The Moon Sets Over Coronado’s Dinosaur Cage

        Coronado is a border town for me because I live right on the border between Coronado and Imperial Beach. It really is an ideal location for me because I can grab my bike, be on Bayshore Bikeway in seconds flat and then head to anywhere In South Bay San Diego, all while basking in the warm California sun. Today was a beautiful San Diego day and I took full advantage of it by riding to Border Field State Park, Silver Strand State Beach and Imperial Beach pier. After pedaling almost 30 miles, I was beat by the time I got back home so whatever San Diego had planned for this evening would have to happen without me. I was in for the night.

        How lucky for me that around 9:30pm I looked out my window in response to hearing someone screaming out in pain. Some dude managed to crash himself and his bike into the metal bench that sits at the southern edge of San Diego Bay. He was fine and once I stopped laughing at him I noticed the background of the scene, and it was awesome! I tiny sliver, just a thin fingernail of a moon was setting right next to the Dinosaur Cage on Coronado. Of course I grabbed my Nikon camera and ran to the very bench that had been crashed into to take some long exposure, high ISO photos. I shot the scene above for 8 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 3200 which allowed me to pull some much needed detail from the shadows without blowing the moon’s highlights to kingdom come. It was a great way to wrap up a day that saw me riding all over Coronado and Imperial Beach. I’ve been ignoring night photography for a few months so a small event like this that has me leaping out the door to engage in a little night photography is a welcome catalyst for me because it simply reminded me how much fun night photography is. Cheers!

Coronado Street Sweeper About To Merge Onto Bayshore Bikeway

        I live very close to the international border between the United States and Mexico but I live even closer to the border between Imperial Beach and Coronado, CA. Bayshore Bikeway is the actual, physical border between the two cities for a short stretch near the north end of 7th St. Coronado is such an awesome place that the street sweepers even sweep their portion of the bikeway. Bike paths can sometimes get forgotten by the city after they are built, but Coronado and Imperial Beach both remain committed to maintaining themselves among the most bicycle friendly cities in San Diego. “The Lenny,” Coronado’s street sweeper is seen above merging onto Bayshore Bikeway at 7th St. as a cyclist cruises by. In the background is the Dinosaur Cage while in the midground is a piece of machinery, in the middle of a parts failure. This thing has been dredging South Bay Biological Study Area for the last two months so I have started to ignore it but, while taking this photo I realized the thing had broken down and was being disassembled by a crew.

Yesterday, The Crew Had Been Working On The Dredger

        Yesterday I had seen some guys poking at the front of the dredge and they eventually seemed satisfied because the machine went back to dredging.

Coronado, Bayshore Bikeway, A Broken Dredger & The Dinosaur Cage

        As the Coronado street sweeper lumbered on by, it became obvious that whatever they tried yesterday had failed because the dredger was undergoing some major repair. The thing has been going for over two months straight so I’m sure a mechanical failure was bound to happen. I can only wonder what sort of things they’ve pulled out of the bay so far, but I’m sure they are things that destroy machinery. I sure didn’t think I’d be taking a photo of a Coronado street sweeper rattling down Bayshore Bikeway past a broken dredge with the Dinosaur Cage and a San Diego City bus in the background when I woke up this morning.

Broken Dredge In South Bay Biological Study Area

        With the nose removed, the gear assembly is accessed and ultimately removed. The pieces were removed with the forklift for replacement or repair, the dredge was sealed up and the crew packed up for the day. Tornado Motion Technologies Inc. people have been out here for the last couple months, methodically winding their way through the preserve 6 days a week, doing their part to help keep San Diego’s wildlife areas in great shape. Good job guys! Below is a video shot the previous day that shows the crew working on the front of the dredger, before the mechanical failure.

Trying To Repair The Dredger

Double Rainbow Over The Dinosaur Cage Of Coronado

        If you want to see a rainbow, if you want to try to plant yourself somewhere ahead of time because you heard there would be favorable rainbow conditions in a certain given area, make sure your vantage point lies directly between the sun and where you think the rainbow will be. Close your eyes and draw a circle. When you see a rainbow, it lies on a point somewhere along the line of your circle; you are standing in the center, facing the rainbow so the sun will be the point on the circle that lies directly behind you. Open your eyes. Is that too much geometry? If it is, then how about this: After morning showers, rainbows will appear in the west while afternoon showers will have rainbows in the east. If you still don’t get it, then how about this: After it rains, go outside, face away from the sun and you might see a rainbow.

Rainbows Over Coronado As Seen From Imperial Beach

        In the photos you can see my shadow pointing west, directly at the top of the rainbow. Behind me, to the east are Imperial Beach and the rising sun. This layout is always the same so think about that after a rainstorm and you will be able to get some great photos. The only thing that has to happen is for a storm to roll by in the early morning or late afternoon, then dissipate enough for the sun to shine through but not break up enough that there’s not enough water in the atmosphere to refract enough light to form the rainbow. That’s it. If all that happens at a time you have your camera you will be richly rewarded.

Double Rainbow Over Bayshore Bikeway, Imperial Beach & Coronado

        The video below is comprised of stills and video shot with my Nikon D5000 from the north end of 7th Ave. in Imperial Beach, CA. I’m standing near the North end of 7th Ave., while looking at the Dinosaur Cage on Coronado, which sits just south of Silver Strand Beach State Park.

