Between the shots shown in Part 1, I was also looking in other directions.  The next series was taken looking towards the bluff at the end of the channel.

 

 

Looking across the marina towards the first ridge.

Looking in the opposite direction -- away from the setting sun.

And a couple looking up the channel.  The colors of the sunset reflected beautifully on the calm water of the channel.

These appear to be almost time-lapse photography -- the photos in each series were taken approximately 4-5 minutes apart (not very technical, as time-lapse goes).  This particular sunset lasted about 1/2 hour, and became progressively more intense through that time.  It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I can remember.

Last evening, I posted 2 shots that I had taken during a spectacular sunset.  Knowing the sunset would be nice, I had gone to my high vantage point to make sure the fog had not rolled in.  This spot looks down on the road from which I shot a sunset last week -- at the very left hand end of the road.

Looking out toward the ocean, the clouds were wonderful, and it looked to be a promising sunset.

  Having determined that, I proceeded to Dana Point.  The clouds  to the west were just beginning to pick up a little color.

To the east, there was more color.

An occasional boat would motor up the channel -- I was about halfway from the mouth of the channel to the inside end.

Clouds cast interesting reflections on the relatively calm channel water.  And there was wave evidence along the edge of the channel of the incoming tide.

The cloud color intensified.

The colors gradually changed over the next 15 minutes or so.

 

 

 

As you can see, these shots were all taken in the same direction.  The last shot was taken about 5 minutes before the end of the drama, and shows the darkness creeping in amongst the color of the clouds.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to load the remainder of the photos -- another sequence in a different direction -- they are even more dramatic than this series, and I will try to load and post them at a later time.

This is the sunset that, but for the fog, I wanted to show you one night last week.  It happened again, except that there wasn't the fog this time!  I'll leave you tonight with just a couple of shots, unedited and straight from the camera.

It was truly spectacular -- I watched it with the camera for almost a half hour as it changed from the least bit of yellow color to the fading magenta that signalled nightfall.  More when I've had a chance to edit the shots, and to select which few to show.

As we near the last day of Xanga and hopefully approach the launch of Xanga 2.0, I thought I'd leave you with one last post of some of my favorite shots from the first half of this year.  You've seen all of these before, so I won't comment, other than with headings.

Hummingbird

Great Blue Herons

Pelicans

Bird of Paradise

Squirrel

Sailboats

Captain of the Pilgrim

Fog

I have no better idea than anybody else as to where we will be on August 1.  If Xanga 2.0 launches (and that is my hope), I will be there.  If not, I will activate a wordpress account at slmret.wordpress.com.  That may take me a few days, but I will get there!  In the meantime, I've enjoyed knowing you all on Xanga, and hope to see you soon, wherever we all end up!

First, last night -- I took a short drive to Dana Point Harbor -- the camera was with me, but there was nothing particularly interesting to shoot -- nothing new.  I did get this shot of people kayaking across the channel.

This evening as I sat at my computer, I looked out the window and saw the potential for t lovely sunset.

I grabbed the camera and went looking for a good vantage point.  About two blocks from my home is a canyon that goes all the way to the sea.  It is part of a wildlife corridor, and there are roads and trails all the way.  Along the road about halfway to the sea, the road comes to an end at the water treatment plant.

Driving down the canyon, my eyes went from the hillsides to the sky and back again.  I'll begin with the hillside shots -- the grasses are very dry, the hillsides steep, and I really wouldn't want to be in one of the houses at the top this summer, with all the fires we've had.  They keep the grasses cut short to help protect against fire, but it still looks pretty scary to me!

I could see a fog bank coming in -- it looked as if it ws still over the shoreline.

I continued with more shots of the hills, but notice the clouds as well.

I decided at this point that there was still time to reach my high vantage point and look down at the spot where I had been as well as looking down to the sea.  When I got there, the fog had already come in past the shoreline and obliterated the sky and clouds.  I headed back to the water treatment plant, getting there just as the sun went down behind the hills.

The sunset at first reflected on the clouds with a gray color, then turning yellowish.

Deciding that this was the extent of the color due to the fog, I gave up and went to pick up some food to take home for dinner.  When I came outside with my bag of food, this is what I saw!

It's been a while since I've taken sunset photos -- I need to relearn the timing and the patience that it takes to get the full extent of a beautiful sunset!

