Recently in Los Angeles Area Category

We have had 4 days of heavy, solid rain here in the Los Angeles area—totally out of the ordinary for paradise. What's interesting is this is like snow in Atlanta. The city starts to fall apart. They can't cope with rain since it never happens.

Of the 6 elevators in the building I was in today, only 2 were working! The reason? The rain. Who ever knew rain could knock out 4 elevators?!

The traffic all over town was a disaster. Roads flooding. The planes at LAX even taking off in the opposite direction they always take off.

But the worst? The house is under siege. The super highway of ants that speed along the sidewalk and across the driveway heading into the neighbor's yard was flooded out.

After the ants put up road detour barricades, the ant traffic was rerouted through the house!

I had to nuke them with ant poison and call the exterminator. I didn't mind them doing their ant thing outside, but no, no, no—not in the house!

Related articles

• LA Deluged in 7 Inches of Rain (abcnews.go.com)
• Rain to keep pummeling SoCal, sparking flood fears (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Southern California braces for more rain, flash floods (thestar.com)

I try to walk along the Pacific as much as possible since I live less than a mile from it. (If it weren't such an elevation change, I would walk to the ocean, but the walk back up would be brutal for an "old man.") I love the Pacific because it's always in a different mood.

This afternoon's walk was hotter than any of the times I spent sitting by the ocean this summer (all wrapped up in a blanket, might I add!). It hit 83º here in December! But, on the flip side, the air was completely clear. I could see great detail in Santa Monica and Palos Verdes. Even the tip end of the north bay past Malibu and Catalina to the south were clearly visible!

The sun is now starting to set and wash everything in the warm light of magic hour.

Lovely.

I've really been fortunate to live in and around very beautiful areas.  The South Bay area is quite lovely.  Last weekend was so typical:  gorgeous sunny weather on the coast.  Saturday featured a day trip to Palos Verdes and Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of Manhattan Beach.  Sunday featured a day trip north to Malibu.

So here are some photos (shot by the HU) and a brief video (shot by the iPhone 4 in HD!).  Clicking on any of the photos will open slightly larger versions of them. (Many monitors may be too small to seethe video in HD. Just scroll to the right. Mouse over the video and click on the "Play Full Screen Button," which looks like a tiny square on the extreme right above the word "Close." The button does not appear until you mouse over the video.)  Holding the iPhone steady in the wind is a huge challenge!

Enjoy!

Today was the hottest day (EVER) on record in LA:  113º!

It even reach 100º here in Manhattan Beach.  I had to turn on the air conditioning! Thank god we don't have humidity, or I certainly would be a puddle now.

Today is my annual post proclaiming my love for the Fall season!  I know I should have posted this yesterday, but I have a good reason for waiting until today.

This summer, the marine layer which blankets the south bay area and is frequently referred to as the May Gray or the June Gloom, has visited more days than it has not here along the ocean.  To be honest, it's been quite depressing and cold—very, very cold!  Oddly, just a few miles north or east, and the marine layer routinely gave way to brilliant sunshine.  Yesterday, the first day of Fall, was yet again, another day of the gloomy, foggy, heavy, thick marine layer.

But last night we had a gorgeous Harvest Moon and today:  no marine layer.  I can actually see that the angle of the sun has dramatically changed and speaks of Fall.  The days are certainly shorter, the maple tree across the street is turning, and my favorite season begins.

Delight!

[Image source (top right):   raymaclean @ flickr; click to enlarge Ray's photo]
[Image source (bottom two):  me:  Maine,  October, 2008]

Related articles:

• Where's the Sun this Summer? (laist.com)
• Unusually cold July in L.A. brings more drizzle, less sizzle (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

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.

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)

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.

Related articles:

• First CineSlider Time Lapse (timtyson.us)

Today I saw a bumper sticker that read:

"Proud user of fossil fuel."

So, what does that mean? Drill baby, drill? Someone in my family works for the oil industry? I'm a weirdo?

I just don't know what to make of it.

Strange, indeed.

Everyone knows of my growing interest in time lapse.  Here's a new twist from Ross Ching:  shoot time lapses of LA's highways and take out all of the cars!  The amount of time Ross had to spend in post masking out the cars using Photoshop and FCP is probably less than I imagine but at the same time more than I can imagine!  He talks about it at his blog, here.

