Hope everyone had a happy first day of Spring!
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
As with most high school teenagers, when I was that age I also wanted to go out with my friends. Most of my friends had cars; I did not. I got my first car when I was 22.
My wise old grandmother, having adopted a juvenile delinquent named Russel, was leery of me having too much freedom, especially with other teenagers in the range of 16-18 years old. Thus, I rarely got to go out whenever I simply asked, “May I go out with Jim/Mark/Lynda/[insert name]?”
However, if I was going to study, I almost always got to go. So I learned that if I really, really wanted to go somewhere, all I had to do was say, “I’m going to the A&I library to study.” “What time will you be home?” was the response.
Sometimes, I actually went to the Texas A&I University library, and that’s when I discovered Bartlett’s Quotations. I was addicted to it . Still am.
One of the things I like to do with my pictures is dream up quotations to attach to them, such as this one:
Please thank Zoey the Cool Cat for her invaluable help here. She’s sleeping, but I’ll pass your thanks along to her when she wakes up.
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Yesterday while I was visiting blogs, I saw two pictures of beautiful sunsets.
That reminded me that the past two years here in San Diego have provided us with more beautiful sunsets than at any time I can remember in my 21 years here.
We do get beautiful sunsets associated with wildfires that roar through here occasionally, but the last significant wildfires that created beautiful sunsets were in October 2007 and October 2003, two of the worst fire seasons (and people say we have only one season here!) in San Diego and California history.
Following are seventeen of my best sunset pictures.
Sunset from Mt. Helix in La Mesa, California, on November 29, 2011
Sunset reflected off of buildings in downtown San Diego, February 9, 2012
Sunset at Imperial Beach, California, July 15, 2012
Sunset at Imperial Beach Pier, July 15, 2012
Sunset at Imperial Beach, California, July 15, 2012
Sunset from my back yard in La Mesa, California, August 15, 2012
Sunset 30 minutes later from my back yard, August 15, 2012
Sunset at La Jolla Cove in La Jolla, California, October 12, 2012
October 17, 2012, sunset in La Jolla, California
Sunset in San Diego, September 2, 2013
Rim Trail, Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego, November 30, 2013
30 minutes later
Sunset in Vista, California, on December 3, 2013
30 minutes later
Sunset at the pier in Imperial Beach, California, February 15, 2014
National Margarita Day sunset, February 23, 2014, in El Cajon, California
Sunset in Vista, California, on March 15, 2014
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Welcome to San Diego County Homes!
This new category for my WordPress blog will feature Photographic Art of the magnificent homes found throughout San Diego County. Most of these magnificent homes are mountain, hillside, and beachfront homes. Areas like La Jolla, Coronado, Del Mar, Encinitas, Poway, Mission Hills, Mount Helix, and Kensington are just a few of the areas that will be represented.
One of the most magnificent properties that is readily accessible and viewable to the general public, and easy to get to, is this La Jolla Beach Mansion:
That beach mansion is located at 1900 Spindrift Drive in La Jolla, about two hundred feet north of The Marine Room, one of San Diego County’s best restaurants.
Beaches are public property in California, and with The Marine Room close by, as well as the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, there are always quite a few people staring at the mansion.
In fact, for this Photographic Art rendition of the home, I had to remove people from the beach, as well as portions of the home at the right of this one, and I added a more beautiful sky since it was gray and overcast when I was there.
More about the property:
This original Photographic Art is for sale at Fine Art America in the La Jolla California gallery.
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
One of the reasons why I think I can make my Photographic Art venture work is because I really like real estate, having spent more than 47 years in the real estate industry in various professions, including as a Realtor in Texas and as a home inspector now.
My husband, Jim, also happens to be in real estate; he’s a Realtor here in San Diego with HomeSmart Realty West.
Because of that real estate interest, I have a natural market. After all, people pretty much like the houses they live in, so if I can take pictures of their homes, create Photographic Art, and then let them know where they can buy that Photographic Art, it should be fairly easy.
Obviously, the extraordinarily wealthy not only have unique homes but also probably have more disposable income to buy my Photographic Art. Thus I have been creating a list and checking it twice of where to go to find the homes of the 1%.
