I have no memory of this, but apparently the US Core of Engineers stopped the water flow over Niagara Falls in 1969 to see how stable the rock bed was. Flickr user, Russ Glasson, took several amazing pictures of the event: Niagara Falls with no water falling! Check his photos out at this link.
These folks don't seem to understand what's gone wrong in America. They just know something has gone really wrong. They are trying to make sense of it. I suspect that we all are.
I guess Glenn Beck offers some bizarre and simplistic way for them to vent that frustration and to have hope that things will get better if they believe in empty slogans that they repeat through out the interviews: "restore honor," "take back America," "work for freedom," "bring this country back together."
For Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and FOX to create such a divisive, ill-informed nation is just shameful and unpatriotic. All self-proclaimed news organizations have a duty to journalistic integrity that informs citizenry. FOX perpetuates an unfair and unbalanced, propagandized, limited world view that promotes ignorance, fear, angst, powerlessness, and a class-based society that preys on the less fortunate. It's just wrong!
I found this TEDtalk, on the Happy Planet Index, by Nick Marks, to be deeply inspiring and brilliantly on target. It is absolutely worth 17 minutes of your time! He talks about creating the world we all want to live in without costing the earth in the process. He claims our current policy and cultural focus on productivity and materialism is flawed for measuring the well-being of a country and its people.
Nick sites these 5 things we should reflect on in our daily lives enrich our personal happiness without costing the earth. His entire talk is fantastic and has significant implications far beyond saving the earth but could inform our policy on economics, education, health, etc.
I already posted a time lapse of the installation at this link. But the lighting and the camera settings were a huge challenge. So you really didn't get to see what the shutters look like, until now. They are 4" shutters made by Avalon. The top of the top shutter is 18' from the floor.
I really like going to the El Segundo Antique Car show, held each year near the end of August. It's free and is sponsored by the El Segundo Police Department, which I think is also cool. I first went in 2008. I was out of town last year on business and missed it. This year's show was a little different from the first one I attended.
When I first arrived the sky was overcast with the marine layer which makes for a very nice, diffuse lighting on the cars, perfect for photography. The sun came out about half way through my visit. Yikes. Hot spots reflecting off the vehicles.
At any rate, I had a blast and am getting better and better at shooting cars (or, so I think, anyway—smile).
For this post I am including only a few shots of hood ornaments, not grills, trunks, engines, or full cars. To check out my entire collection of photos of automobiles, three albums, click on this link and then select the album(s) you wish to view. Be sure to click the full screen button in order to view them in full screen, no matter how big your screen is. (They do look awesome on the huge monitors!)
Click any image below to see a larger version.
About a month ago they measured. This week they installed.
The shutters completely change the feeling of the living room. Tim likes.
Here you have about 4 hours of worked distilled into 1 minute and 20 seconds. Enjoy.
When the lights dimmed, she looked at me from across the room. When I approached her, a single spotlight from heaven filled our hearts. We were in love. The Oar House, Pensacola, FL.
Amazingly, people were swimming in the Gulf before, during, and probably after this storm. But maybe, it was ok. I never went down to the water. If any oil or dispersant were around, it wasn't visible from the hotel room balcony. Sunday night, the last night of the visit, a big thunderstorm came from the north. I shot this short video of the storm moving out to sea.
Unfortunately, the progress bar does not show while downloading this HD video. Be patient. It is working. If you have a slow connection to the internet, be very patient.
We just returned from a very short visit to my hometown of Pensacola. My FC, favorite cousin, Susan, came down for the visit as well. We had a wonderful time filled with laughter, good seafood, and great political talk (the FC and I are on the same side of the political coin). I don't know, it seems the dispersants used in the Gulf, made all of the seafood especially flavorful. Actually, we made sure none of the seafood we ate came from the Gulf. This picture, click to enlarge, was taken by the HU at the Oar House, one of my favorite Pensacola establishments.
The most unexpected thing: you immediately forget your look at a child, because what you are hearing is the rapturous soprano voice of an adult. Then, at then end, when the host announces her prize, and the tears flow, you realize that she is indeed a 10 year old child. Jackie Evancho's voice is astounding.
