Fort Bragg, Oregon

Video Blogging

I've been watching YouTube videos produced by Thomas Heaton. He's a young Englishman who is turning into a terrific photographer. His videos are wonderful on so many levels ... technique and humor and emotional connection. He generates such amazing content and the images he produces are beyond wonderful. I recommend his YouTube channel to anyone who is interested in improving their game behind the lens.

I'm thinking about doing something similar. I spend 3-4 months a year on the road, visiting interesting places and finding the most amazing images to capture. It would be a good way for me to gain some exposure and fill the long hours I spend waiting for the right light. I already have all the equipment and software I need so there's very little expense involved. I'm a pretty good storyteller. It just seems like a good idea. And maybe I can make a little money along the way which isn't a bad thing. At least I could maybe pay for some new equipment and my travel expenses.

Trip Plans

I haven't made definite plans yet but things are starting to come together for the next trip home. It looks like I leave in late February and return to Crimea in mid-June. I want to get to Grand Canyon while there's still some snow and I want to get to the far north in Idaho, Montana and Washington which means I have to stick around until the snow melts in late May. I'm planning to revisit quite a few places I've not seen in a while and to add a long list of new venues to my already long list. Because the West is so big and there's so many places to see I'll be occupied for many years to come just filling out all the holes in my catalog. Hopefully I'll have my trip plans in place before Feb. 1 and will let you know my schedule.

Fort Bragg, Oregon

No, it's not FB, NC. No military base for miles around. Just a small, coastal town north of the California-Oregon border. I spent a few days there exploring the local beaches. Lots to see but the weather wasn't really conducive to getting around so my catalog is a bit thin. Most of the ground was saturated and unwalkable so I had to confine my shoots to blacktop areas and turnoffs. But what I did find was really nice. Like this rocky coastline. Not sure what it's called but wow, what a beautiful area. The sea was really angry and taking panoramas like this one are very difficult when the water is tossing and turning. You have to carefully match your shot times so you get waves in roughly the same place each time or it's impossible to stitch the images together without funny breaks and transitions. What I usually do is to pick a spot where the waves are hitting a known obstacle (usually a rock sticking out of the water) and that's when I start the bracketing sequence. It works pretty well as you can see.

This is a 3 image sequence, 10 sets all told, run through Photomatix. I spent a lot of time on this particular set of images because I was testing out alternative pano stitchers and wanted to see which one did the best job. I downloaded trial copies of PTgui and Auto Pano Giga and ran the images through them along with Photoshop. I wish I could say there was a clear winner but I can't. They all had issues with the image and it was frustrating to see how they each stumbled at one point or another. Stitchers look for similar features in each image which they use as reference points during the stitch. The problem is 1) waves are not static so the stitcher struggles to find matching points on the water. It generally punts and finds references on the ground and in the sky. That leads to 2) problems when the clouds are moving relatively fast so the reference points don't really match up very well. This leads to issues on the horizon with the water not being flat ... big steps giving really funny results like a staircase. So you have to get the best you can and then go into Photoshop to correct the horizon and to fix the discontinuities in the water. It gets very nasty very fast. I've got a lot of experience with this and can fix it somewhat but I need to get one of the other stitchers because Photoshop doesn't give me access to the various images being stitched. PTgui lets me output each image so I can blend them in Photoshop if I want. APG does some serious blending internally and that's OK but it's not as easy to get to the base images. I'm still debating which one to buy (and there's another option --- Hugin which is free and open source but isn't quite as advanced as the commercial offerings but, did I mention it's free)! The commercial offerings are expensive so that's a consideration as well.

Anyway, after several weeks of messing with this image I went back to Photoshop. I had to do some tonal adjustments to the various images as some were darker than others and Photoshop doesn't do a really good job fixing those problems. Then I just messed with the various settings in PS until I got something I could live with. There's a lot of work getting this image right but I think the result is pretty good. Love the rich colors and how the water is crashing on the rocks. It's lovely and I can still feel the wind in my face as I stood on the bluff taking these images. Will definitely return soon and, this time, I get the name of the beach. Promise.

Fort Bragg, Oregon! Enjoy!

Fort Bragg - 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

San Francisco

Catalonia...

