Chile quake

News of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in south-central Chile is a shock to me because I visited the country several years ago.

My primary destination there was Iquique, a city in the north of the country, to visit family members who were living there at the time. Due to this my only experience of Santiago was the international airport there. (At least at that time, all international flights from outside of the region ended at that airport; persons going to other cities in the country then transferred to domestic flights. Likewise all international flights to destinations outside of the region originated at that airport.) I recall it being a very nice facility, and have seen in news reports it is now closed to all operations because of the quake.

While I was seeing my family members in Iquique, there was a moderate earthquake. The epicenter was well outside the city, so, as I recall, there was no damage in the city. But it occurred at night and was long enough to wake me up and still feel a sharp jolt.

Obviously this new quake will most likely have caused huge damages and much will be learned as the day develops. I just tried bringing up both the English and Spanish versions of the Santiago airport's web site; the browser failed to find either, obviously indicating telecommunications problems.

On the Trail

San Diego's Balboa Park has a rather unique trail. It is called the Bridle Trail, and the unique thing about it is that for almost all of it's one-mile length it is within sight of a very busy highway, State Route 163.

Getting to the Bridle Trail is not the easiest task as the three ways to it that I know of require quite steep downhill climbs to get to the level the highway and the trail are at (and of course steep climbs to get back to one's transportation.) So, the Trail is not heavily used, and I myself have gone to it only very sporadically, though it is a very nice walk.

I decided to use it last year for a photography class project, taking environmental portraits. (Or, as in my case, environmental self-portraits. The comments on those photos are from the class instructor and myself.)

Yesterday, January 30, 2010, was a very nice day, which helped me make up my mind to take my camera back to the Bridle Trail and look for new (outside of a class) photos.

Reviewing what I took, I've come with a couple photos so far that I'm happy with:

This view of a small part of the trail, emphasizing the trees lining both sides:

...and this view of another small section of the trail, but also illustrating just how closely State Route 163 (the southbound lanes) runs alongside most of the Trail.



(Clicking either photo will take you to larger versions on Flickr.)

That's an "ouch" moment

As an avid photographer (and aspiring seller of prints of my photos), I am a big fan of the web comic What the Duck for it's very funny and frequently very pointed observations about photographers and photography.

When I saw today's edition of the comic, my first thought was "Ouch!" Check it out.

Lantanas flowers among the rain

Purple lantana flowers (Lantana montevidensis)
Originally uploaded by jeffwc00

I had in December posted to Flickr a photo of a grouping of red, orange, and yellow Lantana flowers (http://flic.kr/p/7n9Pid).

As flowers of lantana plants can come in many colors, I've been hoping to find such examples to also photograph.

So: One of the routes I take to get the parking lot at my workplace passes a patch of what appeared to be lantana flowers. Earlier this month I walked to this patch of landscaping and found that is indeed what they are. I guessed they were somewhat immature, as they were not as cleanly structured as the flowers in the earlier photo.

I took some photos at the time, but wasn't happy with any of the results.

Earlier this week I reminded myself to try again. That took some time to do. The San Diego area (and much of California) has been experiencing this week extremely wild weather, one strong storm after another rolling in from offshore. Finally on Friday during my lunch break we were having a decent break between showers, so I took that opportunity to walk back to the patch of lantana plants and get more photos of the flowers.

Seen here is the best result, some purple flowers. There were also a number of white flowers; I'm still fiddling with a photo of those in post production, trying to get a result I'll be happy with.

In the meantime, I hope you like this example of purple lantana flowers.

High surf

High surf - Ocean Beach
Originally uploaded by jeffwc00

I drove to San Diego's Ocean Beach neighborhood on January 15, planning to walk on the pier that is there and look for photographic opportunities.

Upon arrival I found access to the pier had been closed because of exceptionally high (for San Diego) surf that was occurring. As it was a very cloudy and gray day, I realized this was likely a preferable situation photography-wise, and spent several minutes getting exposures of the surf breaking against the pier's pilings.

More photos from that visit coming today, and, probably, tomorrow; most likely including a couple triptychs.

Again with the coral tree flowers

Coral tree flower at Lake Murray
Originally uploaded by jeffwc00

I seem to be developing an unintended specialty in my landscape photography of photos of coral tree flowers. (Such as this new one.)

I'm on vacation this week, so today I decided to drive out to the City of San Diego's Lake Murray, a water reservoir and recreational area.

My first thought for the visit was to get in a good exercise walk while enjoying the sights of the lake, but I also brought along my point-and-shoot camera in case I came upon anything that attracted me for photo purposes. (Might post more of them later in the week.)

So, I found one coral tree, and it was blooming flowers like crazy in only one section of it's branches. I have no clue why flowers would be growing in that manner, but there they were, so I took several exposures

Also took several shots of the lake with intent to generate a panorama. (By using Hugin, but the result was unsatisfactory, due to my letting the camera drift up and down too much.)

Clouds through trees

Clouds through trees
Originally uploaded by jeffwc00

To start this post, I need to explain some logistics. The door to my condominium is reached by an open staircase. (The door for the condo of one my neighbors shares the staircase access.)

I've been noting for some time when I step outside and look straight ahead before descending the stairs, I see an interesting combination of two trees: a sweetgum, and directly on the other side of a neighboring building in the condo complex, a bottlebrush.

Seeing this, it has been occurring to me this could make an interesting photo, but I wasn't noticing good combinations of circumstances for that purpose until yesterday (July 12, 2010) when I saw some interesting cloud formations in the sky beyond the two trees.

So, I jumped back inside and grabbed the camera, and took several exposures. I thought this was the best of those.