Yesterday I purchased a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, which are all the rage here in Los Angeles. As you can see, they fit like a glove, with each toe in a separate enclosure to enhance dexterity, stability, and balance. They are made from kangaroo leather, which I didn't even know existed. To check out these shoes, simply click on the image to the right.
Conrad the Kat was very jealous and then insisted on starring in an epic feature film in which he modeled his own stylish and fashionable footwear. To watch Conrad the Kat's latest world debut, simply click on the image below.
I just came across the photography and video work of Shaun Reeder. Wow!!
At his site, he comes across as one free-spirited human soul that isn't bound by the force of gravity. His adventures are stunning. His music, photography, and videos will probably take you places you will otherwise never go. In fact, watching his death-defying video work just makes me nervous — to be so balanced, so aware of your location in space, so certain of your center, in such great physical shape. Even the banner on his site is way cool.
You have to check out his videos which are linked to the image below. Awesome work!
The fact that this can be done, in total, from storyboard (if they had chosen to) all the way to upload to YouTube, on a $299 device, the iPhone 4, that also happens to make phone calls, is astounding. When Apple makes this all possible on an iPhone Touch and the iPad, they will rock the education market! Be sure to watch it in full screen.
These pencil tip sculptures were all carved by hand by Dalton Ghetti. Click on any thumbnail to open a slide show of all of the photos.
Source: Damn Cool Pics
So nicely done. Be sure to check out Phil's post on the setup for this time lapse. He includes a 12 minute audio podcast about it as well at: Phil's Blog Post. Oh, and watch this in full screen mode!
I have made no secret of my support of Larry Lessig's Change Congress effort. In his TED presentation, he clearly articulates the need for it, stating that government of, for, and by the people has certainly withered in our lifetimes. He presents a reasoned case for why changing the way we fund campaigns is essential to the survival of the US democracy!
Normally, when I travel, I keep pretty busy. But this past trip, when I arrived at the hotel, I did a quick digital checkin and then flipped on the TV —a rare thing. I couldn't find anything of interest; so, I left the TV on HBO with some crazy vampire thing, TrueBlood, about to start. I had some passive knowledge that HBO had a series about vampires and thought it ridiculous.
They played two episodes back to back. So awesome! I'm now completely hooked! I bought the first two seasons at the iTunes store (Season One, Season Two) and have now caught up. Unfortunately, HBO has not released any episodes in the current season (three). Season four has been scheduled for production.
HBO has a brilliant marketing campaign for the series, including bottles of "TrueBlood" that can be purchased. I particularly like this iPhone wallpaper, a special bandage just for vampire bites for "fang bangers." If they sold these, I think I would purchase a box as a conversation starter!
Alan Ball, of American Beauty and Six Feet Under (both of which I loved!) is the creator and producer of the series. I think he also is one of the screenwriters for this series, which is based on the book series by Charlaine Harris. However, a quick internet search reveals that the HBO series includes at least one additional character not found in the novels.
The intro to the HBO series is fantastically evocative and exquisitely sets the tone for the series! The music, with its cajun influence, is awesome. I bought some of the tracks at the iTunes store. The small town setting in Louisiana is compelling and authentically done. The symbolism is nothing short of brilliant. The religious overtones are, as they should be, nothing short of disturbing. The set design, lighting, casting, and costume design are flawless. This series is exceptionally well done!
Well, as you can see, I was very busy working on photos this weekend. It all started when I found out that people were not only viewing but also comments on my photos on Flickr. And I had posted very few photos there. So, I decided to update those with several thousand new photos and tackle coming up to date with my official photo gallery here at tt.us.
I enjoyed working on the photos from Page, Arizona, and from Ireland. Doing so always brings back great memories from the trips.
So now I need to work on the photos from my fairly recent trip to Thailand and Vietnam. Hopefully that will happen soon, though I will be spending a lot more time this month traveling and writing for my book project (before my publisher starts to yell at me).
I've included over 600 pictures from my November, 2009, trip to Ireland, in the Ireland Gallery. Click the image below to enjoy!
My trip to Page, Arizona, back in January, 2010, was filled with amazing places to photograph. I've finally published the Page Gallery of albums. This gallery contains my first HDR gallery. You will want to be sure to check it out!
Click the image below to visit it, and don't forget to view the pictures in full screen mode!
