Bean Hollow SB

Hurt My Back

I've always had a touchy back. There are spots where I have little feeling and some even tingle at times. I'm also quite susceptible to sprains. Last year I did a number on my upper back and, just last week, did a real number on my lower back. Not sure how it happened. I painted the kid's bedroom on the 3rd and 4th of November and also had to get on a ladder and clean the top of her big closet on the 6th. No big issues at that point but a few days later ... WOW. Was sitting on the couch watching TV and went to stand up. Full scale pain explosion which literally brought me to my knees. Couldn't walk or bend at all and even sitting was a real painful experience. No idea where the damage originated but it was a major episode. I applied heat and started pumping ibuprofen like crazy in hopes I could cut the pain down a little so I could function. It took most of a week until I got to the point where I was able to do anything useful and now, 9 days later, I'm off the meds and able to move around for the most part. Still have some pain ... where the back muscles attach to my hip bone ... and some stiffness. Really hoping this gets significantly better or I'm in trouble with this year's trip. No way can I carry around all my camera gear and hike long distances with a back like this. No real physical therapy in Crimea so I'm out on that score. If I'm still troubled I'll have to bite the bullet and find someone in Albuquerque who can maybe help me. A chiropractor would be a good choice and maybe someone who can give me some pain meds when it gets worse. Damn ... I hate growing old.

Bean Hollow State Beach

Travel down California rt. 1 from San Francisco and you come to the town of Pescadero. That's where you'll find Bean Hollow State Beach. What an amazing place. The ocean has carved the most intricate shapes in the soft sandstone. All kinds of hollow spots and interconnecting ridges make for the intricate webs one finds walking around the place. I was fortunate to be there on a day when the clouds and sun cooperated. It was a bit stormy and waves were crashing on the rocks. I got really lucky on this shot as a wave was just cresting as the shutter cycled. It actually looks like some aliens sculpted these rocks. It's surreal. I highly recommend visiting if you're in the area.

This is a sequence of 3 images, run through photomatix and then finished in lightroom. Hope you enjoy.

Bean Hollow SB - 28mm, f/22,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Devil's Slide

About that hospitality ... or lack of it

When I'm on the road I literally live in my small pickup truck. I have a really nice ARB refrigerator that keeps all my perishables in good shape plus has room for a few bottles of iced tea to drink on those hot days. I'd be lost without it. I also have it arranged so I can move a few things into the cab and sleep in the back. Not the best accommodations but better than sleeping in the cab which I have to do sometimes. I have a nice air mattress and a good sleeping bag so I'm never cold or really uncomfortable. What I'm trying to say is my truck is my home when I'm on the road. And because I can't really afford a hotel room every night (rooms can be more than $100 in many places and sometimes much higher than that in Yellowstone or Grand Canyon) I have to stay in campgrounds if I'm in a national park and space is available or rest areas on major highways or even just find a place in a shopping center or mall lot if that's what's available. I've found SafeWay lots are very accommodating if the store is open 24/7 but some places are just not very friendly. For example, driving along rt. 1 in California it's not at all unusual to find "no camping" signs in every overlook or turnoff and "no overnight parking" is the rule almost everywhere. They try to make you very uncomfortable. I sort of understand ... they don't want homeless or drifters like me getting to cozy in those places. But for someone who is just doing his thing and taking pictures, it's really unfriendly and rude. I spent several weeks in California and almost every night I wasn't in a national park was an exercise in futility as I moved around trying to find any place to sleep.

I was really glad to be out of California when I crossed into Oregon. Always thought that state was laid back and accepting. WRONG! That state makes California look like a paradise. It was the only place where I actually got a citation from the local ... I don't even know what to call her ... constable who visited one of the rest areas every evening and took down license numbers, then returned the next morning and put a big orange tag on my window telling me I was abusing the "spirit" of the rest area by, of all things, sleeping there. It is called a rest area for a reason. One would think that they would not want me on the road at night, given how bad my vision has become and how hard it is for me to drive after dark. So I was really pissed the whole time I was in Oregon because of this one experience. Fortunately, the state police were more accommodating on the interstates and I was able to bed down for the night without hassles.

