Daily Image - Feb 2012 Archive

01 Feb 12. Interestingly to me today was a presentation I watched put on by a major software company whose presenter was in Weed the same time we were and was able to wait out the storm to get an absolutely beautiful image, one he said he had been trying to get for many years. We apparently should have stayed one more day. But you never know what the weather will be on any given day, or during the same day for that matter, in the winter. Planing to shoot at the locations given us by our waitress the evening prior, we arose the second morning to a mountain that was all but completely obscured when we first saw it and then totally obscured 30 seconds later. So it was off to breakfast by the end of which Mt Shasta was fully visible, but not so Black Butte. Approaching the interstate the only part of the Butte we could see was the bottom 50 feet or so, the rest being fully enveloped in clouds. We merged onto I-5 and started towards our first shooting destination, but by the time we had passed the next exit we were sufficiently beyond the mound that the fog was behind us and we could see the vapor pouring over the top and running down channels on the side facing us. While I'm sure it is true for both Mt Shasta and Black Butte, it appeared that the Butte was creating more of its own weather than was Mt Shasta. We continued on into Shasta City to shoot the main actor but found the supporting cast to be of equal beauty. This shot is of the back side of Black Butte and shows that it isn't exactly totally black. By the time we had finished shooting about two hours later, Black Butte was basically cloud free. ISO 320; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

02 Feb 12. We leave the Mt Shasta area today with one last parting image. This one is a fun image, HDR in format, that I made to amplify the strange condition in which we found ourselves on the trip south, namely, no winter weather, with temps in the mid to high 70s. This was taken on the morning of our second day; I pulled the SUV over to the curb side on a local street in Shasta City, got out, and walking to the middle of the street, snapped this view. Note that it looks like late autumn with plenty of trees still sporting colorful leaves. A little over a week later this little community was totally snow bound with virtually no way in or out for a couple of days save for one main road. We were having breakfast just a couple miles north of here during that storm and "kinda" overheard a lot of the locals discussing the present conditions (refer back to the photo of the trucks). General consensus seemed to be that this was more of what they had been expecting for several weeks and that it was very needed. Based on what we saw on that second day of the southern leg,, I believe they were most correct, as the ski slopes we observed were nothing but dirt and ground cover. By now everyone should be happy as it would seem that winter has finally arrived. Regardless of the season, this must be a hard place to have to live. ISO 320; 1/320 sec (middle of 5) @ f / 9.

03 Feb 12. Leaving the Shasta area we traveled straight down I-5 arriving in Santa Nella, somewhere in the Central Valley, where we camped in a local motel after having dinner at one of Jan's favorite restaurants in CA, Pea Soup Andersen's, and yes, they are known for their split pea soup. The next morning we made our way to San Diego electing to stay overnight just east in El Cajon, about a 15 minute drive from where we would meet the boat. We arrived early enough in the afternoon that we decided to walk around the local area before grabbing a quick dinner, then walking some more. At one point we both wanted to go in different directions - ever been there? - and we wound up taking the longer of our two options to get back to the motel. As we were walking along a back street we heard this extremely loud raucous sound and as we strained to determine what it was we were hearing, a large flock of wild parrots flew directly in front of us and alighted in a nearby tree. They stayed in the tree squawking at an obnoxious level, then, as we were about two blocks distant, took off for places unknown. Sadly I didn't have the camera with me, as they would have made for an interesting picture. The next morning I asked a local about them and we were informed that they had been coming into town daily for at least the past 16 years, always between 1600 and 1630, irrespective of the time of year, staying for an hour or so, and then leaving. As to their origins no info was available. So no parrot image to share with you, but I was able to get several images of birds of paradise while strolling around Balboa Park in San Diego, so we will have to go with the birds of paradise vice the parrots. ISO 250; 1/125 sec @ f /11.

