some end of the year panoramic photos

Going through all of the photos that I've taken for the Patterson Irrigator over the past year is quite a daunting task. For the past three and a half years that I've been at the Irrigator we've done an end of the year re-cap of top stories and top photos, and this year was no different. So I narrowed my selection of photographs down to about 30 news photos and 10 sports photos. I'll be posting them along with a story I wrote to go along with it on this blog site here soon.

But going through all the photos I came across these 13 panoramic photos and two sequences that I put together for the newspaper. Of all of them, half were published, but all of them I thought should receive some sort of special posting considering alot more time and post photographic effort went into making them.

So what constitues as a digital panoramic photo?

For me, they are multiple photos that are stitched together with the help of Photoshop to create one very wide angle of view.

Double click on the photos themselves to get a larger more detailed view of the scene at hand, but remember these photos are all copyrighted by either the Patterson Irrigator or me, Elias H. Funez

In this photo of the Hacienda Arteaga fire on Hwy 33 in Patterson August 21 2008, four images were taken at the same shutter speed, aperture setting, and focal point with the idea in mind that I would be stitching the photos together later. A tripod is recomended for taking these types of photos, but a steady hand and careful photographic technique should get you away from the tripod and out in the field.
This shot of the sunrise along side the McMansions of Diablo Grande one morning in October, was a stitching together of three photos. I turn to panoramic shots of things that require a wider more encompassing view, when my wide angle lens won't capture everything, or I wish for more detail and a larger photo.
This photo of students at PHS getting out of a day at school on the 9th street side was only two photographs.
When members of the General Plan Advisory Committee were confronted by landowner Jeff Arambel, and his desire to develop this area of Del Puerto Canyon just West of Interstate 5, I trodded out to the open range for a wider view, something that showed the entire area in question. This one is about 5 photos, and if you look closely on the upper right hand corner of the photograph, a truck can be seen on I-5 and the Kohl's distribution center can be seen beyond it.

Two photographs stitched together for the P.R.I.D.E. (Patterson recognizing individuals determined to excel) brochure that is handed out to perspective scholarship donors and those in attendance of the P.R.I.D.E. scholarship awards night.
Here's a sequence of seven shots of an amazing Patterson sk8er by the name of Dominic Verducci. It took him a couple of attempts, but by the second try he successfully ollies and clears the PHS auditorium 10 -stair. Some photos were needed for a story on the fact that the city has no designated skate area or skate park for area skaters to utilize. It was kind of a last minute assignment, so I just drove around until I found some skaters doing their thing. The skate park has been approved as a part of the Patterson Community Center master plan and a designer (Wally Hollyday) and some initial concepts have come forward as a result.
This was three photos taken off of Jennings road just east of Patterson on a partly cloudy day in January. I really love those old oak trees along the river there. Its scenic beauty always makes the drive to or from Modesto a little more peaceful.
The Irrigator received some numbers that showed the population of the city of Patterson slowing drastically. So I traveled to the empty corner of the Patterson Garden's subdivision in early May, where I climbed the fence for a wide angle shot. However even standing on top of the fence there I couldn't get it all into one shot, so again a panorama. Looks like alot of space to wait for Patterson Gardens to build out. Ahhh, the highly anticipated coming of TACO BELL! Two photographs stitched together. They don't all work out seamlessly though. If you look closely there is a slight discrepancy in the shadow that is created from the car that is ordering at the drive-thru speaker. That photo of the two cars at left, was placed over the photo used on the right and some of the information gets lost a little bit, but the high angle drive thru parking lot shot was still successful in my mind.

The first major morning fog in town for the 2008-2009 winter season prompted me to scurry out my front door one morning and rush to find some subjects to photograph before the fog lifted. Got a shot of the highschool baseball field in the fog, then off to the rail right of way and a shot of the train tracks disappearing into the fog. I could tell the fog was lifting fast and ran to the second story of the City Hall building where some friends in the planning department kindly let me onto the balcony there, where I took these two photos and stitched them together.
This shot was created after Pacific Sod announced that it was closing it's business in September, showing some of the acres and acres of sod in place off of Loquat ave in the north Patterson Colony.
This one could be deceiving. Not many people think that this is multiple shots, but there was no way I could cram the entirety of the scene into one picture, considering I was already crammed against the backyard fence of a Heartland Ranch home where the weeds were as tall as I was. This was taken in three photos.