The overall impression one gets from driving around the country is people who are mobile, for whatever reason other than being a big rig driver, are really not welcome. Every state has rules about how long you can stay in a rest area every 24 hours. Cops don't usually enforce these rules very much but I've gotten shit from a cleaner on occasion because I haven't cleared out fast enough. All of this because I remember, as a kid, driving from California to St. Louis with my aunt and us just pulling over on the side of the road to get some sleep and no body gave a damn. This is another effect of the caustic culture in America now. It's really sad that we've become so intolerant.

Devil's Slide

Driving north on rt. 1 from Half Moon Bay toward San Francisco, you come to a big tunnel. Just before the tunnel is a stop light and parking lot for an area known as Devil's Slide. To the left as you enter you can see this large concrete structure perched precariously on a large rock overlooking the ocean. I'm not sure what this structure does ... it looks like maybe an old coastal defense bunker or something similar. It's abandoned so the taggers have been busy painting their "advertisements" all over it. The day I was there it was extremely windy so I had to get low to the ground just to keep from being blown over. It looked like a nice sunset was coming so I set up and waited. This is a standard process ... Photomatix and Lightroom. I'm a bit ambivalent about the image ... I think it's interesting but not something I would ever want to sell. Just a very interesting shot of an unusual structure and a nice sunset.

Devil's Slide - 20mm,f/20,1/13 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Big Sur #1

So What Happened...

You are all very aware of my issues with money and Crimea. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), has a stranglehold on the Crimea and refuses to let any money into the place no matter the need. I've tried every method known to man, including VISA, Western Union and SWIFT, to no avail. I have to resort to the most draconian methods to get living expenses to my family. What's really frustrating is the folks at OFAC told me directly that living money for personal expenses was OK with them and yet they make it nearly impossible to do just that. This choking of Crimea has reduced the place to near poverty for most as there are only local and rather ineffective banks with little money and no services other than paying utilities which they charge far too much for.

Well, this trip home I tried to send money to the daughter of my wife's cousin, who just graduated university in Ukraine and needed some money to rent a flat and buy some furniture. I figured, wrongly, that SWIFT would be able to handle this as Ukraine is not under any sanctions. Unfortunately, the girl isn't totally aware of the nuances of OFAC control and she listed her home address in Crimea by mistake. Her family lives in Simferopol and, due to the way Ukraine deals with college students and the fact that they still claim Crimea as part of the country, her home address was listed as Crimea, part of Ukraine. Students don't have addresses in the town where they attend school and the bank required her 'real' home address which was Crimea. This little slip seems to have caused OFAC to decide I was trying to send money to Crimea and they blocked the transaction. Now, what really gets my hackles up is the fact that no one bothered to let me know that the transaction was blocked. For 4 weeks my bank kept telling me the money was in Ukraine when, as far as I could tell, it was in an account with OFAC. After 4 weeks of frustration on my side and on the Ukraine side I finally went to my bank and cancelled the whole transfer. It took 10 days to find the money and bring it back. Still don't have a complete explanation of where the money went and why it didn't get to Ukraine but that's the way these government agencies work. They do whatever they want and if it blows up your life ... too bad. There is no accountability and this clusterf**k of an operation has so much power to destroy lives and countries. They are the group that starved 500,000 kids to death in Iraq because they decided that medicines and food had military applications and therefore they were not allowed. Evil personified.

Unfortunately, this fiasco diverted my attention for over a month and kept me from setting up the website for my business and from getting my image sales started. By the time the dust settled on this disaster it was just too late to do anything. So the business is not yet running and there is no website. I hope to get it setup while I'm still in Crimea this time so there's something to sell when I get back in country next spring. I hope...

Big Sur #1

One of my bucket list items for this cycle was to spend time in Big Sur. It is such a spectacular place with cliffs and big surf and too many places to photograph. That was my intention ... but the weather had other ideas. The massive storms last spring washed out huge sections of rt. 1 on the coast, closing everything from Ragged Point in the south to Big Sur Station in the north ... essentially the entire Big Sur area. So I was reduced to driving as far as the closure at Ragged Point, then backtracking to rt. 101 and going north to where I could get to rt. 1 and driving south to Big Sur Station. I got a nice taste of the area but a thorough expedition has to wait for another cycle. However, I do have a not so nice memory of that trip. I stopped in a McDonalds in Salinas before turning west toward the coast. I ordered a chicken sandwich. After taking a few bites I noticed the lettuce was bad, covered with black spots and had a not so pleasant smell. I took it off the sandwich and stupidly ate the rest. I should have taken it back to the counter but was in a hurry to get back on the road. By the time I hit Big Sur Station my stomach was starting to rock and roll and a few miles north I was forced to find a place to park and be really sick. It was a miserable night on the side of the road and I didn't feel even a bit better until the sun was coming up. That's the first time McDonalds sold me bad food and it may be the last time I ever buy from them. Every time I went into a McD to check the Internet my stomach started rocking. Something like that sticks with you for a long time.

