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DAVID'S
PERSONAL NEWS PAGE, COMMENTRARY, |
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Links to Other Related Pages ß SDCC PHOTO PROGRAM: News & Events THE BOAR'S DEN News, recipes, etc. |
This page
contains news about my activities, my seminars & workshops, guest
lectures, etc. as well as about any photo trips or travels. It also contains
comments, reviews, reactions, rants and just general
thoughts, boring as that might be. It is not, however, a true blog since there
is no provision for comments or feedback. I simply do not have the time to
maintain it although you are certainly free to
email me about anything
written here. Just remember, the views you read here, unless otherwise quoted, are
strictly my own and represent, least of all, my employer and many of
my acquaintances in academia. For news specifically about the photo program or my class activities at San Diego City College you can click here or on the link in the left column. |
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Other News Items Moosie is Available Online Now ARCHIVED ENTRIES
Jan/Feb
2009 |
(Earlier Posts are in the Archives. Access by month on the left or by topic in the index on the right.) February 25-28, 2010 - The Valley of Death and Moving Rocks Last week the landscape Class and I went to the Valley of Death and Moving Rocks better known as Death Valley National Park. This was our 4-day field trip with the 3-day field trip still coming up in April. I arranged for us to stay in Beatty since the lodges in Death Valley were unable to accommodate us but had to stop in the park on Thursday to pick up the park passes since they were processed too late to mail to us at the school. By the time I got that handled at the Visitors Center and then drove to the motel and checked in at Beatty, there was only time for some evening shots at Rhyolite, a ghost town on the road from Beatty to Death Valley. The light was already behind the mountains when we got there so shooting was a bit limited. Still, the cool twilight light lent a certain abandoned aura to the old bank building in the shot here.
A four years ago when I was last here much more of it and the town was standing and when I was here in 2000 quite a bit was still there. I guess like the wood framed ghost towns of the west, the weather pushes and pushes and finally some critical mass is reached and things just fall down. Friday morning we tried for a dawn shot at Zabriskie point. The shot here shows photographers (some from our group plus a number of others) waiting for this iconic moment photographed by nearly every serious photographer to visit the Park. It is hard to see in this small version but on the ridge in the middle-left of the shot are photographers lining up in anticipation.
Alas the clouds started closing in to the east and it never happened. Well, actually, there was a brief moment when the new sun sent shafts of light down but it lasted only a moment and then was back to the heavy overcast. I missed the light on the far peaks since I was looking elsewhere, but did get a couple of closer shots of the surrounding terrain however.
We then went to breakfast at Furnace Creek Ranch where in direct opposition to the word from the rangers, someone claiming to work in the park told us the road to the Racetrack, our intended next stop, was flooded and could not be negotiated by a normal vehicle without 4-wheel drive. However I recalled that road having a rocky base so unless it was way under water did not seem likely to be impassable and the Racetrack is such a cool place it was worth the effort to try. Of course, the road was just fine, actually better and with fewer sharp rocks than it had a few years earlier. I kept waiting for it to turn ugly but it never did. Why he would tell us that out-and-out lie is still a mystery. There was speculation among the group that he must work for the Jeep Rental place. The south end of the Playa was still under several inches of water which was what the rangers had indicated but the road was about as good as I've seen it. The water extended about 1/3 - 1/2 of the way toward the northern top of the Playa.
This was perfect. I
never believed the official version of what caused the rocks What was fascinating too was that the wind was blowing up from the south and was actually pushing the water uphill. The Playa has a very shallow tilt (1-3 degrees) toward the south, but the southerly wind was pushing it northward at a fairly rapid rate. But it was NOT driving any of the rocks around despite gusts that would rock the photographers standing there. On the way back out we stopped several times for photographs of cactii and rocks and of course at Teakettle Junction. The circle to the rim of Ubehebe Crater was closed but we stopped to take photos of the dried flowers and black basaltic gravel that covers its flanks. Saturday it was raining off and on all day long. We first went to Bad Water for some standard reflection shots. Despite the rain the water was very low and far away from the shore line. And it was a very gray sky. So I tried an experiment. I was expecting to use HDRI techniques for condensing the dynamic range of bright sun and sand but in thinking about the process thought that the same technique, applied a little differently, could also be used for a flat, low contrast scene to put tones back in where there were none and where building contrast in Photoshop would simply have ripped the tones apart.
Even though I was sure it would work, I was still a bit surprised at how well it actually worked to bring some life back into an otherwise utterly flat and dull view. In addition to the shot at Bad Water I also took some in the same dull conditions along Artist’s Palette and, again, was pleasantly surprised to see the colors and contrast leap into life. The first shot is from the Artist's Pallet Loop Drive looking back at the storm coming in over Bad Water. This was taken with a 400mm lens.