Two photos were stitched together to create this panorama of the Longs Distribution center in the Patterson business park, after Longs had announced the sale of their corporation to CVS pharmacy.

foggy days and foggy nights

foggy daysand foggy nights
have returned to Patterson
so drive safely... or don't drive at all

don't trash the canyon please!

So I got off of a long shift yesterday at work and decided to go to Del Puerto Canyon to admire the natural beauty that borders the western edge of our city there. Along the drive I noticed a female deer (doe) grazing in the tall grass between the canyon road and I-5 where the city's General Plan Advisory Committee suggested expanding the city's borders for the purpose of general commercial and estate residential housing. But I continued on, stopping to admire the site for just a moment. The sunset colors were soon about to peak and I had not yet decided what vantage point to assume, however, when rounding a corner an infamous pile of canyon trash caught my eye, neatly placed along side the road at the Eagle Rock (Graffiti Rock) turnout.

My first thoughts, of course, were to search through the bags to hopefully find a couple articles of junk mail with an address so that I could politely return the trash to its rightfull owner. Who knows, maybe they accidentally forgot their trash there and were hoping someone would return it to them... but I doubt it.

My rules for returning canyon trash to its rightful owner require me to find at least two articles of thrown away trash with the same address, that proves to me that it was much less of an accident if I found just one address.

This type of thing happens to me pretty often, unfortunately, when I go to the canyon. Last time, in the exact same turnout, I found boxes and bags of random household trash with three articles of thrown away mail with the same address... bingo! So I loaded it all in my car and returned it to its rightful owner at a house with a Tracy address in an upscale housing tract neigborhood complete with its own manmade lake. I can only imagine the look on their faces when opening the front door and finding all of their trash back on their porch after thinking they left it 30 miles away. I just hope that they learn not to do it again... especially not in Del Puerto Canyon! That's the worst place to leave your trash because hardly no one, including landowners, go out there to pick it up.

I'm just glad that I didn't find anything toxic in those bags of trash, for I've had to step in front of target shooters to grab one of their targets that happened to be a CAR BATTERY! sitting on a rock right inside the creek bed!!!! First these guys were shooting oak trees, and after I explained to them that they are slowly killing the tree they started shooting the car battery in the creek bed... @#$%@#$^%

After searching and retrieving the bags of trash, some that had rolled down the hill, only one address showed up. It was at the back of a training packet for KFC workers from store #261, the owners of which live in Merced. I thought it was kind of funny that one of the sections in the training packet was "PRACTICE CONTROLLING WASTE".

After further analysis of the trash, it was obvious that the bags were left there after someone collected all the trash in the Graffiti Rock area. Much of it was target practice, boxes shot full of holes, empty boxes of ammo, fast food trash from Jack In the Box, Wendys, Carl's Jr, In N' Out, discarded picnic supplies, beer bottles, etc. So to whoever it was that took the time to collect the trash...THANK YOU! I could fit all but two bags into the back seat and trunk of my car and will go back for the rest later if someone hasn't decided to use it as target practice. Now if we can only get the high school to go pick up their old gym lockers that wound up out there after the 1998 remodel.