Anyway, before I got sick I was able to find a couple of nice spots to photograph. I'm not sure exactly where this location is, but it was just north of the town of Big Sur. Storm was brewing and surf was up big time so the image came out really well. This is a panorama made from HDR images. Lots of work to get everything right. Still a little rough in spots but I wanted to get the image out there so everyone could see it. Enjoy.

Big Sur 1 - 24mm,f/20,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Reyes Light

Further Update...

Unfortunately, still not sure what happens with trip. Had talk with wife about it and she is resisting very much. Seems my asthma doesn't matter as much as her inconvenience. I'm still going and it will, eventually, come to a shove on my part but I'll keep trying for a few more days to get it done with diplomacy. I need to get a few months stateside to find out what's happening and to let the dry desert air work on cleaning out my sick lungs. There's no other way, short of very strong and dangerous medicines, to do that. I much prefer the dry air, thank you very much.

Point Reyes Light

It's a long drive from rt. 1 out to the Point Reyes lighthouse and the road isn't all that much fun. There are many dairy farms along the road and one has to be aware of all the cows. Plus, the winds whip up sand and make the road dangerous along with it not always being a safe road with lots of blind corners and whatnot. After all that effort, you arrive at the parking lot below the light. There's nothing there but a driveway leading upwards and a very long and exhausting climb. By the time you reach the top, you're exhausted and hoping there's something worthwhile at the end. Imagine how disappointing it is when you finally reach the end and find ... this.

Point Reyes Light - 121mm(1.6 crop),f/22,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Not exactly a classic example of lighthousing, is it? The explanation is simple enough ... there was no need for a tall base given the light was already hundreds of feet above the water. And, according to the explanation, the trip to the light by mule team took a looooong time and it just didn't make any sense to waste all that energy on frills. So they built a minimal light, powered by coal and steam. It did it's job for a very long time and that's why it's famous. Add to all this the light was closed, in the late afternoon, so we (there were several of us who made the arduous climb) were forced to take pictures from an overlook several hundred feet above the light. It was a gray day (fog again) and colors weren't forthcoming so I had to make due with what I was given. This is a 3 image HDR and I worked very hard to find color in the final composition but there's just not much there. If I push too hard the whole image goes to hell and that's not going to please anyone. So you see a nice blue sign (bottom center) and some pretty rust streaks (on the light) and a bit of oxidized copper (roof vent on the attached building) and that's it. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. That's life for the photographer. That's why it's so hard to get that amazing image that pops. Everything has to be perfect and all too often it's not. But still, it's an OK picture, isn't it? At least the composition is good.

Golden Gate North Tower

Crisis over...

As some of you know, Crimea lost all electricity when someone in Ukraine sabotaged the power lines feeding south from Kerson. That was in mid-November. Well, yesterday Russia turned on the second high-voltage cable feeding Crimea from Krasnodar and we now have 100% of the electricity we need. The emergency generators are being shut down and all the factories and stores that were shuttered are being reopened. The big supermarket, Ashan, where we do our major shopping, opened over the weekend and we were able to get all the pet food and supplies we have been doing without the last month. And, when we got home yesterday afternoon, we were surprised to find that our elevator was working. Oh, what overwhelming joy! No more trudging up 200+ steps carrying heavy bags or dragging my poor, old cocker spaniel behind me. My bad lungs and aching legs rejoiced at the wonder of it all. We are now officially disconnected from all utilities coming from Ukraine, ending the worst part of this mess. No longer can they blackmail Crimea with threats of shutting off utilities. Now that's progress.