All week, I have been smelling smoke wafting in through the open window.  At first I thought it might have come from a neighbor's back yard barbecue -- last night I realized that it is the smoke from the Mountain Fire in Idyllwild, just south and a little west of Palm Springs.  The fire has been explosive -- a couple of nights ago, it went from 14,000 acres to 22,000 overnight.  It is now at about 25,000 acres, and is only 15% contained.  On Tuesday night there was a lovely sunset, with the small clouds picking up a very pink hue from the smoke.  Last night the sunset was less brilliant, but no less colorful.

Yes -- that 'cloud cover' was fire smoke, nearly 100 miles away!  This afternoon, I went to a high spot to see what the view looked like.  There was a mix of fog and some smoke over the sea, with the sun shining through to the sea.

Turning around, I took shots of Saddleback Mountain, a view I've shown many times before.  The haze in front of the mountain is all smoke -- if it was not there, the view would have been very clear!

This fire continues to burn, 75-100 miles east of here, and is threatening both the little mountain community of Idyllwild and the more famous resort of Palm Springs.

July 21, 2013 Update

It has rained a soaking rain in Idyllwild, helping to subdue this ferocious fire.  As of today, the evacuation orders have been lifted (there are 7 homes which were burned, along with some out-buildings.  The fire has burned 27,000 acres, and is currently about 50% contained.  On the coast, where I live, it has been overcast all day, and the temperature is 70 degreee!

Attempting  to remain cool and comfortable, I again went to the beach yesterday afternoon.  This time, though, I went to a spot I hadn't been to before within Heisler Park.  This provided me with a new perspective of the coastline.  As I often do, I looked straight down as well as outward.

Looking out, the sun was getting low and reflecting off the sea.

Waves were breaking gently against Bird Rock.

And the surfers were waiting for the right wave to ride in.

Looking south, there is the city of Laguna Beach.  Even late in the afternoon, the beach was still pretty busy and colorful!

Wednesday afternoon was still rather warm and sticky -- in late afternoon, I went to Dana Point to see what was happening in or around the harbor.  At first, the channel seemed quiet, and the herons appeared to have left for the season -- there were only two that I saw within about an hour.  I sat there watching for a while, with the camera in my lap and at the ready.  Across from where I was sitting is the bait barge, which is open to fishermen 24 hours a day -- as well as to the birds.  Behind is a parat of San Clemente.

I noticed a few pelicans flying to and from the bait barge.

They skim along the surface of the water while they are inside the channel, rising when they need to, to go over the breakwaters or across the channel.

And the terns were enjoying a very plentiful dinner -- they look down (as in the next shot) until they see a fish, then they dive straight down to catch the fish.  They're wonderful fun to watch!  As during the rest of the day, the clouds were layered, and looked a little as if it would rain.

The Why Knot raised its mainsail as it moved towards the mouth of the channel.  Its home port is in Newport Beach, just a little way up the coast.

And a catamaran came back into the harbor.

Sum Fun left for a fishing excursion, with a trail of pelicans and other birds following.

 

And one of many squirrels posed on a rock.

There were mostly pelicans and terns in the harbor, and they were quite busy flying from the bait barge.  Every once in a while, they also swim by.

An occasional boat would motor its way into the harbor.

Suddenly there was a kerfuffle in the tree above where I was sitting, as this heron awoke from its rest.  It sat up and preened itself for a while.

 

Meantime a sentinel heron sat in the top of a tree across the road.

Oops -- one wing out to help with momentary lapse of balance, then back to its quiet stance.

 

 

Another boat coming in.

 

And a squirrel with its mouth full of paper.  This guy popped up from under a rock, sat there for a couple of minutes, and then scampered back under the rock, probably to add the paper to its nest.

 

Most chimney stays are in the shape of an 'S' -- on my way home there is one in the shape of a 'J'.

When I awoke this morning, the streets were wet -- apparently it had rained overnight -- and today has been much cooler!  Tomorrow promises to be much the same, although perhaps a little warmer again.

Squirrel says pick up your trash!

A little late, I discovered that the few photos I tried of fireworks last week actually worked.  I was sitting on a deck less than a mile from Laguna Hills Community Center/High School, watching several fireworks displays over the Saddleback Valley.  The fireworks were disappointing -- there were only about 6 minutes of individual fireworks.  We later learned that the display had been shut down by the Fire Marshall due to some technical issues.  In front of me was a plexiglass wall -- the first shot shows some of the plants placed just in front of that wall -- and I further cropped it to cut out the greenery.

