December 19, 2009

• PhotoPost: The Day After the Rainstorm

  An "Interactive" Photopost blog entry. First, hit "play" on the video.

  SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12TH

  SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13TH

  

  The following photos are from my Webshots Gallery folders "White Point Bluffs, Pt. Fermin, Cabrillo Beach" and "Vincent Thomas Bridge" I live in Harbor City,CA. These photos are really from San Pedro, but it's just a 'skip and a jump' from my house. Enjoy.

  

  I woke up early on Sunday, after Saturday's rainstorm. In sunny SoCal, the day after a rainstorm always promises to be a wonderful photo opportunity, especially for cloudscapes. There was a windstorm after the rainstorm, which wiped all the bleak weather away, and only big fluffy cumulus clouds were left on the horizon, my favorite time for photography. This is a cloud that covered the whole southeastern sky, and it looks like a muppet riding some kind of animal or spaceship or something. These clouds shift quite quickly, and I almost got into a wreck pulling over to the side of the road to get this shot!

  

  I'm at White Point Bluffs, around 8:30 a.m. in the morning. The sun is directly over the sea, and in this shot, I got it somewhat behind a cloud. I love this photo, and it's currently the "desktop background" on my computer at work.

  

  As I walked along the path where I took these photos, at White Point Bluffs Park on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where I take lots of photos, I made the mistake of wearing my slip on shoes. If you watched the video of the rainstorm the day before, you can imagine that the ground was completely soaked, and I got mud all over my shoes, almost up to my socks. This hardly bothered me, as I snapped photo after photo of the wonderful sunrise. On one side of the peninsula, the sky was gray like this: on the other side it was bright blue.

  

  Here I am shooting sort of northwest, toward the other end of the peninsula. This is at exactly the same time as the photo above, to give you the difference in contrast from where the sun rises to what it highlights. Mornings like this are a photographer's dream. I also took lots of video, which will show up in my next project, titled "Arbitrary Images", a sequel to "Arbritrimage Dreams" from 2005.

  

  At the same bluff, looking down about 30 feet to certain death if I were to take a wrong step off the cliff.

  

  A long seagull flying free through the cloudscape.

  

  Walking back to my car, the view to the southeast. I'm shooting directly into the sun, which isn't recommended, but sometimes creates some great shots when it's this low in the sky in December.

  

  A few minutes later, after driving down the coast to Pt.Fermin, I caught the lighthouse with Christmas decorations, the only clue that it's this late in the year. I absolutely love living in SoCal, and frankly, couldn't think of living anywhere else in the world.

  

  After visiting Pt. Fermin Park, I kept driving around the peninsula into San Pedro proper, and took a jaunt to the Cabrillo Beach parking lot. This photo is of the boat landing next to the parking lot. All these clouds would disappear in about an hour, as the wind was pretty strong. It's the combination of rain, followed by wind, that makes for these excellent shots. In the afternoon, the clouds disappear, and it 's just another cloudless SoCal day.

  

  I'm standing on the wooden pier next to the boat landing. The pelican in the middle of the photo is about to come in for a landing.

  

  This is a cropped version of the photo I used full size in the "Greetings" placard at the beginning of this PhotoPost. This shot is pure serendipity. In the old days of analog 35mm photography, you needed a motor operated photo advance to pull the film through the camera body at a rapid clip to get shots like this. Now, SLR cameras contain digital versions of the motor operator, but I only have a Sony Cybershot, a cheaper camera without any such perk. I had to shoot this photo as it happened, and I was lucky to get the pelican as he hovered in for a landing. I also have video of this guy.

  

  A beach shot at Cabrillo Beach, in San Pedro, CA. Sigh. This is for all you guys who are locked in your homes with the heat on because it's less than freezing outside right now. I can feel your pain, but I've never really experienced it!

  

  A neat shot through some palms into the sun again as it crosses the sky, really low, at about noon.

  

  The sun is to the left. This is Cabrillo Beach, the very first beach I can remember visiting as a kid in 2nd grade, during a field trip. It's a short hop from my house, and the bridge in the background takes you to the rocky area below Pt.Fermin. I was going to cross the bridge and take more photos when I noticed that my billfold was missing! In my haste to leave so early in the morning, I'd forgotten to take it, so I didnt' have money nor driver's license. I got paranoid, and left the area sort of quickly. I told the parking lot attendant I didn't have any money, but she asked if I had any coins. Surprise! I had a dollar to pay for parking, but I didn't come back to Cabrillo Beach that day.

  

  After coming home, and viewing the 230 or so photos I took, and began uploading to my Webshots Gallery, I charged up another battery, and took off again, this time to the parking lot below the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge, which spans the Los Angeles Harbor. By now it was nearly 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon, and the clouds had almost all blown away. There are no cars in the parking lot, cause it's Sunday, but this lot is full during the week.

  

  I cropped this photo, my 2nd favorite of the day's shots, with one of the lifeboats of the Lane Victory merchant marine vessel, a forklift, and the bridge in the background. The water is from the storm the day before.

  

  Here is another shot of a lifeboat from the Lane Victory, a WWII era merchant marine vessel, on which you can take harbor tours, shown in the background.

  

  This is neat shot of the Lane Victory, which is moored here, looking like it's about to pass under the Vincent Thomas bridge. As you can see with each succeeding shot, the clouds are now almost gone.

  

  Here I am looking south at the cruise ship terminal. I forget the name of the cruise ship, "Mariner of the Seas" if memory serves, "parked" to the right. In the middle, are container cranes. San Pedro's Los Angeles harbor is the largest container port in the United States. It's also the largest cruise ship center. There are lots of really big ships here. The gun is not guarding anything, BTW. It's a relic of the WWII Lane Victory docked immediately to the left of this photo.

  

  Another shot of the Lane Victory and the Vincent Thomas Bridge, over which I sometimes drive on my way home from work in Long  Beach. (The 2nd busiest seaport in the U.S.)

  

  A view south west towards my beloved Palos Verdes Peninsula (the "tit" on the map of Southern California, protruding into the Pacific Ocean.) December in SoCal is to die for. The nights sometimes get cold, but we get warm spells too, and sometimes they vary in a 24 hour period. The bridge is behind me, and to my right.

  

  My camera still has battery power, so I walk down the promenade in San Pedro, and get a shot of one of the antique fire boats showcased in front of the Fire Station. The station has not only fire trucks, but fire boats.

  

  Here is the harbor view of the fire station, and that's one of the fire boats on the right. It was just getting ready to leave, and my video shows it chugging up the harbor sound.

  

  Lastly, here is an Evergreen container vessel, ready to be loaded. You can see the wharf from the fire station in the foreground, the Vincent Thomas bridge in the background, and at least five container cranes along the harbor, ready to load these large container vessels. One cloud is significantly sticking around before blowing away in the wind, and I noticed I'd better get back to the Mobile Home Park for the Christmas dinner.

  Happy Holidays from Harbor City. Hope you don't freeze too much this winter!

   

  • 1:45 am
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