Golden Gate North Tower

I've already expounded on the wonder that is the Golden Gate Bridge. It's such a marvelous construction and a magnet for photographers of all skill levels. I was there in May and, as is often the case, the city and bridge were shrouded in thick fog. It was a dark and gloomy night but great for taking pictures. I set up at the lowest overlook and spent a considerable amount of time taking shots. This image was actually a precursor for a panorama I'll present at a later date. The fog was still above the red safety light so you can see the entire bridge. The lighting is just right, projecting from the road deck upwards and the beautiful ironwork provides just the right touch. A truly amazing structure and timeless in it's beauty. 75 years old and still as magnificent as the day she was built. The city isn't too shabby either as you can see.

Golden Gate North Tower - 35mm(1.6 crop),f/11,30 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

South of Monterey

Sabotage

It's been an interesting couple of days.Woke up Saturday morning to the news that a group of Right Sector thugs (the ultra nationalist group from Ukraine) had blown up several power lines carrying electricity to Crimea. One line survived despite their best efforts so we had just enough power to make it through the day. But, just after midnight on Sunday morning the power went out in our flat and stayed off for several hours. Found out later that the Ukrainian power company had shut down the remaining line due to "power anomalies". Not sure what that means but it doesn't really matter. Suddenly Crimea was down to diesel generators and we didn't have enough of those to cover all the demand. Lucky for us we live near the legislature in Simferopol (which seems to have been protected with it's own generator) and had electricity for most of the day. Not so lucky the rest of Crimea where most people have no power and not much else. My mother-in-law had basically nothing but cold water and, sometimes, a phone. Unfortunately, our luck was not to hold and we lost everything around 5:30 pm on Monday and stayed dark until early Tuesday morning. We're told we should get used to this as it's the new normal for a while. For whatever reason Crimea was not ready for this to happen despite warnings that Ukraine might cut us off at any time. It seems the earliest we can expect some relief is late December. Not sure how we hold on if the weather, which has been unseasonably warm, decided to turn nasty. It could turn into a major disaster as, without electricity to run our heater and no heat, our flat would become very uncomfortable. I can only hope for a warm spell lasting well into the new year. For once, global warming may just help us 'weather' this situation.

South of Monterey

I have to apologize for this photo. I know it was taken between Big Sur and Monterey but that's a close as I can remember. Was driving along highway 1 around 9 am and saw these rocks and it was just so damn beautiful. Spend most of an hour shooting here and came away with some pretty awesome pictures. The overcast only served to increase my saturation and obviate the need for HDR or bracketing. This is a single image, run through Lightroom. Isn't it amazing?

South of Monterey - 78mm(1.6 crop), f/11,1/10 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Estero Sunset

A Few Updates...

The spayed female has, to some extent, returned to her old self. She was just in pain and doing what cats do in that condition. She's still walking a bit gingerly but has started coming out of hiding and is interacting with the other cats. she's sitting on the window of my office as I type and watching me intently. Think she'll make it.

The anticipated clash between the West and Russia seems to be cooling. Russia is pounding the hell out of Syria right now and working with France and even America to form some type of coalition to do battle with ISIS. Not sure that's the best way to defeat these fanatics but if all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail. We'll see how things work out (or not) going forward.

Point Estero Sunset

As I was driving north toward San Francisco I came across Point Estero. Just south of Big Sur it's a nice photo spot overlooking the ocean. I got there later in the day and decided to see if there were any interesting spots. It's a several mile long overlook with paths so it wasn't really very hard to walk along the cliff until I found what I wanted. Met a local who walked there every day and we talked a bit about California and what's happening in the country. I was watching the sky as we talked and was disappointed to see yet another fog layer forming. In this part of the world, fog usually doesn't come all the way down to the ground but hovers a few thousand feet up so it just tops the coastal mountains. You can get some interesting shots when the sun is peeking between the fog and the water but you need to be in the right spot. I found my rock but was unhappy to see that the sun was too far north and went behind a mountain range (to the right side of the photo). But, since I was already out there and several miles from my truck, I set up the camera and took some bracketed sequences anyway. Was hoping something interesting would come from the experience and I wasn't totally disappointed. Worked in Photomatix and Lightroom to get something nice. Sorry it's not going to knock your socks off but what can I say. Sometimes you have to make due with what nature gives you.

Point Estero - 35mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Rest Stop Redwoods

The Rains have Started...