I wonder if this place, Catalonia, is the canary in the coalmine. What I mean by this is the following ... I've noticed of late that a lot of small regions are striving to get away from their bigger brethren. Scotland and Ireland for example. Or the Donbas in Ukraine. Or what happened to Yugoslavia. One can point to literally hundreds of places where the people are very unhappy with the powers that be and are agitating for their independence. I don't have a really firm opinion on this one way or the other but it certainly runs contrary to all the elite attempts to cobble together one big entity that rules them all. Suddenly trade agreements are falling apart and the EU looks a bit shaky given Greece and the Brits. Even the US is starting to see some ominous cracks. It certainly seems plausible that America could fracture into several large autonomous countries ... don't you think? The south certainly, then the West excluding the left coast, then the industrial northeast and maybe Texas on it's own. That would leave Alaska and Hawaii as odd men out with no where really to go. Maybe Alaska joins with the south or the mountain west region and Hawaii jumps in with California. I think many on both sides would agree that maybe Lincoln was wrong to force the south back into the union. Look what an unhappy lot they've been ever since. They just don't seem to fit in very well. Same with the mountain west with their libertarian tendencies and their big emphasis on state's rights. It's a very unstable time we live in. So many counteracting forces all pushing and pulling in different directions. Not the big, happy family one would expect. I don't know where this is going but it certainly looks like we're in for a big upheaval. Hold onto your hit ... it's going to get very rocky.

National Park fees...

I see where the Trump administration wants to significantly increase the entrance fees for many of the most popular national parks. I have a senior pass so I'm safe but these new fees, up to $70/car are really steep. A lot of families couldn't afford rates like that. The justification is the increased crowds that are, surely, overwhelming these parks. I can attest to this first hand but I think the solution is not the correct one. What is overwhelming the parks is all the foreign tourists and their big buses. I've been in a venue when a couple of these monsters roll in and it's a huge circus. Especially when they are Chinese. I'm not against Chinese tourists but they are the majority of these big waves that wash over the parks. I was in Yellowstone in late May and saw this issue big time. One morning I was in the midway geyser basin when 2 big buses rolled in. Suddenly there were 150 Chinese, all doing their best to get in each other's way and the noise was impossible. They have no appreciation for the amazing place they are visiting and you literally can't set up to take a picture with them around. I've had them walk in front of my camera and stand (or vamp) while I'm trying to get a shot. There is no respect for others. They all want to vamp for the camera and take a million selfies. For about 30 minutes the place is bedlam. Then they get on their buses and move on down the line. But all too soon another group arrives and the mess repeats. So, why not charge these tour groups big fees to enter the park. Let them pay $100 each for the privilege of visiting our parks. That would raise a lot of money and maybe keep the citizen's fees down to a reasonable level. And maybe cut down significantly on the numbers in the parks. I think it's worth a try.

San Francisco

I love this town. I went to graduate school down the peninsula in Palo Alto and my wife and I would ride the train up just to spend the day wandering around town. I know the overstuffed coders from Google and Facebook have overrun the place but it's still not all that bad. That said I find myself only spending a few days at a time there as the craziness gets to me and I have to chill for a while. This last trip I was only there for 3 days and then moved on. It's hard to find a place to sleep (I don't stay in hotels for a lot of reasons) so I have to drive out of town. This time I spent 2 nights in a rest area on I280 near Hillsboro which was very interesting. But there are so many wonderful places to shoot and that's what keeps me coming back.

This image was taken from the foothills in Golden Gate Recreational Area. I was in the last overlook just before turning north and couldn't pass up taking this image. You can see most of the bay area including the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island (just behind the north tower of the bridge) and just a bit of Alcatraz. It truly is an amazing place.

This is a single image, run through Lightroom. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

San Francisco - 35mm,f/16,30 sec, ISO 200,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Sonoma Coast

Charlottesville...

I'm not going to say much about the confrontation that took place yesterday in VAI've been warning family and friends for years that the "calm" we've seen in the last few decades was an illusion. The race hatred and all the other bigotries have always been there. It just took Trump and years of bad economy to bring it all back to the surface. The Republican party has been fanning these flames for a long time and now they are a raging inferno that may very well consume America. I have no great ideas about how to fix this ... it's been part of my country from the very beginning. The great melting pot was always a joke. Trump may very well be the lit match thrown onto the gasoline soaked hate that was always there. I'm actually glad this is now out in the open where all the smug elites can see/smell it first hand. Congratulations ... you've just kindled the fires that may very well consume you. Guess what ... it's the economy stupid! It always has been. Provide everyone with a good job and all this crap disappears. But you bought into the neoliberal bulls**t and now it's come back to bite you. And, in what has to be the greatest irony, it's happening all over the world. There's no safe haven for you to hide in this time. Get used to looking over your shoulders because that's the new norm. Payback's a bitch!

