December 14, 2008
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PhotoPost: Thanksgiving Cloudscapes
This is the composite image used as the title of the Webshots Gallery folder, which contains 113 photos. The smokestack with the name of the city was shot while driving up the 110 freeway. The StarKist statue and the cloudscape are from other photos.
On Thanksgiving morning, the day dawned brisk but sunny, with lots of cumulus clouds left over from the previous evening's rain. This is the perfect time to go taking photos of the sky. It was around 10am when I took off from the house. I knew I would drive down Gaffey Street into San Pedro, because there is nothing but an oil refinery along the stretch of road on which I wanted to get the wide expanse of sky. Here I pulled over and shot over the windshield of the car.
Not content with merely shooting from the car, I turned on the emergency blinkers and got out to take some more photos. I always like the juxtapostion of chain link fences, esp. topped with barbed wire, with the cloudscape in the backgroud. What I didn't know was that the seemingly vacant lots to the right of Gaffey are a government installation of some sort.
Somebody usually tells me they like my roadside "self portraits" so here is one taken trying to get the cloudscape in the background. Since it was Thanksgiving day, there were not too many cars on the roads.
I pulled over to the side of the road another couple of times. Right after taking this shot, of the clouds above the refinery, I noticed a police cruiser in my rearview. I pulled away from the curb, noticing that I was in a No Parking Zone. A few moments later, I was pulled over. The two young officers approached me. The top to my car was down, and my crutches were in the back seat. I apologized for not realizing I wasn't supposed to stop there, and I said I immediately got back on the road when I noticed.
I was given a warning (a traffic ticket wouldn't have been anything to be thankful for) but warned that the area was flanked by a refinery and a gov't facility, so why was I taking pictures. And what kind of name is "Nyiri". There was an alert because of reports that the NYC subway was targeted by terrorists, and I guess our own cops were being vigilant. They asked me if I were a citizen and how long I'd worked for my employer, etc.
I shot this view of the bridge leading into San Pedro from my car as I drove across, wishing to get the antique light fixture on the bridge, with clouds in the background. The police wanted to see the photos I had taken up until then but thankfully didn't erase any of my photos.
This is driving along a residential street in San Pedro, toward Harbor Blvd., which is along the shore. Those are container cranes in the background. A housing project is on the left.
This is the San Pedro Municipal building, at the entrance to the "Liberty Hill" on 6th St. in San Pedro. It was built in 1927, and served as City Hall. The city jail used to be on the 7th floor. The 6th floor was a courtroom, and the bottom floor was a firehouse. It's mainly a municipal office building now, but is the most recognizable (and tallest) structure in the city.
This is one of the "Red Car" stops along Harbor Blvd. The old Red Car streetcar service was early Los Angeles "rapid transit". Most of the original rail lines have been torn up long ago. (The service stopped in the mid 50s) but the rail line along the beach is a tourist attraction in San Pedro.
This is the Star Kist Tuna statue. When I was a child, our class took a field trip to the Star Kist Tuna plant, which was a source of income for many workers until it shut down. This is a memorial placed by the family that owned the plant.
The statue at the Merchant Marine Veteran's Memorial on Harbor Blvd. The Marine Museum (which can't be seen in this photo) is to the right, at the entrance to San Pedro's Port's O Call village shopping center.
This photo was shot at the entrance to the cruise ship terminal, showing an art deco signpost (it's new, just styled to look retro) and our suspension bridge, the Vincent Thomas, in the background. Last time I took photos of the bridge (which I drive over in Mike's Video Blog #4) it was overcast and the photos didn't come out that great.
The Vincent Thomas Bridge shot through some artistic thingamabobs littering one of the small park areas in the cruise ship area. I don't know what they've been doing to the south suspension tower. It's been covered in tarpaulin for most of 2008!
A final shot of the bridge without anything in it's way.
Comments (76)
Dear Mike,
I enjoy a bit of cloud watching myself. Last night the sky was amazing. The moon still pretty full and bright and clouds illuminated by her light were racing by at an unbelievable speed. Or so it appeared. I had just gotten home from a very long day of Christmas shopping, it was near midnight, but I had to stand there and watch. It would've been lovely to have on film. And of course we have to be ever vigilante of any funny business around refineries, public trans port, power plants, etc.
peace always,
Jane
I love cloud scapes. Merry Christmas Mike. Judi
Wow, you've been up to a lot these days!
