Left Coast Cowboys

Sometimes I wonder why everyone seems to know more camera stuff than I do. Maybe that’s why I’m on my second photography class at San Francisco Community College. This one is Outdoor Lighting Techniques. And just like the Beginning Photography course I took earlier, everyone, but me seems to know this stuff already.

However, there may be a few of you lurking out there who don’t know about Polarizing filters (this week’s lesson), so, for you, I’ll pass on what I’ve learned.

You’ll remember that Tuesday, we had a field trip to Pacifica’s Mori Point to seek out glare and neutralize it with a Polarizing filter. You’ll also remember that the fog came in thick and fast in that Northern California way. No sun. No glare. No dice with a Polarizing filter. So this week has been spent praying for sun and trying to fulfill the assignment.

Here’s the scoop on a Polarizing filter or at least what I’ve learned:

1. First of all, this is one of the most valuable, versatile filters you can have. It allows you to mitigate bright, glarey light. In that kind of light, it brings out details and contrasts that you wouldn’t normally see. And, if you get more advanced and try to create that “fuzzy waterfall” look by shooting in low light, the filter will let you simulate an even lower light to keep the shutter speed slower. (But that’s getting way ahead of ourselves.)

2. It’s relatively cheap as camera accessories go. I got one for $40. But it gives you a lot of flexibility.

3. The Polarizing filter is one of the easiest filters to use. Instead of having to take it on and off, you just twist it to select or deselect the effect. 

Here is the photo evidence.

Here is the back of our barn looking up toward the olive orchard. Note how blown out the sky is. Lots of glare and bright sunshine.

Now, I’ve twisted the Polarizing filter to activate Polarization.

Look at the clouds! Those wispy ones to the right were barely visible without Polarization. And now the sky is a more intense blue.

So here’s how it works with water. This is a shot of the pond in full sunlight.

As you can see, the reflected light from the water is bleaching out the color of the reeds.

Now look at it with Polarization:

The colors are more intense, both in the water image and in the color of the reeds.

In the right light, the Polarizer can change the whole nature of the photo. Here is the barn shot up against the bright sky. 

The glare of the light is sort of blackening out the windows. Bonus question: What's wrong with this picture?

 Now look what Polarization does to the glare in the windows.

Suddenly this is almost like Magritte's Barn.

The interesting thing I learned from this exercise: you don’t necessarily have to be standing out in bright sunlight for your Polarizer to help you. Look at this photo taken under the eaves near the stalls in the barn.

Although you wouldn't think there was a lot of glare here, apparently that metal strip toward the front of the eave is bouncing light back. As is the reflection of the white gravel.

Now check out the subtle, but important difference the Polarizer makes.

You can see how all the glare on the metal strip is gone and look how much deeper and richer the colors in the wood are.

I should offer full disclosure on Polarization. It’s not always as easy as twisting the Polarizer to “on” position or “off” position. Light and glare are tricky little suckers. They bounce around from all angles. In my experience, you just have to play with it. Maybe move yourself around at different angles to the light. Then practice with Polarizer off and on to see what works best.

Oh, and note to self: Make sure, as your stubby fingers are fiddling with the Polarizer, they aren’t still in the way when you snap the shutter. (See the non polarized photo of the barn above!)

And don’t take my word on all this. I’m just an an amateur. Here and here are some great articles on using a Polarizing filter.

I bet that one slipped right by you. Some of my Black friends used to joke that, when they finally got a Black History Month, it was February, the shortest one. Now it seems, we’ve designated a month for Native Americans. And it might as well be February what with Thanksgiving and the fact that we check out and start thinking Christmas thoughts immediately after the turkey. In fact, it seems the government can’t even agree on what to call this month. Some sites call it Native American Heritage Month, others American Indian Heritage Month or even American Indian and Native Alaskan Heritage Month.

Well, whatever we are going to call it, I’ve got two great documentaries I’d recommend as good starting points to understanding what I guess we are supposed to get in touch with this month: the contributions and place that Native Americans have in our nation.

The first is The West, produced by Ken Burns and written and collated by Geoffery C. Ward who wrote all of Ken Burns greatest documentaries. While not strictly a documentary about Native Americans, this documentary features them heavily, since what examination of the West could leave them out. But their contributions, culture and tragedy is handled much more in depth than the usual examination of Western America which jumps from the Plains to the Reservation to the Wild West Show and drops the subject there.

And by the way, if you’ve found the pan and scan of old letters and photographs grew old in Baseball, Jazz and The Civil War, fear not. One of the incredible things about this documentary is that Burns & Co. take so much of it outside. To the real West, the West that — in spite of all the development, the exploitation and the abuse — still exists. There are incredible aerial shots of buffalo stampeding, and places like the Bad Lands, the Southwest and the Plains just being spectacular. A side benefit of viewing The West, is that you will find yourself calling your Congressman and demanding more protection of our western heritage sites. At least, I hope you will.

Another wonderful thing about this documentary is that it doesn’t attempt to relate history, although it does that very well. It’s main purpose seems to be to explain the dream of The West. What did it mean to the Anglo, the Spanish, the pioneer and the people who were already here. The usual all-star line-up of great actors brings historical words to life and larger-than-life characters like former Texas Governor Ann Richards are interviewed. The series begins with a quote from Kiowa poet N. Scott Momaday who posits that “The West has to be seen to be believed. But also may need to be believed to be seen.” The goal of this documentary is to make us believe in The West through the eyes of the people who were drawn to it. Almost disproportionately, the series shows us The West through the eyes of the people who believed they were placed exactly here by a higher power.