some extra Patterson Pirates photos

A couple Sundays ago the Patterson Pirates played the Stockton Aztecs during game three of a best of three series first round playoff matchup. The Pirates lost game 1, won game 2, and came really darn close to winning game 3. The next five photos were my selections for last Wednesday's 10-15-08 issue of the Irrigator, unfortunately due to space restrictions in the paper, none of them were used. I guess it just gives me the opportunity to post them here, including some of my other favorite Pirates' photos, some of them previously published, most of them weren't though. Enjoi!Patterson Pirates' Drew Barrett makes contact during a late game rally that would take the game into extra innings during Sunday's final best of three playoff game against the Stockton Aztecs.--Photo by Elias FunezPirates' shortstop Jerry Lawhorn fires a throw for the out at first.--photo by Elias FunezPirates' second base Tino Ramirez fires a throw to first in an attempted double play late during the Pirates' loss to the Aztecs.--Photo by Elias FunezPirates' pitcher James Pease readies to fire a pitch against the Stockton Aztecs.--photo by Elias FunezPatterson baseruner Tino Ramirez slides safely under the tag of the Aztecs second base man during the late game rally. I really like this photo. As the game went on, the low hanging sun back lit the cloud of dust that Tino made as he slid head first to second, you can't really see him, but he's there. Man I'd hate to be the ref making the call! 10-05-08--Pirates' first baseman Juan Garza just misses making the catch and the successful pick of a Predator base runner during a game October 5th.--Photo by Elias Funez10-05-08--After getting caught in a pickle, Patterson's #20 Beto Rodriguez makes it back to third base before the tag.--Photo by Elias Funez
09-21-08--Patterson baserunner Mark Gonzalez steers clear of a nearby play on his way to second base during a game against the Stoctkon Giants held at Felipe Garza Memorial Park in Patterson--Photo by Elias Funez
09-07-08--Patterson's #7 Juan Garza gets caught in a pickle as he hesistates running home. The Club Mexico catcher ended up over throwing a ball to third base which allowed tying run Jose Garza an uncontested home plate.--Photo by Elias Funez
08-10-08--Patterson Pirates' Tino Ramirez hits a double that brings in team mate Mark Gonzalez to put the Pirates on the board 1-0 after 5 innings.--photo by Elias Funez
09-07-08--Pirates center fielder Rafa Arroyo catches the final out of the game sealing off their 9-7 win over Club Mexico Sunday in Stockton.--Photo by Elias Funez
09-07-08--Patterson's Rudy Lozano prepares to make a sacrifice bunt during a Sunday game against Club Mexico of Stockton.--photo by Elias Funez
10-05-08--Pirates' center fielder Rafa Arroyo runs in to make an out during the 5th inning of a game against the Stockton Predators.--Photo by Elias Funez
09-21-08--Patterson's #27 Josh Hamm fires a pitch during Sunday's 13-3 win over the Stockton Giants.--Photo by Elias Funez
08-10-08--Pirates 1st base Jose Garza makes the out at first.--Photo by Elias Funez
08-10-08--Patterson base runner Jose Garza is tagged out on an attempted triple by Hurricanes third baseman Matt Berger.--photo by Elias Funez
Beto Rodriguez gets hit by an errant pitch early in the season.
A Stockton Aztecs player picks up a broken Pirates' bat. This year the Pirates joined the Cal-Mex baseball league out of Stockton, which required the use of wooden bats.Tino Ramirez goes in for a bunt.Jose Garza is tagged out before making to third base during a game earlier in the season.Pirates' catcher Rudy Lozano comes into contact with a sliding Aztecs baserunner at home.Pirates' pitcher Drew Barrett fires off a pitch (The umpire is longtime Patterson resident Harley Parson).Drew Barrett readies to hit a ball.Tino makes the tag at second base.James Pease had a really good season on the mound, striking out many players along the way.Catcher Jose Garza makes the tag at home plate during a game early in the Pirates' season.

Taco Bell...... here!

Wow! that was fast. A little over two weeks since I last photographed the Taco Bell site, and it was finished faster than I could add a new blog post. Taco Bell and the Longs Store were one of the first items brought to the Planning Commission after I and Pat Dooley were first appointed over three years ago. I think some people were waiting far longer.
Here's some folks checking out the drive-thru for the first time Wednesday night. I saw the line way longer, and the parking lot was packed when I rode by on my bicycle earlier around 1:30 p.m. Inside, a Taco Bell employee for 22 years reported this being her busiest day working for the Bell.My first Patterson Taco Bell drive-thru experience, a soft taco supreme and cheesy double beef burrito.
I sure did raise alot of suspicion photographing there that day. Not from the customers, they were all actually really cool, but from the managers and owner. I guess the sight of a professional camera in the hands of a young man means I'm going to steal all of their trade secrets. But after talking with the owner and telling him that I photograph for the Patterson Irrigator, he was more than happy to let me have full reign.

taco bell countdown

With a projected opening slated for the end of October, the highly anticipated Taco Bell will be coming online very soon. I took these shots pretty quick while shooting assignments around town Thursday October 2nd.
This photo was taken through the front of the building looking in towards the dining room.
This one taken from the side entrance looking towards the front entrance through the dining room.
Drive thru, with the Longs in the background. Here's a shot taken August 11th, of some electricians going over blueprints, making sure everything's right before the concrete foundation is layed. This photo is taken in the same direction as the one above.
Some concrete workers ready to pour for an electrical transformer at the Taco Bell site.Construction of the counter area looking in from the side entrance.