Several years ago I discovered Todd Dominey's SlideShow Pro (SSP), which I use to present my photos here at tt.us. (Check them out at timtyson.us/photos.) Over the years SSP has evolved into a really slick, powerful, wonderful tool for managing both photo and video distribution. As my knowledge and understanding of the various SSP products has grown, I would place this product in my list of Tim's All Time Favorite Digital Tools! It rocks!
In fact, since SSP had an export plugin for Lightroom, it was the deciding factor in my ditching Apple's Aperture and switching all of my photo management over to Lightroom--well, that and the horrendous performance issues Aperture 2 had. (Now, I understand that a third party export plugin is available for Aperture. But I haven't tried it.)
But SSP is Flash-based. This now poses problems because Steve Jobs is having a spat with Adobe, and most people don't foresee Apple mobile products ever making use of Flash. Sad, but there's nothing I can do about that.
Rather than focusing on the technology issues or the dispute, SSP is focusing on their customers' primary need: finding excellent ways to share their work. So they have announced a new component to their fabtabulous SlideShowPro Director: a photo and video player that is built with HTML5, CSS3, and javascript instead of Flash! This will allow content to display on the iPod Touch, iPhones, and the iPad!
Here is an overview of the new SlideshowPro Mobile. I so love SSP!!
Every image tells a story. So, I've decided I should share some of the stories around the images that rotate through the banner images at the top of my blog. [If you're reading this at blog.timtyson.us, you will not see these rotating banner images. You have to go to the mirror site at timtyson.us/weblog to see the rotating images.]
I shot this particular image at Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona, in January, 2010. Perhaps in the larger image (click to enlarge) you can see the snow in the distant mountains. While it was cool enough to wear a jacket, it was not at all cold.
You have to walk about a mile in the desert from the parking area to get to this location. The view is very, very flat and you simply can't see the Colorado River winding through the desert until you are very close to the edge. Speaking of the edge...
Taking this shot was terrifying! I slowly and "intrepidly" inched my way to the edge of the sheer drop off holding my opened tripod out in front of me as if it were a senior citizen's walker. Though I'm certain I looked ridiculous, I could have cared less! The air was rather still while we were there which at least reduced my fear of being blown over the edge.
The view is gorgeous. Photos can't capture this type of grandeur.
This photo was among my first experiments with HDR that has "gone public." This picture is actually three shots, each at a different exposure. I then took the three pictures and merged the detail information into one photograph, which gives the photo its distinctive look and level of detail in the brighter as well as darker areas of the scene.
Finally, I have to tell you about the guys, three of them, that were walking up to the edge and shooting--literally within inches. One guy, twenty-something, just squatted down within 2 - 3 inches of the edge on a slope (downward!) and was shooting away as if there were no way he could possible fall to his death if the sand slid or crumbled. I simply couldn't stand to watch him! My knees were about to turn to rubber!
An amazing, beautiful view. The scale is astounding.
More 100mm macro love
I opened the banana hatch!
This is as much to help me remember this as it is to share the info with all humanoids on in interwebs...
This is the post production process I used when creating the Malaga Cove time lapse shorts. After importing the footage from the camera into the computer:
This is the second time lapse I shot at Malaga Cover yesterday. This one was shot at ISO 100 with a 5 second interval and includes a bit of panning. As you can see from the comment at the other Malaga Cove time lapse, I met lots of interesting people yesterday morning.
So, here is the noon time lapse of Malaga Cove. Don't forget, you can click the full screen button when it starts playing. You can see the little tiny surfers and the water currents moving about. The one below is HD: 1280 x 720, so be sure you have your window as large as you can get it before clicking the play button. (If your monitor is too small to play the HD version, you can view the smaller version directly underneath the HD version.)
I'm not exactly sure why, but the HD version plays rather poorly over the internet using MediaBoxAdv; so, I just have it pop up in a separate window for excellent playback.
I mentioned in my post yesterday about this time lapse, that I wasn't able to get a transition from complete darkness to light because I shot this time lapse so close to today -- the longest day of the year, and you can't park your car until 5:00am. At any rate, here is the first time lapse from yesterday.
