Happy Fourth of July!

I like the way this one just lights up the cloud of smoke. It reminds me of pictures of nebulae in deep space, clouds of gas reflecting the light from nearby stars.

I’ve got a few more shots in this Independence Day 2010 photoset.

Railroad tracks for the Metro Green Line layered between lanes of the 105 freeway. The very end of both, seen from the Norwalk station.

Every once in a while you get a perfect shot from the car. I was stopped at a traffic signal next to an area of road construction, and looked up at this crane, backlit by the sun.

This is the other of the two blimp hangars at what was once MCAS Tustin. This was taken on the same party-cloudy March day as the shot I posted last week of the south hangar. [Edit: make that today. I'd intended to schedule this post for next week, and ended up scheduling them both for the same day by accident.]

View on Flickr: Blimp Hangar and Cloud Shadows.

One of the two World War II-era blimp hangars on the former Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, California. I posted another angle on this one a few years back.

The base was decommissioned in the 1990s, and last I heard, the fate of these historic buildings is still up in the air. The trick is finding the means to preserve them.

View on Flickr: Blimp Hangar Looming.

Canyon near Del Cerro Park on the Palos Verdes peninsula, looking out past the coastline to Catalina Island.

I haven’t really kept up with this photoblog since moving day, two months ago. I’ll try to get back on track with a new post each week.

This is Aviation Station along the Los Angeles Metro Green Line, the closest station to LAX. (It doesn’t actually stop at the airport, but you can take a shuttle bus.) It’s also the nearest stop to my office. Before I moved, I’d sometimes take the train up to this point and a bus the rest of the way to work.

One night I was working late and missed the bus. Somehow convinced that the next one wouldn’t be by for an hour, I decided rather than sit and wait, I’d walk the mile and a half to the station. Three or four buses passed me, so it didn’t save me any time, but it was interesting to watch the planes line up for landing, and I caught this view of a train leaving the station as I was arriving.

Today is moving day. I’ve spent most of my life in Orange County, where the eastern skyline (when not blocked by trees and buildings) is dominated by the Santa Ana Mountains. The two highest peaks, Santiago Peak and Modjeska Peak, are known locally as Saddleback because of the shape they form together.

We’re not moving far — just to the South Bay — but it’s going to be weird not seeing this landmark on a day-to-day (well, non-smoggy day-to-day) basis. You can see it from that far away, but it takes a very clear horizon and a very clear sky. On a good day I can just make out the silhouette from LAX.

This shot was taken in Lemon Heights, where you can (usually) see a lot more than just the silhouette.

Hotels went on sale for Comic-Con International this week. I sat things out this year, since we’re only making a day trip. Naturally, everyone I know who was trying to get a room ended up with the smoothest experience in more than five years, rather than the crashes, timeouts, frustration that we’ve come to expect.

In case you didn’t make it through, or if you decide to just chuck it all and do something else, here’s a link to some ideas on how you can still get a hotel in San Diego.