wwp@yahoogroups.com:
My Summer Solstice Water Weekend
bryant_arnett 2005-Jul-11 20:11:00
Along with my submision, I took a couple more VR photos over the Solstice
weekend. Here they are with some explanation...
Thursday was a dreary, overcast day in Southern California. That morning, my
wife proclaimed that it was "earthquake weather" and said I should mark her
words, because there was going to be an earthquake.
With camera and tripod in tow, I headed off to work. I had a busy day ahead,
but I also had about an hour break for lunch. A quick Google of the words
Burbank, California and Water eventually led me to a place called The
Japanese Garden. Here is a link to their site...
http://www.thejapanesegarden.com
It was a place I had never heard of before, an incredible japanese garden
built on the site of a water treatment plant in the Sepulveda Dam area. This
was only 20 minutes from my work! Perfect for a lunch hour excursion. It
turned out to be a really beautiful place. Expansive peaceful grounds with lots
of water and, sure enough, on the other side of a big wall of trees is a huge
water treatment plant. In fact, they have a lookout tower where you can see a
view of both areas. Seems like the perfect spot for a VR snapshot, right?
Unfortunately, the tower was closed for repairs, and they have a no-tripod
policy so I was tripodless and I was running out of time, so I figured I would
have to make a return trip another day if I was going to get anything good.
As I was standing and contemplating a quick hand-held cylindrical approach,
the earth began to quake. It was very strange, standing there in that peaceful
place with all that water around, suddenly feeling the power of the earth as it
gently swayed beneath me, rippling the pools. My wife was right! It WAS
earthquake weather. This was the first earthquake I had felt in years.
Fortunately it was far away and weak enough (4.9) that there was no
significant damage or injuries. If only I could have caught that exact moment
in VR.
Friday, I again spent the day looking for water. But apart from the occasional
bottle of drinking water and trip to the rest room, I didn't see a drop all day.
Even on the drive home, I didn't see anything resembling water. When I pulled
into my driveway, my daughter and some friends were on the front lawn, oddly
enough playing with an umbrella, but still no water! I figured I should remedy
that situation so I set up my tripod and grabbed a hose...
http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/SunShower01.htm
The next day, Saturday, I convinced my two youngest daughters to go with me
on a drive up Big Tujunga Canyon. We had a lot of rain here in Southern
California this past season and, according to news reports, a section of the
canyon road had been washed away. I figured this might be interesting. When
we got there we discovered that it was mildly interesting but didn't hold much
for a nice picture, and the light was bad. So we detoured around the bad
section of road and headed up the canyon another two minutes and
discovered this remarkable spot...
http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/Tujunga_Canyon_01.htm
Once again, a place I didn't know existed, just 15 minutes from my house. If I
drive 15 minutes the opposite direction, I am in downtown Los Angeles! I
really don't know why I have not driven up this canyon in so many years, or
why I never saw this particular place before. Leave it to the WWP to expand
my horizons, even here at home.
The next day was Sunday, Father's Day, and the day of my submission photo
so please have a look...
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp605/html/BryantArnett.html
I'm sorry about the size of these extra files I am presenting here. They are
each over 3 megabytes. I am spoiled by my DSL connection which
downloads the typical fullscreen QTVR in about 10-15 seconds. I had a
miserable experience trying to show my wife's parents the site. They have a
slow dial-up connection and it took over ten minutes to download a single
fullscreen image. Ouch. Well, you have my sympathy if you are still dialing up.
Thank goodness the WWP requires the small version as well for the most
people to experience the site. If I have time, I will try to make some small
versions of my pictures. I have added a few other fullscreens since the last
WWP. Take a look at...
http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_wwp01.htm
Thanks for letting me share my story. I will see you at the the energy equinox.
--Bryant