Sonoma Coast

I love driving the west coast. It's so beautiful and there's always somewhere that just begs for a picture. Sonoma is mostly known for it's wineries but the coast is also a magical place. This image was taken at Coleman Beach. The clouds/fog was very cooperative that evening and I was able to get a really nice sunset. This is a panorama made up of HDR images. There's a lot of work in cleaning up the blending which sometimes goes funny as the light changes from one panel to the next. There are 85 images in the mix, 17 sets of 3 bracketed shots. Each panel takes upwards of 2-3 minutes to shoot so you can easily have 30 minutes between the first panel and the last. The light changes a great deal in that time frame so I often have to work the image to repair these changes. It's part of the process and a reason why these types of shots are so hard to execute. I've spent several years perfecting the technique and still confront issues with almost every one. Stitching together panoramas isn't always foolproof and I often have to repair damage caused by the software. It's not unusual for me to spent a day with a single image. But the results are worth all the effort. You'll not find more dramatic images than these. I really hope you enjoy them.

Coleman Beach, Sonoma - 24mm,f/16.HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Cape Blanco Light

Politics in America

I've always been interested in politics. I can remember watching the conventions leading up to the second term for Eisenhower. I was 12 that year if I remember correctly. It was hypnotic ... all the pomp and bluster just enthralled me. I was really hung up on the whole patriotic thing when I was a kid.

Now fast forward to this moment. We have a certifiably insane person in the White House and a building full of crooks and liars just down the street on Capital Hill. The Supreme Court is a joke and the idea of being patriotic is more like a nightmare.. I haven't voted in years because it makes no sense to even make the effort when I'm given the choice between 2 corporate bootlickers who are essentially the same except for a few cosmetic differences. I'm all for gay rights and a long list of social issues but it's really hard to focus on those when the political elites of this country are hacking away at the very roots of our most basic liberties. Because I travel around a lot I run into the police state all the time and it's very troubling. Drive around southern New Mexico or Texas and you come across BCIS checkpoints where a heavily armed border guard asks you very probing questions about who you are, where you come from and where you are going. Getting in their face is an open invitation to trouble. Did you know that there is a 200 mile wide "rights free" zone all along the border? You basically do not have your constitutionally guaranteed rights whenever you enter that zone. You are well advised to not pick up any hitch hikers in that zone as they could be illegals and you might find yourself in a cell being charged with transporting illegal immigrants. Now, maybe you think that zone just applies to the Mexico border. WRONG! It applies to the entire country and think just how many large cities are within 200 miles of a border. Most of us live in that zone and don't even know it. So far these check seem concentrated near Mexico but it wouldn't take much for them to expand. We live in a police state ... a fact I've been reminded of on many occasions when I talk to foreigners as I travel around. They are very concerned about the "in your face" presence of heavily armed cops. Even the National Park's rangers are starting to display gestapo tendencies. Something you and I should be thinking about whenever we tell someone we live in "the land of the free, the home of the brave." Neither applies I'm sorry to say.

The Fallen

I'm going to be adding a new section to this blog the next time I head back to the states. I see a lot of homeless people as I travel around and I want to start documenting their plight. I have all my camera gear and an ability to approach people as I often look like them as I drive around in my ratty clothes and beat up truck. They are in desperate straits and only a few people, like Chris Arnade, are talking about them. They need more places that are telling their stories. So look for "The Fallen" when I make my next trip to America.

Cape Blanco Light

There are lots of light houses in Oregon. I guess in the old days there was a light every 30 miles or so but many have been retired. Some are gone, some are in disrepair and a few have been turned into tourist attractions without working lights. Cape Blanco is an actual working light as far as I can tell. It was running while I was there. No one really needs them anymore as most ships have good radar and GPS so they know their locations very accurately. But in the old days they served a big purpose. As a ship navigated along the coast, it could tell it's location by finding the lights and triangulating relative to several at the same time. Each light had a distinctive flash pattern combining time and color so a ship could tell which light it was. They saved a lot of lives. It's both wonderful that some are being saved but sad when one is allowed to fall apart. The US Coast Guard mans most that are still working but the original Fresnel lenses have, for the most part, been removed as they are often broken and in poor repair and there are no shops anymore that can supply glass segments. I'll have more on this in later posts as I work through my collection of light houses from this trip.

