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

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