On a personal note, I’ll disclose that I own this series and watch it at least once a year or before every road trip into sites in the West. I always get something new out of it with every viewing.

The next series is 500 Nations, which has the direct goal of explaining the totality of the Native American experience. The most astounding lesson to be learned from this series is the massive diversity of the Native American world. There were Indians who built and lived in cities, those who were nomads, those with matriarchal societies and others with traditional hunter/gatherer lives and societies that were more advanced than those of their European invaders. Even tribes that inspired our Founding Fathers with a new idea of a Democratic government. What is also illuminating is how much interaction these widely diverse societies had. Tribes in Minnesota wore shells from the Gulf of Mexico, Aztec and Mayan nobility wore turquoise mined on Navajo land.

The series is produced by Kevin Costner and somewhat marred by his deadpan codas at the end of every chapter. But he’s a minor distraction. The series is a great, sweeping introduction to nearly all segments of the Native American experience, from East to West, from North to the South of Mexico. One of the strongest aspects of this series is the liberal commentary by contemporary Native Americans from a wide range of tribes.

I should note that both series come with companion books, both of which I own. Both are well worth the purchase price.

Obviously these two series are a starting point. I’d also recommend trying to attend a Native American Pow-Wow. There are a surprising number of them, at least in California. I’ve always found them simply by Googling just those keywords.

Both The West and 500 Nations are on Netflix. And both companion books are available on Amazon. Rent the series and read the books before Thanksgiving. And remember who saved the Pilgrims’ bacon as they starved in a land the local Wampanoag knew as a land of plenty.

Photo of Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce by Edward Curtis.

After weeks of unseasonably warm and fog-free weather, the day dawned for my Photography class’s field trip to Pacifica’s Mori Point. And wouldn’t you know it, the fog rolled in with a vengance. Since the purpose of the field trip was to learn to reduce glare with a polarizing filter, the point of the trip was somewhat negated. But we showed up anyway and tramped around in the fog and the wind looking for something reflective to neutralize with our polarizing filters.

No sun. Cold wind. Fog. But our fearless Prof, Nish, kept up a brave face and sent us out to combat non-existent glare.

We’re going to have to call the photo safari a wash-out, but I was pleased to discover this almost unknown little State Park, which is apparently the home of two endangered local species: the San Francisco Garter Snake and the California Red-Legged Frog. Overall Mori Point is an interesting hiking, running and biking spot with windswept bluffs, fresh-water ponds and odd art installations.

The endangered and colorful San Francisco garter snake. Photo by Todd Steiner.

The endangered California Red-Legged Frog. Photo by Kathleen Freel.

If you want the easy wilderness experience, Mori Point has lots of flat paved trails.

Or you can take the wilder paths up to the bluffs.

We were at the point to mitigate glare with polarizing filters. Ooops. Not much glare today.

But I gave it the old college try. This is a pic of my props without the polarizing filter.

And this is the same scene with the amazing mitigating factor of a polarizing filter.

So final score: Field Trip Success, D-. Interesting new wild area found: A-.

Hope I’m not going to be drummed out of NaBloPoMo. I wrote this post in Mexico, hopped on the plane and assumed I would upload it when I got home. I assumed wrong. My host, who seems to have chosen THIS month to do an extensive migration, wouldn’t give me access. So, in the interest of full disclosure, this is yesterday’s post today. Post-dated. So sue me.

This is as good a time as any to wrap up our four day attitude adjustment in Puerto Vallarta. I would highly recommend renting a villa, as we did, rather than staying in one of the many vaguely Stalinist high rise hotels. First, the economics were right. With a private chef, the cost came to about $150 per couple per night (with three couples staying in a villa that could have held at least three more couples.) For my money, Puerto Vallarta isn’t THAT exciting a destination in terms of historical sights (none that I could see), architecture (not much of interest), historical artifacts (none), so you might as well just hang out in the sun by the pool and the beach. Which I can take for about three days, so this was perfect.

Our villa was Villa Celeste, which I would highly recommend.

I should mention that not all of us draped ourselves over deck chairs and vegged out. Andy and Keith did go on a two tank dive near an off-shore bird reserve. The most interesting thing they saw under water were sea turtles. The most interesting thing above the water were these guys:

It's the Blue Footed Boobie! And this is one of the few places you can see him outside of the Galapagos. Photo: Shutterstock.

Meanwhile, those of us manning beach chairs marveled at the huge Frigate Birds:

Our final wildlife encounter involved feeding bananas to our friendly neighborhood iguanas.

Here's the little female iguana.

Here's the male iguana.

About those pictures. Note to self: if you boost the ISO up to 800 for a night shot, change it back to 100 before you start taking pictures under bright sunlight. Guess my photography is still squarely in the amateur category at this point.

I’m not understanding it. Travel should, and usually does, give me loads to blog about. Not this time. Or maybe it’s the type of vacation which is 100% relaxation and no schedule or agenda. So until I leave tomorrow, you’ll have to put up with what I had for breakfast. Although breakfast was pretty unusual: fruit sculpture.

After that point, the day devolved into relaxation, massages, pool, more relaxation. Until we had a spot of excitement at midday.

One of the caretakers came to ask my permission for something. But since he doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish, I had no idea what I’d agreed to.

Suddenly, a group of cute Mexican teens, all dressed in white, showed up with a film and camera crew. They posed around the courtyard, then took off. Leaving me wondering if these are the next Mexican Idols. Or Mexican Bandstand. Or Mexican Dance Party. Or a Mexican toothpaste commercial.

Some of the teens wait their turn in front of the camera. And mug for my camera.

The stylist at work on two cute kids who needed no styling.