Recently in Pacific Coast Category

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.

Related articles:

• First CineSlider Time Lapse (timtyson.us)
• Malaga Cove Sunrise (Time Lapse) (timtyson.us)
• All of the time lapses posted at timtyson.us (timtyson.us)

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.

Everyone is reporting about the silver-headed gentleman who frantically called 911 early in the week stating that his Toyota Prius was accelerating out of control down the San Diego interstate. In my mind, these are some of the salient things he says in his on camera CNN interview:

• The the floor mat was not stuck up under the gas pedal.
• The car reached speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour causing him to narrowly miss hitting other vehicles traveling down the road.
• The accelerator took on a mind of its own and was stuck.
• That his attempts to reach down with his hand and physically pull the gas pedal back up were unsuccessful.
• That, since the vehicle was speeding out of control down the interstate, it was unsafe for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to place the car in neutral.
• That, since the vehicle was speeding out of control down the interstate, it was unsafe for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to turn the car off, fearing the steering would lock up and cause a horrible accident at the speed he was traveling.
• That he was standing on the brake pedal with all of his weight and this did not slow the run away vehicle's speed very much.
• That when the highway patrol pulled up beside him and, using the speaker, told him to stand on the brake and use the emergency brake at the same time, the car slowed down to 50 mph, allowing the patrolman to pull in front of the speeding car, make contact between the the patrolman's trunk and the Prius' hood and use the patrol car to brake the Prius to a stop.

Now, I could be wrong, and forgive me if I am; but, I don't buy this at all! This sounds like total hogwash to me.

Allow me to elaborate...

As a crazy teenager with very little driving experience, I was driving a car, with around 350 horsepower, that got stuck in full throttle, with that huge engine racing at full power down a two lane road, with traffic, at night! Needless to say, I was shocked and dumbfounded. But bringing the car to a full stop was a simple, yet frightening thing.

I put it in neutral.

The frightening part was that the engine then revved to the max and sounded like it was going to explode. I turned it off.

Since I was out in the middle of no where, I then decided to turn it back on and drive it (stupid kid) to the nearest gas station to call my dad. Remember, this was before any kind of portable phones even existed. I could control the car's speed, with this huge engine, by Pressing firmly on the brake and dropping the car into neutral when needed.

But this isn't why I think this man staged this whole event. Aside from the fact that he is an experienced driver, look at what he says. His own words make zero sense to me.

• If you own a Prius (I do.) odds are very high you are fully aware of the media reports about runaway Prius(es?) that have allegedly killed people. (One report said he was aware of this possible problem and had previously asked his dealer if his car was affected.) If you haven't given some serious thought to how you would bring your vehicle, of any make or model, to a full stop should something like this happen to you, in my mind, you are negligent!
• He said it was too dangerous for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to reach just a few inches over to place his car in neutral. WHAT??!! But it wasn't too dangerous to reach under the dashboard all the way down to the floorboard with his hand to try to pull the gas pedal up, thereby not just taking his hand off the steering wheel but his eyes off the road he reported speeding down at 94 mph?! (I can't see the road and touch the gas pedal at the same time in my Prius.) Please!! Get real, dude!!
• He said it was too dangerous for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to reach just a few inches over to place his car in neutral. But it wasn't too dangerous to get out his cell phone and place a call to 911? (Did the officer give him a ticket for using his cell phone while driving, which, because it reduces the driver's response time more than driving under the influence of alcohol, is against the law in California?) Even with a USB headset and the phone options package on the Prius, I still have to touch the phone or the dashboard several times to dial 911. Don't tell me you couldn't reach a shorter distance to touch the vehicle's on/off button once or place the car in neutral! No, no, no!!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Toyota Reviewing U.S. Report of Prius With Stuck Gas Pedal (businessweek.com)
• Toyota Driver Spins Out Of Control At 94mph (news.sky.com)
• Runaway Prius halted by Calif. police (cbc.ca)
• Toyota With 'Stuck' Accelerator Hits 94 MPH, Driver Rescued by California Highway Patrol (abcnews.go.com)

I posted last week about the sea lion exodus from Pier 39 in San Francisco. I hope this is the answer and not some imminent ominous portend.

The mystery of the missing sea lions at San Francisco’s Pier 39 may have been solved. ...

Marine experts now believe that the Pier 39 sea lions have gone to Oregon. A couple thousand California sea lions showed up off the coast of Oregon with their typical bark ...

Dan Harkins is the Sea Lion Caves general manager. He says: "We're seeing the sea lions coming up this way from California because of the feeding. If the cold water fish move north to find colder waters, the sea lions have to eat and they follow the fish wherever they go.”

Which begs the question: will they return in the spring?"

[Source: San Francisco Pier 39 sea lions found in Oregon?.]

A few pictures from my Santa Barbara day trip this past Wednesday. Downtown is wonderfully quaint.

Avalon

View from high above Avalon

The jagged western coast

Western coastal pano

The Avalon harbor

I took a slow drive south along the ocean this morning. Numerous scenes softly called to the camera lens.

High atop the craggy precipice, she pondered nature's pillowy display

On the paws of kittens it crept

Listen, breathe and feel the fog float by you