It’s been a busy week! Give me a sec to catch my breath… Ok, ready!
Bald Mountain V. 1.0
I’ve been hanging out with Katie B. a lot lately and it’s been a blast! On June 28th I took her up to Bald Mountain (my favorite spot in town… so far.) We went to Olivers and loaded up on snacks and drinks – crackers, cheese, sandwiches, and red wine – and headed out to the park at about 6 p.m. We made our way up slowly but surely, checking out the sights as we went. As we were nearing the top Katie started getting tired but she soldiered on and we made the top about 30 minutes before sunset. As the sun was dropping we took out our cameras and snapped a bunch of pictures (check em’ out on Flickr). I taught Katie some basics in using an SLR and she picked it up quick. She snapped away a bunch of pictures and was getting very into using it. We stayed up till midnight, enjoying the sights. Great night.
Fourth of July (a.k.a. Bald Mountain V. 2.0)
On the Fourth of July I trekked to the top of Bald Mountain again, but this time with Brandon M. and Evan B. during the evening. After trudging up the hill for about two hours or so we reached the summit just as dusk disappeared. At the peak we’re many more people than I had expected to see – about 20 or so. We saw Tyler M. and Brendan W. at the top which was a bit of a surprise, especially for them (we saw their car in the parking lot.)
From the top of Bald Mountain you can see Santa Rosa, Kenwood, parts of Windsor, Calistoga, Napa, Sonoma, Petaluma and on clear nights the bay area, including San Francisco. To say the least, it’s amazing! It’s also a damn good spot to see the fireworks in… well every city in a 60 mile radius.
I brought my camera and tripod up and snapped a bunch of pictures (see them on Flickr.) My favorite shots were actually not of the fireworks but the people on the hill. I took long exposure of people moving around and got somre really interesting effects. Some of my friends saw the pictures and wanted to be in them so I set them up for some light drawing pictures that I had done before with Katie.
We screwed around for about two hours with the light exposures, doing all sorts of weird things. Everyone had a blast being involved in the process and they all seemed to pick up the techniques you need when doing photos like that.
Ping Pong Tourney
The day after the Fourth I went to Katie’s family ping pong tournament and hung out with her and Annie, and Mikah. The tournament was as serious as ping pong tournaments get and lasted for about 6 hours. They had a bracket of winners and every and even a freaking professionally made trophy. Crazy!