Same Pictures – Same Story

        One of the self imposed “things” I have done since May 2009 on this blog has been to provide new, fresh photos for each post I write. This post is a clip show with photos I have already used because the subject matter is the same… San Diego and the new Compass Cards it has issued for trolley and bus passengers are a straight up scam to generate revenue for the city. Tonight, on my way home from work on the blue line trolley, I watched two trolley guards make a disabled person get off the trolley to issue him a citation. The reason? He did not have an ID that proved he was disabled, he only had a valid disabled rate Compass Card. Now, I’m not going to get into what physical/mental liabilities this man had, but anyone with eyes could see from a mile away that this guy was disabled. Anyone with ears could HEAR that he was disabled when he tried to explain to the trolley guards that he had purchased a monthly, disabled rate Compass Card. The trolley guards still wanted him to exit the trolley so they could issue him a citation, even though he said that the delay would make him late for dinner with his mother.

This Trolley Guard Compass Card Validator Does Not Feel Emotion

        Before the trolley guards made this disabled man get off the train, the female guard, that seemed to be the senior of the two guards present told the disabled man that the citation would be “on hold” for three days. All the disabled man had to do was procure something that proved he was disabled, and the citation would be nullified. So, a disabled person that, due to his liabilities rides public transportation had to to take public transportation to where ever in the Hell disabled persons have to go to prove to SDMTS that they are indeed disabled withing 72 hours, or the citation would go into effect. Today is Thursday, February 11, 2010. That means that SDMTS trolley guards told a disabled person, right in front of me that he had Friday, Saturday and Sunday to acquire documents to prove his disability or he would have to pay the citation fine come Monday. A cripple now has to take the San Diego trolley, OVER THE WEEKEND, with a prepaid Compass Card to prove he is disabled.

Deboarding The San Diego Trolley At Night

La Mesa Public Library

Skater Countermeasures

The Fountain Adjacent To The La Mesa BLVD Trolley Station

Gypsy Treasure Costume Store In La Mesa

        ”Chasing It,” is a gambling term. Google it. I’m not going to explain it here. A few months back, some friends won the lottery in China. I didn’t buy a ticket, so I didn’t get to feel the joy that comes from winning the Celestial Lottery, only the humiliation of knowing I was wrong. Ever since then, I’ve been chasing it. I’ve been looking for my own Chinese Lottery and after all this time I’ve finally found it, and I’ve been fortunate enough to find it in two places. For me, that means I will be able to pull my brain back onto an even keel. I’m going to visit a cove in Japan, and a wasteland in Kentucky. I’m going to win the lottery in both locales.

The First Title Defense Of Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee

        The first bout between two coffee heavyweights took place right here on this very blog, just about a week ago. The winner was Dunkin’ Donuts Original Blend, mightily crushing Starbucks Morning Joe. I’m glad that Starbucks lost right away, and I placed Starbucks in the first round for that very reason, to watch them lose. I didn’t know they would lose, but I figured they would either lose immediately or steadily topple opponents like the stupid New York Yankees. Sometimes, you just have to roll the dice, and I’m glad I did this time.

        The new challenger is Don Francisco’s Plantation Morning Blend. If I was made to pick the better tasting coffee, based on the the photo above, I think Don Francisco has the edge. It looks to me like Dunkin’ is cowering in front of Don.

San Diego’s Second Rainstorm in 2010

Some Braved The Rain While I Sought Cover

Cats Don’t Like The Rain

        This cat was content to watch the rain from the cover of a porch. On a side note, I’d like to say that I really like my f/1.8 lens… The bokeh in particular. I’ve never had a lens this fast, and when it is attached to my Nikon D5000, it’s hard NOT to get great shots. That’s right, my shots are great!

Christ Lutheran Church – La Mesa, CA

        So, I had to choose between video capabilities on Canon cameras, or low noise at high ISO’s on Nikon cameras. I went with Nikon.

Street Lights Reflected On The Wet Street

        My old camera is a Panasonic DMC-FZ28, and at ISO speeds above 100 the shots are just not usable, because of the noise. With this Nikon D5000 however, ANY speed up to 6400 can be used for display… At least on the web.

Try On 450mm For Size

        Even though I’m eventually going to spring for a 75X telescope lens, I have to pass the time in that interim somehow, so my 300mm (450mm equivalent with my Nikon DX D5000 camera) will have to do. I missed out on the Mars photo-op last week, but whatever the cosmos hold in store for the future will be captured by me, a telescope and my camera.

