Besides all the homes threatened by the current fire near Los Angeles, the communication relay equipment on Mt. Wilson is also threatened. Check out this Webcam. This image from 1:26 am on Sunday shows smoke and glow from nearby flames. Isn't the internet great. We can watch flames without leaving home.

Photo from last night's walk at 5th and Broadway in Los Angeles.

At 3 am this morning I stopped pushing pixels for the night. I am having too much fun with these Wings Over Camarillo. Above is an eight frame image from the Oktomat camera. Below is a single frame, very grainy, from a single frame from the Oktomat camera.

I am posting the image for now in a photo set on flickr. Link The set is named Wings Over Camarillo.

When done, I suspect I will post about 50 images. I am trying many different combinations of techniques, especially using Topaz Detail and Topaz Simplify.

Image from today's Wings over Camarillo airshow. I desaturated the image about 80% then restored some the aircraft color with a mask.


A B-25 flying near the end of the airshow. Made into black n white image.

Jack and I visited the Wings over Camarillo airshow today. In the background is a C-53, a military version of the DC-3. I shot some 600 frames today, so its going to take a few days to process the images. I also have some complicated photoshop techniques I want to try. Enjoy.

During the last two evenings, I shot these images around downtown Los Angeles. All were processed through Topaz Detail. Enjoy.

Last week I downloaded a copy of Topaz Detail, a new photoshop plugin for High Dynamic Range (HDR) type post processing of images, but without the halos. So far the results look impressive. Here are a couple before and after versions from photos shot in March, 2009, in downtown Los Angeles.



Theater photo before Topaz Detail, above, and afterwards below.



For this Victor Clothing mural photo, I first did a set white and black in Lightroom, exported a copy to photoshop and applied Topaz Detail color jump preset. Before leaving Topaz Detail, I increased the detail settings for small, medium and large. After leaving Topaz Detail, I used the sponge tool to desaturate the parking lot and sky. Then used a quick curve to increase mid-tone contrast. The original image is above, final one below.


Topaz detail looks like a winner for my use. The main drawback is the filter does its major processing work on an image before opening the Detail menu. It took a couple minutes on my intel chip mac-mini to open 36 meg files. This is unlike Topaz Simplify which does its major processing work after the menu. So to save time, experiment with smaller files.

Robert Lachman, at Photography and the Mac, has posted a review of Topaz Detail. The program sells for $39.99. There is a 50% discount if purchased before end of August. Information on the discount is in Lachman's review.

Here is the link to Topaz Detail page.

Last thursday was the monthly art walk in downtown Los Angeles. Robert Lachman, of photography and the mac.com, and I had time to visit the Museum of Neon Art. Currently work by Larry Albright is on display, including the plasma globe, above. I was fascinated by the globe and kept taking photos.

One art walk note: almost all the galleries are free during the monthly art walk, but the Museum of Neon Art charges five dollars. I had no problem paying as MONA is a non-profit and needs the funds to survive. The do have two free hours, noon to 2pm, on art walk days.

In 1982 newsprint was cheap and newspapers very thick. Bundles of newspapers were perfect to use as sandbags to keep floodwaters back from a store in downtown Martinez, Calfiornia. You can't do that with today's thin papers.

Outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in downtown Los Angeles is this sculpture titled "Chas' Stainless Steel, Mark Thompson's Airplane Parts, About 1,000 Pounds of Stainless Steel Wire, Gagosian's Beverly Hills Space, at MOCA" by artist Nancy Rubins . Being an aircraft lover, I finally got the chance a couple nights ago to spend a few minutes studying the work. Of course I loved the sculpture - It reminded me of my favorite cartoon characters, a Wiley E Coyote assembled rocket powered aircraft destroyed during a Road Runner chase.

Nancy Rubins has several similar pieces on display. Check out this story from Las Vegas Sun.

Oh, I also googled "Mark Thompson Airplane Parts." Mark Thompson runs a real Aviation Warehouse in the California desert community of El Mirage. The company has supplied aircraft props to the movie industry for some 30 years. Wed site.

MOCA web site.

Last night;s walk led to this image of sunlight reflected off skyscrapers onto other buildings.

Back in the 1980s a loose band of Southern California photojournalist got together and marched in the annual Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena. Here are some pics from the 1986 parade. Ring leader is Davis Barber. I, of course, was just an innocent bystander documenting these photographers as they, I mean we, terrorized spectators, TV crews and cops - giving them the paparazzi treatment.

The full collection of photos is in this Flickr set.

Leo Laporte, on his radio show today, had a report on a legal online scam to get credit card numbers. Consumers are tricked into signing up for a "loyalty program" and a monthly fee is charged onto their credit card. Buy.com and Orbitz are two online retailers so far identified as participating with post-transaction marketers who gain legal access to credit cards.

Always skip any post-transaction pop-up window. If the window will not let you, force quit the browser.

Check out this CNET story.