The autumn rains have started here in Crimea. We go from not a drop in 3 months to daily downpours and the shock is major. My lungs, on schedule, have started to get really bad as the raw, damp weather soaks them to the core. I'm sucking on my inhaler in a somewhat wasted effort to keep thing working but it's only partially effective. If I keep to plan, in a month or so I'll start coughing up globs of goo and it'll be time to start seriously planning the next trip home.

Speaking of which ... I'm hoping to spend more than a month in LA trying to get enough footing for 2 videos. One will be dedicated to timelapse and hyperlapse where I'll really work on my technique and on covering as much of the city as I can. I'm creating a long list of venues where I hope I can shoot. I'm hoping to get enough footage for 8+ minutes which is a big deal for such a short time. The other project is my animation study and I'll be shooting more raw videos with the new Canon 5D mk 3 I'm buying. I'll use the Magic Lantern hack to get 14 bit color at 24p. The videos I've seen are amazing so I'm looking forward to testing that out. I'll also use some of the footage from the other project so I won't need nearly as much work but it's still a big undertaking. Along the way I'll also be shooting my photos so there'll be lots of raw material for my return in the spring. Should be an exhausting but exhilarating 3 months.

Rest Stop Redwoods

My last stop in California was at a rest stop near the Oregon border. It was an interesting stay for sure. I arrived late in the afternoon and spent the night. Now, I've pointed out before the restrictions on stays in California rest stops. They have an '8 hour' rule which means you are only allowed to stay for 8 hours in a single day. I planned on staying a bit longer as I wanted to eat some dinner and catch a good night's rest and take a few hours to get breakfast and fire up my computer to transfer a ton of images from my camera into safe storage. It was more like 14 hours but who's counting? Well, the guy who cleans the rest stop for one. As I was setting up my computer he wandered over and reminded me of the 8 hour rule. After a few moments to consider what he said, I told him I had no intention of 'living' in his rest stop and was just doing a few housekeeping chores before heading down the road. Also reminded him that it wasn't his responsibility or part of his job description to be telling me that ... he was, after all, the janitor. That put him off just enough for me to finish my work and leave. Arrogant little prick.

I digress ... what was unique about this rest stop was hidden behind thick hedges and trees. I followed a path through the trees to discover this absolutely amazing grove of mature redwoods and a world that couldn't have been more different from the asphalt and dirt of the rest area that most travelers saw. The colors were spectacular. So, being the photographer, I set up my gear and took some pictures. What a peaceful and amazing place this was. And the moss cover on the sidewalk was just icing on this marvelous cake.

Rest Stop Redwoods - 18 mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Los Padres Sunset

DaVinci Resolve

I've been spending the last week learning about new things. Lots of reading from the internet and dipping my fingers gently into new software. All in preparation for the next cycle when I want to get more heavily into video and extend my mastery of the photographic and the moving image. I'm not sure yet what type of project that will be but it happens in and around LA. I'm narrowing my choice for the next camera (hint ... it's between the Canon 5D Mk 3 and the Sony A7 Mk 2). I'm convinced I want to stay away from the really high resolution rigs for now as they are 1) very expensive and 2) fraught with issues. With the 5D Mk 3 I can get reasonable resolution (22.1 Megapixels) plus can install Magic Lantern and get 14 bit raw video at HD resolution and up to 30 fps. Imagine ... video with higher color depth than a professional movie camera costing a large fortune. I've seen some of the video from this hack and it's almost orgasmic. And I can color grade it in DaVinci Resolve (lite for now as the full package costs almost a grand). So, for the last several days, I've been reading and playing with a very powerful and capable system to color correct and grade my footage. It's not for the faint of heart as the software is the exact same code used by the major studios to grade their movies. But mastering this package gives me the ability to really extract the maximum from that raw footage. That's if I get the Canon ... no such capability from any of the Sony cameras unfortunately. All 8 bit and that's not all that good. One would get the impression I've made up my mind ...