One of our rich enclaves is the city of Del Mar, so recently I went up there to explore some of the hillside neighborhoods. That’s when I found the Del Mar Castle (click on the picture for a huger version):
The other thing that I can do to make my work unique is include some history on the back of the pictures. I’m endeavoring to find out more history about the Del Mar Castle, but as of right now I can tell you this:
The view above looks west to the Pacific Ocean. From Interstate 5 on the east side, this is the view of the castle:
When I get ready to make Photographic Art out of these pictures of the Castle, I’ll be replacing the gray overcast sky with a sunny blue sky with just a few clouds to add variety. Then I’ll upload them to my store front at Fine Art America and send a postcard to the owners (public records available to Realtors make that so easy!) to let them know where they can find some pictures of their home.
The original panorama above is a whopping 11,895 pixels wide x 3345 pixels tall, which means that Fine Art America can create high quality prints that are about 138 inches wide. That’s about 11½ feet! I can see the extraordinarily rich with an 11½-foot Photographic Art picture of their home hanging in the great room! Oh, yeah!
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Today is World Sleep Day. I mentioned that to Zoey the Cool cat:
World Sleep Day is an annual event organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine and held on the Friday of the second full week of March. The first World Sleep Day was in 2008.
Its purpose is to celebrate the benefits of good and healthy sleep (isn’t all sleep good and healthy?) and to draw attention to the burden of sleep problems and their medicine, education, and social aspects; and to promote sleep disorders prevention and management.
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
I often take walks on the campus of San Diego State University since it’s just 1½ miles down the road from me.
Over the last couple of years the grounds crew has turned the campus into a very nice arboretum and botanical garden, making it a pleasure to go for a walk with my handy dandy camera glued to my hand.
Today I stopped by the Turtle Pond and saw four turtles looking very much like a family—daddy turtle, the biggest; momma turtle, second biggest; oldest child, third biggest; and youngest child, a cute little thing that must be less than a year old.
Then, of course, I had to make Photographic Art out of the picture:
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Capturing the cards in photography
Beginner’s pointers for poker photography
Apart from actually coming across the many natural wonders of nature or some truly amazing manmade structures, photography for the most part is all about capturing the ordinary and making it look extraordinary.
It’s not just about taking a picture of a sunrise. It’s about taking that picture when the sun’s reflection on the waterline makes it look as if it’s half-submerged, with that perfect shade of twilight sky for good measure.
It’s not just about taking a picture of a kid smiling. It’s about placing your camera perfectly so that the light bounces just right to heighten the child’s beaming smile.
And when it comes to poker photography, it’s not just about taking random shots here and there. It’s about amplifying the energy inherent in these gaming sessions, an energy that’s otherwise hidden from unsuspecting eyes. This might prove to be a bit tricky for some budding photographers. Unlike other sporting events, poker isn’t particularly physical. In lieu of players running up and down a field, you have them sitting around a table, giving just the slightest of gestures every now and then. Everything, it would seem, is relatively static. That said, anyone who has witnessed a World Series of Poker tournament match will attest that the tension in this sport is no less palpable.
And therein lies the challenge: how to bring that tension out with your photography. Needless to say, getting a good eye for this type of thing takes some skill, but it isn’t necessarily difficult to achieve. There are a couple of things you can do to get you started right.
Lighting is everything in this field of art, and since poker is an indoor sport that often isn’t too brightly lit, increasing your camera’s ISO to within the 900-1000 range allows more light to enter the lens. From there, gradually bring it down until you get a lighting scheme that you feel best captures the mood you’re going for.
Another thing you can experiment with is the shutter speed. In direct contrast to something like an NBA game where a fast shutter speed is of the utmost importance, slowing that speed down is the way to go with poker. Not only will it help highlight your subject, but you could also get cool shots such as when the player you’re taking a photo of casually flips his poker chips. The spinning chips (and the people constantly moving in the background if you’re lucky) will register as blurs on your camera, but your subject will still remain in focus, contrasting that “poker face” attitude against busy surroundings.
Joe Giron is one of the more notable names in poker photography. His recent work on the World Poker Tour event—many of which are showcased on WPT online partner Partypoker’s Twitter page—display his skill to a tee. Of his work, he emphasizes the importance of being “comfortable in the studio, on the set, or on location.” It’s this level of comfort that you need to reach, because that’s when you start getting a feel for things, which hopefully would translate into some very beautiful shots.
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
If you were wondering what happened to me today since I didn’t post anything, well, I was celebrating my last birthday before the sun sets on my life. Yep. Sixty is just 365 days away. I turn 59 at 11:58 p.m. today. As I write this, that is only 34 minutes away. Of course, technicalities aside, I have been celebrating all day. Who needs to be exact in life?
