Fall in Silicon Valley

There's a myth going around that all of California is like Los Angeles, largely because that's what people who live outside the state see from TV shows set in California. From this, one makes the logical deduction that therefore there are no seasons in the entire state of California.

But there are seasons up here in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area! The vineyards to the North are just finishing up their harvest. The trees have turned around where I live, and we're just starting to reach the rainy season. Suddenly, I start to check the weather, something I haven't done in months. And we get rain, which my wife has been missing all summer, so suddenly the brown (we call them "golden") hills turn green.

I made it up to wine country before the harvest, to shoot off a roll of Ektachrome IR, which has been spotted on eBay for $100/roll.

I also had my first shoot of the year where fall played a role. See, during the summer, things are easy. I can just tell people to show up at the appointed spot during a weekday after work and catch a beautiful sunset and not have to worry too much about the weather.

Now I have to schedule weekend shoots and hope that maybe the clouds will be right for a really beautiful sunset.

Last weekend, I went to my favorite creek with Melinda and discovered that it was dry because we haven't collected enough water in the reservoirs yet, so we wandered to Sunnyvale where we found some trees that were busy turning colors. It reminded me of one of my favorite Bollywood films, Mohabbatein.

Melinda wanted to have something nice to put in her credits list about how fun she is to work with. I felt it would be better for me to post it here, instead of just sending it to her...

Melinda is a perfect example of the difference between a regular model and a really good model. When I shoot with her, I don't end up using much film, but the hit rate of good pictures is very high. Every single one comes out... I counted one roll and it was 2/3 great shots and 1/3 rejects.

She's fun to work with, doesn't need much direction, and adorably cute.