  

Since the 4th, I have not posted partly because of the heat in Southern California, and partly because I've been busy catching up on some errands and appointments.  Last evening I took a few minutes to go to Dana Point Harbor to cool off.  There was a nice breeze bringing in air that was much more comfortable than we had even just over the first ridge from the ocean.  I missed the sunset by a few minutes, but did get one shot of a sailboat coming back to port.

As it has stayed hot in Southern California, Orange County has somehow been 20 degrees or more cooler than the rest of the area.  It's still hot, however, and that means that the hot air is still evaporating the sea water and creating a light marine layer.  Where I live, the marine layer burned off by early afternoon, finally revealing a partly cloudy sky that held more humidity than we have felt for the last couple of days.

I went to a hilltop viewpoint to play with my camera and its settings (I'll only show the best here -- because of the haze, none of these are very good).  I think that's San Clemente Island on the distant horizon, south and east of Santa Catalina Island.

Saddleback Mountain

This shot is of a scene recognizable to those who follow my posts -- look at that fog between Dana Point Harbor and the southern end of San Clemente!

And this is looking north from the harbor -- the clouds over the headlands!

It has felt today as if it was about to rain.  On the way home, I saw about one raindrop per block on the windshield for about a mile, but it never actually rained.  We are supposed to have one more hot day, followed by a cooling trend over the next few days.

It was another hot day in Southern California, except, as the news reports are saying, in Orange County.  We seem to be just outside of the high pressure system that is causing a record-breaking heat wave.  It was still hot enough to be uncomfortable, and I spent much of the day at the computer.  After listening to Alex @roadlesstaken and John, I needed to get out of the house for a little while -- where to go but to the beach on a hot evening!  As I expected, the sky was not blue, but rather a thin film of gray fog, with a fog bank farther out to sea.  When it is as hot as it has been for the last few days, water evaporates from the sea's surface and becomes fog -- that fog never completely burned off at home today, and was thicker by the shore.  When I got there, a couple of young great blue herons were flying around the harbor -- with apologies, I was able to capture one shot of a fledgling in flight (he was almost directly overhead, moving fast, and I really wasn't quite ready!).

A couple of birds stood sentry,

and there was even some nest-building going on.

Meanwhile, there was just a little activity in the harbor and just outside -- most of the boats had already come in.

Moored outside the harbor was a cruiser -- almost as big as the ship I was on in the Sea of Cortes a couple of years ago!

And the sun shone nicely on the northern part of San Clemente.

While gone, I had a chance to digest what I had heard about the future of Xanga -- and felt much more optimistic about the prospect of a successful relaunch of Xanga 2.0.  Let's make it work!!!

Saturday was a pretty day, with no clouds, but not too warm.  I had not been there since returning from Santa Barbara, so it had been two weeks since I had visited the Great Blue Herons.  When I arrived, around 5 pm, there were only two herons in the trees.

I would not have seen the second bird in the next shot had I not just seen it flap its wings in the first!

It will take another visit to determine whether they have left for the summer, or perhaps had just gone out to find some food.  But I decided to sit and enjoy the boat traffic instead.  The Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol was quite active.

and there were many different kinds of watercraft moving in and out of the channel.

Sum Fun came in from a whale watching trip.

I hadn't been there long when I spotted a drone that came to see what was happening in the channel.  Some time ago, a neighbor used to "go flying" on the weekends in an aircraft like this one.  It is simply a chair with an engine-driven fan behind it.  This one has a "sail" attached to it that keeps it up in the air.

I don't remember ever seeing a yellow sail before!

The Dana Pride left on a 2-hour whale watching cruise,

and left an interesting wake pattern in the channel.

There were several traffic jams,

The birds were great fun to watch -- here a pelican and a couple of Common Terns, a bird I had not seen before.

And on the rocks, a lot of ground squirrels.

Another traffic jam -- two small boats tied momentarily to each other, and the Vessel Assist boat on its way to help somebody.

A pelican flew by, skimming the surface of the sea.

There's the boat in need!

There's always lots of color -- this catamaran provided a splash!

The San Mateo left the harbor for a fishing tour -- the birds followed, so there must have been some food left over from the previous trip.

Common terns

 

 

The Common Terns were fishing -- they would suddenly fly straight down, splash into the water with a diving score of 9 or 10, and surface almost immediately, flying away with their prey.  There must have been a school of small fish, as I watched this scenario dozens of times and never saw a fish.

