ralf weber photography » Photography

Walkabout #1: San Jose, California

ralf — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:34:33 +0000

Its been rather busy lately with work and ‘pre-Christmas joys’, so I haven’t had much time to shoot lately. Well, yesterday my buddy Frederick and I took a day ‘off’ and decided to stay in the neighborhood and just get out and shoot.

Well, San Jose, California, doesn’t really have a reputation of being a very exciting city, besides the fact that its the third biggest city in California and the tenth biggest city in the US.

Nevertheless, as Frederick and I noticed yesterday, the downtown area of San Jose offers quite a few interesting photography opportunities. As they say: never judge a book by its cover….

Here some impressions from the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens area which is situated right between downtown San Jose and the HP Pavilion and here some impressions from downtown San Jose:

(click on either of the photos to get to the galleries)

James Nachtwey - War Photographer

ralf — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:33:55 +0000

The other night I zapped around my 5 gazillion satellite TV channels when I saw something interesting on the Documentary Channel: they were showing a documentary called “War Photographer”.I was in a pretty upbeat mood (it was a good day after all), so I wasn’t sure if I was up for a rather tough topic like this, but when I saw the captivating photos on screen I had to let go of the remote and keep watching.The show was a documentary about James Nachtwey, probably one of the best photo journalists out there .. if not the best. James’ commitment and dedication to his profession just amazes me and considering the immense dangers he is facing in his job on a daily basis (and has been facing for more than 20 years), it really surprised me how calm and soft-spoken he appears. In this particular documentary you will see a lot of violence, suffering and poverty in his images, so watching this documentary might not be for everybody, but let’s face it: he is just showing us another side of the world we are living in … and if we don’t like this side, maybe we should think about doing something about it!This is probably one of the most moving and inspirational documentaries I’ve ever seen and you should certainly check it out if you get a chance. If you get the Documentary channel (I get it through Dish, so I’m not sure if its available through other satellite or cable providers), they seem to show it again on 12/29/07 9:55PM and 12/30/07 02:55AM eastern time.You might also want to watch his acceptance speech for the 2007 TED prize where James talks about the power of documentary photo journalism.

Byodo-In Temple, Valley of the Temples, Oahu, Hawaii

ralf — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:15:21 +0000

Here are some more infrared shots that I took during a Hawaii vacation last year. All photos on this page are Infra-Red black & white shots taken with my modified Canon D-60. These photos were taken at the Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples on the island of Oahu. The temple is located at the foot of the 2,000 foot Ko’olau Mountains in the Valley of the Temples in Oahu’s Kaneohe Region sits the beautiful Byodo-In Temple. While always a popular stop for visitors who seek locations off the beaten track, the Byodo-In Temple has become more popular since it was used as a filming location in the first season of the ABC Emmy Award winning drama series Lost, where it served as the home of the Korean woman Sun’s powerful father. (more…)

Bodie National Park

ralf — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:23:09 +0000

I don’t know how it was for you guys, but the first time is really the hardest, isn’t it?

No, I’m of course not talking about ‘that’ …. I’m talking about your first blog post on your first blog ever. After figuring out all the technicalities of setting up the blog, finding the right look and feel and setting up the basic infrastructure, there is still one, very important, thing that’s missing: content! As my buddy Fred keeps telling me lately: “Just get it up, don’t over-engineer it, don’t try to make it perfect right from the start …. just get it up there and the rest will come”. Well, I guess he has a good point.So here it is: my first blog post … bear with me ;o)Last summer I made another one of those ‘California Road Trips’ (one of my favorite ways of spending a few days off from work … happens rarely enough ;o) ) and this time I finally made it to Bodie National Park, a place I wanted to visit for many years already, but somehow I never made it up there.

(more…)