McCormick House

McCormick House  [Canon 5D, 53 second exposure]
Pescadero, California  June 12, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

Last week we spent a relaxing family vacation in Pescadero, California. Pescadero is a small farming and ranching community located near the coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. It is about two miles inland from one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in northern California.

We were very fortunate that my wife discovered a wonderful country inn for us to stay at. The McCormick House is a lovely old home built in the 1880s. We had the two upstairs rooms to ourselves and it was the perfect place from which to explore the many beautiful beaches along the coast just a few miles away, and also as a base for day trips to Santa Cruz or San Francisco. One of the best things about the McCormick House were the innkeepers, Lisa and Mauro. Their kindness, generosity and good cheer made our visit a very special one and we look forward to a return trip, not only to enjoy the beauty of that part of the coast, but also to visit with them! In addition to being wonderfully hospitable innkeepers, they also create lovely assemblage sculptures of small houses from old pieces of recycled and weathered wood. You can see more of their charming "wee wood" house sculptures here.

The photograph above is a composite of two different interpretations of a single raw exposure (about 1 minute on a tripod). The lighting is a combination of moonlight, ambient spill form nearby street lights, the interior lights and a single pop from my flash unit. In order to get the sky looking the way I wanted, the bright windows became too washed out. So I processed a second copy of the file that was much darker and used a layer mask to brush in some of the darker exposure in the areas of the windows and under the balcony. As I was taking this photo (and others) barn owls flew back and forth above me, screeching and chattering in the moonlight.

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Real World Digital Photography Workshops

My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations (like the night photography featured in the image of the McCormick House) and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. It's already filling up and is now half full so if you're interested in taking this class, don't wait until the last minute to sign up! Click the class title to learn more about this class.

A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.

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Comments

[Darrell Shurtz]

Hi Sean--Very nice image. I've been up that way and just love the old lighthouse up there. I believe it's used as a hostel now and it really appears to be well cared for.
Take care,
Darrell

[Sean]

Thanks, Darrell. Yes, the Pigeon Point Lighthouse is currently a hostel. Unfortunately you cannot go up inside the lighthouse tower anymore as it needs some structural renovations. --Sean