 

Time to bring down the sail.  That's an interesting boat to the left.

Oceanside is about 25 miles south of Dana Point -- this is their police boat.

A group of pelicans flew by.

Ocean Adventures brought their tour in.

And a jet ski circled in around a paddle boarder.

 

Saturday's moon was a supermoon -- a full moon at its closest to earth.  I was able to capture two shots (yes, they are actually two exposures, and not just two posts of the same shot) shortly after moonrise.

For those who missed it, the supermoon will also show it's beauty this evening.

While in Santa Barbara, I was again privileged to be able to visit Vandenberg AFB once again -- this time not for a sightseeing trip, but for a shopping excursion.  On the way out of town, my friend had an errand in a downtown office.  While sitting in the car, I was taken with the back of the office building.  Once an auto dealership in the middle of downtown, the downstairs service department is a parking area for employees, and the showroom has been cut in half to provide offices and a visitor parking lot.

Errand completed, we drove across San Marcos Pass towards Solvang.  On the other side of the pass is a 'river,' the Santa Ynez River.  Behind the city of Santa Barbara is Gibraltar Dam, an old concrete dam on the upper part of the river.  Downstream, to the west, is Cachuma Dam, a wider, earthen dam, built in the 1950's.  At that time, Cachuma Dam was designed to provide Santa Barbara's water, with a tunnel bored through the mountains to take the water to an open reservoir on the city side of the mountains.  Gibraltar Dam was raised due to the silt that had accumulated behind it -- it has now silted up again, and holds very little water.  Cachuma Dam now holds the water supply for Santa Barbara, being replenished by the winter's rains and by water purchased from the State (water supply for the State's various needs is one of the major points of contention within State government in California).  This year, Southern California has had approximately 6 inches of rain since last July -- normal rainfall is 15-18 inches a year, and even that is insufficient to supply us with the water we need.  I particularly wanted to see what the lake looked like at the beginning of June in such a dry year.  When the lake is full, there is no white line between the water level and the shrubbery.  These shots were taken from an overlook point, approximately 100 yards from one end of the dam, looking across the lake.

The point in the center of the next shot is a County Park, where people camp, rent or launch small recreational fishing boats, and so forth.  Because it is drinking water, no swimming is allowed.

The water level is really low -- and look how dry the hills are behind the lake, too!

While I took the above photos, a predatory bird -- a raven, or perhaps a hawk -- rode the air current watching for his lunch to make a move.

Moving on towards Solvang, there is a crossroads with grassland on all 4 sides of the intersection.  In early June, there was a small grass fire that started on one corner of the intersection.  It burned primarily on the one corner, but spot fires were visible on each of the other corners -- the roads made pretty good defensible fire breaks!  Grass fires act in much the same way as fires in brushier areas, although they tend to burn all the grass along the way, since it's all pretty much the same height and it's pretty densely packed. 

Standing in the same place, but looking across the road behind me, the scene was quite different.  San Lucas Breeding Facility is a horse stud farm -- it is all grasses with barns in the background, close to the mountain.  It was still foggy on the coast, and the fog was spilling over the top of the mountains, although it was about to burn through and be sunny on the coastal side of the mountains too.

The green on the right side of the next shot is a vineyard, something fairly new to this area.

And here's the fog spilling over the mountain tops!

The rest of my trip to Santa Barbara included more visits with friends and family, and I took no more photos during that trip.  I will be visiting the great blue herons tomorrow to see if they are still there -- it's summer now, and they may have left their nests, but will come home for the nights for a while.

Shoreline Park is the clifftop park along the ocean side of the Mesa in Santa Barbara.  There are great walking paths along the length of the park, and it's a great place to spend some afternoon time.  One afternoon while I was there, we spent an hour or so walking Shoreline Park.

It was a nice day -- the sun was out, and the visibility was good (probably about 10 miles).  The sea was relatively calm, with gentle waves flowing in to the shore.

There are several good interpretive signs along the clifftop, explaining the sealife and the history of the area.

The features of the cliff are enhanced by the planting, by little rest areas with benches, by a lovely entrance to "thousand steps" down to the shore.

The view includes 7 or 8 offshore oil rigs, and whatever activity is going on in the space between them and the shore.

 

Many of the trees are eucalyptus, with wonderfully interesting bark.

 

(and one for @buddy71 )

 

A couple of fishing boats (or lobster boats) rushed in to the harbor from their fishing grounds to the north.

