits of information at: http://www.harvest4you.com/.

For more pictures, check out: http://cchinstudios.zenfolio.com/p825863615.

Burney Falls

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Jun 082011

Having visited Burney Falls over ten years ago, I yearned to return to photograph the falls and area in detail. Unfortunately, this trip, the trail down to the falls was closed. It turns out that the trails were closed for the summer and fall of 2010.

The park, officially called McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, is located within the Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau natural region. It consists of about 910 acres of forest and five miles of streamside and lake shoreline, including a portion of Lake Britton. The main attraction is the 129-foot Burney Falls, one of the most visited in the state.

Being in a volcanic region (Lassen Volcanic National Park is not too far away), the landscape was created by volcanic activity as well as erosion from weather and streams. A constant stream of water emerges from springs at and above Burney Falls.

For more pictures, check out the Burney Falls album. Since the trails were closed and the sun had set, very limited photos were taken.

Hello Again

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May 292011

After a long hiatus of not posting here, I’m looking forward to getting out more, getting some captures and sharing them with you. I recently started viewing the Yosemite Nature Notes series (Produced by Yosemite Conservancy and the park itself) on YouTube which re-ignited the desire to get out there and start shooting again. The phenomenom that I posted last year at Horsetail Falls is mentioned in Episode 9, Frazil Ice. In honor of the National Park System, I’ve just started again with the posting for Lassen Volcanic National Park. Stay tuned for more…

Lassen Volcanic National Park

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May 292011

Lassen Volcanic National Park, located in Lassen County in northeastern California, is on the southern end of the Cascade Range. Lassen Peak last erupted in 1916, when Congress made this a national park. The eruptions started in May 1914 and forever changed the surrounding area. Lassen Peak, at 10,457 feet, was formed 27,000 years ago as a volcanic vent on the northern flank of Brokeoff Volcano.

Route 89 is the main road through the park. Within the park, there are many active volcanic features as well as areas deeply affected by past eruptions like “Devastated Area”. There are over 150 miles of hiking trails, 17 miles of which are part of the Pacific Coast Trail. There’s also plenty of backcountry areas, fishing, boating and hunting.

Our only hike during this visit was a short one into Bumpass Hell. Bumpass Hell is an area named after an early settler who severly burned his legafter falling into a boiling pool. The hike leads to an area that has the largest concentration of hydrothermic features in the park. The trail, only about a 3 mile roundtrip at an altitude of 8,000 feet, is a fairly easy one. At the end, there’s a 100 foot drop into the thermally active basin area. Sulphur is the dominant smell.

On this particular trip, we were looking for some fall foliage colors. Unfortunately, we were a bit early, off by maybe a week or two. The visit was in October, 2010. Some color was to be found by Manzanita Lake, which was about 30%. Additional color was found in the northern half of the park between Summit Lake and Manzanita Lake. More photos can be found at my Lassen Volcanic National Park gallery.

Fall Foliage Photography

Photography, Travel 1 Response »

Oct 192010

Its fall, the temperatures are dropping and for those of us here in Northern California, its time to start thinking of a fall foliage trip to capture the amazing show of colors that nature puts on for us every year. Though the colors are not as brilliant and wide in range as they are back east (aka New England area), we still get an excellent show due to the magnificent backdrops that the Sierras provide with high mountain peaks and alpine lakes, rivers and streams.

Prime fall foliage season in the Sierras generally falls between late September and early November, depending on the weather conditions for that specific year. The most popular area is in the Eastern Sierras, from Mono Lake down to Bishop. Here we find many places to shoot brilliant yellows with patches of orange and reds. The nicest places to shoot include Lundy Canyon, Rock Creek, June Lake and Bishop Canyon area (North Lake, Lake Sabrina, South Lake). Closer to Tahoe is the Hope Valley area.

Another popular area is the Plumas County area. Located in the far northern sierras, this area is known to be rich in maples, providing that rich scarlet red that many of us yearn. Many of the other trees and plants in the area fill out the color palette – California Black Oak, Indian Rhubarb, Mountain Dogwood and the perennial quaking aspens. Some of the best areas to shoot include Lake Almanor/Chester, Feather River Canyon, Quincy-Oroville Road and the Lakes Basin.

If you plan to shoot the fall foliage, here are a few essential tips;

1)      Shoot during the “golden hours” – Early morning or late afternoon.
2)      Use a tripod
3)      Shoot in RAW – This allows for an endless amount of post-shoot processing of the photo. It also provides a richer color gamut and greater flexibility to recover from errors during the capture process.
4)      Limit the use of the polarizer and don’t use full strength – Often, at full strength, the skies turn a dark blue which may look a bit unnatural. If using a wide angle lens, be careful that the saturation is distributed evenly across the sky or you may end up with an unnatural looking shot.
5)      Use a Graduated Neutral Density filter – Particularly useful in the sierras where a capture without a filter will result in a blown out sky. The ND filter helps maintain that blue sky and detail in the shade.
6)      Bring long a laptop – after a long morning of shooting, its always nice to review your photos, saving the keepers and discarding the ones that didn’t turn out so good. It also ensures that you got the photos you intended to capture and allows you to fix any problems that may be preventing you from getting the shot you came to get.
7)      Forget the enhancing/warming filters – In today’s digital age, we have Photoshop (or similar photo processing programs) which allow us to selectively enhance specific colors.
8)      White Balance settings – Instead of using Auto White Balance, you can use Shade or Cloudy to adjust overall color bias and make the shot a bit warmer.
9)      If the sky is grey, limit the amount of sky you put into the shot.
10) Close up shots – To capture the essence of fall, get some close-up shots of trees, leaves, rock and water capturing the different textures and colors.

