To trap old things in time - a very, long time

Some things change, some things don't. We don't accept change very well, so we document what things were like *before* change. Some of you know I like to head over to Disneyland every now and then (we're passholders) and just shoot around. I give myself projects and it helps train my photographic eye since it is a target-rich environment. But this last time was different.

They're changing California Adventure - and for the better. The whole park is getting a make over. New rides, old ones taken out, and a general re-theme/re-design/re-thought of the genre. They're going to make it like the Hollywood when Walt showed his first animated movie: Snow White. The whole entrance will go art-deco and be like the Hollywood of '29, complete with a Red Car Trolley. But that means the San Fransisco Bridge is now out of place. So are the murals. And the entrance CALIFORNIA is no longer going to fit. The sun in the middle of the square will be the new location for the Carthay Theater, so it's going as well.

I heard they were going to put up some walls and start demolition shortly after Labor Day, and I *really* wanted to get a good evening shot of the CALIFORNIA letter. You know the kind - drop dead gorgeous indigo blue skies. But that time of day is a very busy time and there's no way I could ever get the shot I wanted. No people, just the murals, the CALIFORNIA, the Golden Gate and the Sun. So I did the next best thing: I headed over to the parks at 5 a.m. in the morning. On Labor Day (so there would be no traffic worries). And with my luck, it was overcast. Well, the blue skies will still be there, they just won't last very long. I got there just before they were coming out of black and shot around. I then set up the tripod, and with only having to wait for a service truck to move out of the way, I shot the letters with the compass in the Esplinade. You'll see how the skies go from blue to grey - in about 10 minutes. But my taks was done.

THEN I head the walls were going to go up around the Sun the following Thursday, so my wife and I headed over on Wednesday. Yup, overcast. Oh well - same thing, but this time, the blue comes right before the black and I had to be quick. I set up and did some test snaps, then started to shoot as light faded. At last the magical indigo appeared and I shot like crazy. I also caught the murals in the day time and night, just in case.

So yeah, I'm excited to see the changes. I'm sad to see the mural go away, but it leaves not because of the craftsmanship but because of very poor planning in the first place. We'll see how it turns out. In the mean time, here's the pictures of stuff that is (as I write this) being torn down:

Esplinade and the CALIFORNIA letters:
http://www.thecalderwoods.org/tom/DCA-100906/

The Sunshine Plaza:
http://www.thecalderwoods.org/tom/DCA-100908/

Enjoy! Comments and criticism always welcome.

Point Mugu Air Show - 2010

I really like to shoot air shows. One of the fvorites is at Point Mugu Navel Air Station in Ventura County, California. Why? They're right on the coast line which usually means you get some great vapor off of the tops of the wings. The main headliner is also the Air Force Thunderbirds - which is a twist to have an Air Force team at a Navel Air station, huh?

The day before was very overcast but I had a fireworks show to help out at in Irvine (for the Pacific Symphony). We went on a Sunday. Although the day started overcast, the fog soon burned off and we had bright, blue skies. There were some vapor trails, to be sure, just not as much as they had the day before.

As the day went on, there was a patch of sky that if a plane flew through it, there were trails so I tried to catch them at the exact right time. You'll see some of these with the Thunderbirds.

It was a great time to spend with my son, and the drive home was actually not nearly as bad as I was expecting - which was a bonus since I was *exhausted*.

Pictures are here:
http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p161650680

American Heroes Air Show

So, many of you know that I like to shoot fireworks. And to shoot fireworks. (http://www.pyrotography.com/) A fellow pyro discovered that I also like to shoot air shows and asked if I would like to be one of the staff photographers for the American Heroes Air Show at Hansen Dam in northern L.A. county. And I jumped at the chance. There are two staff photogs and the other spot was from a fellow who had been shooting there already. Being a staff photog meant that I got to get a whole lot closer to the helos, although when they were in flight, I could not be under them or any closer than one parking spot from them. For non-staff folks, you had to be a minimum of 200' from the tip of either rotor blade.