06 Feb 12. Occupying the first 3 decks in the bow of the ms Oosterdam was located the Vista Lounge. This is a full theater operation with a stage that featured two movable platforms, a audio/video recording booth, full lighting, and PLENTY of props. Along each wall in the forward part of the lounge is a reset box with a grouping of white instruments, all real, just painted white to make for an interesting piece of art. There was a first rate production available for our enjoyment nightly, alternating between the Oosterdam performers, a dance and vocal group who were first class all the way, and Vegas entertainers of which our cruise had two, Kevin Jordan, a black comedian and former L.A cop who played on being both, and a top rate pianist comedian , Joel Mason, whose act was billed as a tribute to Elton John, complete with several Elton John costumes. Joel was an absolute riot and played the audience, as did Kevin, with tremendous skill. If you ever have a chance to see either of their shows, I highly recommend you give them a watch! Joel began his performance by rising up out of the floor to the main level of the stage wearing a costume of feathers, huge high heeled shoes, white glasses, and a big hat. He began the performance with his favorite song of all time which lasted several minutes. His next number number, his favorite song of all time, was another long performance lasting almost 15 minutes all by itself, and had the audience practically falling out of their seats. Following that he performed his favorite song of all time, and again it was a roaring success. Kevin came out with a police flashlight and immediately began looking at the audience with it to see if there were any black folks in the audience. Finding only two, he attributed the lack of black participation to history, saying the last time black folks went on cruises they never came back, so he figured there was some hesitation still on the minds of the black community. Part of his act, after telling the audience how any USO tours he had made, over 100, was a request for all members of the services to identify themselves, group by group. He commented on how amazed he was that anyone in the Navy would take a cruise for a vacation which brought down the house, as did his black history comments. His performance was a real delight and both gentlemen put on performances that folks of any age could attend. All-in-all we had wonderful entertainment every night of the cruise. This is my favorite image of all time. ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /13 with fill flash.

07 Feb 12. A change of pace for today and something I've never done before, that is, to share an image I'm submitting for competition. The assignment for one of the local clubs last month while we were on cruise was an image in green in the Altered Reality category. The meeting was canceled due to weather (solid white rain) and the tasking got rescheduled for this month. I had some ideas in mind but none of them worked even to the slightest, so I had to totally rethink my approach and in the process came up with the idea of combining a weather related aspect (water) with something botanical, getting the concept while working on a few of the images from the trip. The result, my all time favorite image, is this one of a grouping of ferns reflecting on the surface of a pool of water, the water having been disturbed by something hitting it. The result is a series of ripples emanating out from the center of the reflection. It started as a photo of ferns taken in a San Diego conservatory. I cropped the original, applied an oil painting texture to it, and saved that out. I then reopened the oil painted file, changed its bit depth from 16 to 8 to apply the rippling filter, twiddled with that filter to get the results I wanted, saved that out, did a wee bit of cloning to remove a couple distracting areas, and then used a curves adjustment to get the final look. It sounds like a lot of work but in reality took less than 30 minutes from concept to completion. Now we just need to find out what the judges think about it, and to quote a very good friend and top rated photographer, "What do the judges know?" ISO 250; 1/60 sec @ f /11with fill flash.

08 Feb 12. If there was one thing that our cruise line didn't want us to experience, it was down time, so they had every minute of every day planned with something to do, which meant, if something else wasn't planned, eating and alcohol consumption was. Each evening started with dinner at 1730 followed by a visit to the Explorer's Lounge where 4 young ladies from Moldova, called the Adagio Strings, a classical string quartet, played for 45 minutes of each hour from 1700 - 2000 nightly. Then it was off to the Vista Lounge for roughly 90 minutes of Broadway/Vegas class entertainment, then back once again to the Explorer's Lounge to listen to the Strings until they closed up for the night. After that we generally called it quits for the day, but not always, as there was still lots of food to consume or listening to music in any of the several bars or just watching folks toss away their $$$ in the casino (not that we would do anything of that nature.) Spending each evening listening to the Strings, we got to know them a bit as well as the steward (Jonathon) in the lounge who was there solely to attend to all our beverage requirements. Over the course of several days I watched as he prepared this rather interesting beverage in which he set the glass on fire. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to inquire as to what it was. Jonathon told me it was the Oosterdam Signature Coffee, so I ordered a couple for the ladies that evening which he prepared before us. Intrigued by what he was doing, I asked him if I could photograph him making one and he most willingly obliged. Doesn't really sound like much until you realize that trying to catch both the blue flame of a burning fluid in a clear glass that is about to violently erupt in sparks when cinnamon and nutmeg are tossed into it can require some precise - and lucky - timing. At many $$$ a shot, I didn't exactly want to be practicing, so it was to be a one time only opportunity. Fortunately luck held and I got a "couple" of usable images. ISO 800; 1/5 sec @ f/ 4 handheld in ambient light. My favorite image of all time.

