More "On The Waterfront"

Here are a few more photos from lunchtime walks around Morro Bay.

 

Morro Bay Waterfront

Morro Bay Panorama from the South T Pier

The summertime fog has been burning off around noon in Morro Bay, and this gives me an opportunity for lunch time and late afternoon photography.  Here are a few recent photos.


Morro Bay Waterfront from the roof of the power plant


Fishing Boat - North T Pier

Clouds Passing over the Stacks

The remnants of Hurricane Fabio brought a brief period of showers and some rapidly moving high clouds to Morro Bay on 7/19/12.  It was time to get out the video camera for some time-lapse photography.

This short video provides a unique perspective on the Morro Bay power plant stacks.

Kitten Laundromat

Goodness sakes we are small, eyes barely open staring at a big big world; maybe we're a few weeks old - we're not sure.  We are furry helpless little ones for sure, just starting out our lives in a strange place.  Mom was around us for a little while, but now has left - probably up and run off with that mangy tomcat from next door.  And we're hungry, tired, flea covered and abandoned in Atascadero.  What's a little kitten to do?

With the help of some kind humans,  we have checked into Sherry's kitten boarding house, laundromat and day spa (at the North County Humane Society).  What a great place to stay.  Us little kittens never had it so good!!  While we don't use Yelp, we give it a solid 5 meows.  Here we get about 10 meals a day (us bottle babies need food every couple hours), and we get a Saturday afternoon bath and blow dry, and we can nap as much as we want.  And we get to star in pictures - like the ones below.

First, we check in and get our tummies combed.

Then we get a bath - goodbye nasty fleas.  And we recommend Dawn liquid cuz it gives us a shiny coat and prevents the frizzies.  Just make sure we don't get soap in our eyes.

Not all of us are fully appreciative of a good bath ...

Then we get a good blow dry so we don't catch cold!

Finally we get dinner - every 2 hours or so!

Little Kittens, Big Cats

The North County Humane Society still has kittens.  Several more few week old kittens came in yesterday, and kitten bottle feeding champion Sherry Chapman is taking care of them.

The good news is that of the 50 or so kittens at the shelter earlier this year, many have been adopted, and there are still about 20 left looking for homes.







And let's not forget about the older cats.  There is currently a lovely Himalayan female and a large Ragdoll / Snowshoe guy looking for new homes - both are great, friendly gentle cats.

4th of July

Photos from this morning at the pancake breakfast in Atascadero Lake Park.







God bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home

Atascadero - The ARTery Tree Mural

The new mural on the ARTery in Atascadero has stirred quite a debate in the community.  You can read some of the details on the Tribune website or at the ARTery Facebook page


I won't get into the discussion regarding permits, but I do like the mural and think that it is perfectly appropriate for an art store downtown.  Other residents in Atascadero may feel otherwise.







The ARTery is a wonderful small store in old downtown which sells art and craft supplies and does custom framing.  They support community art events and frequently display local artists' work in the store.  While the shop may be more "colorful" than surrounding businesses, my personal view of downtown is that it does not have to look drab and uniform - the design standard doesn't have to be the same as when E.G. Lewis founded the community.  We should be encouraging stores to move downtown and fill in some of the vacant buildings rather than putting up roadblocks for downtown businesses.

And I would certainly rather shop at unique local stores than spend my money at Walmart - talk about an eye-sore!

So here is a photo of the Tree Mural - you be the judge.

Elvis Is In the Building

The Community Presbyterian Church of Cambria hosted a fundraiser this weekend; entertainment was provided by Elvis Presley!!



The program was a benefit for the Church's youth programs, and also featured and Elvis inspired dinner of fried chicken, cornbread, potato salad, and for dessert, peanut butter and banana sandwiches.



Raymond Michael portrayed Elvis and has been doing it for many years. He has a great voice, fine moves and costumes made by Elvis' designer. And he made the event quite participatory, pulling ladies from the audience for the love songs, and men to play the "air guitar" solos. The "hula" was quite memorable - look for the video when I get it put together!!

Aliens in Morro Bay

I frequently walk around Morro Bay with my camera, sometimes at lunch and often after work. With the camera, I am just a tourist and I can watch other tourists stare at Morro Rock or browse through the waterfront tourist traps.

 I recently took a half day workshop on creative photography in Morro Bay. The workshop was a bust but it got me to think about other creative ways to view the town. So I spent an hour of walking around Morro Bay with my digital camera, a LensBaby wide angle lens and the digital filters turned on in the camera. Some of the photos required additional processing on the computer at home.



 You may not like some of these pictures but they provide an alternate view of Morro Bay. And if you are interested in some of these the effects you might check out the Lomography website.

The Lomograpy credo is:

1 › Take your camera everywhere you go.
2 › Use it any time – day and night.
3 › Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it.
4 › Try the shot from the hip.
5 › Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible.
6 › Don't think.
7 › Be fast
8 › You don't have to know beforehand what you captured (on film).
9 › Afterwards either.
10 › And don't worry about any of the rules

A fun web site for retro photo effects is Pixlr-o-matic.  They have both an on-line photo editing tool, and a downloadable version.  Additionally, the latest version of Google's Picasa photo software also has a nice collection of artistic effects and filters that you can use to alter your photos

More Fluffy Kittens

The North County Humane Society has about 50 kittens who are looking for new homes.  Most are too small to leave the shelter right now, but they will be growing up quickly, so if you want one, the time to look is now.  They have all colors - black, white, tabby, orange and several Himalayan kittens.  The little ones are incredibly cute right now, so don't be surprised if you end up taking more than one.

Rose Colored Glasses

My sunglasses are a few years old now, and they seem to have grown darker with age.  The optometrist describes them as "empurpled" as the lens hue has changed to a rosy red purple with time.  This really make for a photographic challenge, as I see colorful sunsets where there are none, and I'm always amazed that the light on the golden California coastal hills even when my friends only see dry grass.

So I've been trying to capture the colors that I see with the camera.  Some of it I can do with processing, but I can't seem to get the combination of polarization and color just right.  So I bought a new filter for the camera - a daylight fluorescent filter that I can stack with a polarizer to the get the effect I'm looking for.  Here are some of the results.

I think it looks pretty good on the grassy landscapes, but don't care for it that much on the seashore.  I have not yet had a chance to try it with a sunrise or sunset.

Vintage Camping - Pismo Beach Style

Pismo Coast Village RV Park hosted the 5th annual Vintage Trailer Camp on Saturday May 19. We could not have asked for better weather as the fog burned off early and the winds stayed calm. My sunburned nose attests to the abundant sunshine on the beach Saturday.

Pink flamingos dotted the landscape among the more than 300 restored trailers, campers and vans.  Trailers from the '30's through the '60's were prevalent including Airstreams, Shastas, Silverstreaks and a variety of teardrop campers.  Campsite decor often matched the trailers with vintage gear and colorful table settings.

My favorite was the pop up teardrop trailer below. It is amazingly roomy inside, and the owners have added wonderful woodwork and upholstery to the interior.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a small trailer to pull behind the Jeep for photo expeditions, so I looked at a lot of the teardrops.  Many of the owners have restored their campers to better than new condition, adding nifty features to maximize use of the small space.  The craftsmanship on most of these custom trailers was incredible, and many owners had photos documenting the restoration process from the "pile of junk found behind the barn" to finished hand crafted camper.

Tent trailer camping - like our family did in the late '60's

Teardrop built from the ground up by the owner - great cabinetry work

Airstream mini bar matches the trailer - you don't need a mirror around this rig

Custom graphic wrap on this trailer