December 5, 2019
GoPro Hero5 Black, Night Mode
I recently acquired a used GoPro Hero5 Black. I am finding that when the price of a GoPro drops below $150, I feel like I'm getting what I pay for. I wanted to test the night mode, so I headed down to Palm Springs tonight to take a few photos of a friend's pool and then headed over to Village Fest for more photos. All of these photos are handheld. Almost all the photos turned out well, which is the opposite of what I expected. I would say I'm quite pleased with night mode. Here are some of the photos.
permalink | December 5, 2019 at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2019
Some Recent Photos
The Camron-Stanford House in Oakland on Lake Merritt.
Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland.
permalink | November 30, 2019 at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2019
Lomography Diana F+
I recently acquired a Lomography Diana F+ "Mr. Pink" camera, a film camera. Here are the results from the first two test rolls.
The camera is cheap and cheaply made, which is supposed to be part of its charm. To my utter amazement and pleasure, the instruction manual is written in excellent, idiomatic American English. The camera also comes with a hardback book (over 300 pages) with stories, anecdotes and sample photos.
It takes 120 film. If I shoot full size, I can get up to 12 exposures on a roll. On my first roll, the color film (Kodak Portra 400), I made a mistake in setting which film image size to shoot at (I can shoot smaller images and fit 16 images on a roll), so the result was overlapping double images, but I edited out the overlaps. The camera has two shutter speeds 1/100 and bulb. It's got three aperture settings: cloudy, partly cloudy and full sun. I can also simply remove the lens and use it as a pinhole camera. It's got zone focusing. I can just rotate the (very loose) lens to 4 meters to infinity, 2 to 4 meters, or 1 to 2 meters. There are no automatic stops when advancing the film, as there are on 35mm film cameras, and nothing prevents double exposure. To advance the film I just keep turning the knob while I keep my eye on the little red window on the back of the camera. When the next number for a frame becomes visible, then I've moved the film far enough. One challenge is that I cannot see the dim number through the little red window in anything less than full sunlight. I will need to have a flashlight with me when I use this camera.
These photos came out a lot better than I expected. Very little light leakage and I guessed the focus range well enough on most of them. The black & white film is T-Max 400.
I have not tried the flash yet, nor the pinhole.
I found one review of the camera from someone who took it to Burning Man. The camera is so leaky, the dust penetrates all parts of it easily, ruining the film for sure, and maybe the camera too.
The complete set of photos is here.
permalink | November 18, 2019 at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2019
Burning Man 2019 Photos
My complete set of photos from Burning Man 2019 can be seen here. Below are a few samples.
First morning on the playa, just before sunrise. You can see the moon about to set to the right. Klank is camped in the larger trailer and I'm in the Scamp.
Looking the other way, toward what will be Black Rock City.
How I stabilized my shade structure. It worked perfectly. The shade structure stood there for three weeks and wasn't damaged in any way. That sphere is a light, not any part of the stabilization.
Box Office still under construction.
DPW (Department of Public Works) putting up the shade structure in front of Box Office.
Early in the construction of the Temple of Direction.
The Man viewed along the 3 O'Clock road.
A week after I got there, some neighbors had begun to move in.
Fomogenesis Camp's shade structure.
Fomogenesis Camp during setup.
Segways with shiny decorations.
The 747 was there for its, presumably, last time. It's been sold to someone in Las Vegas.
Burner Buddies on the corner of 4:30 and J.
An official map showing the locations of all theme camps. (Full size image here.)
David and his sister Nancy. David sold his Scamp to me after last year's Burn.
A history of the temples displayed at the Temple of Direction.
Burner Buddies trying to get photos of the wedding party.
Pan and Flavio renewed their wedding vows in the Chapel of Chimes. (Here is the album of their wedding photos.)
Poppy and friend waiting for the start of the Naked Pub Crawl.
Some of the art behind Center Camp.
During the burning of the Temple of Direction.
The Temple of Direction starting to collapse.
permalink | September 29, 2019 at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)
September 6, 2019
Putting Up A Shade Structure
Erecting A Burning Man Shade Structure In The Wind. This was the Dr. Bronner's camp.
permalink | September 6, 2019 at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
The Flying Whale at Burning Man 2019
The Flying Whale at Burning Man 2019
permalink | September 6, 2019 at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2019
Los Angeles City Hall
Last month I went on an L.A. Conservancy tour of L.A. City Hall.
Union Station seen from the observation deck on top of L.A. City Hall.
The complete set of photos can be seen here.
permalink | August 6, 2019 at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)
August 3, 2019
Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride Photos for 2019
I rode only the afternoon loop on this year's World Naked Bike Ride in Los Angeles. I had three GoPros, each shooting one photo every five seconds during the ride. Two of the cameras faced rearward and on forward. The complete collection of photos is here. There's an icon for a slideshow near the upper right corner of that page. I tried to sync the clocks on the three cameras, but they don't allow you to set the seconds, so they're out of sync with each other over a spread of a minute or so. The route changed some this year, partly due to construction on the LA River bike path, so if you enjoy looking at these photos for what's in the background, you'll see some different scenery in this year's photos.
