Lori Carey Photography

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Salt Free Drinking Water


Aqua 2000 free-standing coin operated salt free water vending machine in Seeley, California.


This made me laugh because I never really gave much thought to the salt content of my drinking water unless I had just choked down a big ocean wave that caught me off guard.

Coin operated drinking water vending machines like this one in Seeley are common in the little desert agricultural towns of southeastern California surrounding the All-American and Coachella canals. At midday you'll see the farm workers lined up to fill their water jugs; that's where the real story is but my timing is always off...I usually stop here early the morning to fill up a jerry can before heading out on the trails for a few days.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Curves, Salton Sea Shoreline


Curves, Salton Sea shoreline



The images
We think
We see
Are not
The same
For you
Nor me
For images
Form in
A place
That has
Its own idea
Of space
Where beauty
By necessity
May vanish like
A shallow sea
Evaporated
By the Sun
It’s beauty lost
It's form
Undone
~ Egal Bohen


Although Egal Bohen is from the U.K. I can't help but think he was writing about the Salton Sea. Depending on who you ask it's either the most disgusting neglected place on earth, an area of surreal beauty, a birder's paradise, dangerous abandoned towns overrun with tweakers and outlaws or funky camps filled with wonderful outsider art and people who choose to live off the grid. For me it is whatever I want it to be when I'm there.

Friday, May 18, 2012

A sign of things to come...


Signs at Slab City, a squatters' camp on an abandoned military base in the desert outside of Niland, California. Slab City, known as the Last Free Place in America, has seen a large increase in population due to the current economic situation of the US and California.


After auditioning as a guest curator for a little while I have been asked to officially take over as co-curator along with Jonathan Davis for Sign Sunday on GooglePlus. I'm excited about taking on a greater role in the G+ community and having the opportunity to meet and interact with even more photographers. If you're on G+ add our page +Sign Sunday and join in the fun by posting your photos of interesting or funny signs using the hashtag #SignSunday. If you are not on G+ and you are a photographer, what are you waiting for? G+ is without a doubt the most vibrant, active and friendly community for photographers of all genres. If you are new to G+, participating in themes is a great way to meet other photographers and make new friends. If signs aren't your thing check out the Daily Photography Themes page and see what else is going on.

The photos I've posted here today are some of the signs at Slab City, a squatters camp on an abandoned military base in the desert outside of Niland, California near the south end of the Salton Sea. Residents of Slab City call it The Last Free Place in America. Some people live here because they prefer to live off the grid, others are here because they have no where else to go. There is no running water or electricity. It's a funky place in the middle of nowhere filled with fantastic outsider art, an internet cafe, a library, even a golf course. This article in Time magazine gives a great description of what it's all about - Slab City, Here We Come: Living Life off the Grid in California's Badlands





AirRacket is the local band that plays at the range. J. Rae and I could hear them playing while we were doing the Supermoon shoot at Salvation Mountain. I could listen to this bluesy music all night long.


Monday, May 14, 2012

Searching for Salvation


Grafitti pointing toward Salvation Mountain in a burned out building in Niland, California


I love night photography and I love having a friend who is crazy enough to do it with me. Last week J. Rae and I made a night run out to the desert to shoot the SuperMoon. After the moon had risen high we hit a burned out building in what passes for downtown Niland. It wasn't until I was processing my photos that I realized the graffiti in the photo above pointed the way to Salvation Mountain.


Burned out building in downtown Niland, California



Saturday, May 12, 2012

Update to Security Issue in Photoshop

I was contacted by Adobe via my Google+ account this morning and they informed me that they have decided to patch the critical vulnerability I discussed in my previous post for Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash Professional CS5.x. You can read the Updated Security Bulletin on Adobe's site, and there is a good article explaining the situation at MacWorld.

Photoshop CS5 is still a supported product and it might not be in everyone's budget to upgrade immediately. I'm glad that Adobe chose to do the right thing and it was nice that they contacted me personally to let me know.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Critical security issue for users of PhotoShop CS5 and earlier

There is a critical security issue in Photoshop CS5 and older versions, a buffer overflow vulnerability which permits a maliciously crafted TIFF file to execute arbitrary code in both Windows and OS-X. Protek Research Lab reported the vulnerability to Adobe in September 2011 and rather than patch the existing version Adobe's solution is to address it in CS6. If you don't pay to upgrade from the previous verison you are SOL and should be very careful about opening any TIFF file that isn't your own.

In English - Unless and until you upgrade to CS6, do not use Photoshop to open any TIFF files unless you trust the source 100% or your computer could be hacked.

Adobe Security Bulletin APSB12-11

It's very disappointing to see that Adobe chose not to address the issue by releasing a patch at least for CS5. This is yet another move made by Adobe to force customers who choose not to switch to the subscription-based model to adhere to a shorter upgrade cycle. CS5 is two years old and cost $699 to purchase the base program or $999 for Extended. It costs $199 to upgrade from a previous version. This is not a small sum of money for an amateur, hobbyist or one-person shop. Most software companies support at least the previous version, and when we spend that much money on a software program we expect it to be supported at least for a reasonable period of time. As someone who has been using Photoshop since version 3.0 I've sunk $1600 into upgrades alone, and now they are telling me that unless I hand over another $200 I have to live with a critical security flaw? Shame on you Adobe!

On that note the free photo editing program GIMP recently announced that it is now able to handle 16-bit and 32-bit files in the development version.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Dancing under the Super Moon in Slab City

Supermoon of 5 May 2012 rising over the Kama Sutra Tank, aka the Sex Tank, in Slab City behind Salvation Mountain in Niland, California


Last night my friend J. Rae and I made a crazy run out to the desert to photograph the Super Moon. Most of our photographer friends were in Yosemite to photograph the moonbow and since we couldn't think of anything interesting that was local, she proposed heading out to Salvation Mountain and Slab City in the desert near Niland. I threw my gear in the car mid-afternoon and headed out and I'm really glad that we're both crazy enough to do things like that. I got a lot of great photos, there are so many interesting things to photograph out there, but I got home so late last night (or I should say early this morning) that I only processed this one so far. It was a long night (actually the night seemed short but the drive home was endless!), but a lot of fun and very worth it.

This photo is the Super Moon over the Kama Sutra tank, aka the Sex Tank, in Slab City just a little ways behind Salvation Mountain. I just love the way the figures seem to be dancing in the moonlight. It is two exposures, one properly exposed for the moon and a longer one for the foreground, combined with layer masking.

We did a little shooting around Slab City before sunset, then after the tank we moved back to the front of Salvation Mountain to capture the moon rising behind the mountain, then moved on to do more night photography. Full moon nights aren't good for star trails, but they are outstanding for ambient light night photography.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

URGENT Call to Action for Photographers and other creatives

The US Copyright Office is proposing to raise copyright registration fees next year (2013). For photographers the fee for e-filing would increase from $35 per submission to $65, and a paper filing that now costs $65 would increase to $100. This is a huge increase, especially coming during tough economic times. Increasing registration fees would cause even fewer photographers to take this necessary step to protect their rights. We have until May 14, 2012 to provide feedback to the Office of General Counsel of the US Copyright Office via an electronic form on their site before the proposal is presented to Congress for review.

Please take a minute to submit your feedback to them and share this information with the photographers you know to help get the word out.

Form to Submit Feedback

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Copyright Fees