09 Feb 12. While visiting with fellow photographers, good friends, and camera club members mid day on Wednesday, the conversation got around, as it frequently does with such a grouping, to the next competition in one of the camera clubs. The discussion revolved around the assignment, the theme of which is, "the color blue." After a sufficient amount of conversation, I made the off handed comment that I had the perfect idea for the theme, simply a full frame of solid blue color. After all, if chimpanzees swishing their pinkies in finger paint is good enough for an art gallery, why not just a uniformly blue pane for a camera club competition. I thought it was a great idea until I was informed by another that such had already been done in one of our other camera clubs several years back, perhaps 20, and that the club members - not surprising knowing which club it was - didn't see the humor and gave the photographer the lowest score ever given by that club. I thought that I held that honor from my first submission with that group, but evidently not. Oh well, I can always try again. But I digress; back to the topic of submitting something blue. As I was working up some images for the Daily Image, I took a quick gander at 3 I had shot from the stern of the Oosterdam and quickly determined that one of them would be what I'd submit. Now, with a theme of blue, how could you go wrong with a blue sky, blue land in the very distant far horizon, and multi-colored blue water. That otter cover blue fairly well. Of course, I'm rather certain one of the judges, or more likely the commentator for that competition, will complain that the horizon isn't perfectly flat, but since that's what kept Columbus from falling off the edge, I think I'll keep it that way. ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f /11.

10 Feb 12. Stepping outside my comfort zone today and sharing an image not quite ready for prime time, but illustrating very well something I want to share. I am currently in the process of beta testing a new piece of software, and for today's exercise I thought I'd push things a bit and ask it to merge 14 files of roughly 12 MB each into a single image. It did it, to my amazement, creating a file almost 2 GB in size, taking over 5 minutes to complete. There were a couple of minor glitches, but for the most part it went very well. The file it created I then cropped a very small amount, did some cloning around the edges, and saved. This save to disk operation required another 4 minutes of machine time to complete. This c2GB image was then re-saved as a 32MB jpg file, which was then again saved out as the 6MB file which I'm sharing with you today. The original file would have printed out at 85.5 x 10 inches, somewhat beyond the capabilities of my printers. Why share this you are likely asking, the answer to which is, it illustrates where we are going with digital image handling. The ability to work with such a huge amount of data on a simple home machine is rather impressive, at least to me, and it is simply becoming easier and easier to create what would have been thought impossible 3 or 4 years ago. This scene is of the harbor in Puerto Villarta, Mexico, and will give you a rough idea of how things there look and perhaps some inkling as to why a lot of Hollywood types really enjoy living there. While neither of us found it somewhere we'd like to revisit, let alone live, it was interesting, I guess, to visit. Our cruise ship was berthed behind the last group of white high rise buildings at the far left. Both groups are getting the larger image today because there is simply too much degradation in the smaller sized file which wound up being a mere 178K, way too small to be functional. ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f/10 for all 14 images.