It looks like he also did some lovely work with color grading, and I suspect, but don't know for a fact, that the panning through some of the sequences was done in post and not with a slider or dolly at the shoot.  A a couple of weeks ago a photographer friend of  mine asked me if that would be possible.  From a practicality standpoint, I wasn't so sure just because of the amount of time involved with computer crunching.

Very, very creative work that ads a whole new dimension to the LA reality that is never without a hideous amount of traffic. Good music.  Clever and creative.  Tim likes!

At the master class last Saturday, I saw many bright, creative people.  Jeremy Ian Thomas, the creative director at RawWorks, was among them.  He wrote, along with Robert Lehman, and shot this short, micro budget film ($3.00) that has a compelling message and is really well executed.

Vimeo Link and additional info at the RAWworks blog.

Neil Smith, at hdiRAWworks, arranged for Philip Bloom to conduct a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass yesterday here in LA. This was the first time I've ever attended such a thing, and I rather enjoyed it and learned a lot too. The little tidbits you pick up are also interesting: like why the Canon 5Dmkii will only shoot video for 12 minutes. I always thought it was just a storage capacity issue. No. (We live in such a weird world.)

Philip showed several of his shorts, which, of course, are amazing. I've embedded a few of them here at tt.us from time to time. While they look great on the computer screen, they were stunning on the big screen with the HD projector.

He spoke of many things related to his craft, but I suppose I learned the most from his talk about setup, actually using the DSLR for video. I've never bothered with custom camera settings before but have already imported the superflat settings he recommended and am eager to try the workflow: shooting with the increased dynamic range, though visually initially less "interesting," and then grading the footage in post. It makes sense as I do the equivalent process with still photography all the time. We just can't get raw data out of the 5D. Philip says: "Yet..." (See Luka Crnkovic-Dodig's post: How to increase the Canon 7D/5D dynamic range, which includes this link to the superflat settings file, among others.)

In my own casual exploration through this space, I've ended up with a lot of the same software and equipment, and now have a better understanding of implementation and process for video and timelapse using my 5Dmkii. It's now time to play, play, play!  I'm also eager to explore timelapse.

Aside from being brilliant at what he does, Philip is very personable and has a great sense of humor. He also comes across as completely genuine and open about what he recommends and why. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of his masterclasses, jump at it! I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Related articles:

• Canon Rebel T2i DSLR: 18MP and Legit 1080p Video for $899 [Digital Cameras] (gizmodo.com)
• Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (go.theregister.com)
• Canon's EOS 1D Mark V DSLR defying death, launching tomorrow? (engadget.com)
• The First Clips Shot on the Canon T2i Look As Good as the 7D [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
• Gorgeous (timtyson.us)

With a recent storm having come off the Pacific, coupled with the Chilean 8.8 earthquake and its ensuing tsunami warning, the Pacific Ocean here in the South Bay Area, has been the most active I've ever seen it.  In this short video I shot yesterday with my iPhone, the sandy beach, which typically begins out where you see the waves starting to break, is completely gone.  No one was in the water.  You could even see some of the currents zipping around as waves would head back out to sea crashing into the waves coming in from the sea.  It was a spectacular site!

Related articles

• BREAKING: Violent 8.8 quake hits Chile, sends tsunami towards Hawaii (crooksandliars.com)
• Chile Earthquake, Tsunami Warnings: Science of a Disaster (abcnews.go.com)

In my earlier post, I mentioned that the surf has been out of control with the storm and earthquake.  The life guard stations had to be moved inland—waaaay inland, and the surf still almost got to them.  Here you can see that the sand was completely eroded away by the surf, creating the sudden drop off that was as tall as me!  (Click to enlarge.)

Normally, along a seashore, one expects to find seashells.  Well, not so here in the South Bay.  Regrettably, the dumping of LA's sewage has long ago killed such sea life.  But what I found even more distressing was the amount of trash the surf brought to the shore line.  It was unbelievable!  Thousands of plastic bottle caps littered the shoreline as if they were the missing seashells! Bits of styrofoam, in various sizes, were everywhere.  This is outrageous!  We have turned the Pacific Ocean into a sewer. Click the image below to see two different pictures.

First it was Ireland: record rainfall and driving through unbelievable flooding. Then it was Arkansas: record rainfall and driving through unbelievable flooding. For the past three days, with more in the forecast, it's now here in southern California!

Stop the madness!

(Actually, I've rather enjoyed the rainfall. And yesterday I heard one of the most virulent thunder rumbles of all time! It was wonderful!)