What follows are a few of the photos:
There were a lot of motorcycle cops along on the ride. They were tremendously helpful and had to stop at least a couple of drivers who thought they could just drive right into us, as if we would magically disappear out of their way.
A naked bystander. Not part of the ride at all, but an observer from the side of the road. I guess we inspired him. Too bad he didn't have a bike!
We entered the LA River bike path at the point where we exited in previous years.
A stop along the LA River bike path.
And we exited the bike path via a little dirt path.
The first time I rode the LAWNBR we went past this church and they called the cops. This is the first time we've ridden by it again. No problems this time.
And then we re-entered the LA River bike path.
We went through this rotary twice, for a total of 360°.
This guy was back with his sign - this year, no typos!
permalink | August 3, 2019 at 10:25 PM | Comments (1)
July 4, 2019
Fireworks in Desert Hot Springs
July 4 2019, Desert Hot Springs.
permalink | July 4, 2019 at 11:04 PM | Comments (1)
April 24, 2019
Desert Water Agency Tour
I went on the Desert Water Agency tour of their facilities at Snow Creek, Whitewater and the Mission Creek recharge ponds. Took some photos. Below are most of them.
The weir on Snow Creek where Snow Creek water feeds into the DWA water system.
Flood damaged road at Snow Creek. The car on the other side is staying there until the road is repaired.
Water from the Colorado River Aqueduct flowing to the Whitewater River after having been given a spin in the hydroelectric facility there.
Whitewater River on the left; water from the Colorado River Aqueduct on the right. We're facing downstream.
The hydroelectric generator at Whitewater.
In the hydroelectric facility at Whitewater.
Whitewater viewed from Snow Creek.
A recharge basin at Mission Creek. Mt. San Jacinto in the background.
A pair of recharge basins at Mission Creek.
permalink | April 24, 2019 at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2019
Ghost Palm in Desert Hot Springs
Part of Desert X.
More photos of Ghost Palm here.
permalink | March 30, 2019 at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)
Desert Flowers
Seen in Joshua Tree National Park.
permalink | March 30, 2019 at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2018
Texas AIDS Ride 1
After just one day of riding, we were hit by a severe thunderstorm in the middle of the night. We grabbed our stuff (excluding tents and bikes) and they transported us to a nearby high school where we hung out for hours in the gym until they bused us from there to what would have been our destination on that second day. No bike ride that day. The photo below is of me in the night as we were evacuating.
A Confederate memorial on the grounds of the state capitol building in Austin.
Tom & John who hosted Michael and me in Houston. John had lived in Boston for a little while around 1980-'81 and I knew him from then.
The Ellis County courthouse in Waxahachie which Michael and I rode through on our way from Dallas to Austin before the ride started. We were rather surprised to suddenly see what seemed an obvious H.H. Richardson in a small Texas county seat. Turns out it was designed by a student of Richardson, James Riely Gordon.
Michael riding right behind me in a pace line. This was shot by a professional photographer who had stationed himself along the route.
Michael and I had flown into Dallas with the plan to stay at the home of my friends Steve & Jeff (formerly of Kansas City) and then bicycle on our own to Austin. TAR would take us from Austin to Houston and then to Dallas. As we headed from Dallas to Austin we tried to follow small tw-lane highways, of course, but in Texas (or at least in this part of Texas) those roads all go either north-south or east-west and a direct route from Dallas to Austin would be something of a diagonal. I-35 would be the direct route, and the inefficiency of our route became annoyingly obvious as we continually crossed and recrossed I-35 on roads that weren't going in the direction we wanted to go. BUT, in Texas the interstates are parallelled on each side with smaller two-lane, two-way roads that I believe are intended mostly for slow farm vehicles. Turns out they are also excellent for bicycling...if you don't mind parallelling an interstate highway. Even at complex highway interchanges, these small roads were designed to carry us through the interchange without risking our lives. It'd be great if every state had the money and space to build roads like these. You can see an example of one of these roads on the right side of the photo below.
Re-assembling my bike at Steve & Jeff's place in Dallas.
Closing ceremonies in Dallas.
At College Station. In 1998 there had been only one President Bush, so there was no need to insert any middle initials to eliminate ambiguity.
My first time seeing cotton growing.
The Dealey Plaza memorial in Dallas.
In Dallas, the banner made for us by Steve & Jeff.
That's Geoff in the shade.
Steve, Michael, myself and Jeff in Dallas.
Geoff who was also from Boston.
Myself with Dan Pallotta, who created the AIDS Rides.
The complete set of photos is here.
permalink | December 13, 2018 at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)
December 8, 2018
Goat Canyon Trestle
Wikipedia article about Goat Canyon Trestle.
Scott C. led me on a hike to the Goat Canyon Trestle in 2014, but I've only recently posted the photos to Flickr. We hiked in the "easy" but longer way, following a mostly flat route from Dos Cabezos, across desert, to the railroad near Tunnel 20. From there, we hiked the railroad to the trestle, which comes just before Tunnel 15. The acceptable, standard way to hike in without hiking on the railroad as much requires one to take a straighter, but more difficult hike up and over the mountains.
