Sunday was one of those very rare days - no work, no plans, and clouds! A chance to shoot sunsets. Throw in a moonrise and it looked like a perfect evening. So I took off the beach in downtown Ventura

By chance, I met fellow National Association of Photoshop Professions (NAPP) member Calvin Cairns at the beach. He had a panorama camera on tripod waiting for a to shoot both a sunset and moonrise in the same image. But the sunset gods did not cooperate. The after-sunset glow on the bottom of the clouds was pretty much a dud. Clouds farther off-shore blocked the sun. See the bottom photo.

Oh well. I shot some images and took off.

Russian Foxtrot-Class attack submarine is on display next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
photo gallery

Free time is rare, but when you have some, do something interesting. I was in Los Angeles this last Saturday with several hours to kill. So after visits to a couple camera stores - I took off to Long Beach and a tour of the Russian Scorpion submarine on display. The Soviet Union built tons of subs, with the belief that numerous subs would overpower the better quality NATO units. The sub on display was a Foxtrot-Class attack submarine powered by diesel engines. The class of subs was code named "Scorpion." The sub was built in 1972 and decommissioned in 1994. More information is at the web site: http://www.russiansublongbeach.com/.

What struck me was that while the sub was built in the early 70s, much of the interior electronics, displays, levers and valves had a very 1940s look to them - especially the phones and typewriters in the staterooms. Even the exterior hull did not have the clean lines of American subs. I don't know if that was a lack of quality maintenance or poor construction. But the bottom line is that the subs did their job - on display is a photograph of an American carrier taken from the periscope - evidence of being in torpedo range.

Touring a submarine is the complete opposite of an aircraft carrier. The interior is cramped and some of the hatches are hard to climb through. The key to enjoying the sub is taking your time and letting others go ahead of you.

I was only able to shoot one of three Alliance matches this last weekend during the El Camino Real Thousand Oaks Classic soccer tournament. The Alliance won two and lost one during the tournament.



Nick Harrison after scoring a goal in Saturday evening match. Dot Photo album.

During last weekend in San Diego, I was able to spend time at the waterfront seeing the war memorials and the USS Midway museum. The biggest surprise was "Unconditional Surrender" a 25 foot statue on loan to the city of San Diego. The statue is based on the famous "V-J Day Kiss" photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, New York City, in 1945.



"Unconditional Surrender" statue in San Diego at night. Photo was a five second exposure with 200mm lens with tripod. Lights in background is tour boat cruising by.

"Unconditional Surrender" was previously displayed in New York City in 2005 and Sarasota, Fla. in 2006. The statue is owned by the Sculpture Foundation of Santa Monica, Calif., and is on loan to the Port of San Diego through 2007.

The statue was dedicated in March, 2007, with unflattering comments in a San Diego Union-Tribune review, followed by 125 letters to the editor - 2/3rds bashing the statue.

I have two problems with the statue. One is the title of the statue. It should just be "VJ Day". The second is that the artist J. Seward Johnson never had permission from Eisenstaed's estate or Time-Life to recreate the famous image.

But these two complaints are very minor. The statue succeeds as a reminder of the pure joy and relief of VJ day - the end of World War 2. It belongs next to the USS Midway Museum and other memorials in the area. The total package really drove home to me the sacrifice my parents and the entire World War Two generation made.

Enjoy the USS Midway photo gallery.

Scott

The Walt Disney Concert Hall peaks over the last remains of a demolished state office building on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. Two second exposure at f/5.6, ISO 200 with lens set to 35mm.

The Alliance U17 Boys soccer team played in a tournament in San Diego over the last weekend. The Alliance won two matches and lost one. The field was on Coronado Island at the local high school stadium. Great location. Enjoy the photos!



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