The sky was beautiful while we walked.

I spotted a faerie ring of mushrooms by the side of the road.

And the sunset was beautiful as well!  Can you see the tiny new moon in the bottom right corner of this shot?

There's the moon again!

My great nephew is just over one year old, and, as his t-shirt says, he's ~ ~ ~

From the bottom of State Street, if you cross Cabrillo Boulevard, you drive out on a pier, Stearns Wharf, that is one of the last two working piers in the State.  There are restaurants and tourist shops out towards the end of the wharf, but it is also the home base for fishing boats and oil platform service boats.  It is a wooden pier, and the sound of tires on the old wooden planks is wonderful.  There are two lanes of traffic, and one for pedestrians.  The pier has a magnificent view of the beaches and Santa Barbara's harbor.

 

Fire is a real concern on the pier -- it has burned several times, taking out sections which needed to be rebuilt.

On a Sunday afternoon, there are Sea Shell races -- the row of Sea Shells (8 foot centerboard sailboats) along the shore are waiting their turn as the aother half of the fleet is racing in the open spaces of the harbor (see the very left side of this shot in the center).

Oops -- it looks as if a couple of boats needed some help!

Meantime, there was a lot of other recreational sailing along the harbor mouth.  And I wondered about those little birds in the front of this shot.

Hmm -- they're some sort of duck.

The Pacific Ocean is pretty cold -- but there are always crazy people who go water skiing on the weekends.

On the north/west side of the pier, the harbor is bounded by a breakwater.  There is constant dredging of the sand both inside and outside the harbor to maintain a safe channel.  The sand washes down from the north with the tides and storms.

A flock of pelicans flew by, mirroring the flags on the breakwater!

The farthest restaurant at the end of the pier is the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company -- very crowded, and mostly fried food.  I found it amusing that lobster floats are the decor of this store, since we do not have true (Maine) lobsters in these waters.

To the south/east of the pier, there is some open mooring, since the harbor is not large enough to accommodate all the boats that want to dock in the harbor.

And looking back towards town, the Mesa is the mound behind the harbor.  The catamaran in the channel, the Double Dolphin, was skippered by its owner on whale-watching cruises for many years.  The day after he died, there was an electrical fire that burned out the cabin.  The skipper's widow had it repaired, swapping it for another boat they owned for the interim period.  This boat had just returned to Santa Barbara a day or two before we were there.

And looking south/west from the pier, we see a sidewalk art show along the promenade.  The lagoon is actually the outlet of Mission Creek, the creek we saw in the previous post.

Walking back to our car, we passed a couple of nice plaques inset into walls, describing the prehistory of the area.

And I found this sign rather amusing -- a block back from the beach, and at elevation of perhaps 1 foot above sea level!

While in Santa Barbara, I went on several walks with friends.  On the first, we parked near the train station.

 

From there, we walked out to State Street (the main road between downtown and the beach), past one of the worst examples of poor urban planning that I've seen.  Santa Barbara would like to maintain the ambience it had in the 1950's and 1960's.  However, the town's population has grown considerably since then, and the old family stores have been replaced by t-shirt shops and yogurt shops.  The City Council would like everybody to walk into town, and have worked hard to limit the existence of cars in the downtown area.  One of their favorite tricks is to construct "bulb-outs" at each corner, especially on two lane roads with parking on both sides -- bulb-outs are noses at the corner that narrow the width of paved road to the width of the two drivable lanes, with the purpose of protecting the safety of pedestrians, but with the actual result of causing many accidents when people don't see the bulb-outs as they approach the crowded corner.  Another trick is the "calming circle" -- a roundabout inserted into the center of a narrow intersection, with a tree planted in the center -- the purpose is to slow traffic, but the result to create intersections that are impossible to navigate.  Several years ago, plans were approved by the City and by the Coastal Commission for a hotel complex to be built on State Street in the second or third block above the beach.  As a condition of the permit, the builder must narrow the 4-lane road to 2 lanes with lane-wide sidewalks.  The result of this will be to choke traffic to and from the beach, making it difficult for tourists to get into town, and for locals to get to the beach.  The City Council recently revisited the permit, and were told they would be liable for major lawsuits if they changed the conditions due to the Coastal Commission requirements -- new permits would have to be issued, and probably would not be approved!

At this time, construction is in full force -- they have moved both lanes of traffic to the east side of the road while they work on the west side.  They will later move traffic to the center two lanes of the road and complete the project.  The congestion one would expect has already begun -- traffic was backed up for two blocks (and two stop lights) in each direction.  Looking toward the beach,

and looking back up the street.

