After spending about 10 years on Facebook and not publishing anything on this blog in about 6 years, I've decided to abandon Facebook and concentrate on this blog plus Flickr and other sites to share my photos and writings. I will discuss my experience with Facebook and other social media sites, and look at ways to increase my internet exposure. I've been busy since my last post, moved to Crescent City California, revived my woodworking interest and built a Grandfather Clock, and was blessed with a Granddaughter, Phoenix, born in the middle of the pandemic 12/26 /2020. 

My Facebook Experience: I've always known that FB tracks most of your on-line activity and over time have devised more intrusive and outright predatory monitoring techniques. I was diagnosed with cancer 1 year ago. Naturally I attempted to find out as much as possible about the disease and did a lot of on-line searches. Like most health issues, there is no limit to the devious charlatans spreading false information and cures all over the internet and elsewhere. Naturally my on-line feed was inundated with such false and dangerous information. To me this is criminal and immoral behavior practiced and indorsed by FB. The last straw with me and Fb occurred while I was preparing a comment in response to a friends post. Before I could post the comment, I received a warning from 
FB saying this comment violated community standards, do I want to continue? I then realized FB is a fascist organization that values money and propaganda more than good honest behavior. I also realized FB and most high end internet tech companies are a trap that lures people into their clutches with false and misleading promises, that later turn to threats and harassments to bilk you of more money.  

HDR Photography....A Few Thoughts

Pillar Point Harbor, California!

High Dynamic Range HDR photography uses multiple exposures at a wider range F stop to extract more information from a photo scene!  This is not a new technique some early examples are evident around 1850 by Gustave  Le Gray who combined two B&W images to capture detail in a sky and sea image! 

Today there are HDR stand alone programs, HDR filters for Photoshop plus many cameras now process and generate HDR within the camera. I use a stand alone program called Photomatrix which I'm pleased with. Once you get certain parameters set, it delivers good results.

Here is my rudimentary understanding of HDR and why I find it useful under certain circumstances! Our eyes take in a lot of photographic information, more so than a camera. To relate HDR and our eyes you can equate F stops in a camera. If you consider the human eye is equivalent to about 24 F stops, whereas an ordinary digital camera maybe 10-14 F stops, some think 5-9 F stops is more realistic. So it makes sense if you can shoot multiple photos with a range of exposures say +1, 0, -1 you have more data or information that can be combined into 1 photo!

HDR is not without criticism as some people tend to over process their photos that results in unnatural elements in the photo. It should be noted that HDR does not add or subtract anything from a photo, everything contained in the photo was present at the scene and time of the shot! Any out door scene has continually changing light dependent on the earths rotation, the sun and cloud position! A photo taken at 3 pm will be different than the same photo shot at 3:05 pm as lighting is constantly changing for the reasons given above! Most photographers post process their work, whether a simple crop or adjustments of color and lighting.

I've done a lot of backpacking in the past and always carried a decent camera and lens. However I was usually disappointed at the final results, because the camera was not capturing correctly all the information present with one shot. Not being a professional photographer I was unaware of multiple shots and dark room skills. One of my first experiences with HDR happened on a trip to Sierra Valley in California when a thunder storm appeared and presented wonderful lighting and dramatic clouds!
I was very pleased with the results but when I showed my wife the photo, she said it did not look real. I then showed the photo to one of my friends who was on the trip with me and experienced the same scene, he immediately said that's exactly how I remember the scene!

Another aspect of HDR I'm experimenting with is taking photos directly into the sun! All photographers know taking photos directly into the sun is a bad practice and results in poor back-lit photographs. I've found you can take photos directly into the sun as the group of photos show below. The sun is just above the top frame of the photos, I cropped to make sure the sun itself was not in the photo.  The one major drawback is this technique generates lots of digital noise and extreme noise reduction post processing is necesary.

HDR Example Shooting directly into Sun

HDR 1of 3 0 Exposure Adjust	HDR 2of 3 -1 Exposure Adjust
HDR 3of 3 +1 Exposure Adjust	HDR Final Version

Pacifica Explorations

View From Mussel Rock

Pacifica is a very unique and cool little city just sitting south of it's big sister San Francisco! It's not your typical suburban town with uncontrolled sprawl endless malls and no personality! It's a treasure for wildlife, including birds, and it's a whale magnet!

