On a cold November evening...

Last night I decided to head out around 8:00pm to try and get a decent star trails photo because the moon was almost non-existent. My plan was try to go out to Washoe Lake but as I was on the freeway I decided to stay on I-80 and head west.

I ended up at the Floriston exit a few miles before Truckee. There are these big tunnels you need to go through to make your way up the mountain. So after exploring my options I picked out a spot. I didn't realize how close I was to the train tracks though, so it was a interesting experience having a train sneak up on you in the middle of the woods when it's practically pitch black outside.

But once the train passed by I setup my equipment. The end result consisted of roughly 45 minutes worth of 30 second exposures. The exception to that was this photo I captured of a car driving through the tunnel. I didn't include it in the star trails stacking because it would of thrown off the exposure way too much. But by itself it is an interesting photo.



So excluding the above photo, this is the star trails photo I captured.



Also I decided to turn my photos into a small AVI file which you can view at http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidduffy/3069727703/.

Please let me know what you think. Comments are always appriciated. To see more of my photos please go to my Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidduffy/.

Until next time...
Mr. Dizzel

Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead" is a holiday that celebrates friends and family members that have passed away. This is the second year I have attended the San Francisco Dia de los Muertos celebration and this year was no less amazing than the last. This year was the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco celebration so the mayor officially named November 2nd as Dia de los Muertos day in SF which was a cool thing to be apart of.

I started my solo mission to SF on November 1st. It was raining when I left Reno and continued to rain until I showed up at my Aunt's house in Menlo Park. At this point I was crossing my fingers that it wasn't going to rain during the celebration.

As I passed over the Bay Bridge I took this photo.



Once I made it to Menlo Park I was able to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle which was nice because I don't get to see them as often as I'd like.

The next morning the weather had cleared up and I headed down to Height street to meet up with my good friends Jason and Linda. We ended up just hanging around Height street for a few hours. I picked up a new pair of kicks and we had some pizza from Escape from New York.

Once we were done on Height it was about time to head down to the celebration so we parked at a BART station south of SF and took the BART down to Mission.

The celebration started at the corner of 18th and Bryant street and circles around the block and ends at Garfield Park were all of the community alters are placed.

Right before the celebration started our good friends Tee and Kelly showed up and we all walked to parade together.

Here are some photos from the parade and the alters.













If you would like to see more Dia de los Muertos photos please check them out at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidduffy/sets/72157608634346014/

Candy apples and razor blades

Two of my favorite holidays have recently passed, Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos. My wife Alana and I were married on Halloween and this year marked our 4 year anniversary. This year to celebrate we had a Halloween / Anniversary party which ended up being a very good time. Many of our friends new and old showed up to help us celebrate. I set up a mini studio in the garage to try and capture some "professional" looking Halloween photos. Here are a few that I took.











Thank you to everyone that helped us celebrate four amazing years together!



If you would like to see more of the Halloween photos please go to.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidduffy/sets/72157608633183112/