2008 Xmas Letter

Two big news stories for the year: Chris and Lucia are getting married. The date was originally planned for summer, 2009, but we have decided to postpone, and of course will be putting out the word when we finally pick a date. And Allison has been accepted to the College of Her Choice, Emerson in Boston. She is working hard on being a costume designer; she's sewing like crazy and also getting lots of backstage experience. I am really pleased with her focus and energy, and when we visited the school in June, I was impressed with the breadth and depth of their program. Emerson and Allison will fit well together.

Two trips to Guatemala for Chris, and four for Lucia. Plus Chris's trips to Boston, Portland, Yosemite, Washington D.C., Utah, Arizona, and Grand Traverse Michigan made this a pretty busy year. The photo trip isn't comprehensive, but I hope will give a flavor of what the year was like.


Allison posing outside Emerson College. The College main entrance is in this cul-de-sac walkway across the street from the Boston Gardens, about 1/4 mile from Cheers. It is RIGHT in the middle of the city. Boston seems like a great town, and I am really pleased that Allison is going to be going to school there.


Another college visit with Allison: this one is in Seattle, which you might have guessed if you noticed the Space Needle outside the window.


Got to go to Utah and Arizona on a fabulous mountain biking adventure.


The weather was not great for May, with snow at the higher elevations.



So we got to sample a beautiful location near St. George, Utah,




Gooseberry Mesa is an absolutely amazing place to ride a mountain bike, with trails that flow smoothly from uphill to downhill, around trees, and over boulders. I think it is better riding than the famous slickrock trail of Moab. I can't wait to go back.


We finally did make it to the Grand Canyon, and got to ride along the rim. Amazing.


Allison really wanted to give motorcycle riding a try. So here she is on my Hawk at the local community college parking lot. She did pretty well, only dropping the bike once. But I didn't do as well -- I don't remember not knowing how to ride a motorcycle, and am terrible at trying to tell someone how to ride one.


Another trip: this time a short flight northward to Portland for a professional conference. Got to see RS and Annie Soppe there. We spent a lot of time together in High School, and we blinked, then we all have kids in high school ourselves. Man it goes fast.



A group of folks gathering on the dam crest at Sisk Dam, near Los Banos, California. The dam has some stability issues in a really large earthquake, and we're discussing what to do about it.



Lucia's niece Ana had a beautiful baby this year; Sebastian.


Wildflowers had a good season in southern California this year. These are at Diamond Valley Lake, near Hemet. Our photo club was invited to make some photos of the flowers in full bloom.



The photos our club got from Diamond Valley Lake were displayed at the visitors center there.



We had a number of presentations raising consciousness about the situation for women in Guatemala. This presentation was in Orange, California, with the National Organization for Women.



On a local bike ride, I rode up Black Star canyon, near Silverado, to this ruin, built and still owned by a local family, the Beeks. The cabin is known as Beeks Place.



One of the recurring themes at work this year was Security. This was a visit by Homeland Security to one of our reservoirs (I could tell you which one, but then I'd have to kill you, haha), and they got a comprehensive view of all aspects of the reservoir.


The Raconteurs at Coachella. Why was I at Coachella, you might ask? Allison wanted to go, and her mom wouldn't let her go without an adult. So I volunteered. It was an experience.


The lights at Coachella.


Swift No. 2 powerplant. The embankment I'm standing on to get this photo failed a couple years ago, and was rebuilt.


Forest glade along the Columbia gorge. This area is spectacularly beautiful.


Waterfall along the Columbia gorge.


Sequim, Northern Washington State.


Sequim, Northern Washington State.


Also on the beach at Sequim.


Umpqua River, OR.


Covered bridge near the Umpqua River, OR.

I worked on an early design of this reservoir early in my career. Finally got back to the site and saw the finished product. I hope the owners don't get too much trouble from those "reglators".


A different Washington.


Our photo club at work put on a show in July.