13 Feb 12. As this wasn't my cruise, I left all the details up to Jan. We had a three port call cruise and she picked out a tour for each stop; one land based, another under water based, and the third, a birding venture, based in Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and Mazatlan respectively. The middle stop was to be Mazatlan but it got cancelled due to danger a couple of weeks prior to departure, along with our birding adventure, with the allocated time added to our stay in Puerto Vallarta. We should have gotten back on line to set up something additional in PV, but with all the Christmas time activities it got lost in the noise. So it was a bit of a surprise, and big disappointment for me, to realize once we got out and about in PV that the city was surrounded by a vast rain forest. And instead of just a long day's port call as originally planned, we now had almost 36 hours to explore the region. But it was too late to change plans and so we settled for our originally planned 4 hour tour of the city which turned out to be 2 hours of tour and 2 hours of wasted time. It did give us an opportunity to get a feel for what did lie in the city and its surrounds, but the reality, to my way of thinking, was that we should have been up in the "mountains." A little nothing of a fishing village prior to John Houston using the location for making the movie "Night of the Iguana" it is now a bustling metropolis, and the third largest Spanish speaking city in N. America, with the largest being Mexico City and the second largest Los Angeles, CA. We pulled into port at roughly 0530 to what was a beautiful sunrise for the very few of us that got up to see it, but those of us who did were well rewarded. The prize was a vibrant pink light illuminating teak decks, a bit hard to describe, other than to say it made for a very romantic feeling. From that point it was mostly downhill. ISO 640; 1/60 sec @ f/5.6 handheld.

14 Feb 12. During our first tour in the Navy, while stationed at the Naval Air Development Center in Warminister, PA, in Beautiful Bucks County, which is how it is termed and it is rightly so named, we used to travel up into the Pocono Mountains, considered one of the most romantic places in the U.S. An appropriate place to visit for Valentine's Day as well as for those June nuptials. On the way, traveling along Route 611, you pass through an area known as Ringing Rock, and there is a state park there by the name of Ringing Rocks. Contained in the park is an approx 7.5 acre field of boulders, which, if struck with something solid, produce a musical tone. It was great fun to walk out amongst the rocks with the kids and strike them with a hammer and listen to them "sing." When we returned to the area for our fourth tour the rocks had been placed off limits and one was no longer allowed to enjoy the wonderful sounds produced by striking them. It may be that you are now again allowed to "play" them, and if so, I would encourage all of you, should the opportunity present itself, to so do. If that's not in your travel plans, you might elect to visit Puerto Vallarta where you can walk along the shoreline adjacent to the Malecon and listen to the crashing waves play percussion with the rocks on the beach. In this particular area the rocks, ranging in size from a child's clenched fist to large boulders, lie somewhat loosely stacked on the sand. As the onrushing waves crash on the beach, the inflowing water tends to push them up into a tighter configuration. As the water recedes, much slower than it arrived, the rocks try to reposition themselves creating a very pleasant rattling sound. We stopped and listened for several minutes before becoming sufficiently accustomed to it and moved on down the waterfront. Apparently this unusual performance wasn't considered of sufficient interest as it was not listed on any of the tourist attractions. ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 8.

15 Feb 12. While we were being "treated" to a non-stop dialog about Puerto Vallarta by our host for the four hour trip, one comment made was that the Malecon used to be a merchant area bordering a main street and that so many folks had been injured or killed crossing it that the road was removed and became what is now referred to as the Malecon. I've tried my best to confirm the validity of that assertion but without success. Regardless of its veracity, the Malecon is a nice area to stroll and, if nothing else, take in all the wonderful pieces of art. Some of it is quite original, such as this sandman which is the theme of today's image. All along the length of the boardwalk one finds venders hawking their wares, but there are a few who do nothing but wait for you to come by and have your picture taken with them. The sandman is one of those. With sand sculptures all along the beach side of the walk, it wasn't really surprising to one on the walk itself. Except that this sculpture was a man covered in sand, head to foot. While we were passing by two of his assistants were spraying down portions of him that had dried and were replacing the sand. At first we had some doubt as to what we were witnessing, but then we realized that he was one of the living sculptures along the path. Quite an innovative way to make a living and not one either of us would ever consider, even during their winter, which this was, let alone in the heat and humidity of summer. He motioned Jan to come sit beside him and, with some hesitation, she did. Not everyone can say they have actually sat with the sandman. Zoom in to 100% to see what he's wearing!! ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f/ 7.1.

