Badwater

I think I posted a black & white version of this photograph once before, although I have posted so many now it's hard to keep track. Anyway this was taken at Badwater Basin in Death Valley. This is the lowest point in North America at 282ft below sea level. I thought I would taste to water just to see what it tasted like, yeah that was a mistake, it was kind of yucky, salty actually. Things do actually live in this water though as you can see them swimming around.

I Was Here.....Freezing!!!

So I got to spend last week in one of the suburbs of Chicago working with the Motorola engineers configuring and testing the some of the data systems on the new radio system the County of Riverside has purchased. It was quite amazing to see our whole radio system with 60 sites worth of equipment all under one roof. I get to spend two weeks back there in March for our factory acceptance testing. 

So while I was there I took a 45 minute road trip to Downtown Chicago one evening to take some photographs. I had checked all the best vantage points online so I knew where to head right from the start. I wanted to get a photograph of the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). So the destination was Adler Planetarium knowing that it had a view of the city across a small part of Lake Michigan. I got there just before sunset and setup my tripod thinking that I was dressed warmly. Well I was except for my hands, in the space of 30 minutes I had lost all sense of feeling in my fingers and by the time I left about one hour later my hands had gone from a numb feeling to one of pain, in fact it took 20 minutes in the car to get the feeling back. I think the photograph was worth it though. In case you are wondering the lake was partially frozen and what you see in the water is the moving sheets of ice.

Where Am I & Illinois Earthquakes??

So in case any of you are wondering where the daily photo is I thought I should let you  know where it is or not as the case may be. I'm in Chicago right now for work being part of the configuration team for our new radio system. So I thought I'd have a chance by now to get a photograph or two from Chicago but alas lots of snow stopped that. Anyway today looks good outside and I'm hoping to get into Downtown Chicago to get some photographs. So thanks for bearing with me and I hope to have something posted tomorrow.

Oh and as a side note, I slept right through the 4.3 magnitude earthquake we had this morning. Yes, Illinois has earthquakes and if you look it up some pretty big ones. Check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_fault_zone

Martin. 

Winter At The Lake

Tuesday I took a trip to see my doctor to get my cholesterol levels checked.Now for me my doctor is a 75 mile drive up a mountain to Big Bear Lake. You may ask my reason for travelling that far to a see a doctor? Well, the answer is I really like and trust him as my doctor and i haven't heard anyone else say that about their doctors closer to home. Anyway, about two weeks ago a major storm system came into Southern California and dumped more snow on the mountains around here than I had seen in my ten years of living here. Driving up to Big Bear was easy, the roads were now clear. The snow piled up at the sides of the roads was way above the roof of my car though. After seeing the doctor I took a drive around the lake to see what photographs I could get, this ended up being tougher than expected due to the piles of snow at the roadside. I did manage to find a couple of good spots though and the photograph above was one of them. This is a view across the lake of the East boat launch ramp. 

One point I would like to add is if you ever want an entertaining weekend afternoon then head down to a boat ramp and watch as people try to load and unload their boats in and out of the lake. It's one of the most amusing and sad things to watch as couples get into fights over something as simple as launching a boat.

Wet Rocks

This was one of the many beautiful waterfalls that exist up near Lone Pine. This was just a small section of one large waterfall, which I believe was at Whitney Portal.

RUINS

Ruins are everywhere we travel; they are part of our lives and our culture. When I started working on the new radio system project at work, I had to attend a class about archeology and how the process works for some of the sites that we wanted to built a radio tower on. Now, coming from a country with hundreds, if not thousands of years of history, this made me chuckle. Then I realized that the old metal ration cans strewn across the desert floor from where General Pattern practiced field maneuvers with his troops and tanks were part of this nations history. In fact, I find the attitudes of people here more than a little sad! I realize that the teepee rings are an inconvenience to where we want to built that 200 foot tower, but if you lose your history, I think you lose your identity. Now understanding that life moves on, work with that history, work around it, but don't just bulldoze it because it stops you from making more money than you know what to do with. This is the sad part of American culture, it's all about the almighty dollar. I miss the fact that in the UK and Europe we have an identity and a culture that is based on our history. America is too young to realize that and so (at least in my experience) is a very shallow place to live. Now, if you live in Europe as much as you think preserving some of the things that are preserved is stupid, remember it was part of a previous generations life and for better or worse we should remember it and preserve it. It gives us a chance to take pride in what we accomplished or at worst we can learn from our previous mistakes. So anyone that is in the archeological field, thank you for fighting the fight and preserving our past, we might need it one day!

Today's photograph was taken in Death Valley at Ashford Mills Ruins built around 1910. When in operation it was used to process gold extracted from the mines in Death Valley. The mines never extracted enough gold to turn a profit, so the mill only lasted 5 years.

A Bigger View

On a side note I finally found the setting to make the blog page wider. This allows me to post a larger version of the photograph and make it easier for you all to see. You can still click on the photograph to get a larger view too. My eyes are getting worse so I need it too. So I hope you enjoy the new larger sized photographs and I'm going to start trying to post some more comments to keep you informed and entertained.

Also remember that all of my photographs are Creative Commons. Meaning that if you would like to download one of my photographs and use it as a background or print it out then please feel free. If you want to post it on a website then just credit it to me with a link back here. Just please don't sell it or use it for commercial use without my permission. Once again thanks for viewing.

Bridges

My wife and my ex-wife will probably tell you that I have a fascination with bridges. If there is a show on TV about a bridge being built, then I need to watch it. Bridges fascinate me, they take us places that would be so difficult otherwise to get too. I guess my fascination with bridges is the engineering involved with building one. When i see the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco I'm amazed that men were able to build it in the 1930's. 

The photograph above was taken just after sunrise in the Mormon Rocks area of Cajon Pass.

A Peashooter

Ok so the last airplane photograph for a while. Taken at the Chino Planes of Fame Air museum this is a Boeing P26 Peashooter. It was the first all-metal production fighter aircraft and first flew in 1932.

A Doodlebug

During the later part of World War II Hitler's Germany used a new kind of weapon to bomb the people of London. Germany invented what was in effect the first cruise missile or self propelled bomb. It was known as the V1 buzz bomb or to the people of London "The Doodlebug". It would take off from a steam catapult in Germany pointed towards London. The theory was that it had enough fuel to fly to London and then when it ran out of fuel it would fall from the sky exploding on impact with the ground. It was powered by a pulse jet engine, the forerunner to the rocket engine, which made a loud buzzing sound, hence the name buzz bomb. The Royal Air Force used planes that were fast enough, such as Spitfires to catch the V1, fly along side it and then use it's wings to tip up the wings of the V1 and make it crash. My grandmother used to tell me the stories of when they would hear the V1's flying over the air raid shelters, waiting for the engine to stop and then the resulting explosion as it hit the ground. 

This V1 is on display at the Chino Planes of Fame Air Museum.