September 29, 2003

Light Rail is arriving in Houston in 2004 (Paul Ashton)

We live three blocks from one of Houston's new MetroRail stations. On purpose.

The future of alternative public transportation in this city of concrete freeways looks like it will finally arrive early next year. To celebrate this momentous occasion as well as to assist in the promotion of many more miles construction in the future, an ongoing portfolio is to be created in the next three months. It will take the form of a chronology but will also take a hard look at the artistic side of the MetroRail concept. Pro-rail groups are welcome to link and refer.

The current status is that four trains have been delivered and are being tested at the southern end of the 7.5 mile system. More trains should arrive next week. The system is slated to start passenger operations on January 1, 2004, in time for the Superbowl. I spoke with an engineer at South Fannin on Friday and he is confident that the start date will be honored.

Laying the Tracks - May 2002 Future single line operation on San Jacinto in the Museum District. Downtown Houston in the background.

September 25, 2003

il-palazzo.com - a new FocalPlane-designed website up-loaded today

Check out il-palazzo.com - all comments to the webmaster please!

Another Special Entry (Pete Ashton, Paul Ashton)

April went to see Lucy, Jeff and baby Isobel today. Pete took the photo and by the wonders of modern technology, here is Isobel in April's arms! Isn't she cute!

Isobel May Chilberto Banbury, September 25, 2003. Taken by digital camera, image temporarily uploaded to peteashton.com, downloaded in Houston, image re-scaled and adjusted, posted here, all in about an hour!

September 24, 2003

A Special Entry (Paul Ashton)

Today I became a grandfather! Daughter Lucy gave birth to Isobel May Chilberto, weight 7 lbs 2 oz at 12:52 p.m. The due date was approaching fast and Lucy was having fun monitoring her family "blog". So I thought "why not scan a slide of Lucy when she was just born and send it off for inclusion in her blog". I chose the picture shown below - technical details are in the box to the right. I doubt if Lucy opened the e-mail attachment before giving birth and as they're going to have their hands full from now on, I decided to post it here.

Congratulations, Lucy and Jeff. I am looking forward to taking lots of photos of Isobel! I understand it is the grandparents' privilege to spoil their grandkids rotten. What fun!

Lucy Elisabeth Chilberto nee Ashton Singapore, November 1975. Scanned from a Kodachrome slide with minor color correction. The archival qualities of Kodachromes are second to none

September 23, 2003

Washover Channels near Cape Hatteras, courtesy of Isabel (Paul Ashton)

NOAA has published a number of after-the-storm aerial photos from the devastation caused by Hurricane Isabel. Following FocalPlane's publication of the Padre Island travelogue with its pictures of washover channels, I thought it would be interesting to bring one of the pictures on board - thanks NOAA for such excellent imagery!

The image is from the barrier beach near Cape Hatteras. The Atlantic is to the right. The barrier beach has been breached in several places. It would be interesting to follow this break and see how quickly longshore drift bridges the gap. Image downloaded from NOAA

September 19, 2003

Padre Island National Seashore, Texas

A new section in Travelogues, loaded today.

September 18, 2003

Cosmetic Revisions to Portfolios (Paul and April Ashton)

The layout for all the portfolios has been modified with the emphasis on bringing out the photos. And to create uniformity a compatible layout treatment is being applied to the travelogues (Asia, Cayman and Cotswolds completed so far).

September 14, 2003

Coastal Texas Update (Paul Ashton)

The weather broke yesterday with fresh clear dry air as a result of a cool front moving through, pushing three days' worth of clouds and rain off into the Gulf. I wasn't planning on going anywhere but the great outdoors beckoned. So I decided to spend the day surveying old haunts along the Upper Texas Gulf Coast.

Surfside, Texas was partially hit by Hurricane Charlotte in July. The main effect was the removal of the small and fragile dunes with little additional damage to property. The beach is probably the Upper Coast's best in terms of sand and water quality (the mud content increases to the northeast) but this is no paradise except when the weather is just right, as it was Saturday. Water temperature is still in the mid 80ºs!

