Last Saturday I stopped and checked out the weekly No on Prop 8 gathering at Hillcrest and Lynn in Thousand Oaks. Since late September, the local No on Prop 8 proponents have been using the intersection at the West end of the Oaks Mall.

At 11 am there were about 50 protestors, which for a conservative community like Thousand Oaks, is big news. The only issue that turns out bigger crowds in Thousand Oaks is land development.

Hillcrest and Lynn has been the site for No on 8 protests since late September. On a previous Saturday, I saw over 50 present with their signs. Prop 8 was originally titled "California Marriage Protection Act," but was changed by Attorney General Jerry Brown to "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry."

Prop 8 is generating more campaign signs around Thousand Oaks than the local city council race. There are 2 "Yes on Prop 8" signs on my small block alone. I saw two small groups of about 3-5 people on other street corners around Thousand Oaks Saturday with "Yes" signs. But I have not seen a single large group like the No on Prop 8 crowd.

Bottom line is next Tuesday's election is very important. Vote!. Let's have a record turnout!

The Newbury Park Boys U19 B team beat the C team 2-1 in the semifinals of the AYSO Region 10E tournament. The photos are from the Sunday morning match. Dotphoto album.

The Newbury Park Boys U19 B team won 2-1 monday night. This match was much more exciting than the Patriots 41-7 romp over the Broncos.


I put 53 images into a DotPhoto album. Enjoy. Scott

During the last two years I have been shooting exterior images of Los Angeles City Hall. This rainbow photo is my favorite.


Recently to get some interiors, I joined a walking tour led by the Los Angeles Conservancy. The two hour walk included plenty of time to visit the Council Chamber, Board Room, Rotunda and of course the observation deck.

Los Angeles City Hall was finished in 1928, with a major seismic retrofit, restoration and renovation completed in 2001. Over the years, several earthquakes, especially the 1994 Northridge quake, had badly damaged LA City Hall. Only the lower floors were considered safe. The renovation restored the building to its 1920s splendor, but added modern touches of lighting, computer networks, disability access etc.


The Rotunda Ceiling, restored to its golden luster in the 2001 renovation.

Los Angeles Conservancy walking tours are the way to go to visit historic sections of the city. The monthly City Hall tour cost $10 for non-conservancy members, $5 for members. To make the required reservations visit the Los Angeles Conservancy web site. Other tours include downtown Art Deco, Biltmore Hotel, Broadway Historic Theatre District and Little Tokyo.


My Los Angeles City Hall gallery link. Enjoy. City Hall Gallery

Since the Microsoft "I am a PC" ads have been running, Apple has stuck to running iPod and iPhone ads, that is until today:



The latest Apple campaign seems to be: FIX VISTA!

Every week the This Week in Photography podcast recommends a unique website. This week's website, also a podcast, is the History of Photography by Jeff Curto. The site is at http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com/. The podcasts are the class lectures by Jeff Curto given in his class at College of Dupage.



I downloaded the newest podcast from iTunes last night. Who knew that Stereoscopic photography was all the rage and major form of entertainment in the mid 1800s? As Jeff Curto points out, the stereoscopic photos were mass produced and now are by far the cheapest images available from the 1800s.

Check out this podcast. These are not short podcasts, each lecture is about 90 minutes long.

Urban Dictionary defines Apple Tax as "A term to describe the extra money one pays for buying an Apple product.".....



This week Steve Jobs unveiled the new Macbook, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro notebook computers. These notebooks are beautiful, slimmer, full of new features and start at $1,299, $1,799 and $1,999.

The $1,299 price point gets the 13-in MacBook with 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gb memory, 160gb hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics card.

This morning's Fry's ad has a 15-in Sony Vaio with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5800, 3gb memory, 250gb hard drive and Intel graphics for $599. Half the price.

Apple's response to lower price laptops was to take the same basic model they have been selling for two years and knock $100 off the price. The white 13-in is now available for $999.

Bob Lachman at Photography and The Mac has a good write up on this whole pricing scheme.



Look close - the new Macbook does NOT have Firewire 400 port.

Also, before buying one of the new notebooks, make sure to sell off your external firewire drives, and older mini-dv camcorders. Apple took out the Firewire 400 ports out of the new notebooks. The new Macbook Pro has a Firewire 800 port but no Firewire 400. Funny, the $999 model still has the Firewire 400 port.

My suggestion: Buy the low end $999 Macbook or check out the Refurbished Mac and Clearance sections of the online Apple Store. There are great buys on the discontinued models. Avoid the Apple Tax!

This last weekend was the start of local AYSO U19 Boys playoffs. This dotphoto album includes photos of the Newbury Park Boys A and B teams. The A team lost in pks. The B team won 2-1. Enjoy the photos. Scott

No more shooting Raw plus Jpeg. A new free software Utility "Instant JPEG from Raw" makes it possible. This last weekend I changed to Raw only. Once back at the computer, this Utility pulls hundreds of jpegs from my raw images in thirty seconds or less!

Benefits from his little utility includes, more space on compact flash cards, additional camera buffer space, faster downloads to tethered computer - just a faster shooting session. And you can still make instant jpegs for those nasty quick deadlines. For me, I was able to shoot and entire soccer match on one card!

I am sold on this utility. For a really good demo, check out Michael Tapes guest blog entry at www.ScottKelby.com


You access the IJFR utility with a right click on the folder.


I was able to pull 256 jpegs from my raw images in 11 seconds.

Instant Jpeg from Raw works on both Macs and Windows. It comes with a pdf Manual. To obtain the software go to www.rawworkflow.com.

The Newbury Park AYSO U19 B team won last night 4-1 against the Simi Valley A team. The NP team went 8-0-0, winning first place going into the playoffs. I posted 58 photos this morning at DotPhoto.

DotPhoto Album

My cousin Wes recently e-mailed a great collection of photos titled: "Military Humor". Of course I found the same collection on You Tube set to music. Great images. Have a laugh on bleak Monday.

Scott

The Newbury Park boys U19 B team won Sunday 6-0 in match against Thousand Oaks.


I posted 85 photos from Sunday's match at Dotphoto.

This week Scott Kelby on his blog announced that Robb Kerr has passed away. Kerr was one of the original Photoshop World instructors. I was lucky to catch several of his classes from the 2002 Photoshop World in San Diego.


The 2002 Photoshop World was my first of five that I have attended. I pulled out the notebooks (in photo) last night and reviewed my notes from the four classes taught by Kerr. Needless to say, I learned a lot from his Color Correction, Color Management, Black & White and Color Separation classes. He also taught three other classes at the two-day Photoshop World.

I just wanted to say thanks to Robb Kerr for his entertaining and in-depth photoshop instruction. You will be missed.

Scott Harrison

WARNING: THIS IS A BLATANT PLUG!

This Week in Photography (TWIP) is one of several podcasts I listen to every week. It's a great source of information tips and just laughs.

Well TWIP is having a Link Contest. Everytime someone clicks here or here or in the sidebar column on left, or on my links page, and goes to the TWIP web site, I am entered in their Link Contest and could win a bunch of prizes.

So Please, click the TWIP links on my site.

I thank you.