This was filmed in December of 2008. I carried the camera and tripod down a little spine of a ridge below the Hawk Hill parking turn out and was rewarded with this beautiful, unobstructed view of a winter rain storm passing through the Golden Gate. This scene, and many more, are included in The San Francisco Variations.
Author Archives: daveb1950
Godzilla vs Megalon Japanese Trailer
The undersea nation of Seatopia sends the gigantic Megalon to destroy the world above and it’s up to Godzilla and a size-shifting robot, Jet Jaguar, to defeat him. (IMDb)
Full Moon over San Francisco
Last night I watched the full moon rise over San Francisco from the fishing pier at Fort Baker (Marin County). Life is good.
Colorama shout-out
This is a small selection of the Kodak Colorama photographs which were on display (as backlit transparencies) in Grand Central Station, New York City from 1950-1994. They were huge (60 feet wide) and over 500 were produced by various photographers using bulky large format cameras. Unfortunately for me, I never got to see one in its full size grandeur, so I can only imagine what it must have been like. But I am charmed by the quaint subject matter and stylized view of American Life, and since they were Kodak ads, there is usually someone in the scene with a Kodak camera (presumably containing Kodak film).
There is an underwhelming book I purchased a few years back, Colorama: The World’s Largest Photographs, underwhelming in that the pictures are poorly represented in a rather small book, with page folds in most of the pictures, alas.
Here is an interesting video where one of the photographers, Neil Montanus describes how one of the above images was captured (the underwater scene):
Crystalline High Speed Water loop
This was filmed in Yosemite Valley in 1997 with a Photo-Sonics 16mm High Speed Camera at 500 frames per second. We carried this camera to the top of Vernal Falls, and pointed it into the raging cascade of the Silver Apron. It was used in the creation of an Infinite Loop movie I call God’s Eye (see films>Infinite Loops for more info).
It Conquered The World
Shot in 5 days, this 1956 film directed by Roger Corman remains a favorite of mine. I don’t know who wrote the synopsis on IMDb, but it beautifully captures the essence of the film’s plot in one sentence: “A well meaning scientist guides an alien monster to Earth from Venus, so that he can rid mankind of feelings and emotions – but only death and sorrow result.” The film is worth watching for Beverly Garland’s memorable performance as Lee Van Cleef’s neglected wife, who takes charge at the film’s conclusion. And, there is a great monster created by Paul Blaisdell.
Golden Gate Bridge 75th
Last night me, myself and about a million other people gathered along the waterfront of San Francisco (I was on the beach at Crissy Field), to witness a 20 minute fireworks show in honor of the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday.
Don’t Touch The Crabs!
From The San Francisco Variations, here is a time-lapse shot of Dungeness Crabs in a tank at Alioto-Lazio Fish Company located in Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco.
Why did you kill my teacher?!
Bruce Lee. Nothing more to add to this one.
Willamette Meteorite
On display in the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), is the Willamette Meteorite. It is composed of iron and nickel and weighs over 15 tons. It is the one of the largest meteorites ever found, and the largest found to date in North America. It was “discovered” in the Willamette Valley, Oregon in 1902 by a settler named Ellis Hughs (even though Native Americans had already known about it). There is no crater at the discovery site which led scientists to believe that the meteorite probably landed in Canada or Montana and was transported via glacial movement to the Oregon site. Kinda awesome. I check it out every time I go to NYC.
Lapsed Time Images 