My face got totally fried! The breeze was delightfully cool (a bit cold actually before the sun came up), probably in the low to mid 60's. So I had no idea I was cooking myself!
The cloud action, while not as dramatic as the fog coming in to engulf the cove and then moving out again, was still awesome! (The camera frame is actually considerably larger than the 16:9 video frame; so, you don't get to see the full effect in this video. Though what is here is great.)
Technical: Balancing three variables: the exposure time (very dark and then very light conditions in the same time lapse) with an aperture that will provide the best depth of field and sharpness with the shortest possible shot interval so the continuous motion of the waves in the finished time lapse appears as smooth as possible.
I placed my ISO at 400 since I would be shooting in very decreased light in the early morning hours but also in very bright light by noon. The exposure time (at f5.6) is pretty significant when its darker outside but then ran up to 1600 (at ISO 400) when it was noon). So I set my shot interval to be 20 seconds. (My experience has been that in near dark conditions, at ISO 400, the exposure time can be over 20 seconds. In yesterdays darkest time the exposure was only 2 seconds, but I just now noticed this! Rats! I could have done a 5 second shot interval.) Regrettably, once the sun comes up, a 20 second exposure time creates jerky wave motion. But the cloud action is pretty cool.
Therefore, halfway through the time lapse, I stopped and adjusted the ISO to 100 and the shot interval to 5 seconds. So, in the second time lapse I will post from my day at Malaga Cove, the wave action is considerably smoother. Stay tuned for the second time lapse to be posted later.
But, in the mean time, here is the early morning time lapse of Malaga Cove. Don't forget, you can click the full screen button when it starts playing. You can see the little tiny surfers and the water currents moving about. The one below is HD: 1280 x 720, so be sure you have your window as large as you can get it before clicking the play button. (If your monitor is too small to play the HD version, you can view the smaller version directly underneath the HD version.)
I'm not exactly sure why, but the HD version plays rather poorly over the internet using MediaBoxAdv; so, I just have it pop up in a separate window for excellent playback.
This morning I got up really early (3:45AM) to shoot a time lapse of the Galaga Cove along the Palos Verdes Shoreline Preserve. Unfortunately, the area is not open for parking until 5AM; so, as tomorrow is the longest day of the year, I missed the transition from complete darkness to sunrise. It was already fairly light out when I arrived at 5AM. Probably just as well: the cliffs are a sheer, straight drop off, and I didn't want to plunge to my certain death by mis-stepping in the darkness. I placed the tripod just inches away from the edge!
The time lapse was with one shot ever 20 seconds for 7 hours (from 5am until 12pm) as the slider travelled 29 inches. (About half way through I switched to one shot every 5 seconds which is yielding a much smoother time lapse.) Regrettably I could put nothing in the foreground here for a parallax effect. The surf was very active for the summer time, and numerous suffers were enjoying the unusual wave action. Regrettably, the weather didn't do anything too dramatic during the time I was shooting, though the sunlight was varied and some heavy clouds considered coming in but didn't.
I shot this picture of this area several months ago when a thick fog enveloped the cove. I was hoping for something even more dramatic with the fog moving in or out but had no luck this morning.
But this is what the same area looked like today:
At any rate, I had some interesting conversations with a couple of surfers--guys about my age. I learned from one of them that, about 20 years ago, the city purchased the houses on the western side of the road along the Pacific Ocean. They allow the original owners to live in the houses until they die. Apparently the entire hillside is slowly sliding off into the Pacific Ocean. The land, otherwise, would easily be worth tens of millions.
One of the surfers was very into photography. He spoke of the many pictures he has taken over the years at this spot. He said it was very much like the south of France, another place he loves to shoot and surf.
One of the surfer dudes I talked with said the brown in the water indicates rip tides: where the current is pulling the seashore sand back into the ocean. I've always heard of these as a child growing up on the Gulf Coast (may it rest in peace) but had never been able to see them as you can in this picture.
As you will be able to see when I post the time lapse, soon, I promise, the weather was glorious beyond description. As a result, I got a sunburn on my face without ever realizing it. I don't think that paradise could be as perfect as this day.
I believe we need to return government to "of the people, by the people, and for the people"—not a radically new idea, really.
I invite you to explore Larry Lessig's Change Congress initiative.
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