16 Feb 12. On the Monterey Peninsula in CA, between Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, one can travel along a very scenic part of the country that is home to many of CA's wealthiest folks. Called the 17 Mile Drive, this stretch of pavement travels between some serious mansions set alongside of some of the most beautiful coastline in the country. There is a fee to travel along this road if you don't reside there and as we hate to pay fees to see most everything, we thought about purchasing one of the available properties while there. We found a rather modest unit available that was set back from the water by perhaps a half mile and picked up a flyer to see if it would meet our needs. The 5 bath 11 room unit was quite reasonably priced at just 15 so we are giving it some serious thought as a second place. As you enter this gated community, assuming you are not a resident, you pay your tax and are given a brochure listing the various sights to be seen as you drive through. Each point of interest is numbered and a small paragraph of info is provided to help you in making decisions as to what you may or may not want to visit. Among the options that we thought would be interesting was a spot called Bird Rock. Apparently there are generally lots of birds on the rock, but on the day of our visit it was almost completely blanketed with California Sea Lions. In fact, there were so many sea lions on the rock that there was also an abundance of them in the water, and a goodly sized group of them were putting on a wonderful display of leaping out of the water. It was great fun to watch even though the critters were a fair distance from us. We stayed for the better part of an hour watching their antics. As I do not own any serious glass, I was not able to get any good close ups of the animals at such a distance, but I did get off a few shots that give you a general overall view of the situation. This image is a crop of the original and shows about a third of what was recorded. You can see a group of the seals frolicking at the far right hand edge. ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 8.

17 Feb 12. As you stroll (walk, run, skip, skate board, whatever your preference) along the Malecon you encounter numerous individuals, like the sandman, who provide you with something unusual to observe, and some of them are quite creative, as I'm sure you found the sandman. But whereas the sandman was just an individual sitting on a bench in an interesting outfit, there are others striking a pose that is seemingly impossible. Of these we saw two in particular that really got our attention and I recorded them both. For today we look at an angel supporting himself on a blade, more accurately, a sword. Perhaps this is one of the angels that drove Adam and Eve out of Eden, hard to know, but in any event it is even harder to ascertain exactly how this angel is supporting himself. I have an idea as to what is being done, and you can likely come up with an idea or two of your own, but the illusion of him supporting himself by simply holding onto the hilt of his sword is pretty realistic, even more so in person. And should you get really close in an attempt to discern how it is accomplished, he doesn't acknowledge that you are near. A very effective display, especially so the turquoise and silver sword. ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 7.1.

20 Feb 12. Since it appears that several of the last images have had rock as a part of the theme, I thought I go with yet another image dealing with rock but this time one that I have "altered' just enough to make it a bit more interesting. Nothing has been added or taken away, and it has received almost no cropping, but what I have done is to adjust the texture in it. By adjusting I don't mean I put something in it, but rather simply made that which was already there more obvious. In the "old" days of film we would have done this by going with a high ASA (now ISO - had to get the American idea removed and replaced with International) film that would have provided us with substantial grain to provide for the texture. Now we can do it either by adding noise or by accenting the edges of each pixel, which is what has been done to this image. Now for those of you who, for the most part, don't like the HDR stuff, it is this technique - often referred to as detail extraction - that gives the HDR image the "look" you don't like. In using it on the image you see today I think you will agree that it makes it what it is. For the record, it is NOT an HDR image, and I employed none of the HDR techniques to achieve it. But I did employ some layering techniques and blending modes along with some curve adjustments to achieve the look. The actual subject of the image is a colorful stone patio-like display location in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, where a large number of artists present their wares, either in small shops surrounding the area, or in small portable displays scattered throughout the ring formed by the shops. I really liked the colorful blocks of stone, but thought they would look even better with a bit of an assist. ISO 250; 1/160 sec @ f /11.

21 Feb 12. Not wanting to ruin a good thing, I should leave the rock theme alone, but I'll press my luck and provide another image of rocks. This time it will be of a bunch of rock you have seen several times prior, but never from this angle. While we were up at Boundary Bay, British Columbia, Canada, a couple weeks back seeking out the Snowy Owls, Mt Baker put on a show that was memorable for its color, and one I have never had an opportunity to view before as we were visiting that area for the first time. As the light rapidly became questionable for shooting the birds, afternoon rapidly slipping into evening, the sunset on the northwestern side of the mountain cast it in a lovely peachy color and provided some nice shadowing effects. I employed a fairly strong amount of noise reduction to make this image acceptable for my tastes, which results in the mountain appearing a tad bit less rugged that in actuality, but the noise level was such that I think you would have found it distracting as did I. Other than that, this is pretty much how it looked coming out of the camera. ISO 640; 1/250 sec @ f / 6.3 on a tripod using the 80-400 lens.

