Paris Icons at the Mumm Napa Gallery

Paris Icons at Mumm Napa, by Andre Maltais

On Monday, Labor Day, we took a drive up north to Napa Valley.  I've always found that Mondays of a long weekend are the best for visting and wine tasting.  While we are driving north and stopping at vineyards at a leisurely pace, everyone else is heading out of the valley and back home.  At our first stop, Consentino Winery, we picked up a bottle of one of my favorite wines, CigarZin and a copy of Wine Country This Week, looking for tasting coupons and other goings on.  I was pleasantly surprised to find this article on a photography exhibit going on at Mumm Napa.

What I love about Mumm is the Ansel Adams prints they usually have displayed in the Gallery.  As a gallery they usually have wonderful photography on display and until recently hosted the Napa Valley Mustard Festival Photo Finish, where I first got my taste of having my photography on gallery walls.  Not to mention that there's no admission fee for viewing the gallery.   While the Ansel Adams photos were not on display, the Paris Icons Photography Exhibit was an excellent substitute.

Obligatory flickr link

Paris Icons, by James Scholz is on exhibit until September 26th.   Given the sheer number of times I have been up to Napa since March, I'm surprised I hadn't been aware of this exhibit.  Scholz's photography of Paris is amazing.  The prints are beautiful and the composition and his unique take on Paris is excellent.  I highly recommend stopping by the exhibit before September 26th, as it is well worth seeing.  My only disappointment was that there weren't more images.  After wandering through the gallery of about 50 photographs, I was left wanting to see more.

Scholz does has a book available at IconImages, but it's a tad out of my price range for the moment.  The prints are all on sale and I must say, very reasonably priced.  I was very tempted to purchase more than a few of them!  Mumm Napa is on the Silverado Trail, just north of Mile Marker 12.

The Clay

The Clay, originally uploaded by Maltphoto.

Fillmore and Clay

Camera: Canon 40D
Aperture: f/4
Focal length: 60mm
Lens: Canon 24-105mm L f/4
ISO: 1000
Shutter Speed: 1/30

Processed with Lightroom 3 and converted to b&w with Silver Efex Pro

Banksy?

Banksy?, originally uploaded by Maltphoto.

A recent article in the Berkeley Daily Planet on Sunday by Gar Smith brought this graffiti to my attention. According to the article, it appeared in early June, around the same time Banksy's film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is playing in Berkeley at the Shattuck Cinema. I'm not sure it's a Banksy work, and I don't know how to decide if it is.

Fortunately, I pass by this parking lot every day on the way to work. I never noticed it before, because it's really set back from the street. I stopped the other day to get a shot, just in case it was done by Banksy. In the meantime, I guess I'll periodically check his website to see if this piece makes an appearance.

Let me know if you think this is his work, or an imposters. I have my own thoughts, but would love to hear others.

Nicolas Alain

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to be able to get back east and visit my nephew for the first time. He's almost 6 months old in these photos. I took the opportunity to rent a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO HSM
lens from Lensrentals.com. I normally use Borrowlenses.com because of the ability to pick up the lens at a local photography store. Lensrentals.com was a very seamless transaction. They provide a return label, so you just keep the box and packing material that the lens comes in, slap the return label on the box and ship it back at the end of your rental period. I'd definitely use them again.

The Sigma is very similar to the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM, but at about 2/3 of the price. I've been a fan of Sigma lenses since I first bought my Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM. I've been very impressed with the sharpness and quality of the lens, and was hoping to see similar results from the 70-200. Sigma is coming out with an Optical Stabilized (OS) version of this lens soon, which may persuade me to go with the Sigma version over the Canon for my low light needs. As you can see from the photos below, I was very pleased with the results of the Sigma. The second photo was taken with my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS
. which is a great lens as well, and is on my camera 80-85% of the time.

Crocker Galleria

Crocker Galleria, originally uploaded by Maltphoto.

Location: Downtown San Francisco
Camera: Canon 40D
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm
Focal Length: 10mm
Aperture: f/14
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/25 Second
Black & White conversion using Nik's Silver Efex Pro in