Fernando Ramirez

My site has been awfully quiet lately but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking photos. Instead of excuses I offer photos. I normally limit myself to small number of photos to show at the end of the year, but I thought’d I’d use this post to show some of my favorites that I’ve been neglecting. It’s hard to believe another year has already gone by.

New USFW building, Chula Vista

WWII Veteran Frank Wada

Sunny Jim Cave, La Jolla

Samantha

Del Mar Fair

Scripps Pier, La Jolla

Gaslamp District, San Diego

Childrens Pool, La Jolla

Hawthorn Street, San Diego

Good Guys Car Show, Del Mar

Pacific Beach

Nena. 1997 – 2011

Pacific Beach

Chula Vista Salt Works

Del Mar

Wave Swinger, Del Mar Fair

Samantha

Sweetwater Reservoir

Sunrise Highway

Childrens Pool, La Jolla

Maricopa County, AZ

The Children’s Pool in La Jolla, also known as the Casa, is a small beach partially protected by a seawall. The seawall was built in 1931 with the intention of creating a protected area for children to swim and play. These days the area is home to seals and sealions who inhabit the beach year round.

Last Sunday I made a trip out to La Jolla to take some photos after dark. I brought along my tripod and cable release and made my way down to the seawall. I was pleased to the beach was nearly deserted as space is at a premium out on the seawall. I was originally concerned as I needed the space to extend the legs on my tripod for stability in the wind without creating an obstacle for other visitors but this turned out not to be an issue.

( Click for a larger photo )

Here is a collection of nine of my favorite photos taken in 2010. Enjoy.

Wave Swinger, Del Mar Fair

Perseids, Anza-Borrego Desert

California Two-spot Octopus, Chula Vista Nature Center

Cabrillo National Monument

Tyto the Barn Owl, Chula Vista Nature Center

Downtown San Diego

Milky Way Galaxy, Anza-Borrego Desert

South Bay Salt Works, Chula Vista

The Strip, Las Vegas

In the early morning hours of December 14th, the Geminid meteor shower reached its peak. After dinner on the 13th, I met up with friends (aka party riders) and we hit the road, destined for a location far away from the city and its light pollution. All but one of us had spent the day taking finals so we embraced the open road. We drove for about two hours until we reached our first destination, the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The moon set was scheduled for about 12:30 AM that night, leaving us with an hour until the sky darkened.

The night air was much cooler than I had anticipated but thankfully I brought an extra jacket, blankets and a warm drink. Meteors were darting across the sky in every direction. After the moon disappeared behind the mountains, we began driving home, heading up the mountains past Julian to the 79, stopping again not far from Lake Cuyamaca. The skies were not as clear as they had been for Perseid meteor shower back in August but my fellow travelers and I agreed that the large number of meteors we were seeing more than made up for the hazy conditions. We must have seen one meteor every 30-60 seconds, often times many more.

We remained in the Mount Laguna area for another hour before the frigid air and strong winds got the better of us and we decided it was time to go. We arrived back in Chula Vista at about 4:30 AM, exhausted but happy. It was a great way to start the winter break.

To view more photos visit the gallery below.

Gallery: Geminid Meteor Shower 2010

View Larger Map

The Palomar Observatory is an active astronomical research facility owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology. The observatory is a scenic two hour drive north of downtown San Diego, located at an elevation of 5,500 feet within the Cleveland National Forest. The Palomar Observatory is home to six research telescopes including the 200-inch Hale telescope, the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope and a 60-inch reflecting telescope.

The 200-inch Hale Telescope (f/3.3) was the world’s largest effective telescope for 45 years (1948 – 1993). It remains a workhorse of modern astronomy with an average of 290 nights of data collection a year, weather permitting.

On Saturday I went up to Mount Palomar to visit the observatory. At the time I had only one childhood memory of the observatory where I waited in line for what seemed like hours on a chilly winter night to look through the 60-inch telescope. Saturday’s visit didn’t involve any telescope viewing but instead a guided tour of the 200-inch Hale Telescope.

To view more photos visit the gallery below.

Gallery: Palomar Observatory

To plan your own visit or to learn more visit the Palomar Observatory website.

Back in February a local fisherman discovered the remains of a Navy SB2C-4 Helldiver on his fish finder. The fisherman probably wasn’t the first to discover the plane, but he was the first to contact someone who knew what to do about it.

Yesterday A&T Recovery, a Chicago-based firm, raised the wrecked SB2C-4 Helldiver from Lower Otay Lake. The Helldiver had been resting at the bottom of the lake in 90 feet of water for 65 years. After an engine failed on May 28, 1945, pilot E.D. Frazar was forced to crash land the plane. Both the pilot and Army gunner Joseph Metz survived and swam to shore.

The SB2C-4 is rare. It’s an SB2C-1 but fitted with wing racks for eight 5 inch rockets or 1,000 lb bombs. According to Wikipedia only 2,045 were built but there are only maybe two or three others in the world today.