So they also set up a photographer's pen. It didn't cost anything, but you did have to sign a waiver and permission form. My son was available that day to go to the show so I took him along. Graciously, they let him shoot with the photographer's in the pen.

My morning shots were pointed towards the sun - the pen had the sun over their shoulder. Oh well - it made for some dramatic shots from me.

It was a long, hot, tiring, sunburnt day - and I loved it. I also found out that whenever a helo is in the area, you also got stuff stirred up. Like dust, things in the dust, cut grass, pollen, trash - the works. Next time, I wear a dust respirator.

Kyle's shots are here:
http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p835965155

My shots are here:
http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p969671697

Fun stuff!

Bodie Ghost Town

I had some business up in Hawthorne, NV. You get there by driving up California 395 from the L.A. area, get to the north side of Mono Lake, hang a right turn, and in under an hour you're there. It's a small town, but it's claim to fame is that it is located amongst 2900 ammo bunkers. Yup, bunkers. Full of bombs, mines, missles, bullets, rockets - the works. The biggest of it's kind in the world.

On a previous trip, a couple of miles after making the turn, there was a sign to Bodie - a true ghost town now run by the parks service. I thought about going, but I didn't have the time. This trip, I planned a 3 hour stop over. A big mistake - I need about 2 days! What a great place! The interiors of the buildings can only be seen through the windows. (There's only a couple of buildings you can walk into.) They positioned a lot of items as if folks had been living there until recently - all covered with about 1/4" of dust and grim. The exteriors have been mostly sandblasted to bare wood by the wind and the dust. In the winter, it's not uncommon for many feet of snow on the ground. In the summer, the heat will get ya.

I poked and prodded around, mostly staying to the main part of the city. I didn't take the mine tour (I wanted to) or get to some of the outlying buildings (I wanted to). All that takes time. And time is pretty much forgotten in Bodie.

Becase of the age and amount of dirt, a lot of the images I took were rather colorless. Combine that with filthy windows (the kind of glass that's all wavy), and it makes for some very interesting effects - not all of them desireable. I punched colors where I could, but on a couple of them, I tried to age out the photo to match the age of the place. I used different techniques and all within Adobe Lightroom.

Because of the grime on the windows, I had to shoot through windows that were not in sunlight. Not all the buildings would allow this, and I tried different things to help. Mostly, it was holding the camera with my right hand and holding my hat (a dark, leather one I got in Virginia city) over the window as close to the camera as I could get it. If I switched around, I pre-focused the camera, then set the shutte timer. That gave me about 10 seconds to frame the shot with my left hand and hold the hat in my right. (You try this sometime!) I also tried, as much as possible, to flatten the front of the lens against the window. There's *got* to be a better way.

The road in from 395 is 10 miles of paved and 3 miles of very rough dirt. The road that goes to the south is about 10 miles of *very* rough dirt road. I did both in a Hyundai Sonata - but will NOT do that south road again unless I'm in a truck or 4WD. I was usually held to 5 mph (or less) because of the terrain, but that just added to the whole of the experience.

If you're heading up to Reno, or are going to spend some time in Mammoth (and the snow ain't too high - they don't plow the road), I'd encourage you to spend at least a few hours there. It's worth the trip alone.

Gallery is here:

http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p96642121

To catch a rainbow - at night

So what do you call a rainbow at night? Is there such a thing? You bet there is! But you have to plan for it - way ahead of time. We spent a couple of days at Yosemite in April. The falls are fed from snow runoff which is HUGE right now. We made sure there was going to be a full moon and made our reservations months ago.

And wouldn't you know it - the weather turned bad. But we did have one good, clear, sunny, warm day (and night) before the clouds, cold, rain, snow, moved in - which meant we got to see pretty much the entire gamut of weather patterns.

To catch the moon bow, we made sure to ge there early enough to do some testing as the moon was setting. I wound up prefocusing the camera at the falls, then doing 2 or 3 minute exposures at 24mm f/6.3. And while pointing the camera straight at a 30mph (or so) wind full of spray. The camera (a Nikon D700) performed very nicely. I did put a clear filter on the front of the lens to protect it, and bought a poncho and taped the opening for the face around the front of the lens. It was a challenge not to have the whole thing just fly away. (Next time, I get a real camera raincoat.)

