June 27th, 2008
I’ll be honest: I’ve been paying more attention to Wimbledon than to the news, but when I went out to walk the dog this morning, there was a distinct smell of smoke in the air – a reminder of the fires still burning throughout California. The fire in Big Sur is perhaps the most difficult. If you’ve never been there you should go. It is incredibly beautiful, and is one area that makes me wish that we had something akin to Japan’s national treasures here in the U.S.
It is true that fire is a part of a natural cycle, and something we cannot prevent, only postpone. It is also true that after 5 or 6 years burn areas will recover significantly and be beautiful in their own way. But the redwood stands now burning in Big Sur will never be back in my lifetime. I can’t help but mourn the loss.
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June 23rd, 2008
Out here in California, particularly in the coast, we are not accustomed to especially hot summers, much less thunderstorms and the severe weather traditionally associated with the midwest. Thankfully, nothing like that happened this time. But as the temperature reached 105 degrees F, and wildfires continued to burn in the area, with new fires starting all the time, clouds began to appear. Many of them were very dramatic and the types of cloud formations seemed to change very quickly. I well remember the first lightning bolt I saw, somewhat incredulous that it actually was lightning. But the pace only picked up throughout the late afternoon and evening – often causing more fires. I know this may sound very ordinary to many of you, but this just doesn’t happen out here in this part of California. At least it isn’t supposed to.
Later that night, I turned on a local television station to watch the news (and especially the weather). It was strangely vindicating to see elaborate graphics illustrating how the radiant heat affected the air circulation, leading to the weather patterns that we were seeing. Fortunately, the weather here has cooled down a fair amount, but the fires are still burning, and now I understand there is a fire in Big Sur, the very place that spurred my interest in photography in the first place. I know fire is inevitable, and the California Department of Forestry (CDF) is doing an excellent job of preserving life and property, but I can’t help but be concerned.
Tags: california, CDF, central coast, clouds, fire, weather
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June 22nd, 2008
Euler angles is a mathematical term describing direction and orientation (but not position) in space. In a physics or mathematics class, you might first encounter this concept when studying a spinning top. But there’s a much easier way to think about Euler (pronounced “oiler”) angles: the attitude of an airplane in flight can be described in terms of
- Pitch – direction of tilt (up and down). Said differently, this is the direction the airplane is pointing in the vertical plane.
- Yaw – direction (side to side) the airplane points. Said differently, this is the direction the airplane points in the horizontal plane.
- Roll – direction the airplane turns (or “leans”) around the axis along which it is moving.
Okay, so what’s the deal with all this math stuff? I studied mathematics in college, and mathematics and physics both remain strong interests of mine. Honestly, I don’t know how often this blog will touch on science and technology, but I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t do so fairly often. But it is also (even primarily) a photography blog. Euler angles are a metaphor for perspective or point of view. When you hold a camera, you may tilt it up or down, point it to the right or left, or even turn it a bit, depending on what it is to wish to photograph. How you hold the camera gives you a particular direction of view (set of Euler angles). Where you stand, your “point” of view, doesn’t mean much if you ignore the world around you! You need to pick up your camera and look outward, at something else: your subject.
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June 21st, 2008
This is (or was?) a photo taken on 17 Mile Drive near Carmel, California. My interest in photography may have begun in earnest during trip to Point Lobos, but I’ve actually taken relatively few photos of sea since then. I’m not really sure why. This time around I thought I’d try something a little different and use a Photoshop filter (”dry brush”) to convert it to something more like a painting.
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