The plane could remain in San Diego until as late as Sunday before it’s ready for the drive to Pensacola Florida, where it will be restored and put on display at The National Naval Aviation Museum.

To view more photos visit the gallery below.

Gallery: SB2C-4 Helldiver

The barn owl is one of the many species of predatory birds exhibited at the Chula Vista Nature Center. The barn owl shown in these photographs is named Tyto, derived from her species’ scientific name, Tyto alba. Tyto was rescued as a chick and is now approximately 3 months old.

Tyto at 2 weeks

Since barn owls consume more rodents than possibly any other creature and subsequently eliminate pests, these adept hunters are considered to be one of the most economically valuable wildlife animals.

Tyto at 3 months

To view more photos visit the gallery below.

Gallery: Young Barn Owl

My prints for the 2010 San Diego County Fair Exhibition of Photography arrived today. It’s an international juried exhibition of black & white and color photographs, photojournalism and digital arts.

The competition is definitely fierce but the whole process is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to any photographer out there. I have been participating every year since 2007. The 2009 photo show had 3678 entries, of which only 1273 were accepted and hung on the walls during the fair. Prizes range from $200 for first place to $125 for fourth place

The fair runs from June 11th through July 5th in Del Mar, California.

Last Monday the Chula Vista Nature Center welcomed four green sea turtles to its menagerie of native California sea creatures. The sea turtles were captive hatched at SeaWorld here in San Diego approximately six months ago. On Friday I had an opportunity to take some up close and personal photos with three of the four turtles.

If you’re interested in learning more about green sea turtles the Nature Center is having a turtle talk on Earth day.

Nature Center Earth Day Turtle Talk
Chula Vista Nature Center webpage

See more photos in the Gallery below.

Gallery: Baby Green Sea Turtles

Here are eight of my favorite photos I took in 2009 and some information about them.

The Milky Way – I drove up to Mount Laguna with John, Gabe and Samantha to watch the Perseid shower in August. Conditions were great, the sky was crystal clear, a little windy but not too cold and the milky way was visible to my naked eye. I decided to take the long way home shortly after moon popped up and dimmed the night sky. As I was passing by Lake Cuyamaca I felt the urge to pull over and take some more photos right behind the lake. This was one of the result.

US/Mexico Border – After spending the day at the top of Otay Mountain with the same group of friends the sun had begun to set and the US Border Patrol had stepped up patrols on the single dirt road we had used to get up the mountain. We were warned that we shouldn’t be up on the mountain after dark due to the extra traffic and possible smugglers and had decided to cooperate. The Otay Mountain Truck Trail has quite a few narrow choke points where you have to pull over to let others by. We were being escorted down the mountain by the Border Patrol and had to stop at one such location. I didn’t have time to jump out and set up my tripod so I bumped up the ISO on my camera and braced myself against the steering wheel. The lights in the top left half of the photo are from the city of Tijuana and the darkness is the US side of the border.

Reuben E Lee and downtown San Diego – I was killing some time near the San Diego airport and I went over to a location I had visited once a few years ago and decided to retake an old photo. Click here to see the same photo I took back in 2005!

Ken – I met Ken while walking around taking photos for the second annual Worldwide Photo Walk. I watched many photographers ahead of me pass by him without even a glance but I had already decided that I was going to photograph him. Now I don’t know normally take portraits but something about Ken made me stop and chat. He had a great sense of humor and was constantly laughing.

Kelp Rockfish – I took this photo while scuba diving with Gabe, Ben and Wendy at New Hope Rock. According to my dive log, visibility was about 15 feet and the photo was taken around 40 ft of salt water. The Point Loma kelp forest is one of the largest kelp forests in California.

Bay Blvd Fire – I was at the Chula Vista Nature Center doing a water change on the trout tank when I noticed a plume of black smoke coming from an area nearby the Nature Center parking lot. I grabbed my camera and went for a walk along Bay Blvd. The fire was already under control by the time I got close but the extra smoke led to some interesting photos. I later learned that the fire was caused by a spark in the power lines but I had heard a few stories of a homeless man who had started a similar fire a couple years ago when he tried to grill some hot dogs in the thick brush.

Otay Mountain Fog – I took this photo while on second trip up Otay Mountain. While driving up the mountain in the early afternoon I was able to see all the way to La Jolla, which is about 30 miles away. Once again I was heading down the mountain around sunset only this time I looked out the window and down the side of the cliff to see a huge blanket of fog rolling in. I stopped in the middle of the dirt road and grabbed my camera and managed to take a few photos before the visibility dropped to less than 20 feet as the fog rolled in. The lack of visibility made for an interesting trip down the mountain.

American Kestrel at the Chula Vista Nature Center – All of the birds at the Chula Vista Nature Center are non releasable due to injuries or human imprint, etc. Mikey the Kestrel was out with his handler and I was able to get a few shots with the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge blurred in the background.