Fireworks

Though I hadn't originally planned on it, my girlfriend and I ended up checking out the fireworks over Mission Bay in San Diego for the 4th of July.  There was a really interesting setup for them; at 9 they had synchronized fireworks from several barges positioned at several places around town.  These were pretty cool, but the best thing was just having more than one location.  The real show came half an hour later with the SeaWorld fireworks. 

Apparently SeaWorld makes a whole lot more money than I would imagine reasonable, because they put on a show that looked like this:

which I guess, by itself, seems just sorta OK, until I heard that this was 'just about the same' as the show they put on every Friday night all summer.  Go figure.  I guess their prices make more sense now.

Happy 4th, er, 5th everyone!

-M

Mt Soledad

Visited Mt Soledad tonight for the sunset. It was very interesting, if only due to the horrible visibility. There was a blanket of smog over nearly the whole county (including an hour inland on a day trip I took). One positive spin on such horrible air quality, though, is it gives amazing colors during sunsets! While up there, I took a few shots.

Hopefully we can get some rain soon though; an interesting sunset isn't worth poor breathing quality, and a hazy sunset, though interesting, doesn't lend to the most interesting sunset photography.  The light sure does though.

Beach Photos

In my lab, we have been doing overnight experiments occasionally as part of our efforts to study aerosol particles produced by wave breaking.  This has presented a nice opportunity for me, as it puts me down by the beach in the middle of the night.  On one of these experiments, I took my camera gear down to the beach and set up some long exposures to see what the Scripps/La Jolla area looks like at night.

This one was looking down a the beach from pier-level.  Wasn't on the pier, but still got some nice light from the pier lights.

On this particular night, there were many people out looking for grunions.  Over the course of my 25 second exposure, their flashlights moved quite a bit down the beach, giving a neat will-o-wisp look to the people on the beach.  There was also a nice cloud layer.

Night photography is fun, and this was evidence that it's always nice to have your camera on hand when doing other things, because you never know when a unique situation will arise.

-M