Another blow blow

Have a cold one.

More frosty beer pictures can be found at my Picasa web album

Got the time?

Dr. Seuss, Archietect.

The first day of spring and it's covered in haze..

Freeze that water...

Ha ha ha

Recovery

     So, our good state of California is eligible for all sorts of economic recovery moneys from the federal government yet at the coalface of industry there is no money. This partly is due to the fact that the money is on a matching fund basis and because California is broke and can't put up any money to match the federal fund, we get nothing.
     A rather unfortunate political catch 22 that is holding the state down, but it is key to remember that it is political from the state legislature that has mismanaged it's budget and our tax dollars to the federal governments plan to dole out the aid.
     I do wonder what the recovery will look like and what sort of major political changes will have taken place in what can aptly be called an economic revolution where the value of credit and the dollar are the weapons of mass destruction and the soldiers are the world bankers and politicians.

Smog

A pretty picture with the moon in it that has a dark band of smog running just 100 feet over the road drifting in from Mexico. It was like a charcoal gossamer veil drifting north with the prevailing winds. We have a free trade agreement with this nation but nothing that curbs there emissions or burning of garbage which contributes greatly to the Southern California smog problem. (After seeing this, that is my conclusion)

Phongs Seagull again... Gunsight view this time.

M250 "Big Red"

Interstate 5 freeway, 2 lanes shut down due to damage and old patch job.

Looking at this scene of a reporter filming a hole that has developed on one of the major Southern California highways, bringing the morning commute to a stand still and how much extra gas was burned by the bumper to bumper traffic and excessive idling while the motorists stand by while news filmed it and the state started to fix it. Who knows how many times before this has been all ready fixed.

You have to wonder about this damage and the fact that it is a repair that has given way.

When the State issues out contracts it is to bad that its decision is not also based on performance and quality of work as apposed to just lowest bidder. As the public we pay for a service and should get the best service our money can buy, not the cheapest.

Just a thought.

Room to grow the photo

It's dark in the mornings again, yay.

This shot is not sharp at all, but for arcitecture that is totaly unilluminated and the camera is hand held, not bad I think.
Oh, and ya, I am showing off.

Humm 花

Mike

Shooting the train

The night train

Seagull

This was shot at F1.2 and the depth of focus is so thin, see for your self. Should have shot it at, oh, say, F4?

Phong and his Seagull

This picture was a double exposure "in camera" and came out pretty good for only the third or fourth time doing this in years... I would like to do it again but work on getting every thing in focus and aligned.

The service side of a building

I never noticed that this picture has some very peculator lens flares happening that are a little hard to line up with the lights... Odd.

A fishy picture

Early morning photography

This "Camera" is really a light or some sort of projector that is permanently mounted outside the Japanese American Heritage Museum and I took this shot with a 50mm f1.2 during Civil Twilight. All said and done, I love the 50 1.2 lens....

Little shack on the clif

The Sunken City

Sunken City sits on six acres of slipping, eroding, and sinking land adjacent to Point Fermin Park. The “city,” at the southernmost point in Los Angeles County, was once a neighborhood of exclusive homes. Waves undercut the base of the sandstone and shale cliffs, which began slumping and sliding in 1929 and again in the early 1940s. It is now a jumble of rolling land with palm trees, isolated slabs of the old road, tilting sidewalks, streetcar tracks, and remnants of house foundations, and chimneys above the surf-swept rocky seashore.

Moomin candy, yum.

I saw this candy in a little grocery market and recognized the characters. As it turns out the Moomin's are big in Japan. The candy is pretty good, but the tin was why I got it.

Reflections

The sky last sunday night.

The sea off San Pedro

Went back to San Pedro for more photography

To see the album that I will be updating as time goes on click this link

Continuing on my tradition of being an idiot

Same night as the rain shot but this time I turned the camera skyward and took this shot at 1/2 second exposure at ISO 800. Yes I really need to pack up a tripod for shooting like this.

Midnight tea fix

Some times the simple things in life around us make the most compelling photographic subjects, for example this straw sticking out of a cup. You jamb the thing up to your face all day long but how often do you say to your self, "I bet that could be an interesting picture or composition."?

Let me throw in my two cents.

So it's a 1957 and a 1930 penny, funny how they look to be different alloys when you look at them closely.

Hand held night shot in the rain

I know, even wide open it is foolish to shoot hand held at night with low light but I just had to see if I can develop a technique to get it right. Here the camera is using every photon of light that the hand polished fast glass is giving it and struggling with the rest in my shaky hands.

Little tiny kitty

Funny message on the toping out beam

So we toped out (symbolically erected the last iron member) the today on my project and as is the ceremony for such an occasion the beam is painted white and the hands on the job sign it. As it is a hospital they were having the staff sign it (I think it is breaking with tradition a little and selling out the Ironworkers rituals) So this message was on the beam. Funny.

O.k. I feel objectified and cheap, hold on... Nice.

Little history: On one side of the beam is a flag for our nation and on the other is a tree so the building can grow roots and be strong. The signatures are the marks of the men who made the building like an artist signing a work of art. Some thing like that, there are stories aplenty on this topic including one that has this tradition origination back in Scandinavia with the Vikings and the construction of long houses and mead halls.

macro

Regulator

Raising gang hanging iron

"Big Boy" getting on it.

Joe tensioning the bolts.