Anyway, this is Cape Blanco Light. Beautiful isn't it. The weather was difficult but that's when I get the best pictures. I always try to show more than just the light. I think it's important to show the context for the light's function. I want people to see the hazards too so they can understand why the light exists.

Cape Blanco Light - 35mm,f/18,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

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

Golden Gate Bridge

Where am I?

I'm not ignoring you ... I'm just off doing other things. I have a family that needs some attention from time to time and I'm still working on that software project. Plus I'm starting to think through what I want to do on the next cycle which starts probably after the new year. I'm thinking hard about spending a long time in and around LA to work on my timelapse video and then what do I do? I don't want to be driving nearly as much as I did last time ... almost 10k miles and a lot of money. This time I want to be more localized and concentrate on southern California. I think that's possible. And since I want to do a nighttime video I can sleep during the day and avoid most of the issues around night camping and rule breaking. There's lots of issues to be resolved and plans to be made so I'll be busy for the next 4+ months. I'll still try to cull my photos so there's a constant stream of new images but I have other fish to fry too so bear with me while this gets done.

Golden Gate Bridge at Night

I spent a total of 2 days in San Francisco. I've already explained why I cut my stay short so I won't bore you repeating the obvious. I spent almost all that time around the bridge as it's the most obvious landmark in SF. Such an amazing construction and one of the few man made structures that actually enhances it's environment. The guy who designed it made a really excellent choice with the color ... international orange ... which lets the bridge stand out from it's surroundings while actually complementing the colors of the hills and city. A true work of art. And, if you've noticed, one of the few human constructions that appears in my pictures.

It wasn't easy taking this panorama. I had originally hoped to take this picture from the highest observation point in the park but fog got in the way. I was parked high above the bridge, awaiting sunset and the chance to take some really awesome pictures but, as is often the case in northern California, the afternoon fog rolled in and pushed the ceiling down until the bridge disappeared totally from this vantage point. I was forced to work my way down the observation overlooks as the ceiling fell until I was pinned at the lowest observation point. But the insults weren't finished yet. Every time I got out of my truck to set up, some clown would pull into the parking area and leave his lights on so my shots were ruined. Finally, in total frustration, I crawled into my truck and hunkered down until very late ... almost midnight ... when all the gawkers had finally gone home to bed and I had the place all to myself. Fortunately, the fog remained just above the tops of the bridge stanchions so I could see the red fog lights and traffic flowing across the span. It's a very nice picture but not perfect. The fog and mist gives all the lights a halo which is both nice and not so good. Also, some of the sections are a bit overexposed. I plead to frustration ... after all the negative pressure going back many hours I was just rushing to get any image and get back into my truck. At midnight it's really cold and raw up in those hills and standing outside for long periods trying to get the perfect picture is very uncomfortable. If I get back there this next cycle I'll do better ... I promise.

Golden Gate at Night - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

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

Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP

Fog ... everywhere

Just north LA it started, Fog ... every morning, every evening, every day. I like to shoot sunsets and it's hard to do that when there's fog. Mostly fog banks off shore which blocked the sun about half an hour before actual sunset and produced not exactly exciting or impressive results. So I apologize for the total lack of redness in some of the images I produce at this time. But they're still pretty nice.

Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP

Just south of Big Sur is a very beautiful but small state park. Most of it is on the east side of rt. 1 and is dedicated to the hiker. But a small part is west of the road and wow, is it an amazing part. A small bay formed by rugged rock cliffs and pounding surf. It's beautiful. It would have been overwhelming had it not been for that pesky fog bank just off shore. But I'll let you decide if the photo is good enough or not.

Julia Pfieffer Burns SP - 16mm(1.6 crop), f/18,HDR,ISO 100, license CC BY-NC 4.0

Morro Bay

Why is California so expensive

I've spent the last 6 weeks traveling around the west taking pictures. I'm appreciative of those who've chosen to take the trip with me. I've seen some amazing things and met lots of interesting people. I've also gotten a chance to gage costs of things and how they vary across the states. Most states seem to be within a relatively narrow range of prices except ... California. Everything here is just way more expensive than anywhere else. Take gas as an example. I've paid anywhere from $2.19 to roughly $3 per gallon everywhere else but this place ... figure at least $3.65 and expect to see way more than $4. Then there's the cost of camping. I routinely paid anywhere from $6 to $10 for a night in a national park. I paid more like $20 in private campgrounds and that was OK as they often had Internet and showers thrown in. In California, the state parks routinely charge more than $30 for a bare campsite and ... hold your breath ... seniors get a whopping $2 discount. Last night I paid $33 (with the big senior discount) for a stripped down campsite and no amenities at all. No internet, no showers, nada beyond a basic bathroom. And we were so close together I almost could touch my neighbor's truck while sitting in my own. What is it about California that makes everything so expensive? Is it really just the fact that it's California? Really?