Some of my favorite spots to visit are Mussel Rock, Esplanade Avenue, Mori Point, Linda Mar, Rockaway Beach, Pacifica Pier and all of the rugged spectacular coast line. Pacifica is totally bordered by the ocean along it's entire western side. Most of the land hugging the coast is crumbling sandstone cliffs in a constant state of retreat.

Pacifica Pier

Pacifica is world famous for dramatic landslides, massive surf and destructive waves.  Pacifica Pier is the big attraction when the big swells move in. When the wave action fueled by storms, high tide and King Tides, one wonders how long the pier and the facing houses will last before they are scooped up by the ocean!

A group of large apartments located on Esplanade Street in Pacifica has made national news this year and in the past due to erosion threatening the entire buildings. The apartment complex was constructed sometime before 1972 and the land in front of the buildings has been retreating steadily over the years. In 2010 2 Esplanade buildings were red-tagged and the tenants evacuated. Recently 3/16/16 a 3rd building was yellow-tagged and the tenants ordered out. At the same time the two buildings condemned in 2010 were demolished by the city of Pacifica.

Pacifica 

Massive Waves Crash Beach Homes

The most visual and exciting place to see high surf in action is right down at the Pacifica Pier located on Beach Boulevard in Pacifica California!  The pier has been famous for years as many people flock to it during high surf conditions and it often makes the evening news with

Fog Edge at Lina Mar

spectacular waves. This year has been one of the more spectacular for wave action and destruction. Beach Boulevard and the adjacent houses have been pounded and damaged this year and the future of Pacifica Pier is in question.  A little further south is the Rockaway Beach area, another pocket type beach with spectacular surf and potential for major damage and erosion.

There is still more exploring I intend to do in the more remote and rugged terrain, I've been somewhat limited by some chronic physical conditions such as Peripheral Neuropathy which in my case is foot numbness and resultant balance problems. I've decided to put my old mountain bike back in action to give me more mobility and hopefully no accidents this time around.

A Warning From History Israel Election 1996

Right wing hate speech and Hamas terror attacks, turned a 20 point lead by Shimon Perez over Benjamin Netanyahu into a last minute victory for Netanyahu!

Here is a recap of the events leading up to that election:

1993:     Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords signed by Prime Minister Yitzahak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.  Rabin, despite his extensive service in the Israeli military, was disparaged personally by right-wing conservatives and Likud leaders who perceived the Oslo peace process as an attempt to forfeit the occupied territories

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November 4, 1995 Minister Yitzahak Rabin was assassinated by an ultra nationalist radically opposed to Rabin’s peace initiative and the Oslo Accords.  Netanyahu was the head of the right-wing Likud party and leader of the parliamentary opposition in 1995. In a film by Amos Gitai “Rabin, the Last Day”, we see Netanyahu speaking at rallies where his supporters held up posters calling for the deaths of Rabin, Peres and Arafat and the extermination or expulsion of all Arabs on Israeli-held land. He surely saw the homemade images of Rabin in a keffiyeh, or Palestinian-style headscarf, and the other images, the ones depicting Rabin wearing an SS officer’s uniform. He saw people staging a mock funeral for Rabin, carrying a coffin through the streets. He saw all those things and said nothing about any of them. Indeed, he embraced that situation as a political opportunity.

1996: After Rabin’s assassination Netanyahu’s popularity plummeted as he was seen by many Israelis as being at least partially responsible thru his hate rhetoric. Shimon Perez the Israeli Prime Minister called for early elections and was ahead of Netanyahu by 20 points early in the election cycle. 

However, the country was hit by a spate of suicide attacks by Hamas including the Jerusalem bus 18 massacres and other attacks in Ashkelon and the Dizengoff Center, which killed 59 people, severely damaged Peres' election chances. Polls taken in mid-May showed Peres ahead by just 4-6%, whilst two days before the election his lead was down to 2%. On election day Netanyahu won by 1%.

For people who feel comforted by Trumps drop in the polls, be aware of past history; let’s hope it is not repeated! Remember a few days ago there was near panic at the NY airport caused by people making lots of noise celebrating Usain Bolt’s Olympic achievements. Fear makes people irrational!