For more fall foliage photos, check out;
Eastern Sierras – http://cchinstudios.zenfolio.com/2009fallfoliage
Plumas County – http://cchinstudios.zenfolio.com/2010plumascounty

Two resource sites for planning your outing are;
Carol Leigh’s Fall Color Report
Plumas County Leaf Peeper Report

Plumas County & Area Fall Foliage Location Report – October 17, 2010

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Oct 182010

Mother nature has yet to show her full colors in Plumas County. Warmer weather during the week has slowed down the colors. The peak is still about one to two weeks away. Generally, the best colors can be found off the beaten path at the higher elevations and along the creeks and streams (Note: Due to technical issues, pictures will be posted later this week).

Chester – There are a few good spots for color around town. The most notable are: In front of the bicycle shop, by the pizza parlor and behind the police station.

Indian Falls – Some of the dogwoods and maples have started turing colors. Along the creek the colors have also started turning.

Lake Almanor – Along the South western side of the lake, there are hints of color starting to show. Some of the residential areas have their own “private groves” of aspens which are in full bloom.

Lassen Natonal Park – North of Sumit Lake is showing some colors, primarily yellows. Manzanita Lake also has some yellows.

Oroville – Still mostly green.

Quincy – Most of the colors haven’t shown yet, but if you search around the residential areas, there are a few trees that have turned. Peak should be about another week or two.

Rt. 89 near Clear Creek – Down along the creek areas near Clear Water there is a smattering of colors. Some Aspens have turned about 85%.

Rt. 89 near Burney Falls – Widespread color has started showing itself. The farther you go off 89, the more color.

Rt. 32 between Chico and Rt. 36/89 Intersection – Along the creek, yellows and reds can be found. Notably, the Indian Rhubarb along the creek areas is in full bloom showing gorgeous reds.

For some foliage shots taken during the weekend of October 16, 2010, go to;
http://cchinstudios.zenfolio.com/2010plumascounty

Fleet Week 2010 in San Francisco

Events 1 Response »

Oct 082010

Fleet Week is an annual event on the San Francisco Bay that started in 1981. This year’s event, the largest in 20 years, started Thursday and runs through Monday. Last year’s event only had one Navy ship in attendance. This year, thanks to the efforts of newly appointed event chairman, General Mike Myatt and his team, there will be six U.S. Navy ships, a Coast Guard Cutter, two Canadian warships and a lot more Navy sailors and Marines. Additionally, two museum vessels, a vietnam-era fast patrol boat and the World War II Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien will be on hand.

The main attraction is the air show that takes place over the bay. The headliner of the show is the Navy’s elite precision flying team, the Blue Angels. Flying at high speeds over the bay, in formations (i.e. traditional diamond and delta) where they are as close as 18-inches, six F/A-18 Hornets painted in Blue and Gold, lead by Captain Greg McWherter put on a spectacular show. The Blue Angel C-130 transports plane, “Fat Albert” starts off the Blue Angels segment. Other segments of the air show include H-60 CSAR (Combat Search & Rescue) helicopters, Lt. Colonel John Klatt of the Air Guard in his first Fleet Week appearance flying a Panzi, a United Airlines Boeing 747, Sean D. Tucker and Team Oracle and many others.

Other events include the parade of ships and ship tours.

More photos will be posted in the coming weeks in my gallery at http://cchinstudios.zenfolio.com/2010fleetweek.

For more information, go to the offical San Francisco Fleet Week website, http://www.fleetweek.us.

Napa Winery – Jarvis Winery

Food, Photography, Travel 2 Responses »

Jun 242010

Jarvis Winery and Vineyards are located above Napa in between Mt George and Milliken Canyon allowing for cooler growing temperatuers due to altitude and maritime breezes. Founded by William and Leticia Jarvis, the winery itself, 45,000 square feet, is located underground in a cave that was excavated in the Vacas Mountains, about 4 miles east of downton Napa. The overall estate is 1320 acres with 37 acres allocated for vineyards. The Jarvis’ have owned the winery for over 20 years. All winery operations and administration are located in these parabolic shaped caves designed by William with the help of consultant Gregg Korbin and the UC Berkeley computers. A stream runs through the middle of the cave and is fed by a waterfall. Tours of the vineyards and cave is by appointment only.

The two tours available are the Vintage Tasting Tour and the Platinum Tasting Tour. More information can be found on their website.