Artist's Pallet is a spot where various minerals are in the same area and create a wild collection of colors. The first shot is of the wash and mountain side where the greatest concentration of colors are located...
...and below is a close up of one of the areas where the colors are found on a small hill side (to the left of the wide photo above).
We then tried to go to Twenty Mule Team Canyon but the road was closed due to mud. We also tried to do Dante’s View but that road was also closed (11 miles into a 13 mile drive!!!). The group had now scattered trying to find some good shots between the rain showers and finally I too gave up and headed back to Beatty to clean up, download files, and relax before dinner. Sunday, our last day of course, dawned clear and sunny; a truly beautiful day. We went back into the park for some early shooting at Zabriskie Point...
... and along the outer edges of twenty Mule Team Canyon since the road through it was still closed..
Oh man, the weather was perfect! But I needed to get back and get ready for class the next day, so a bit after noon started south and hit the road home. The weather gave us a look at Death Valley that was considerably different from the normal one. It was not the trip I expected but on its own terms, was a good trip anyway. The students seemed to have enjoyed it and already I’m seeing some workable shots beginning to emerge. Now if only I can find the time to do some work on the rest of mine… February 17, 2010 - Demo from Lighting Class Yesterday in the lighting class I shot a demo for an assignment on solid objects with texture. Of course I left my intended subject on the table at home and had to make it up as I went along. A hasty, and poorly thought out choice of a backdrop from the studio's collection of stuff added enormously to the lighting issues but hey, that's why we make the small bucks, eh? You can see that page by clicking here. February 13, 2010 - San Diego: Another Tour of the new photo facilities at City and other school stuff Classes are well underway, census date has passed, and now we can settle into the serious stuff since no one can now come in later. Plans are laid in for the Landscape class's first field trip to Death Valley over February 25-28. A number of old timers from previous classes will be joining us so it should be a fun trip/
On Friday (2/12) we took another tour of the new facilities. This time we needed to show progress to some of our vendors and also some faculty and lab techs had missed out on previous tours. The exterior is nearly completed and except for the central stair way area the scaffolding has all been removed. Now the main focus of work is on the interior and the parking structure. The expectations are that the construction phase will be completed March 31. Between then and June 1, the move-in date, furniture and AV stuff, lighting equipment, darkroom equipment, etc. will be brought in and installed. I took some photos of some of the interior rooms which you can see by CLICKING HERE. Remember, for older posts, check out the archives in the left hand column or search for topics using the index in the right hand column. |
Archive Index
Alabama Hills 09
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| MOOSIE Now Online | MOOSIE is Available ONLINE. Moosie, the family film I produced in 1998-1999 is now being carried by Netflix, Amazon, and other online video rental companies. Perhaps this will finally bring it to the attention of the public. Remember, this is a movie for CHILDREN and FAMILIES to watch together. There are no car chases or explosions or karate although there IS a mountain lion, a stormy night, and a mule. Mostly there is a story of a little girl's love for a father who is too busy to notice and an adventure where he has to learn what is really important in his life. If you have young kids this is a family-safe show with a good message in it about values and priorities: a message equally good for the adults. |
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| Sunny's Column |
Sunny has grown into quite a young lady cat and though it is embarrassing to admit, I fear I have allowed her to gain a bit more weight than she should so need to put her on a diet. To say she will be put out at me is a classic understatement. I was clearly wrong about her being small, she has definitely become a fair sized cat. She is not, unfortunately, a cuddly lap cat. In fact her only time in my lap is to use it as a step on the way to my desktop. She likes to be near me but at her own distance. She likes being scratched and petted but only on her terms and when she has had enough she has no difficulty letting you know it is time to stop or else turn your arm into something that looks like it was run through a food processor. Since getting back from my photo trip, which was the longest she has been in the care of someone else, she has stayed pretty close to me and often comes into the office to make sure I'm still there. She will greet me, I'll talk to her and then she will go on about her business. She is clearly the most curious cat I've ever been around and is pretty fearless about sticking her nose into anything new. Every day she seems to re-inventory the whole house and if anything is new or moved around will explore it thoroughly and note the proper location now. Unlike Linda's Bengal, Sunny is not all that vocal.
She has taken to liking to be in the sink in my bathroom though she barely fits. She especially likes to do this about the time I am getting ready to clean up and then is most put out when I want her to move.
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to move and leave their trails in the sun backed surface. The claim is
that it happens during the rainy season (like now) when wind pushes the
rocks over the greasy surface. Well, as you can see in the shot to the
right taken on the last trip in October, 2006, the grooves are
distinct in early fall. Any tracker knows that even in the desert, as
a track ages and weathers it becomes less distinct. So on the Playa,
now, where it has just dried out, the rock trails should have been new and
very distinct. In fact, however, they were virtually non-existent.