Morro Bay

This place is one of those confusing things you run across in California. A beautiful beach front with a huge, Gibraltar sized rock in the harbor and they surround the thing with a massive power plant, a breakwater constructed out of the ugliest boulders you can find and a host of other insults. It's really hard to find anywhere to get a photo of the thing without something ugly getting in the way. The whole scene must have been designed by a sadist who hated beauty. I wandered around this rock for several hours before finally finding a place where I could get a good image. But it required me to crawl across the dangerous breakwater to get in position. But I found a piece of the rock that was just right ... and it was a nesting site for pelicans I think. Couldn't really see but they were big and I know pelicans are in the area ... ran into several on a pier just down the road. So I give you Morro Bay ... without all the junk.

Morro Bay Sunset - 120mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

This is a 5 image sequence run through all the usual processing. I wanted to bring out the intense colors in the sky and also show the structure on the rock. You can see the birds perched on the rocks. It was a beautiful experience.

Jalama Beach

LA large 

So, after getting the cap I loaded the truck and headed west. Took 2 days but I finally hit LA on the 14th. Immediately drove to Griffith Park to visit the famous observatory where Edwin Hubble did all his historic research. It's an amazing place with amazing views. From the building's roof you can see all of LA spread out in the valley. You see downtown, the Hollywood hills and all the way to the ocean. It's awe inspiring. But not many images came out of my many days there as I was focused on something else. I did take an HDR panorama of the Hollywood Hills but it's not on my laptop right now so I'll have to pass. I promise I'll throw it up in a few days although it's not all that exciting. You'll see what I mean when it's published.

Anyway, I spent 3 days in town and a few at a rest area north of town. LA tends to overwhelm you even if you're familiar with large cities. It is huge. You get on a freeway and drive and drive and drive ... and drive some more getting from one place to another. It takes an hour at the least. I spent several days at Griffith Observatory and an early morning and evening at Santa Monica beach getting lots of frames for a time lapse video I'm thinking about. Didn't get all the stuff I wanted as I just burned out too quickly. It will have to wait for my next visit to finish. On the 18th I finally admitted defeat and headed north on I5 toward the coast. My first stop ...

Jalama Beach...

Drive north of Ventura and the first major city you hit is Lompoc. Just south of there you see a sign on rt. 1 directing you to Jalama Beach. The state runs the place and they do a nice job but charge a lot for the privilege. Just to get through the gate costs $10 and if you want to stay add $28 to that. I decided I wanted to see the beach but could find cheaper accommodations elsewhere. I spent the afternoon walking the beach and sleeping in my truck. Around 7 I headed out to the beach with my gear and set up near the waterline to photograph a large group of rocks in the water as the sun sank into the horizon. I knew it would be a race between sunset and the rising tide but figured I might just make it. Damn did time slow to a crawl. Kept looking at my watch and then the advancing tide and back to the watch ... it was going to be close. Finally the big show started and I kept hitting that shutter button and banging out 5 sequence HDR sets like crazy. With waves lapping at my tripod's legs I finally relented and went back to the truck. Pulled out of the park around 8:30 and headed back to Lompoc. Wasn't much available for sleeping so grabbed a quick dinner at McD before parking on a side street and sleeping vertical. Not the best sleep but sometimes you have to make compromises for your art.

Jalama Beach Sunset - 85mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

This is a 5 image set for HDR. All the usual steps were used to get the final result. Now, I do have to claim hardship here ... because of the lousy accommodations (sleeping on streets sometimes) and lack of suitable work spaces in California rest areas it took me 4 days to find a place where I could finally get images into my computer and edit them. This image was created on a picnic table under the trees in Morro Bay state park. That's not the best place to be color grading images. You get reflections on the screen and the background isn't really very conducive to creating a quality image. So bear with me ... when I get back to Crimea later this summer I'll redo all these images and make them perfect ... I promise.