The Coastal Commission requires that the face of the building be preserved -- they have gutted the building, and you can see right through the windows to the other side of the property.

The next building down the road is also being restored.

And the next shot shows the area looking back from the bottom of the road.

Cabrillo Boulevard is the road that intersects State Street at the base of the pier.  There used to be a row of old and dilapidated little motels for about a half mile to the west of State Street -- those have all been purchased and renovated by a single investor -- also renovated was Mission Creek, which flows under State Street -- the next shot shows what the Creek used to look like, and the one after that the renovated portion of the creek.

The hotels themselves, on the right side of the above shot, have also been nicely renovated and landscaped.

I loved this use of a little pocket of space to build an herb garden.

Bird of Paradise

and White Bird of Paradise

From there, we walked out onto the pier -- the photos from that part of our walk will make up the next post in this series.

Leaving Mt. St. Mary's College, I was already half way to Santa Barbara, so rather than driving home, I drove northwards to spend a week visiting friends and family there.  To do so, I drove west on the main freeway to the sea, "the 10 freeway."  This freeway travels through Santa Monica, where it takes a sharp right turn to the highway through Malibu.  I always travel the freeways with the radio set on a station that broadcasts traffic reports.  As I approached Santa Monica, I began to hear reports that spoke of the "earlier bizarre situation at Santa Monica City College."  The city college is about 4-5 blocks south of the freeway, almost out to the ocean.  Continuing on, I later realized that I had gone through the area about 15 minutes after the shooting that killed 5 people in town, and closed down City College, where the entire incident ended! Not fully realizing what had happened at the time, I drove through, and on up the road. 

Passing through Malibu, the weather was really foggy -- I could not see the tops of the hills alongside the road!  An hour or so later, I came to Pt. Mugu -- and the area that was on fire a month earlier.  The Springs Fire had started alongside the freeway in Camarillo, and had burned over the mountains, all the way to the sea at Pt. Mugu.  I stopped at the inland side of the State Park on the way north -- and the seaside of the Park coming home a week later.  The following shots show what a wildfire looks like a month later.

The next two shots are focused differentially -- one on the surviving trees in the foreground and the other on the background.  I was standing more or less on a line where the fire was stopped.

   

This was the entrance to a campground.  On the right side of the building, you can see a plot map -- these shots were taken at the bottom of the loop, at the entrance to the campground.

Brushfires can be pretty capricious about what they burn -- one tree is burned while the one next to it is untouched.  In this case, the firefighters saved the three structures in the area -- this kiosk, the Park entrance booth, and a building on the hill.

The vistas were so awesome that I walked around shooting a few photos as I went -- and drove around the loop of the campground.  Even a month later the smoky smell was overpowering, and yet the campground was booked full for that night!

Regrowth begins almost immediately after wildfires.  There were a few examples of strong regrowth along the way.

The highway travels along the shoreline at this point, and comes around the bottom of the cliff in the center of this shot.

Even the cactus burned -- some will come back, but some was totally blackened.

This area was covered with chaparral, a woody shrub which is underlayed by sage scrub.  Chaparral is very oily, exploding when it burns.  It lives until there is another fire, making the time between fires important in the firefighting efforts.  This area had not burned for some time, and there was a lot of chaparral.

In the background, at the end of this canyon, is the sea.

Back on the road, one travels farther up the coast, around a couple of bends to a point where there is (no, was) a firing range belonging to Pt. Mugu (a former Air Force base that has been combined with Point Hueneme NAS).  They were able to save only one complete wall of the firing range!  Some of the next few shots were taken on the way home, as were those beyond the firing range.  Directly behind the wall(s) is the ocean.

The next landmark, shortly after the firing range, is a marshy lagoon.

And across the road ~ ~

The iconic rock as one passes the last bend in the road survived, but the other side of the road was scorched.

And the regrowth already looks pretty impressive.

In another year, this area will all be covered with new growth, and we will be surmising that there was once in the not too long past there might have been a bad fire. This fire burned only two structures -- it is a good demonstration of how fiercely wildfires can burn, and I have a great deal of concern for those nearly 400 people who lost their homes in Colorado this week -- their homes will be as devastated as the area shown above!

From here, I went on to Santa Barbara for a lovely week of visiting and some photography.