Los Padres Sunset

I drove the California coast from north of LA to almost Eureka and saw an amazing number of beautiful shots. I've got thousands of images to work through and that's going to take some time. But one of the best images came from an overlook in the Los Padres National Forest somewhere south of Big Sur. I was just driving along the coastal road and came upon this place. As is always my way, I parked the truck, ate some lunch and took out my tablet to read while awaiting the sun's end. One never knows what to expect as the afternoon drags on ... will it get too foggy or will all the clouds disappear or ... will everything come together and give me a special image to capture. That's what makes this business so interesting and so damn frustrating. I've read stories of photogs who hung out in one place for days awaiting that perfect set of conditions. I didn't have time for that this cycle but next time I'll be doing just that ... spending days in one place, taking the same images each time but waiting for the best conditions. I'll be covering southern California very thoroughly so expect some really interesting results.

Anyway, this is an HDR panorama of the little bay as the sun set behind some really nice clouds. It wasn't exactly stormy but could have been. I think the plants at the bottom are a form of sage which was blooming at the time. It's always nice to have living ground cover instead of ugly rocks. Would have been nicer with some waves but one can't be too choosy given I only spent one afternoon there. So, grab a beer or something more refined and sit back to enjoy the view.

Los Padres Sunset - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Santa Monica Pier

Burning Man is Over

I guess the latest burning man ended on Sunday. I've always wondered what it would be like to spend a week in the dust and heat of summer Nevada with 70K other slightly crazy people. I've heard it was much better before it became a success so maybe I'm not really missing anything. That's always the problem with these things ... they start out as really cool ideas and then, because they're cool, they become popular and then mainstream and then ... they're toast because all the people and all the expectations destroy that which made them good in the first place. Every festival like this should have a limited shelf time ... a few years ... and then should be discontinued as a bad idea. Nothing good lasts forever. Humans attach themselves to anything that's too good and destroy it. So it is with burning man ... the extremely wealthy carve out their own little 'gated community' and fill it with million dollar buses and keep everyone else out and ... ruin the whole thing. There ought to be a rule that excludes anyone with too much money. Can't the rest of us 'little people' have something that's exclusively ours?

Santa Monica Pier

It's probably one of the most photographed ferris wheels in the world. Right on the beach, just below the million dollar flats and expensive homes and high class hotels ... there sits the pier. It costs a lot of money just to park there for a few hours. Fortunately, for us photographers, that's not a big concern. The parking concessions shut down around 7 at night and don't start up until well after sunrise so I was able to skip most of the costs. But I had to walk a long distance with my heavy equipment so that's the trade off one has to make. Anyway, I got to the beach just after 7 and lugged my gear down the beach sidewalk until I was pretty close to the pier. Most people had already abandoned the beach and most of the exercisers had already finished their routines and headed for the showers so it was just me and a handful of other photogs wanting to get that signature image. In the spring there's already afternoon fog so getting a blazing sun behind a thin layer of clouds is a long shot at best. And, the air is already pretty heavy with smog so it's problematic one can get that iconic shot. So I put the 70-200 f/4 on the camera and concentrated on the pier. It's really quite colorful with the lights on the wheel and the brightly painted rollercoaster so there's plenty to please the eye. It's a 3 exposure HDR and finished in Lightroom. I worked with the sliders quite a bit to bring out the colors. Hope you enjoy the ride. Keep your arms and legs inside the car at all time and absolutely don't scream!

Santa Monica Pier - 70mm(1.6 crop),f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Arena Light

West Coast Lighthouses

I'm a big fan of lighthouses. Although they've outlived their purpose in most areas, they are still a big reminder of the hazards ships used to face and man's efforts to mitigate the risks. They are always in the most dramatic places ... near rocky shores or perched precariously on dangerous cliffs ... and manned by the most insanely crazy men (and occasionally women) who sought the solitude and braved the dangers. They are largely ceremonial now, historical landmarks to an age long gone.

I guess I was disappointed by the lighthouses I found in California. I'm used to the dramatic spires of the East, thrusting high into the sky so their lights could be seen for miles. Some of the old houses in California are like that but most are very ugly and lacking in charm. I drove for miles to see the light at Point Reyes and was floored by how downright ugly it was. Same with the light in Pacific Grove, no more than a light perched on the roof of a small house. Really wasn't worth shutter cycles to take a picture. So it was very gratifying to drive out to Point Arena and find the majestic light there... and the dramatic rocks that it was guarding.

