Inquiring minds want to know

Many decades ago when I had several years experience with photography, my goal was to have a huge collection of lenses for all purposes—fisheye, wide angle, super wide angle, zoom, ultra zoom, double ultra zoom, triple ultra zoom………

Although it might be nice to have all those lenses in today’s world, I find that I am completely satisfied with my Tamron 28-300mm lens and Photoshop. Photoshop has so many cool features that allow me to simulate all those lenses so well that no one would know what I had done unless I told them.

A good example is this Photographic Art creation:

That is based on a picture of a mural in the Little Italy area of San Diego. Ah, but I lie to you. That is based on FOUR pictures of a mural in the Little Italy area of San Diego. It was a wide mural, so it would not fit in my camera considering I couldn’t stand across the street because cars and utility poles would have been in the picture. I could have stood in the street, but it’s a busy street, and I know what typically happens when a 200-pound human takes on a 4,000-pound car. My only choice, then, was to take four pictures while standing on the walkway, just three feet or so from the mural. Here are the four original pictures:

Along with the mismatch in color contrast, brightness, exposure, etc., you can see that the perspective is going to be weird, especially for the two end pictures. This pretty much tells you where I was standing in order to leave cars, people, and poles out of the picture—right between the two ladies if you can’t tell.

First I corrected the perspective of the pictures, which gave me these four pictures:

Then I used Photoshop’s Photomerge function to merge the four pictures into one picture, giving me this:

After that it was just a question of making it into Photographic Art.

The one question that Julian had is why does the woman who is sitting down have a mustache. The attire certainly leads to one believing that it is a woman… Do Italian women have mustaches? Inquiring minds want to know.

Do you have BWS?
I have the answer:

Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.

►►►►◄◄◄◄

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

►►►►◄◄◄◄

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Little birds, pretty birds, ugly birds, big birds, not-birds, and really big birds

A selection of birds from the past couple of months, some from Balboa Park, some from the Zoo, some from Mission Bay Park, some from Little Italy.

Hummingbird in storm clouds at Balboa Park

Mallard at Balboa Park

Not-bird (Bird of Paradise flower)

Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot (next two pictures) at the San Diego Zoo

Mallard ducklings (next two pictures) at the San Diego Zoo

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove at the San Diego Zoo

Flamingo at the San Diego Zoo

Flamingo mommy and egg at the San Diego Zoo

Always someone who has to stand out from the crowd
San Diego Zoo

Mandarin Duck at the San Diego Zoo

California Condor at the San Diego Zoo

Secretary Bird at the San Diego Zoo

Steller’s Sea Eagle at the San Diego Zoo

Great White Pelican at the San Diego Zoo

Great Blue Heron visiting the San Diego Zoo

If you’re not going to share….
Chollas Lake Park

Unknown bird at Mission Bay Park

Flash video of the unknown bird fishing at Mission Bay Park

Black-crowned Night Heron at Mission Bay Park

Surprise
Rose Garden at Balboa Park

Really big bird flying over Little Italy

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

San Diego’s Little Italy

At last count (this morning), 120 neighborhoods make up the City of San Diego. That’s 19 more than the last time I counted about five years ago. Some are residential communities while others are business communities or mixed use communities. One of the more vibrant mixed use communities is Little Italy, a wonderful collection of residences, restaurants, and especially home design and arts businesses.

Little Italy was an Italian fishing neighborhood founded in the mid-19th century and thriving through the 1970s, serving the tuna fishing fleet and canning industry in San Diego, at that time the tuna capital of the western United States. Pacific Tuna Canning Company, the largest, was founded in 1911, and by the mid-1930s, canneries employed more than a thousand people. Sadly, foreign competition and rising costs caused the last of the canneries to close in the early 1980s.

Today it’s a neighboorhod full of life, seemingly 24/7 — it’s the only place I’ve found where I can eat out on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I have yet to eat at a bad Italian restaurant in Little Italy. Along with great Italian food, Little Italy has a reputation for having fun. Annual events include:

• Little Italy Carnevale on the Saturday before Mardi Gras
• ArtWalk in April (the largest art event on the West Coast with over 120,000 attending each year)
• Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego, the “Big Ride” where 3,000 cyclists start and end under the Little Italy sign
• Sicilian Festival in May
• Taste of Little Italy in May and November (if you ever go to one you’ll come home 20 pounds heavier)
• Labor Day Stickball Tournament in September
• Little Italy Fiesta in October (the largest Italian festival outside of New York City)
• Bulls of St. Agata Charge Little Italy in October — see more than 50 Lamborghinis on the streets of Little Italy
• Little Italy Christmas Village and Tree Lighting in December where you can see Santa riding in historic Fire Engine #3 from the San Diego Firehouse Museum located in Little Italy.

Little Italy Mercato is every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. There you can find freshly caught fish, locally grown fruits and vegetables, pastries from local bakeries, and, of course, art from local artists.

The Little Italy art scene is like no other, and that’s where I found myself late last month, at the Little Italy Art Walk.

I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I approve this post.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!