Galveston Island (accessed by paying $2 at the San Luis Pass Bridge) is the subject of a lot of new development. Here the battle of Texas' open beaches is being fought between those who own smart beach properties and those who simply want to enjoy the beach. the Texas Open Beaches Act clearly defines the rights of the individual but some of these rights are being eroded by local authorities and residents' associations who deny or charge entry and then claim they are supplying additional services (such as chemical toilets and trash barrels).

Passing straight through Galveston (people everywhere having lots of fun) I ended up in line at the Bolivar Ferry. This is Texas' best kept free cruise secret! Yes, it's free. Once the car is on board, leave it and go upstairs to the upper deck and enjoy the scenery. Shipping, wildlife, cloudscapes and the antics of others make this a short 15 minute journey. Too short.

The Bolivar Peninsular is more of the same barrier island system guarding the Texas coast, but in some ways the development here is a little less organized and more egalitarian than West Beach Galveston.

The road turns inland at High Island due to storms that have washed out the coast road between High Island and Sabine Pass. However, a lot of vehicles were up there so I followed, driving about four miles. This is a desparate place and I have no wish to return. As I turned round I noted I was in amongst a Naturist gathering. Apparently this area is Texas' only clothing optional beach. Somehow it just didn't make sense. The beach is littered with blocks of eroded roadway, the ocean in muddy brown, the sand is dirty and here were people desiring to bare it all in the only place the "authorities" would allow. They should all emigrate to France!

High Island was asleep - well it isn't spring! Explanation: High Island is a popular birding destination during the spring northern migration. A few grackles would have disappointed even the most avid birder! So I drove on to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. The evening sun kept the mosquitoes away as I drove around Shovelers Pond, hoping to see a few aligators. No such luck. Apart from some snowy egrets in flight the place was as deserted as High Island. So I turned west and drove into the setting sun, back to Houston.

September 12, 2003

The Becker Collection - a permanent feature that opens in a new window

Images from the Texas Hill Country featuring Becker Vineyards.

Flying Over Greenland - a permanent feature that opens in a new window

Dating back to August 2000, this sequence of photos was taken from a window on one of Continental Airlines' new Boeing 777 aircraft.

September 11, 2003

Permanent Features (Paul Ashton)

The item on 19th Century Birmingham (see entry 9/9/03) is the first permanent feature for In The News and as such the link will be stored at the bottom of this page. Non-permanent items will scroll off the page after one month and will be stored in an archgive file, also accessible from links at the bottom of the page (they are not there yet as there is nothing to archive!)

September 9, 2003

19th Century Birmingham - a permanent feature that opens in a new window

September 8, 2003

Improving a scan (Paul Ashton)

Friend Karen Stanley sent us this photograph taken in the English Lake District - Hard Knott Pass. In the e-mail she noted: "The view is from Hardknott Fort, about twelve miles west of Windermere on the road from Little Langdale to Boot, looking to the northeast. It's one of my favorite spots in England and well worth a visit if you find yourself in the Lake District. (We seem to have cut off the top of Bow Fell, though, and the focus is not too good, although that may have been the scanner's fault.)"

After a few moments working with the jpeg file, I made some adjustments! See below.

	Here is the original as e-mailed to us. See Karen's comments above.
	Here is the modified image!

Nature photographers often have a problem with the "manufacture" of scenery and other digital manipulations. I am not sure that Bow Fell actually looks like it is shown above, but it must be a close approximation. The sharpening is a custom FocalPlane routine using a particular setting from Photoshop's vast array of options.

September 5, 2003

Looking at Old Photographs (April Ashton)

Robert Pols has written several books on how to date when a photograph was taken by examining its contents. Not always available in print, they are invaluable aids for the genealogist and photo restorer alike. Highly recommended!

Scanning observations - 2 (Paul Ashton)

Dust is a superficial problem and is usually easy to deal with. Imprefections within the slide or negative can be a lot more difficult to resolve. This example is an extreme enlargement showing two problems. The bright blue dot is a result of poor processing (this slide was not processed by AZ Lab, by the way!) Generally, these dots can be removed using the "rubber stamp" tool but the more there are the longer the process takes.

The long scratch across the image could have been formed in one of three ways. First, a particle of grit could have become lodged in the light trap in the 35mm cassette and this could have scratched the film as it was wound and rewound. Second, it is possible that the scratch was caused within the camera, either by another particle of grit or by the camera itself. The test for both these would be that the scratch is parallel to the winding direction, which in this case it is. Keeping dust and grit away from the cassette and camera form essential "preventative maintenance".