Point Arena Light

Near Flumeville in Northern California, on the Shoreline Highway (rt. 1), lies the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands and the Point Arena Lighthouse. It watches over some of the most dangerous hazards in the area. The geology is amazing ... massive blocks of sedimentary rock turned literally on edge by the teutonic forces at work as the Pacific Plate collides with the North American Plate. I'm sure many an ancient ship floundered on these rocks before the light was built in the 1870. Today it's a museum but still ... what a majestic location. After seeing so many disappointing lights it was a huge lift to see one so amazing.

Now there's a back story to this image. I arrived, as I often do, in early afternoon so I could scout the location and find the best vantage point. I wanted to shoot as the sun went down so I hung around to see how the fog developed. As a precaution I took a pano which I'd hoped to process during the afternoon but the weather didn't cooperate and I forgot about it. Turns out the fog rolled in like clockwork ... around 3 pm ... and only got worse as the afternoon progressed. By 7 it was obvious there wouldn't be any sunset so I left. As I said, the images from the pano went into my workstation where they languished until a few days ago. I was going through the catalog and came across the folder in Lightroom. Didn't expect much from the images but took the time to run them quickly through Photomatix and Photoshop. The resulting composite image literally blew my socks off. Amazing colors and the composition was nearly perfect. I make a small jpeg and sent it around to family and friends for their comments.

As I waited for the responses I started looking more carefully at the image. It had serious problems that I hadn't noticed in my rush to get it processed. One major problem with HDR appears when there is motion in the scene and the various images have differences. You often get 'ghosts' ... streaks and shadows in your images that cause major disturbances, especially when you try to make a panorama. In this case, Photomatix left huge holes, black areas, in the images which ruined the pano big time. There was also the ever present popcorn noise although it was diminished because the sky was dark. And, when HDR merges images with movement it often creates a muddled result that's not really acceptable for a professional image. These were all issues I had to fix. Fortunately, Photomatix has tools for dealing with ghosts and muddled images and I was able to use them to eliminate the major problems. But it took many iterations to get it right as a fix in one area would create a problem in another. Photoshop's ability to merge images isn't one of its really strong points and sometimes a merge line runs right through the middle of a major focal point (like cutting the light house in half so the top was displaced to the right of the bottom ... a very major muddle). It took several days to get everything right but the result was definitely worth the effort. I'd have to classify this image as one of the best and most stunning of all the photos I took during this cycle. It may be the crown jewel of my trip ... don't you agree?

Point Arena Light - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

One PS: the light from the 'light' is faked ... most lights today don't sweep dramatically across the water anymore ... it takes too much electricity ... so to add drama I created scatter from an imaginary light because that's what we all expect from our keepers. It's not a deception if I tell you about it and almost every photographer does it. It's expected after all.

Pacific Coast Sunset

Greece...

It looks like Greece has been destroyed ... at least for some time into the future. The Germans and their allies have put together a financial package that guarantees a long and devastating future for the peoples of that beautiful country. I'm not going to comment on who's at fault ... it would appear there's plenty of blame to go around ... but I do want to suggest that, as is always the case, the political class has had a big hand in the outcome. Incompetent and greedy, they have taken a small problem and made it into a catastrophe. And the Greek people are paying the price. I, for one, believe the Euro union needs to be destroyed as it only serves the rich and powerful while enslaving the weaker nations. And it would appear that the EU needs to be dismantled too. What appeared to be a great idea has been twisted and mangled by the politicians into something that only inflicts pain and suffering. I wonder if it's possible to have a world without politicians. Do you think it's possible?

Pacific Coast Sunset

I was finished with San Francisco and licking my wounds as I journeyed north up the Pacific Coast Highway. It had been a very frustrating few days as the afternoon fog had conspired to ruin one day's images after another. I'd almost given up hope until I found an overlook near Jenner, California that showed a great deal of promise. Lots of wild flowers and rocks doing battle with an aggressive surf. It was exactly what my battered ego needed. All that was missing was a cooperative sunset. As is my custom, I settled down to wait, reading a book on my tablet while the sun drifted toward the horizon. To my surprise, the fog held off and the sunset looked like it would be pretty good. There were some storms in the area and they added a bit of anger to the sky which only made the images better. So, as the sun settled in the west I set to work and produced the image below. Came out pretty good and helped lift my bruised spirit just when it was needed most.

Pacific Coast Sunset - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0