Sunset At The Southern End Of Bayshore Bikeway

        At southern most part of the Bayshore Bikeway, there is a metal bench that had me facing north, towards the Coronado Bridge and downtown San Diego, with the bike path directly behind me. The shot above took place while looking over my left shoulder, to the southwest.

South Bay Power Plant At Golden Hour

        To my right was the scene above, the South Bay power plant, bathed in golden hour light. I keep hearing conflicting reports as to what is ever going to happen to the power plant; some say it’s coming down because of permit trouble or because it isn’t needed to ensure reliable electricity for the city anymore, and others say it’s going to stay because it has a relatively neutral environmental impact and California needs all the electricity it can get.

Dinosaur Cage Sunset In June

        As the Earth orbits the sun and spins on it’s axis, the seasons change and the relative position of the sun rising and setting slides along the horizon. The photo above was taken from the same bench as the top photo in the post, but back in June 2010. During early summer, the sun sets directly behind the dinosaur cage, relative to the bench at the southern most part of Bayshore Bikeway.
        Anyway, I’m trying to decide if I want to pay to have my 5 year sitting outside neglected 1970′s Free Spirit 10 speed bicycle fixed up or by a new bike altogether. I want to start riding my bike to work but not having a bike to ride is the first, most important obstacle to overcome.

Imperial Beach’s Dinosaur Cage At Sunset

        The Dinosaur Cage, as it’s referred to is a defunct HF radio listening station the Navy constructed in the 1960′s to detect, monitor and plot the location of Soviet submarines. There are 14 other AN/FRD-10 stations around the world, but only two, in Canada are still operating. The largest ring is 845 feet in diameter and the smaller inner ring is 747.5 feet in diameter. The Dinosaur Cage is on the Southern tip of Coronado in Imperial Beach, CA an area that I go through often, and little did I know it would drive traffic to my blog.
        Looking at web traffic statistics for my blog is very, very helpful for creating content that people will find and enjoy browsing through. For example, I have discovered, by looking at my web traffic stats that a lot of people discover my site by searching for “dinosaur cage.” I have a few other pics and post that feature the Dinosaur Cage, so the search engine found that content that lead to my site. People are interested in photos of the giant, round antenna and information about what it is. What that means for me as a photographer and blogger is that I can create a post with content that already know people are searching for.
        So what do I do? I take a great sunset shot of the Dinosaur Cage sitting majestically on the southern tip of Coronado, write a couple paragraphs that include the words “dinosaur cage” a few times, include some quick and helpful facts and then throw in a link to a site that can give a complete description of the Dinosaur Cage. That means that from now on, when some one searches for “dinosaur cage” they’ll find this post along with the picture. That’s the nut’s and bolts of SEO and it is infinitely better at driving traffic than whatever metadata can be attached to a photo. Useful content will drive the traffic that leads people (potential clients) to the photography, which is what I actually want. Photographers! You must have keyword dense content on your site or no one will ever see your photography.

20 Seconds Of Open Shutter & A Desalination Plant (I Think)

        If you stand at the the Southern tip of San Diego Bay and face North, you will see a factory at your 10 o’clock. As far as I know, and judging by the piles of salt around the factory, this factory is involved in the removal of salt from ocean water. I suppose the salt is then exported to the salt deprived countries of the work, and the water deprived people of San Diego. I was 6000 feet away from the factory when I snapped this pic. Super-zoom cameras are the shit, right?

Golden Hour In San Diego

        Same factory, seen while the sun is casting it’s final rays for the day upon it. Ever since my tripod got smashed to Hell by a pack of rabid wolves over the summer, I have had to hand hold all my shots. Easy during the day but less than optimal during the night.

30 Second Exposure Of San Diego’s Silver Strand Dinosaur Cage

        I set my camera on a bench, near the bike path, pressed the shutter and let the magic happen.

Imperial Beach’s Dinosaur Cage

        I’m still hoping for my money shot of the Dinosaur Cage, located on the Southern end of San Diego Bay. I like what I’ve done but I think something better is in store.

Foreground: All that remains of the I.B Limited Miniature Railroad. Background: Dinosaur Cage.

The Navy’s 800 foot diameter dinosaur cage on the southern tip of Coronado Bay has contained some of the more vicious breeds of dinosaurs ever created through genetic engineering.  From 1964-1999, the USN denied the very existence of the cage and it’s contents, despite being located in plain view of the busiest beach in all of California.

In the late 1980′s an author named Michael Crichton was marooned on Coronado during a bridge closure and while exploring the Silver Strand in that interim, came upon the cage, and was inspired to write a novel that would ultimately force the United States Government to admit the existence of the cage, and the poor location they selected to place it.

You see, after having George Lucas read “Jurassic Park” to him as a bedtime story, Steven Spielberg decided to make a movie about dinosaurs…  REAL dinosaurs.  Spielberg and crew managed to steal a few dinosaurs from the cage, film them for Jurassic Park and expose the truth to the world.  Forced with seeing dinosaurs on the big screen that looked exactly like dinosaurs living in the cage the Navy claimed didn’t exist was just too much evidence.  In 1999 the Navy admitted the cage was there, executed the dinosaurs and abandoned the site.

Becoming smaller & smaller in our minds ever since, the site was then used as the location for a beach side miniature railroad, but was destroyed in 2003 by miniature plane enthusiasts during The Centennial of Flight Celebration Riots.