2010 – Page 3 – Kurt M. Lawson Photography Blog

Archive for 2010

Some Hot Air

by Kurt September 8, 2010 in California, Night 1 comment

Let there be light! At the end of July, the town of Santa Paula, California hosted the Citrus Classic Balloon Festival. Like many people, I had never actually seen a hot air balloon up close. They were always things that I saw in the distance while driving on the highway or in pictures that other people had taken. Driving up on a Friday evening I took up my photo gear and headed into this unknown territory. It turned out to be really amazing.

Essentially, the event has a large field in which the balloons set up. Each balloon is rolled out onto the ground and carefully unfolded. To start the inflation process, large fans start blowing into the balloons on their side to get some air in there. Here you see the view of the inside of a balloon that is being inflated by fans. Once the ballon gets enough air from the fans, the basket is tilted and the burners can be fired. This is what you see in the first picture. I had no idea the burners produced such massive flames.

The main event of the evening was called the “Evening Glow.” For this event, the balloon captains fire their burners in unison to illuminate all the balloons at once. It was really quite a sight.

Finally, when it’s time to pack up one of the balloon captains flew his balloon into the trailer (with the help of several people holding it down). After this they would pull the balloon down with ropes so that it laid down straight to be folded up until the next time.

It was a really fun event to shoot. The light levels were really challenging and in every direction there was something to shoot.

A single captured Perseid

by Kurt August 20, 2010 in Night, Sierra Nevada 2 comments

The blog hasn’t seen much updating lately, but that’s because I’ve been out taking in tons of new material! A most recent example is this shot from a backpacking expedition to the Big Pine Lakes area in the Eastern Sierras. Here is a 30-minute long exposure of the incredibly beautiful Temple Crag. Despite pointing my camera in almost the exact opposite direction from the constellation of Perseus, the point from which Perseid meteors seem to originate from, I managed to capture one stray behind this striking mountain. The sole vertical line on the left side is the captured Perseid.

Some beach atmosphere

by Kurt July 13, 2010 in Los Angeles County 1 comment

I went down to the beach this evening to test out a new lens I rented. I ended up not using it in favor of bringing out the beloved 100-400mm again to shoot some of the crazy atmosphere action around the pier. The backlighting was really fantastic and I kept shooting until the sun disappeared behind the Santa Monica Mountains.

Santa Monica pier and the setting summer sun

A day at the beach

by Kurt July 8, 2010 in Los Angeles County, Video 0 comments

Yesterday I took a bike ride along the coast of Santa Monica Bay. While this was mostly just a recreational trip, I found that the gloomy marine layer that extended from Santa Monica to El Segundo had opened a hole over Malibu, and that this provided a stunning backdrop to some surfers that I happened to notice as I rode by on my bike. Had I not looked up at this moment I would have missed it. I hauled my bike into the sand and shot a series of pictures as the light faded. I had taken my entire photo kit sans tripod with me and was glad I did as I whipped up my new 100-400mm zoom lens to frame up these shots. This was quite a magic hour!

The waves crashing over the edge of this break wall in Venice is what caught my eye in the first place. The waves were splashing 20 feet into the air.

I don’t know what it was about the air – perhaps moisture content – but looking towards Malibu revealed this mirage like image of an island. The island is of course not an island, but rather the ancient rock of Point Dume at the far west end of Santa Monica Bay.

Not all the shots from the trip were at the one spot. Here are a few others from different parts of the coast.

This boat was right at the edge of the massive marine layer cloud, with the water in front in direct sunlight while the boat was in shadow.

These two photos are from a fenced off area that allows these birds to hang out without human and pet disturbance. I believe they are Great Blue Herons and there were four of them when I went by in Marina Del Rey. They are big, pretty birds.

Finally here is a little time lapse I did showing the movement of the marine layer cloud taken from the edge. This is approximately 10 minutes sped up to last only 38 seconds.

Steam Maintenance

by Kurt June 21, 2010 in Uncategorized 0 comments

I paid a quick visit to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society yesterday. Their locomotive, Nickel Plate 765, traveled by my house when I was growing up and I always like to see it when I can. On this day they were working on the frames that support the wheels of the locomotive’s tender. I walked away with two shots that I really liked of the work being done, although the depth of field could have been bigger. It’s always challenging to shoot pictures in their shop since it is very dark. You can see some of my other shots of 765 and other trains by clicking here.

These two gentleman were grinding bits of steel that they had welded onto the trailer trucks. The steel they were adding was of greater strength than the original steel in the trucks. This will hopefully be more resistant to wear and tear. In these pictures they are grinding down the welded on pieces.