We choose to take the Vintage Tasting Tour primarily due to the last minute decision to take the tour. The tour included a walk through the caves to see the facilities and a tasting of six of their wines accompanied by cheese and crackers. This visit, we tasted;

2007 Finch Hollow Chardonnay
2005 Cabernet Franc
2004 Lake William – Blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot
2006 Merlot – my favorite of the group – tastes more like a pinot noir
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

Some of the highlights of the tour included;

– the bottling room with a custom designed bottling machine by William Jarvis. Notably, the wax seal a top some of Jarvis’ premium wines is done by hand.

– underground stream and waterfall

– storage/fermentation tanks

– event room

For more information, you can visit their website at: http://www.jarviswines.com/. More photos can be found at: C Chin Studios Gallery.

Napa Winery – Kenzo Estate

Food, Photography, Travel 5 Responses »

Jun 162010

Opening to much fanfare and publicity, Kenzo Tsujimoto, Chairman and CEO of Japan’s Capcom Group (better known in the gaming circles for hit titles such as Street Fighter, MotoGP and Resident Evil), opened his winery on May 1st of this year after purchasing the property in the early nineties from the Murray family. Kenzo is a wine connoisseur who travels the world and has a large wine collection at his home in Japan (10,000 bottles). He loves wine so much that he decided to put $100 million into developing Kenzo Estate. The property, 4,000 acres a top Mt. George, was previously an equestrian center. Back in 1984, Mt George was the training site for the US Polo Team. Of the 4,000 acres owned by Kenzo, only 100 will be planted for the winery. As of now, this winery has the distinction of being the only winery in Napa with a tasting menu created by Sir Thomas Keller.

The location, about 1,000 feet above the valley floor, gives Kenzo an extended growing season due to the cooler air. Kenzo does everything in a simple, first class way. The food is done in collaboration with Sir Thomas Keller (of French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon and Ad Hoc fame), wine is done in collaboration with Heidi Barrett (of Screaming Eagle, Grace Family Vineyards, Dalla Valle and La Sirena fame), and vineyard design/management by famed perfectionist David Abreu.

Being relatively new, the vineyard has only has only had two releases. The current release, 2006, has four varietals;

Asatsuya (morning dew) Sauvignon Blanc – bordeux style white wine – $60, $35 for 375ml
Rindo (referring to Gentians) Red Table Wine – Signature wine – blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot – $75
Murasaki (Purple) Proprietary Red Blend – blend of Sabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot – $150 – My fav of the group
Ai (Indigo) Cabernet Sauvignon – 100% Carbernet Sauvignon – $150
*** note – purple is the traditional color of Japanese royalty

Visits to the winery are by appointment only. During your visit, you may sign up for one of three tours, differentiated only by amount of wine and food. In short, the three tours are as follow;

Tour 1 – $30 – Four one ounce pours of Kenzo Estate Wines served with a plate of crackers
Tour 2 – $50 – Four two ounce pours of Kenzo Estate Wines served with charcuterie
Tour 3 – $60 – Tour two served with a full lunch brought in daily from Sir Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant in Yountville. Lunch generally consists of a choice of one of four sandwiches (French Madrange ham and gruyere, beef brisket, tuna Nicose, ) with fixins. Other food choices are available for order a la carte, including deserts from Bouchon Bakery.

The grapes are picked by hand and the vineyard is sub-divided into multiple lots so they can be picked at different times. About 6,000 cases are produced annually. The wines themselves are not available for retail sale anywhere except at the winery, where quantities are limited. The wine is served at select restaurants throughout Japan (where the majority of the wine production currently goes) and at the Thoms Keller Group restaurants in the US. There supply model is a direct producer to vendor model due to the limited production. The goal is for the wine to eventually be served at about 200 restaurants throughout the US.

The experience – upon entering through the gates, you drive about a mile past a lake and through another gate following the signs for 3200. It turns out that the estate is still actually home to several others including the previous estate owners. Arriving at the tasting room and production facilities, one notices the attention to details and the simplicity of the design. The building are of architect Backen’s California barn style with modern earth tones. For example, from the wine production (fermenting rooms) area to the cave area is a straight line, so transportation from one to the other does not unsettle the wine. The aged olive trees (@150 yrs old), recently imported, are strategically placed as are the other landscaping details (plants).

At the beginning of the tour, each guest is given their first taste of the wine, the Asatsuyu Sauvignon Blanc. As you pass the newly planted “grove” of imported aged olive trees, one starts to notice the simplicity of the overall design as well as the attention given to the smallest details.

Being such a young winery, Kenzo is still finding its way. This year, they started experimenting with concrete vats for fermentation. Other grapes are fermented in stainless steel tanks. In a straight line from the “production” area are two entrances to the caves. The caves (20,000 square feet), currently sparsely populate due to the age of the winery, may eventually hold events such as dinners and private events. After the caves, we headed back to the tasting room area where outside, there were tables setup with the flights of red wines for our tasting (and food depending on tour signed up for). Overall, it was a pretty relaxing and laid back experience.

The winery is located at 3200 Monticello Road in Napa, CA (about five miles from the Silverado Trail). Visits are by appointment only. For more information, go to their website, http://www.kenzoestate.com or http://www.kenzoestate.jp for the japanese version. More photos of our visit can be found at our Kenzo Estate Winery gallery.

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