For the last week, I have not posted because I was away from my computer and using one that has a different operating system -- I have not learned how to upload photos to a 15-year-old MAC!  Some of you may have seen me commenting here and there, but no posts.  My week began with a meeting at the Doheny Campus of Mt. St. Mary's College, just north of USC and just south of downtown Los Angeles.  Named after Edward Doheny, an oil tycoon of the late 1800's and early 1900's, the campus is on part of a beautiful estate.  The campus has only one visible new building, where our meeting was held.  Afterwards, and with the permission of the campus contact for the meeting, I took the camera and began a walk around campus.  A security guard on his segue stopped me before I had finished and told me that they don't allow the public to take photos -- I like to honor such requests, so put the cap on the lens and stopped my foray, but not before I had taken several shots of some of the estate.

I'll begin with a few shots of the mansion -- it's a beautifully ornate building, nicely landscaped and decorated.

 

To the right of this building is another, more ornate inside than out, but also a lovely garden between the two buildings.

Since downtown Los Angeles is approximately half-way between my home and Santa Barbara, I took the opportunity to go north after the meeting, and to visit family and friends in Santa Barbara for the week.  This week's posts will include photos of that visit.

A second question troubled me when I first read the message from TheXangaTeam.  They indicated that “we would find a way to port Xanga to open source blogging software like WordPress and reinvent the site…”There are further references to WordPress – “building a WordPress version of Xanga;” and “we will move over to the new WordPress version.”  At the time I first read that, I knew I’d seen called WordPress, but didn’t know anything about it.  I decided to take a look at WordPress in case I had to make the switch.

HOWEVER, in the days since then, I’ve seen a number of posts, and asked a number of questions, and have come to the conclusion that I was barking up a wrong tree.  Last Friday, @tjordanm posted “Analyzing Xanga’s WordPress Choices.”  While I don’t pretend to understand the technical stuff in his post, it did clarify for me the use of the term WordPress and some of the information that had confused me (Tom – please help me here if I am a little confused!).  As I now understand it, there are two sites known as WordPress.  WordPress.com is the blogging site that some have used to set up new or existing blogs with the idea that Xanga will move to WordPress.   WordPress.org, on the other hand, is the base on which WordPress.com runs, similar to the way many programs on your computer run on a base of Windows 7, for example, or on an Apple operating system.  There are many other sites (tv station news sites, business sites, etc.) that run on the WordPress.org base – Tom has provided examples of these in subsequent posts.  In his interview yesterday afternoon, @edlives likened it to having a car body (WordPress.com) sitting on an engine (WordPress.org) – Xanga’s engine is old, and needs replacing – the potential new engine is WordPress.org.

By “moving Xanga to WordPress,” what the XangaTeam means is that Xanga will be rebuilt on the operating base WordPress.org.  The Xanga site will still be Xanga, programmed by Xanga’s programmers, paid or volunteer, and will have a look and feel that is unique to Xanga.  Nobody will have to log on to Word Press in order to reach their Xanga site – we will log on to Xanga.  People who support Xanga and remain active here, but also have a WordPress site will actually have two open blogging sites, just as they have had all along.  The sites will be discreet, and some will continue to maintain both sites.  It is possible, that we will all wake up on July 16 to a site that looks just like the Xanga that we know now, but will say at the bottom of each page “Powered by WordPress.”  I would expect, however, that the first time we see Xanga 2.0, it will look a bit different than what we are used to, given that the Team is apparently already working on programming upgrades.

Given the above understanding, I now know that I will submit my pledge, at least for myself, and perhaps for one or two additional memberships.

Let’s make it work!

 

Note:  I have read and appreciate all your comments on Part 1.  I will reread them, and will respond where it would help clarify the situation.  Thank you for your input, and please feel free to comment here as well.

Recently there was a post from the Xanga Team regarding the future of Xanga -- yes, you all saw it -- and yes, you all reacted to it in some way, whether privately or publicly, whether positively, skeptically, or negatively. As I've watched and thought about the posts and comments I've been seeing, there are several thoughts that come to my mind. A disclaimer: I am in no way connected with the Xanga Team, and don't even know who's on the team. Much of what I am about to say is simplistic, and all of it is non-technical, but it derives from experience, some business experience, and common sense.