22 Feb 12. With the rock theme going as well as it is I guess we'll just continue. About 7 miles north of San Simeon, CA on Hwy 1, is located the Piedras Blancas rookery, home to about 17,000 Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga angustirostris.) Unlike the Ano Nuevo site that wanted to charge us $50 to visit, the Piedras Blancas rookery is open to the public 24/7/356 (366 this year) and at no charge. As we were driving north along Hwy 1, we noticed a sign saying elephant Seal viewing. As the parking area appeared jammed we thought there might be something worthwhile seeing so we stood on the binders and found our way into the parking lot. It was very full, but we found a spot at the very back end and proceeded to make our way to the fence directly in front of us to see what I'm sharing today. During our first tour in CA, back in the early 80s, we loved to watch the California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) which are much larger than our local critters and a bit more on the take when provided the opportunity. As we were looking out to see the view, mostly of the males from this initial vantage point, we were confronted by several of these guys demanding protection rations. Signs all over said don't feed the animals, but apparently they were not easily understood as they were in English only. Preparing to photograph the bulls, I was kept under continuous surveillance by several of the local GSM (ground squirrel mafia) to make certain that an appropriate amount of payment was forth coming; it was. For their efforts, I got a couple of nice portraits. There are, by the way, four members represented in the image. ISO 250; 1/250 sec @ f /13.

23 Feb 12. Continuing on with our rock theme today we take a look at something both on and near some rocks with a face that only a mother could love, and then her surname would likely have to be Durante. As we observed the seals at the Piedras Blancas rookery it was clear that there was one group of interested bachelor bulls, a huge grouping of nursing cows, and scattered amongst the cows a few harem bulls. These guys were constantly rearing up to advertise their presence and their possessions. The small group of bachelor bulls were either sleeping, contemplating a practice challenge with another of their group, in the process of so doing, or resting from an earlier practice. Our subject for today appears to either be one of those resting from an earlier practice session or just having finished a meal. Either way he was in no way eager to move far from where I shot him or be bothered by any of his bachelor brothers. But that was just fine with me as I really wanted to get his portrait and since he was simply "posing" for an extended period of time, I took the opportunity to snap a few frames. ISO 250; 1/80 sec @ f /14 on a tripod using the 80-400.

24 Feb 12. Keeping with our theme, this individual was about 20 feet directly below us and almost out of camera range due to his closeness to the cliff on which we were standing. He had been challenging another bull and whether it was a practice session or the real thing we can't say as the "opponent" decided not to play. He was throwing his head back and bellowing, his fishy breath condensing into a bit of steam as it exited, and was putting on quite a show. I didn't quite capture him as sharply as I would have liked, to be honest I got more concerned with keeping everything in focus (depth of field) and forgot about my shutter speed rapidly dropping in the failing evening sunlight. But the light was such that you get to see his business end quite clearly. Take that set of ivory, put about 6,000 pounds of animal behind it, and you have quite a formidable adversary, be you another seal or something smaller such as a sea otter or salmon. Part of the softness of the image is due to his exhalation, the rest to a too slow shutter speed. This was one of those times when something had to give, and unfortunately, I think I made the wrong choice. But it is sharp enough to give you a good feel for why one would want to give these guys a w i d e berth. ISO 250; 1/80 sec @ f /14 on a tripod with the 80 - 400.