During a conference in Indian Wells in September, I stayed at Mom and Dad's house. Unfortunately, they were still in their summer location near the beach.


Huntington Beach pier just after sunset.


The beautiful side of Guatemala, the side the tourists get to see. Antigua, only 40 minutes from the capital, with it's amazing surroundings and cobble streets.


More Antigua.


A less scenic part of Guatemala; the main city dump at Guatemala City, on one of our Delegations to Guatemala. We visited a group there that provides a really high-end day care experience for the children of the dump-dwelling families.


A visit to Sobrevivientes, a survivor's refuge and resource center in the capital.


I'm not sure the grafitti refers to the little girl, but maybe.



Our delegates on the No Violence Against Women march in November.


Bianca, a survivor we work with.


Wishing you and yours all the best for the holidays and for the coming year...

Chris and Lucia

Racism

I just read an article on Yahoo about a huge number of anti-black hate crimes popping up around the country, and it reminded me again of how entrenched hatred and racism are in this country.

I remember seeing the Watts riots on TV in 1963, and wondering why the blacks in Los Angeles were so angry, and why they took it out on their local businesses, burning and looting the furniture stores and liquor stores of the south Los Angeles area.

I remember being shocked at the disparity between the opinions of blacks and whites in the O.J. Simpson case. As I recall, during the criminal trial, some 80-90% of white people though O.J. was guilty while some 80-90% of black people thought O.J. was not guilty. I remember wondering how this could be so, when the facts of the case seemed so clearly to point to O.J.'s guilt.

The Yahoo article pointed out that the widespread expressions of anger and hatred against blacks is like when a man comes home from a bad day at work and kicks the dog. The dog didn't cause the bad day at work, but gets to be a convenient target. Likewise, the store owners represented wealth and power not available to most Watts residents, so they were the target of their anger.

The only way I could reconcile the disparity of opinion on O.J. is this: It seemed that blacks wanted O.J. to be acquitted because it would show that wealth and status counts in overcoming being accused of a crime, even for black people. That the black population wanted to believe that the reason so many black men are in jail, are on death row for crimes white people would not be in jail or be on death row for was because of economic disparity not because of racial bias.

If this were true, if a rich and prominent black man could get acquitted or a light sentence for a crime he clearly committed, as so often happens for white people (Nixon, Dan White, Charles Keating, Enron for example), that would give black people hope. Hope that the source of the bias in the legal system is economic, not racial. After all, we can change our economic situation more easily than we can change the color of our skin.

I for one am amazed and pleased that 52% of the population is willing to elect a black man as president. I take it as a hopeful sign that racism is waning, as significant a step as abolition of slavery and the 1964 civil rights act. Those milestones brought about open expressions of racism, bringing hatred's ugliness out into the light of day. Is it possible that we can look forward to a day when race is not a factor in how people are viewed? That a man can "be judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character" as Dr. King prophesied?

In the Yahoo article about race crime, someone was quoted as saying that racism is like cancer; it goes into remission but is never really cured. The racist response to Obama's victory has shown that the cancer of hatred continues to thrive in the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.

"Model" Photo Shoot

My daughter is in high school and wants to go to college to learn costume design. Part of getting in to an art school where they teach things like that is to provide a portfolio. Fortunately, she goes to an art-oriented high school, so she has some art already, and also has made some of her own clothes.

So she came to me yesterday wanting me to make photos of a few outfits she has made for herself. Great oppo to put my Strobist learning into action.

So we hung a sheet over a PVC frame I made for a backdrop, set the camera up carefully. My new D90 has a great function where you press Info and it displays all the important settings on the back, and you can just work your way around the screen and make sure all is well. Focus mode AF-S, WB Auto, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/200 s, and F-stop about 6 or so.

We're in the living room with no direct sunlight in sight -- am figuring to light the scene entirely with strobe. Pop a test shot with no flash, make sure ambient is not a factor.