It is not inexpensive to buy servers, or to lease them, for a project such as Xanga. Xanga needs a solid funding base in order to continue the use of servers on which to operate. It has appeared that most of Xanga’s funding has come from advertising -- advertisers pay to place ads on individual web sites within Xanga. But many bloggers have paid relatively small amounts for Premium or Lifetime membership to rid their sites of the ads. The more that has happened, the less interested advertisers are in paying to be unseen on the sites, and they stop paying to advertise.

This issue is not unique to Xanga. Newspapers all over the country are filing bankruptcy because they have lost much of their advertising revenue. Even within the last week or two, Facebook has lost GM as a major advertiser; there just isn't enough return for them to continue to pay the fees. Dwindling advertising funding does not provide sufficient consistency for Xanga to continue at this point, thus the current fund-raising.

The Xanga Team has apparently been working for some time to come up with a solution to the cost and funding issues they are facing. They have apparently learned that it will be less expensive to use a different approach to website hosting, using Word Press as a host on which they can build Xanga 2.0 – in effect, renting space in somebody else’s home.  @MyxlDove has demonstrated this nicely with examples of websites that are hosted by WordPress -- sites that aren't even blogging sites, and look nothing like each other. Xanga 2.0 can look just like what we all are used to seeing -- or it can be redesigned to a more modern look and feel.

How have we reacted to Xanga’s announcement that they are reinventing Xanga?  First, let’s look at a couple of analogies.  How did we react to the airlines charging for food, for luggage, for carry-on bags?  Perhaps with a grumble, we have paid them.  Some truly cannot afford the increased prices, and they have deferred or cancelled travel plans.  How have we reacted to increased housing prices?  Many have downsized to smaller, less attractive housing – others have rented (or sublet) rooms in the homes of others, with kitchen and common area privileges. Most of us have maintained some form of housing.   

Anger and frustration are not helpful.  Venting of anger will simply cause the Team to wonder if it’s worth pursuing – they are working hard to make it work, and what they hear is the anger of people who haven’t taken the time to think about the work that is required.  It is greedy to expect our blogging to remain free forever.  It is selfish to expect direct responses to every question asked, especially those asked in anger.  And it is counter-productive to demand individual answers – the more they have to stop to answer selfish questions, the less time the Team has to make the changes required to save Xanga.  There are people who are helping the Team with the “customer service” -- @edlives has written daily updates that are very helpful; @MyxlDove and @tjordanm have explained how WordPress hosting can work. 

In life, there is no free lunch – in Xanga, there will be no free blogging (free viewing and comments will still be available).  We are at a point where we must decide how important it is to continue our blogging.  If enough of us pledge our support (we are not being asked to pay until a final decision has been made), based in large part on our understanding that a new model can work, Xanga will once again become viable; if not, Xanga will die.  Let’s all make it work!

 

Some of you may remember this photo, posted a couple of weeks ago when I had been taking shots of the rigging of the Brig Pilgrim.  The Captain was busy that day, welcoming young teens on board for a sail on the brig.  He was barking orders at the kids, turned and looked at me for a moment, and turned away to continue working with the kids.  When I posted it, several people encouraged me to make certain that he had a copy of it.

A week or so later, I put this shot in a frame with a simple mat, and took it to the Brig, which had just come in with a different group of kids coming back from their field trip sail.  I waited till the kids had left the boat, and when a crew member came off, I explained that I had a photo of one of their Captains and wanted to get it to him.  The crew member took me to the office, and I left the photo with Sarah, the Secretary.  She knew who the Captain was, and commented that it was a good shot; she showed it to a co-worker; and she took my name and phone number so he could say thank you, and I left the photo with her.  I didn't expect to hear anything more, but had taken a photo to the person who might enjoy it most.

This afternoon, I had a call from the Captain, who introduced hiimself, and said that he had received the photo and loved it.  I commented on the scenario in which I took the photo, and he seemed to remember!  We talked a little about the type of photography I do, and the fact that I had been there shooting the rigging, and was pleased with this one shot of him.  He commented that I had caught him with a sort of mean look on his face, to which I responded that I also saw a little bit of a smirk in that sternness!  He told me that he lives in LA, and has been doing this volunteer work for about 20 years, and loves the kids who sail with him.  He has done his last stint for this school year, but hopes to be down at the Ocean Institute working with the kids again next year -- I may hear from him again when he takes the Pilgrim out again!

Although I don't consider myself a portrait photographer, every once in a while a candid photo comes out really nicely -- I like to get copies of those to the people they represent.  I think this one made the Captain happy -- and he certainly rewarded me with his call of thanks.