On Monday I went back and finished uploading images from a visit early this month to Calico Ghost Town.

Flickr Set


Calico is about 10 miles outside of Barstow and is owned by San Bernardino County. I last visited the ghost town in 1972 and shot photos long ago lost. Back then, my brother-in-law worked for San Bernardino County and he had me shooting photos of some kind of Pony Express race to Calico. So I believe my pics are buried in some box in the county archives.

These new photos were processed through Topaz Detail. Calico is a great location for a photo walk. Enjoy the pics.

The Newbury Park AYSO Boys U19 B team won their second round game 7-1 against Simi Valley Sunday morning.

Here is the dotphoto album.

In May, 1985, BalloonArt by Treb was hired by a Japanese Advertising Agency to make 30 x 65 foot billboard out of 8-10,000 balloons. The crew worked in North Ranch from 7 pm all night to blow up and assemble the sign before filming.

The balloon company set up a tent on an empty lot off Lakeview Canyon Road. After assembly, the "Miki House" sign was walked up Lakeview Canyon Road to Valley Spring Drive. The commercial was for a children's clothing company to be broadcast on Japanese TV

By 1985, BalloonArt by Treb was already a very successful company. Their services were used in the 1984 Olympics and other major events. This 10,000 balloon project was an average size job. The balloons were blown up with regular air six large helium balloons held up the sign.

Treb Heining, the balloon artist, did jobs involving the release of up to 1.4 million balloons. So this North Ranch commercial was really no big deal He closed BalloonArt by Treb in 1995. I found this story in the OC Register.


Photos by Scott Harrison/The News Chronicle

Cal Trans building in Los Angeles after mild rain Wednesday, October 14th.

Sunday's action from match between Newbury Park Boys U-19 B team against Thousand Oaks.

Dotphoto album.

Here are a couple recent photos with some background notes.


For this photo from last Thursday I converted to grayscale in Lightroom and used the grayscale color sliders to add contrast. Then the pic was taken into photoshop and run through Topaz Detail.



Friday night I took another image of the Los Angeles City Hall reflected in the new LAPD Administration Building. This time city hall was half lit and half in the shade. After fixing color and contrast in Lightroom, I moved the image into Photoshop and used Topaz Simplify to create this stain glass version.



Above is a uncorrected version of an Oktomat camera 35 mm frame used to make the image below. In lightroom I cropped out a single frame and darkened the image. After moving into Photoshop, I used Topaz Detail to sharpen and boost colors in this final very grainy image below.



And finally below, I shot a series of images of the Luxor sign and combined into a pano in Photoshop. It worked perfectly and was very boring. So I took the five most important layers, rotated and free transformed each, and made my version of the falling tower of Luxor.

Last night I finally got a chance to visit the new LAPD Memorial recently placed at the Police Administration Building on West 1st Street in Downtown Los Angeles. When the 11,000-pound brass structure was erected there was one problem - it was backwards. The names of fallen officers was facing 2nd Street, not CIty Hall. But the fix was easy. The 2,000 name plates were removable and switchable. During the last couple weeks the memorial was closed as name plates were moved around and placed facing Los Angeles City Hall.

Dedication is on October 14th.

Los Angeles Times story.

Last night the boys U-19B team won 5-0 vs Agoura. Dotphoto album.

Well I''m back home from Vegas. On the drive home Sunday, I stopped for a couple hours at Calico Ghost Town. Tonight I had a soccer match. Also went and dropped off six rolls of 35mm film from Vegas. That Oktomat camera got a workout. Needless to say, lots of pics to come.

On Saturday morning I finally got a pic of Scott Kelby. One of these years I need to get a pic of Scott and Scott.

So, now a lot of notes and new ideas to explore.



Scott Kelby teaching at the Photoshop World trade show.



Sunday morning photo of Mandalay Bay.

Photoshop World ends today. I finally got some time to post images. I am also posting photos to my flickr account.


Dan Margulis speaking at Kelby Training booth.


Den Willmore with new mohawk haircut.


One of many painted dolls at the trade fair. It's the entrance ticket to iStock party.