A lot of the images of a lunar rainbow is bright, but i think they're too bright. It is hard to tell the difference between these shots and night shots, other than just someone claiming it. So I did brighten the images, but not a lot so that it does look like it's at night.

Pictures I caught during the raining day were somewhat muted in colors, so I just went with the flow and applied different B/W techniques. Also, the images I caught when it was sunny was really the wrong time of day to take excellent pictures, but I really didn't have a choice. I knew weather was coming in so I went where I could and shot away - all the time during mid-day. Why is it not a good time? The bright sun and subsequent shadows extend the dynamic range of light way beyond a camera's capability. It also causes some nasty coloration due to the humidityand bright sky. But if it comes to catching a shot no matter the problems or not catching the shot, I shoot. I can always delete afterwards, huh?

The long set of pictures (with images of Kathy and I), head over here:
http://www.thecalderwoods.org/tom/Yosemite/

The best-of gallery is here:
http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p604281810

I'm still struggling with some weird colorization on the shots, and I'm finding my screen won't calibrate quite right, and trying to do it on my laptop gives me crappy results. We'll see.

Butterfly Jungle

Each year, the San Diego Wild Animal Park holds their "Butterfly Jungle" exhibit. Hundreds (if not thousands!) of butterflies are all in close proximity to everyone in there. It is *very* popular with photographers. The gates to the park open at 9, but a line was already forming around 8. Folks with LOTs of camera gear RUN to the exhibit. And for good reason.

Because the exhibit is kind of small, and because the folks running the park are rather good-hearted folks, they only let in 50-60 people inside the enclosure. After that, people only come in as others exit, and they don't force you to leave. As such, 10 minutes after the park opened, the line was 1.5 hours long. Folks with all that camera gear will take over an hour to get their snaps, so the initial bubble can take a long time to burst.

But it is a photographer's dream. Using a telephoto or a macro, long distance or close up, there is something to shoot at just about every turn. I *highly* recommend it.

I was there with my wife and some friends from work. Afterwards we wandered around the park. Since it *is* spring, and the animals *do* get "the urge to merge", a lot of the males were in full plumage. There was one that stood out - litterally. A Kori Bustard. It is the heaviest bird that can still fly. And it's HUGE! This particular male was standing straight up and had a sack under it's head fully inflated. It would 'snap' it's beak while hitting the sack with the beak. The result was a sound that at first, we didn't hear. It was like someone hitting a very large bass drum! We heard it hundreds of feed away! The thing was huge, and everyone who has seen the pictures claim it's the ugliest bird they've seen. I dunno, I've seen some ugly birds but this one was plain awesome.

The day was warm but not hot. Still, Kathy and I were beat when we left at 1:30. (We got to the parking lot around 7:30.) We were both so toasted that around Oceanside, we pulled off the road and took a short nap.

Almost all the pictures are cropped. Some of the images are heavily cropped, either because of the reach of the lens or there was a better picture inside the picture. I'm heading there again to hone up some more on shooting butterflies.

Images are here: http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p461315894

Info on the Butterfly Jungle is here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/butterflyjungle/

Enjoy!

L.A. Zoo

At work, I help run a photo club. Ain't much, but we all love taking snaps. We will sometimes go to places just to take pictures. This time around, it was the L.A. Zoo. The day was broken overcast (which helped for some pictures, not so much for others) and cool. OK, it was cold. Animals being what they are, are smart enough to hang out where it's warm. And that is usually by some sort of heat lamp.

That meant that the only critters that were visible were the ones acustom to cold, or were dumb. (Unlike all of the folks who showed up to stand around and watch them try and stay warm. Makes you wonder...)

I got in a few good ones. A couple have made their way into my desktop picture.

http://www.thecalderwoods.org/tom/2009-02-19_LA-Zoo/index.html

Enjoy!