27 Feb 12. For those of you who subscribe to our local rag, the Seattle Times, you may have come across a story on the 9th of February dealing with an aspect of water survival training that is given to all Naval air crew as part of their safety and survival training. The facility that houses that device and several other devices is of a design that I put together during our second tour while I was serving as an AMSO (AeroMedical Safety Officer) with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in El Toro, CA, and is the standard for all Navy water survival training facilities. The Navy & Marine Corps take safety very seriously and require annual safety stand downs wherein a full day is devoted to safety training. If the C.O. feels the need, there may be more than one a year. In addition, on every multi-passenger flight there is a safety brief given before the aircraft even taxis to the runway. The operation of the Holland America Cruise Line seems to be similar in that we were required to attend an all hands safety briefing on the Promenade Deck under our assigned ditching station. The briefing was not started until all passengers were both accounted for and present. It was VERY thorough and left nothing out that would be needed to know to safely evacuate the ship should the need arise. I was quite impressed., especially so because it was required to be conducted before the vessel departed. In addition to this drill, the ship conducted drills every day for the crew which included one major fire drill and several smaller fire drills. I had the opportunity of befriending one of the 5 Captains on board, in this case the Captain in charge of the hotel aspects for the boat, and he told me quite a bit about the operation of the vessel including the fact that they regularly have several small fires on each cruise due to folks throwing combustibles into the trash which get ignited when the trash is compacted. Because of such behaviors, he said the cruise was not a chess game and that they leave nothing to chance. A question asked of the Skipper was "How often do these ships sink?" to which he responded "Just once!" As we docked on our return it was somewhat interesting to hear about the cruise liner mishap that had just occurred a few hours earlier in the Med. It seems that not all cruise lines follow the same protocol and do in fact apparently see what they are doing as a game of chance. Lets hope that the Costa Concordia mishap will improve the safety of all those who travel on cruise ships. The image for today is comprised of 9 layers incorporating filters, blending modes, and lighting adjustments. ISO 250; 1/60 sec @ f /16 with flash.

28 Feb 12. At the very distal end of the Baja Peninsula lies Cabo San Lucas, a charming resort area on the Mexican Riviera. Although our stay there was for just a few hours, we both fell immediately in love with it and will be making many more trips there to visit and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and people. Fishing, diving, climbing, para-sailing, and photography are just a few of the treats that await any visitor. The very tip of the peninsula is comprised only of large rocks, the very furthest grouping of which is known as the Lands End, and the most famous, if you will, is the chunk of rock known as El Arco, the arch. Here the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean, and although the water was quite calm on the day of our visit, it isn't always so. On the leeward side of the rocks (a wee bit south of where lies the city) is to be found Playa Doña Chepa, the lover's beach; only accessible by boat, it is well worth the trip. From here you can get a great view of the arch and even walk under it at low tide, at least that was my impression from viewing it three different times with differing tides. On our way down the coast I had myself positioned to get a few shots of it from a distance that would have made for some potentially nice images. As we got into position a lady simply pushed herself in front of me blocking my view and remained there for the entire opportunity. Not absolutely certain why she didn't find herself overboard and the more I've thought about it the more I think I should have made that happen! So I missed out on a nice opportunity as the water was a bit rough and the waves were breaking magnificently through the arch. On the return the water was quite calm and we saw no such action. The image you see today was taken from a tour boat that took us around both sides of El Arco as part of a sight seeing tour both above and below the water. ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 8.

29 Feb 12. Now I am admittedly not much of a fan of what has become of the motion picture industry and it members, but occasionally there comes about a series of films that I do find entertaining either due to the special effects or a particular character. The Pirates of the Caribbean falls into both categories with Captain Jack being one of the best characters I have come across in many years. I can only imagine how much fun it must be to either work in the production or be a cast member in such a series. In fact, I had become quite a fan Jack Sparrow, that is, until our cruise last January. Returning from our under water / over water tour of Land's End, we departed the yellow submarine to stroll around the wharf area of Cabo's harbor. As we were strolling along observing the sights and minding our own business, who did appear out of nowhere but Captain Jack. Before we could say ARRGH, he grabbed a wench from the group of bystanders and threatened her life if we tried to do anything about it. Naturally, being the old sailor that I am, I felt compelled to rush to her rescue only to be rebuffed by none other than the wench herself. That was just too much of an insult to the old pride and at that point I vowed to disown Jack and all his shipmates forever, or at least until the next episode is released. From now on I'll have to root for the other guys. ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f /13.