Create ambient: set an SB-600 on 1/16 power and aim it at the ceiling behind me. Adjust power up a couple times. Final test shot shows about 1-2 stops below normal exposure. Cool.

Next, create key light: set an SB-800 at 1/4 power into a shoot thru umbrella on a stand about (her) head height. Test shot shows fall off down her body; we're not doing portraits, we're capturing how the clothes look. Lower the stand one foot.

Last, set up the on-cam flash for a bit of fill. TTL set at -1 should fill in any dark shadows. A test pop and things look great.

Made all the shots with no further fussing on lighting, which was great; we had to concentrate on making poses and making sure everything looks right. Except for the all-black outfit. Chimping showed there was little detail on the black (I didn't think to check the histogram though). So I boosted the key light up one full stop to 1/2 power.

She opened the images in photoshop and said "these are great. The only thing I have to do is take out the bruises on my legs." She expected to have to mess with the images, and was happy that they were great as-is.

Thanks David Hobby for the Strobist inspiration!

Gooseberry Mesa and the Grand Canyon

What an experience! Five days with Rim Tours on mountain bikes.

The plan was to ride across the Kaibab Plateau to the Grand Canyon. But the weather at the Grand Canyon was not cooperating, with 4 inches of snow reported on the Arizona Trail.

We met up Monday, Memorial Day. I was eating breakfast at the hotel when Mike, one of our Rim Tours guides comes in to the breakfast area and introduces himself. He explained that the weather wasn't looking good, and got onto his laptop to get a weather report. Then we went outside and, at the planned meeting time, 8AM, I was the LAST guest to give my stuff to the other guide, Christina. Yep, all the other participants in the tour were there, ready, and had already loaded their stuff before I showed up at 8:00. Well, maybe it was 8:05.

We rolled out about 8:20 and headed to some of the local trails near Hurricane, UT.



One was called the Jem trail, and I can't remember the other trail. The weather was sorta warm - maybe 65-70, but very unstable, with occasional squalls and hard rain. The trails were very cool, with some medium steep climbs, and some really great roller coaster sections. After riding for a few hours, a great lunch provided by our guides, then a few more hours of riding, we packed up and headed for Gooseberry Mesa.

I should mention this is the second trip I've done with Rim Tours. They really do it right. Their fees are not cheap; you can stay in a nice resort for the $/day Rim Tours charges. But it's so worth it. The food is great, the guides are really cool and knowledgeable. The other patrons were a lot of fun to ride and hang out with too.



Gooseberry Mesa was above where we were riding earlier in the day, but it seemed like another world. The only structure I saw there was an outhouse; one of those cool cinder block ones with a vent stack that is designed not to stink much and isn't loaded with graffiti and trash.



We found space for our five tents - two Australian couples, and three of us who came on the tour by ourselves. Our guides didn't bother with tents for themselves; Mike slept on a cot under the stars, and Christina slept in the van.

Tuesday morning we got to sample the trails of Gooseberry Mesa. Unbelievable. Trails that wind in and out of pinyon pines, yucca and various cactuses and lead to technical slickrock sections. These trails have *flow*, and are super enjoyable riding. There are a few areas that were too technical for me, so getting off and walking messed up the flow a bit, but the trails are just super cool riding.




I'm already looking forward to my next trip to Gooseberry Mesa.

After 2-1/2 days near St. George, we did take off for the Grand Canyon, and of course it was beautiful. We were in the Kaibab National Forest, so we could ride on the trails. In National Parks, riding on trails is against the rules.



Our camp near the edge of the Grand Canyon



This view was a 3 minute walk from the camp site.



Riding through this meadow, I was really impressed with the trees bowed toward the trail.



Aspens.

So, the Grand Canyon was an awesome experience, and I do want to go back to the Kaibab Plateau. The mountain bike riding at Gooseberry Mesa was the very best I've ever seen, and I probably never would have ridden there if the weather hadn't been too cold at the beginning of the week. How lucky can a guy get?