The third and most likely reason, however, is that the scratch was introduced during processing. I believe this to be the case because the entire film has lots of blemishes and looks as though it was mistreated in a number of ways.

At normal enlargement these imperfections would be very hard to see

Erasing a scratch is more difficult particularly if there is important detail associated with the scratched area. In this example careful application of the "rubber stamp" tool would be appropriate, changing the relative position of the tool so as to avoid obvious repetition.

September 4, 2003

Good film processing (Paul Ashton)

In many ways, good film processing is as important as the image itself. If you are lucky enough to find a really good film processor, don't be tempted to stray! We use a professional lab in Houston and no-one else. AZ Lab has an interesting history. Architectural photographers Joe Aker and Gary Zvonkovic founded their business in 1978 and in 1994 decided to add a full service lab. Located at 4710 Lillian, near the junction of Shepherd and Washington, they are open from 8 in the morning until 8 at night and offer fast turnround and great quality.

Scanning observations - 1 (Paul Ashton)

We scan a lot of slides (as well as negatives and prints). The scanning process requires careful quality control that can be time consuming. A lot depends on what happens to the slide while being processed and handled.

The most common defect on slides is dust. Fortunately most dust particles can be blown off with high pressure canned air, but old dust on old slides can seem glued to the surface. Even the most careful cleaning will leave a dust particle or two but these are quite easily "removed" using Photoshop's "rubber stamp" tool. The areas that need careful scrutiny include sky, solid colors and skin tones. Dark, complex backgrounds can be a lot more forgiving.

Even with the best processing and careful handling, scans often show dust particles (these are magnified against a dawn sky)

As part of FocalPlane's scanning service, this example would be carefully examined and the dust "erased" prior to saving the image file.

September 1, 2003

Look on the back of old photos! (April Ashton)

Many old family photos were taken by professionals and they usually advertised their business with a stamp on the back of the prints. Here is a good example from Paul's family photo album. And on the back is some valuable information that would otherwise have been lost for ever:

	Paul's mother, brother and father taken around 1937 on a pier. Obviously a British summer holiday! But where?
	Turn the photo over and the rhyme says it all - Llandudno, North Wales!

As part of FocalPlane's photo restoration service, we always look for these details and will be pleased to scan them for posterity.

Exciting times on a photo-safari-cum-weekend on the beach! (Paul and April Ashton)

We shouldn't be here to write this! Well, if we had had our way, we would still be camping out on the beach, 54 miles "down island" on the Padre Island National Seashore.

Instead, along came Tropical Storm Grace, a poorly organized weather system in the Gulf of Mexico. We had already spent Friday afternoon and all day Saturday being beach bums and at 9 p.m. we were settling down to post-dinner relaxation when a park ranger drove up. He explained that the tidal surge was expected to seal us off and advised us to exit the beach as quickly as possible.

Which we did, striking camp in about 15 minutes (basically throwing everything into the back of the car regardless of its condition!) and set off up an already emptied beach to Malaquite and the black top road out of the park. There is only one way off the island and we made it to Corpus Christi in good time by 11:45 p.m.

There didn't seem much point in hanging around and waiting for Grace to show up, so we headed home, driving the last hour through the outer spirals of Grace's squalls. We arrived in Houston at 3:15 a.m.

So, we spent less time doing what we wanted to do but, by taking good advice, are here to tell the tale. 54 miles down a one way beach track is definitely remote and somewhat exposed to the risks of Nature! Thanks to the park ranger we got out in good time (though I believe the storm probably did not have as bad an effect as feared - a case of "better safe than sorry"). For an example of how Hurricane Brett passed over Padre Island in 1998, take a look at this movie (4.4 Mbytes, broadband recommended).

Also, we did not take as many photos as planned. Which is always a good excuse to return.

August 30, 2003

A new FocalPlane feature is born. . . (Paul Ashton)

While sitting on the beach (see above) I had an idea - an In The News window accessed from the home page. And here it is - the page will feature travel tidbits, photos and links. The date of the latest entry will be included on the home page link to make it easy to check for new entries. Perhaps later on we'll make it interactive.