This last week I've been concentrating on what comes during the next cycle. Right now it still looks like I'll head home in mid-January with the intention of staying until mid_April. I'm already starting to wheeze and suck on my inhaler more and that will intensify as winter approaches. Some things are very predictable, especially my health and how my body reacts to certain irritants.
I'm still pondering exactly what the agenda is once I arrive. LA plays big in all my thinking so I'm working on the tasks to accomplish once I'm on the ground there. There's a big video to film and tons of images to be taken. I'm looking at high quality videos from the new 5D Mk. 3 along with timelapse and hyperlapse sequences. I've also been looking at Blender a lot this week ... for those who don't know what that is I'll give you the short explanation. Blender is a 3D modeling application (free as it's open source) which can create entire stories in virtual reality. Think about any of your favorite fantasy movies (Terminator, Transformers ... you get the idea) and those fantastic creatures were all modeled in programs like Blender. I've been looking to see if it's possible to create a virtual human who can be my homeless lead. Why, you ask? Because it's easier to get a virtual human to do the things I want him to do than it is to get a homeless guy to do. The homeless tend to be somewhat unreliable and difficult to manage. They tend to do what they want to do and aren't really interested in listening to (or following) someone else's direction. There's also the risk issue ... working with the homeless can be dangerous as they tend to be unpredictable. Drugs and alcohol can make them crazy. And I have a lot of equipment which I'd like to keep. So a virtual actor has some appeal. I'll gauge the situation on the ground when I get there and decide which way to go based on who I find. But I want to be prepared should the facts dictate using the virtual character. So I've gotten a human 'rig' (from a free software called MakeHuman) that allows me to design the character I want and then bring it into Blender. I've already created "Screw" (my main character) and am now working to improve him so he's fully rigged (able to move) and looks almost believable. It's a lot of work and there's a ton of stuff to learn so I'm very busy these days.
Of course, there's also those photos to take so, while I'm in LA, I'll be using my spare time to visit interesting locations and to get amazing images. I'm also intending to work on my TL and HL sequences as they can be interesting and challenging. Learning new techniques is never going to stop as long as I'm still breathing.
Beyond LA things get a bit more iffy. I want to visit lots of places throughout southern California and Arizona in the time I have left. At the very least I want to see Joshua Tree, Death Valley and the White Mountains in CA and maybe a return to several places in AZ. If I have time I may work further north but I don't want to duplicate the 10K mile wander I did last spring. That's just too hard on me and my truck. I may also just hunker down in either Joshua or Death Valley for a while and work on all the images and videos I'll have accumulated in LA. I need to do preliminary screening and color correction on all that stuff. So it's highly likely I'll get a place in either park and just spend most of my time doing that. Maybe a week or more. This may change but the basic framework seems to be gelling nicely.
Griffith Observatory
During my stay in LA I spent several afternoons and evening in Griffith Park. The Observatory, high on a hill overlooking downtown, is especially interesting. Edwin Hubble did all his groundbreaking work there (yes, that Hubble from the space telescope fame). It's now a major attraction in the city and every night it fills up with an overflow crowd who come to see the amazing views of LA and the Hollywood hills.
The last night I spent in LA I decided I wanted a timelapse sequence that combined the observatory and downtown. To do that I had to walk a steep road high into the surrounding hills. As I'm asthmatic it was a challenge but I took my time and manged to find the perfect place. I set up the camera with my telephoto lens at 70 mm focal length and framed both locations. The sky was filled with clouds and the threat of rain was ever present but I felt getting the sequence was too important to worry about some water. As the sun set I started shooting and this went on for about an hour. I got some really nice images. This is the last image in that sequence. If you look carefully there's rain already falling downtown. I grabbed the camera and walked 'briskly' down the hill, arriving at my truck just as the sky opened up. It wasn't rain ... it was buckets of water and soon the road was a river. I sat patiently, waiting for the deluge to stop and then headed out of the city and toward the coast.
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| Griffith Observatory - 70mm(1.6 crop),f/11,13 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0 |