Neon Is Not Exactly Photo Friendly

        Back in the days of shooting with my Panasonic DMC-FZ28, night photography was easy. Simply put, any ISO above 100 was too noisy, so all my night stuff with the FZ28 was at 100 ISO with a long shutter speed. Now that I have a Nikon D5000, noise at high ISO is not an issue, other than I feel like I have a whole new chapter of nighttime photography to learn. Other than that, everything is great.

The Mirror Above The Head Chef Tells All

        The first picture in my last post is a shot a really like, and this opinion was echoed by a fellow photographer that looked at it. That was all the encouragement I needed, so I set about capturing lightning in a bottle once again, and I failed. The pic above was taken on the sly. No one knew I was there except for the bouncer at the bar next door.

American People Being Served Chinese Food

        Yes, I admit that this shot is much less interesting than the shot I took from the outside of the San Diego Culinary Institute, but I was trying to capture lightning in a bottle, so I’d appreciate it if you’d ease up off my back about it.

San Diego Culinary Institute

        My Nikon D5000 has a boosted ISO of 6400, so that’s what I set out to test tonight. I wanted some real, after dark photos shot with ambient light while gunning the ISO throttle of my D5000 all the way to the max. The biggest lesson I learned tonight was that when you are out testing a specific “thing” on your DSLR, don’t forget that you don’t have to stick to the thing you are testing. In this case, I was out testing the 6400 ISO of my camera when I camera across the scene above. I had the presence of mind to switch the ISO to 200 before taking the shot. This resulted in the dark exterior of the building creating a frame around the soon to be chefs inside.

Compass Card Validator

        The Compass Card validator to the left was shot at 6400 ISO, and is presented to you here WAY smaller than actual size because full size was pretty noisy. Anyway, I was out looking for any dark alley type place around my neighborhood so that I could give 6400 ISO a real stretch of the legs, and my general consensus is that 6400 can not be shown at 100%, even on the web. You can still get very low light shots that will blow your mind, especially if you are from the days of film, but for the sake of passing images on for posterity, I’m going to have to hold back on 6400. What I will do is work with 3200 ISO because it is WAY less noisy than 6400, and yet is still very light sensitive. I’m going to find the sweet spot for high ISO and my f/1.8 lens even if I have to stay up all night every night. SO, with that in mind, here is where I am with this post. That pic above is ISO 200, because I remembered to change it down from 6400. The pic to the left is 6400, as is the pic below. I am now wishing that I had remembered to dial the ISO down from 6400 for the pic below because I really would have liked the sad detail in the man’s face to show through.

Unnecessary Use Of 6400 ISO

A World Heavyweight Coffee Title

        I don’t drink coffee, but my co-workers do, so my present to them for the week will be two bags of coffee grounds from two corporate mainstays in the morning coffee empire; Starbucks & Dunkin’ Donuts. I will listen to comments about the coffee and whichever is better received will be purchased next week, along with a new challenger.

Compass Cards Are Not Clear Yet

        I’m trying to like my month old Compass Card. I really am. In theory, there are a handful of convenient ways to purchase and reload a Compass Card, so I chose to reload mine at a ticket vending machine at my local trolley station. I walked away empty handed because the only monthly pass reload option I was given was for a $100 pass. My usual $72 pass was not available as an option to purchase. This had me going to plan B which was to reload it at Vons which was done in a few minutes. So even though I’m good for February 2010 on all San Diego Trolleys now… What the Hell?

Compass Cards Do Not Yet Have My Support

        I had these plans for making a video showing how easy it is to reload your Compass Card with cash at a ticket vending machine, but there was no $72 pass option available. There was a technician working on the machine next to me, so I’m all feeling like a character from the movie Amelie’ but all I really wanted was to buy a monthly pass. I was so put out that I couldn’t even snap a photo of the offending machine, or the technician… I just went to Vons.

Just Before Blue Hour In San Diego

        Very recently I found out about the blue hour and blue hour photography in general. Blue hour happens twice a day just after sunset and just before sunrise. About ten minutes after I took this shot, the entire sky was a darker blue than the top of the photo above, and that is when the blue hour occurs. I wasn’t actually trying to capture a blue hour shot, I just thought this sunset had a chalk drawing look to it. The purples seemed to me to be hanging artificially in the sky alongside the clouds, and to me they looked like marks from a giant purple stick of chalk.