The Standard Mill in Bodie State Historic Park, CA, used to process the silver and gold ore from the Standard Mine. Although still mostly intact, this area is closed off to visitors of the park as being "hazardous".
HDR (high dynamic range) imaging is a fun thing to play around with. You are meant to start with a set of photos of the same shot taken at different exposures, but I find that I get nice effects as in the photo to the left by just taking one photo, using Photoshop RAW processor to create two new copies of the image with a -2 and a +2 exposure value, and then using them and the original image as a set of three to process as an HDR image. You have to use software such as Photoshop or other software programs available for sale to combine the images into one. The highlights of the image are formed using the highlights in the underexposed image, the shadows are formed using the shadows in the overexposed image, and then blended with the correctly exposed image. The outcome is greater detail across the entire dynamic range: shadows, through midtones, to highlights.
In name, dress, and antics, the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" are the personification of "theatrical camp". But it's serious business: Wikipedia states that the San Francisco order has raised and distributed over $1million to charities over the years. The first nuns of the order stepped out into public on the streets of San Francisco on Easter Sunday 1979.The Sisters devote [themselves] to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. The Sisters believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit. The Sisters' state vows to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt while serving their respective communities.My photo of the sister above was taken at this year's gay pride parade in Long Beach this past Sunday. See this Sister of Perpetual Indulgence in my People and Portraits gallery. And go here for a collection of photos from the 2008 Gay Pride Parade and festival in Long Beach.
The old Methodist church in Bodie is the only remaining church in the ghost town. It was built in 1882. The church was restored by E.J Clinton of San Francisco who held the final service here in 1932.
These old Shell Oil gas pumps at Bodie stand out. It's not what you expect in a ghost town that had its heyday in the 1880s, but Bodie obviously limped along into the era of the automobile before the ghosts moved in. Because they are so "modern" they stand out and create a great juxtaposition against all the wood and brick.
Bodie State Historic Park is a ghost town located to the east of Yosemite National Park. When the Tioga Highway is open, you can drive there from Yosemite east across the Tioga Pass to Lee Vining and then by going north about 20 mintues on Highway 395.
At 3200 feet above the floor of the Yosemite Valley below, this is something I know I couldn't do, but these two daredevils climbed out to the edge of this granite rock overhanging the edge of Glacier Point. It made me wobbly at the knees just looking at them. Across the other side of the valley you can see Yosemite Falls, which at 2,425 ft are the 5th highest falls in the world.
This photo of Half-Dome was taken from Glacier Point as sunset approached. It is an HDR image from a bracket of 3 exposures spaced 2 exposure values apart.
I spent the past weekend visiting Yosemite National Park and environs. Yosemite is famous in American photographic lore as being the place made famous by Ansel Adams, and the place that made Ansel Adams famous. I make no pretense at these photos being "after" any of Ansel Adams' photographs. But as I poked my lenses about Yosemite, I often felt the ghost of Ansel Adams, thinking and wondering about him hiking the valley with his heavy camera gear, and what effort he must have put in to capturing those images.
A couple more birds just flew in from the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. The lorikeet is a multicolored parrot from Australia that lives on nectar. At the enclosure at the park you can buy little cups of nectar and the fearless birds will land on your hand to partake. Which is all very convenient for taking a few photos.
The secretary bird attracts a crowd not because of his colors, which are not very spectacular at all, but because of his gawky shape and the feather quills that stick out from the back of his head. Many sites claim the bird gets its name from these quills and the white and black tunic-like coloring of the bird which is suggestive of a male secretary from bygone-days, but the posting for the secretary bird at the Wild Animal Park's website states that the name of the bird most likely comes from the Arabic saqr-et-tair, or “hunter bird.” Anyhow, the bird struts up and down his enclosure constantly looking for prey, and when he finds a bug or whatever it is he is interested in, he jumps up in the air and stomps on it. Quite entertaining actually!
Don't you find pelicans a very fascinating bird? I don't know what it is about them particularly that makes them so compelling; perhaps it is that they look kind of comical, and the fact that they can even fly is a surprise in a way as they seem so out of proportion in every way. But on the wing they are so graceful. This is a pink-backed pelican which hails from Africa. I took this photo at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park in San Diego County. You can read on their website about all the different kinds of pelicans at the San Diego Zoo and Park.
I had some exciting news this week. I was contacted by the American Institute of Architects about using some of my photos of the Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. for a project they are doing at the moment called The Shape of America. The series of videos features famous landmark buildings of the United States. Hopefully my photos will end up in the Disney Concert Hall piece when it is done.
Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflower Galleries Completed