I've seen her winks even as a kid... it was famous in a way even back there (although the pix I saw were of her fully dressed) Thanks for sharing, sweety
Well, I love the pictures and that fish makes me want to have a tune sandwich with the works, make that one from Subway :shysmile:
And the picture in your earlier post may have been crude if it wasn't a work of art, or that's what I think I can call it
I've never seen anyone make clouds this interesting
Clouds make my world go 'round.
:wave: I especially like clouds and their patterns.
Those are pretty interesting statues, too.
I'm glad the cop did not give you a ticket.
Gotcher 2nd message. Thanks.
~~Blessings 'n cheers :goodjob:
The starkist tuna statue is cool!
heey, how come you get nice blue skies with your clouds?
glad you didn't post this from some torture prison, you suspicious character you
Great pictures! Big puffy clouds like that are my very favorite!!!
i'm serious when i tell you that DAYS can go by without me really looking at the sky. and then when i do take the time to slow down and look up, i'm amazed to think that this splender has been there in the past days even though i've been too busy to notice.
thanks for reminding me through this post to look up and wonder.
As you know, I don't visit your blog nearly as often as you visit my blogs (Socrates_cafe and tychecat - in all his different guises) but I was interested in exploring your sites and am very impressed.
I was interested on your Betty Boop - Fleischer Studios section. As a kid I had some small connection with the Fleischer artistic gang.
My father was more or less in charge of decorations of many of the Committee of One Hundred Christmas eve yacht parades through the Miami Beach canals and waterways from 1938-41. The Committee of 100 was a fairly exclusive rich man's club and as I grew up on the clubhouse grounds - we lived there -in a walled compound about a block off Lincoln Road- I knew a number of movers and shakers of the time - at least by sight. My dad was also the City of Miami Beach Marine Inspector. In 1942 he went into the USCG - retired as a Captain in 1968.
To make a long story shorter, my dad used to hire the Fleischer artists to design and work on the yacht decorations and floats, in fact for much of what passed for artistic decoration around Miami Beach in those days. When Fleischer was seized by Paramount and the Miami Studio closed, I inherited a lot of loot - rotating illuminated cell tables - plasticine models of Mr Bug, cells, a lot of stuff I had no use for. Too bad. Those long-ago discarded cells of Popeye, Betty Boop, Gulliver, Mr Bug, etc. would probably be worth something now.
I enjoyed all of these pictures (Blue skies!!! Palm trees!!!!), but that composite shot is really fantastic!
Being stopped by the police sounds like it would be scary and nervewracking. They don't sound like they totally wanted to believe you, either. Must have been a slow crime day!
Hi Mike,
I thought I will come along for a visit after receiving your message. I am glad. I always like your photo's. Your roadside self portrait is still the best of them all.
Jurgens
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Is it really cold there too. If you need heat it must be kind of cold. Judi
Ha Mike - see what you get when you send out a general call for viewers
BTW, thanx for your comment about my comment. This next year should be an interesting one as all you baby boomer-yuppy-genX-whatever- types begin to adjust your financial habits.
I grew up during the Great Depression and believe me, we have a long way to go before we come anywhere close to that world-wide mess.
Remember that's what spawned World War 2 - the likes of which we hopefully will never see again. Depending on how you count, over fifty million people died as a result of that conflict - over a quarter million of them Americans.
Hi Mike,
Your photos really are magnificent! I love the clouds and can just about "feel" them jumping out of my PC screen at me. They really are vibrant. I know how you felt being pulled over taking those photos. I've been given some very strange looks by people whilst taking photos out and about.
I know you've seen the movie, "Australia" and just wanted to let you know I saw it this morning. At the beginning I felt it was a little over-acted and corny in some parts, but as the movie progressed I began to thoroughly enjoy it! The Aboriginal actor's performances, especially the little boy I loved. He was just excellent. The director of the movie wasn't entirely accurate about "the stolen generation" though. There was much more to it than he would lead people to believe.
I am tickled by the contrast between an evil, up-to-no-good, terrorist, and your innocent, just-having-fun, cloud chasing. But I can understand how the cops could confuse the two.
@Swirling_Spiral - you can make fun of the terrorists, i'm glad that clearly your family wasn't impacted by them flying planes into the trade towers...
Mike, the clouds are lovely but the architectural stuff was a feast for the eyes as well...
@tialoca_talks -
I would say I am making fun of the police more than anything. Sorry if my comment upset you. Also really sorry if you lost any loved ones in the terrorist attacks.
I'm a cloud watcher!!!! Merry Christmas Mike!!!!!! Diane
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