Below is a 12 second video (without audio: do not adjust your TV set!) of flooding in Arkansas. This was by no means the worst flooding of the trip! Just out of the frame to the left is a heavily flooded cemetery. The flood water was thick with the scent of decomposition.

I'm showing this video as a proof of concept:

• It was shot on an iPhone.
• It was shot and is shown in portrait view. (Odd, I know.)
• It is compressed at 720p as an mp4 using H.264 at only 1500kbps and still looks fairly good.
• At the above compression, the file is 2.2 megabytes.
• Increasing the data rate increases video quality minimally but substantially increases file size.

Yesterday afternoon I abandoned routine and went to see Avatar. This was the first time I have ever seen a 3D IMAX movie.

I had heard good things about Avatar in 3D IMAX but really really wasn't expecting much. After all, I've seen a 3D movie before, years ago. I just wasn't all that impressed with it. In fact, it was so lackluster, I don't even recall what the movie was. I'd also been to (seen?) Terminator, a 3D experience at Disney's EPCOT, which, while great fun, was obviously less than a deep 3D immersive experience.

Avatar is in a whole new class of immersive 3D experiences. I had adjusted to the 3D glasses within 15 - 20 seconds of watching the first 3D preview and quickly got past the fact that I was wearing them.

Within a few minutes, I was "into" the movie. I mean, I literally lost the fact I was watching this movie on a 2D flat screen. The sense of real physical depth is convincing.

I actually caught myself, at one point fairly early in the movie, physically moving my body/head to see around an object in the movie so I could better see what was behind it! Such a thing is, of course, impossible. I was still watching a 3D image projected on a flat 2D screen. But my mind, my sense of perception, was so realistically convinced by the 3D technology that I perceived an actual 3D space. Intuitively I "knew" that I should be able to see behind an object if I just moved.

Amazing!

I fear that I am now "of an age" that doesn't thrill so easily from a movie-going experience. This was different. The artistic direction, the imaginative, creative visual design, the seamless and invisible integration of CGI were all compellingly presented in a truly artistic and visually stunning encounter.

Seeing Avatar in 3D IMAX is a must. This movie, in 3D IMAX, has forever changed what the movies are destined to become as an art form.

Another 3D movie was advertised in the previews that I will have to go see: NASA's 3D IMAX about repairing the Hubble Telescope. The trailer said NASA filmed the actual repair with a 3D IMAX camera. The clarity, detail, and 3D reality of the trailer placed me right there loosely tethered in outer space. I really felt as though I could reach out in front of me and touch the image. It seemed that real.

What will be next? When will our capacity to capture and display massive amounts of visual information become so great that we will be able to literally walk around in a movie projection, seeing it from all sides? (I would hate to be the camera director for that kind of project!) While interacting physically with the image, like on the Holodeck in StarTrek, currently seems impossible, or maybe not, perhaps a more complete sense of 3D projection is not.

This picture was shot of a rose picked from the garden yesterday. Only in California!

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

I've known Brad and his beautiful, lovely wife for several years--all the way back to Atlanta before their son was even born. I knew about Big Brothers Big Sisters working with children across the country. I knew Brad was a "Big," as they are called, at some point when we all lived in Atlanta.

Things I didn't know:

• Los Angeles serves 1,500 "Littles" through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire organization.
  
• Walt Disney was one of the founders of the organization, and LA seems to have a deep, rich and long-standing commitment to this organization.
  
• Brad is chair of the finance committee for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.
  

• Staying at a private residence in Cabo San Lucas (a $12,000 value)
• a his/her watch set (valued at over $13,000) donated by Tiffany & Co.
• a week-long stay for 4 families at the Amangani Villa in Jackson Hole (valued at over $25,000)
  
• a week on Rick Caruso's yacht (staff included) in the Caribbean (bids beginning at $150,000)
  
• a week on Rick Caruso's yacht (staff included) in the Mediterranean

A couple of nights ago, a ferocious wind storm came through (a weather front without rain). I was walking along the sidewalk in Culver City, heading to meet friends for dinner at Fraiche, one of the many delightful little restaurants in downtown Culver City.

The wind was so fierce, debris was blowing into my hair and into my eyes. I've never experienced anything quite so irritating.

The weather became much cooler--dropping maybe as much as 20º. During the night the wind from the ocean was so strong I closed up the house. But too late.

As it so seldom rains, the pollens and dust permeated the air, filled the house, and have sent my sinuses into a belligerent rage. My allergies have been out of control ever since--nose bleeds, burning eyes, burning sinuses, et. al.

