Filoli

Last weekend Rachel and I visited Filoli.  Filoli is a historic country house with 16 acres of formal gardens and is surrounded by a 654 acres estate.  It is located in Woodside, CA 30 miles south of San Francisco.  Filoli was completed in 1917 by Williams Bower Bourn II; owner of one of the state's richest gold mines and president of Spring Valley Water Company.  There are undoubtedly many more Filoli facts that I will not take the time to recount here because they are honestly not that interesting and the Wiki link is provided above.

Fioli is an unique attraction and I highly recommend visiting if in the area.  The entrance fee is a little steep at $15, but still well worth spending a few hours at such a picturesque location.  We showed ourselves around, but there is also the option to join a guided tour.  The first floor of the mansion is open and there is lots to see.  However, by far, the most compelling reason to visit are the well-maintained and vast gardens.  There are a variety of flowers and gardens set against the background of the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Below are some pictures that I took of the house and grounds and Rachel.  Thank you for checking out Dirty Thirty Photography!

Mushroom 6 Ways

I took the above picture of a wild mushroom yesterday.  It is a simple representation of a single wild mushroom among wood chips and dead leaves.  It is nothing special, but I particularly like this image of a mushroom.  So much so, that it inspired a new idea for this blog.

The idea is to take this basic image and edit it relatively quickly into 6 different images.  Since it is a picture of a mushroom, I suppose it is appropriate to steal vernacular from Top Chef and other cooking shows that I am coerced to watch with Rachel.  The idea is basically a Quickfire Photography challenge to take one ingredient (image) and prepare it 6 ways.  This is what I came up with...

Rooftops

This past week I have found myself on several rooftops.  The views from the rooftops were familiar if not somewhat mundane.  Most images taken from high above focus on the the surrounding scenery, usually impressive buildings and sweeping landscapes.  Since there are no impressive buildings nor sweeping landscapes in Burlingame or San Mateo, I instead focused on the ordinary and overlooked:  the easily forgotten views of functional rooftop fixtures interspersed with graffiti.  The sky in these images range from overcast, to dusk, to twilight.  All of which I felt added a richness and atmosphere to the images.  Below are my first set of rooftop photographs.  It is my hope to continue to explore the rooftops of northern California and expand on what I think is an interesting and under explored photo opportunity.