You can also hike from the clothing optional resort at DeAnza Springs which is near I-8. From there you will be hiking uphill to the trestle. On the route we took, we hiked slightly downhill to the trestle...and then had to hike uphill on our way out. A few of the photos:
The water tower at Dos Cabezas. You can drive to this point. The railroad is right there, but if you follow it, you will go on a loop that makes your hike even longer. It's shorter to hike cross desert to Tunnel 20.
Tunnel 20. This is where we started hiking on the railroad.
Our first small trestle and our first view of the mighty Goat Canyon Trestle.
There are some wrecked railroad cars resting downhill from the railroad.
The red line is the railroad. The purple line is an approximation of the cross-desert route we took to Tunnel 20. The green line is the proper, standard, more difficult way to hike in.
permalink | December 8, 2018 at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2018
Mac Mini with 4K
I can now watch 4K videos with ease. I've got a couple of cameras that can shoot in 4K, and earlier this year I bought a 4K monitor. I could plug a 4K camera directly into the monitor to watch real 4K, but I couldn't watch 4K videos from any other source in 4K because my old Mac Mini (2012 model) could do no better than 1080. But finally, last month Tim Cook announced the new Mac Mini, greatly enhanced and with the ability to handle 4K.
Here's a test video I used: Driving Downtown - Los Angeles 4K - USA. 4K videos of Oahu, or aerial flights over Paris are quite lovely. But to judge the technical abilities of my hardware, I need to look at something familiar. Three hours of downtown Los Angeles in 4K...on a Sunday, so the traffic is unusually light.
For the new Mac Mini I went with the "3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)." On all previous models of Macs that I've owned, I've maxed out the RAM, but the max on the new Mini is 64GB! That would cost an additional $1,400. I don't think I've had a computer before that could hold more than 16GB, so I decided I could probably live with 32GB of RAM on this one. And I got the 1TB SSD drive.
The 4K is beautiful and realistic.
permalink | November 14, 2018 at 06:02 PM | Comments (2)
November 3, 2018
Los Angeles Just After Sunset
permalink | November 3, 2018 at 06:16 PM | Comments (1)
October 18, 2018
Box Canyon Flood
Box Canyon Road was flooded out twice this month, the second flood being far greater magnitude than any flood I've seen on that road. Check out the video:
This is a photo I took in 2007 showing the drainage channel going from the Coachella Canal (foreground) to the Salton Sea (background). The drainage channel can be used to send excess water from the canal into the Salton Sea, but I haven't heard of that option being used in the 15 years I've lived here. The farmers can use all the water they get. The drainage channel actually extends under the canal so that it can also carry runoff from the Mecca Hills (behind me as I took this photo) to the Salton Sea. Otherwise, all the rain that falls on the Mecca Hills will simply pool next to the canal, eventually undermining it.
So the huge flood from Box Canyon Road (or as much of it as possible) squeezed through this opening (also photographed in 2007):
Before the flood could get to the Salton Sea it had to pass under 70th Avenue as well as the railroad and highway 111. The panorama below shows where the flood hit 70th Avenue:
Not only was the bridge destroyed, but the entire concrete drainage channel is simply gone.
Below is a closer view of the 70th Avenue bridge. Those are date palms along the road with their fruit wrapped in cloth bags to protect it from birds.
permalink | October 18, 2018 at 09:09 PM | Comments (3)
October 15, 2018
Wende Museum Of The Cold War
I recently visited the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Culver City, which had been on my gotta-see list for quite a while. Open to the public Friday, Saturday and Sunday; no charge for admission; check the website for variations on that. It's right next door to Veterans Memorial Park which is right next door to Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
On the other end of the museum sits the House of Warrior Poetry (Dance. Parkour. Acrobatics. Action Arts. Yoga. Movement.).
Veterans Memorial Auditorium - the marker out front was placed in 1950, so call it 1950.
In the museum I thought the cover of this magazine said "1961." Only when I went to edit it did I see it was actually 1981! It sure has the look of 1961.
Yuri Gagarin hanging out with kids.
You can see all the photos here.
permalink | October 15, 2018 at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2018
2018 Burning Man Photos
A view of my camp from the elevated deck at Box Office Camp. This was taken my second day on the playa.
Trago Peak on the eastern edge of the playa.
Burner Buddies Stephanie and Klank.
Every year there's one art piece that is obviously dangerous, and BMOrg will let people play on it until someone gets seriously hurt and then they make some changes. Before this one had been open for too many days, someone fell off and it was shut down.
The front of Box Office while we were setting up.
My first evening on the playa.
My truck in the Nugget Casino parking garage in Sparks.
A menorah constructed on a tandem bike.
At the Burner Buddies Little Black Dress Party.
The Champagne Bitches art car stopped in front of Burner Buddies for a while.
Customers at the Burner Buddies Drive-thru.
Aerial view shot by Frank with Burner Buddies camp highlighted.
Burner Buddies group shot by Ed.
My complete set of 2018 Burning Man photos can be seen here.
permalink | September 25, 2018 at 08:00 PM | Comments (1)