Deliver me!

Apparently we are to get rain tonight with really heavy rain from a storm coming off of the Pacific tomorrow. This is an astounding thought!

Today has been heavily overcast. No, this isn't just chitchat about the weather. This is a breaking news event!

Update: So tonight, walking along the beach, I shot these two pictures. The clarity of the bay area was astounding! You could clearly see the island of Catalina (top photo), which is usually completely invisible in the ocean air, or, at best, only faintly outlined. Malibu, at the north end of the bay, was also clearly visible. I could even see the Santa Monica ferris wheel--a first!

Click each photo to see a larger version. (The color in these photos is not altered.)

Facing the south bay with the island of Catalina in the distance

Facing the north bay with Malibu in the distance (same lifeguard station as above)

Well, with the earthquake in the Pacific, I guess I shouldn't ride my bike along the coast as we're at a heightened alert for a possible tsunami. I frequently ride down by the ocean through an area that is labeled as a Tsunami Evacuation Area.

While unlikely, the Tsunami Emergency Information being distributed indicates that an earthquake in Alaska could cause serious tsunami damage in LA within a mere hour! But we have only had 13 tsunami events in California in the past 75 years. The only one to affect Los Angeles bay area was in 1930 when the maximum level of water run-up was almost 20 feet.

A 20 foot run-up would absolutely affect the area in which I ride.

I love many things about fall: the shorter days, the nip in the air, the angle of the sunlight, and the fact that the beach returns to the locals after Labor Day weekend.

This afternoon featured a gorgeous sunset with a heavy fog layer down by Santa Monica and Malibu. (You can't really make out the fog in this picture as it was further to the right.) The number of people at the beach and walking along the Strand was reduced by 75%.

Add to all of this a wonderful dinner at an authentic French restaurant. Ahhh. Life doesn't get much better than this.

We had what appeared to be snow in Manhattan Beach last year--the ash from the fires was falling from the sky. The smoke from the fires this summer is still north of us. The amount of smoke is just unbelievable. Keep in mind that the smoke you see in the picture below hides the north mountain range. These smoke clouds rise astoundingly high into the atmosphere.

(Click the image below to see a larger version.)

Tonight I realized that the one thing I really dislike about where I live, Manhattan Beach, is the lack of diversity, the "sameness" of the town.

Tonight, in Santa Monica, I got to see a more colorful crowd of varied ages, interests, and looks. While less than the fratboy scene in Hermosa Beach or the craziness (but fun for a visit) of Venice Beach, Santa Monica seemed to have more energy about it. Each of the beach communities here in Los Angeles has its own interesting personality.

Even with the camera securely mounted on a tripod and using a time delayed shutter release to avoid camera shake, the long exposure shots blurred (the top one is the worst) because of the constant and strong gust of wind coming off of the Pacific. The wind was so intense (and very, very cool for August first) that everything was wet with salt spray, including my glasses.

Clicking each picture displays a larger image.

I absolutely love eating at the Veggie Grill. I've mentioned this before.

I didn't realize, until today, that the Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich really isn't made of chicken at all. And it's delicious! I would never have known, having eaten it three times before, if I hadn't read a review of the sandwich.

Aside from the fact that it is called the Cripsy Santa Fe Chickin' Sandwich, one would have no hint that anything is other than chicken.

I also really like the natural ketchup. I like it a great deal more than regular Heinz ketchup, which is all the ordinary restaurants seem to serve any more. Annie's Naturals Organic Ketchup is significantly more tasty, but not in an obtrusive way--just delicious. It tastes fresher.

The dude rocks!

I had the opportunity to watch the American Idol Live concert tonight at the Staples Center in LA and shot this video of Adam's first performance. You can't really see how completely awesome the visual effects were. You can see everyone had their cell phones and cameras out recording it.

Uploading the video immediately after he performed it took 10 minutes. So I wasn't able to shoot any others. But the visuals for this one were the most impressive. The audio, for much of the concert, was just too loud for me--too much distortion. (Research actually shows that most Americans equate louder with higher quality.)

Hate that I didn't get to shoot Mad World!

Everyone knows Lambert really won American Idol. The crowds were insane over him--but not the "winner."

Also of interest is the number of comments, views and ratings that happened before I even got home from the concert. I had no idea he was such a hot search on YouTube!

This evening we had a nice stroll in the ocean.