My intent was to go to the San Diego Zoo from 9:00-10:30 this morning, then over to SeaWorld from 11:00-12:30, then to teach my chess class at an exclusive rich private school, then to On The Border for Taco Tuesday and a margarita!
I didn’t make it to SeaWorld because I was delayed at the Zoo due to a fire in a car parked just three cars from me. Here’s the smoke as seen from inside the Zoo, when I thought to myself, “That looks like where I parked my car.”
The police and firefighters had several rows blocked off, including, of course, the row I was parked in, so I stood and watched the fire for 43 minutes. By the time the fire was out and we were allowed to go to our cars, there was no way to get to SeaWorld to make the trip worthwhile.
It’s alright, though, because for my birthday, SeaWorld sent me a buy-one-get-one-free “Dine With Shamu” dinner, so Jim and I will be dining with Shamu real soon. We dined with Shamu a couple of years ago and it was awesome. You get real up close and personal! Here’s Shamu from our last Dine With Shamu dinner:
After eating lunch, I went to teach chess for the first time at Francis Parker school, a rich private exclusive school. 3:30-4:30 class. A bell rings at 4:00 and my eight students jumped up and went screaming out of the room!
Huh?
Turns out that they get a 10-minute break every hour. What do they do? The school—remember, a rich private exclusive school—feeds them junk food. The kids came back with Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos, cheese & peanut butter crackers, etc.
These are K-6 students, and this rich private exclusive school is serving them junk food?
Confused, I am.
I did, of course, make it to On The Border for Taco Tuesday and margaritas:
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
My wise old grandmother told me many decades ago not to stretch myself too thin. I had no idea what she meant then. I realized the meaning of her words around 1984 when, by necessity, I was forced to go into business for myself on a full-time basis. Previously I had always had a full-time job working for someone else, with spare time occupied by various hobbies, which sometimes were known as second jobs or moonlighting.
With over 500,000 photographs in my collection, I have been looking for a way to make some residual income from them. Becoming a local starving artist hasn’t worked out yet after six months of trying because I really do need a California reseller’s certificate and a sales tax certificate so I can collect sales taxes. Those aren’t coming my way anytime soon. Long, complicated story.
Thus I turned to print-on-demand sites:
While it’s tempting to be everywhere, there’s not enough time to do an exceptional job everywhere. There’s probably not enough time to do even a mediocre job everywhere! Remember not to stretch myself too thin….
Some of the sites were places to create photography portfolios, which is not what I was looking for. Shopify wanted $79 per month! That’s not happening in this lifetime…. unless I win the lottery…., and since I don’t play the lottery……………
After dozens of hours of research, I narrowed my choices to RedBubble, Fine Art America, OpenSky, Zazzle, and Zenfolio, finally settling on Fine Art America and choosing their Premium plan which costs $30 a year. Much more reasonable. Unfortunately, the problem with things whose costs are reasonable is that there are thousands, millions, even billions of people competing with you. Fortunately, this is where I believe my blogging experience in knowing how to use keywords, tags, and search engine optimization will come in handy.
So my new Fine Art America print-on-demand store front is now open at http://1-russel-ray.artistwebsites.com/. While I don’t like the name they automatically gave me, at least it’s not 9-russel-ray. I like being #1!
I uploaded one picture yesterday…. Photographic Art of my favorite fine, furry, four-legged, feline friend. Looks like this:
The Stare
One way to differentiate myself from everyone else at Fine Art America is simply to have more products available. Thus I’ll be dedicating a lot of time to uploading Photographic Art to Fine Art America, which will probably take away from my blogging writing and reading time. I have to remember not to stretch myself too thin.
Since my goal is to make enough money from Photographic Art sales so that I don’t have to rely on public assistance when I’m no longer physically or mentally capable of working, I need to dedicate enough time to this venture to make it work. As my wise old grandmother also said, “You can make it work if you dedicate yourself to it.”
Once I start making millions of dollars with my Photographic Art, I’ll be able to dedicate most of my time to my wonderful followers and the wonderful blogs and people whom I follow. So don’t give up on me! And wish me luck. And follow me at Fine Art America. And buy something!
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
►►►►◄◄◄◄
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
►►►►◄◄◄◄
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Russel Ray Photos 