Some cool photo sharing images:
102 The Olmsted Vision Doubling Public Beaches
Image by The City Project
The Los Angeles Times recently editorialized: "Los Angeles is chronically short of park space, a civic failure that generations of leaders have only glancingly addressed. In 1930, the brilliant but ignored Olmsted-Bartholomew plan envisioned a county where every resident enjoyed easy access to beaches, vistas, recreation areas and parks. Today, just 30% or so of Los Angeles' children live within walking distance of a public place to play, the lowest percentage of any major American city -- and the city is growing denser all the time."
The City Project's maps show the Olmsted proposal for parks, playgrounds, and beaches for the Los Angeles region, compared to the poverty of parks and beaches today.
In 1930, Olmsted Brothers and Bartholomew Associates published the classic report called "Parks, Playgrounds and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region." The Report proposed a comprehensive and coherent network of parks, playgrounds, schools, beaches, forests, and transportation to promote the social, economic, and environmental vitality of Los Angeles and the health of its people. The Olmsted firm was started by the sons of the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City and founded the field of landscape architecture. According to the Olmsted-Bartholomew Report in words that remain true today:
"Continued prosperity [in Los Angeles] will depend on providing needed parks, because, with the growth of a great metropolis here, the absence of parks will make living conditions less and less attractive, less and less wholesome. . . . In so far, therefore, as the people fail to show the understanding, courage, and organizing ability necessary at this crisis, the growth of the Region will tend to strangle itself."
The report proposed:
*the shared use of parks and schools,
*greening the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers,
*doubling beach access
*using parks and school fileds for clean water and flood control
*including forests in the park system
*transportation to parks, schools, rivers, beaches, mountains, and forests.
The Report recognized that low income communities should receive first consideration in parks and recreation because they often live in less desirable areas, and have fewer leisure opportunities. The Report recognized that a balanced park and recreation system serves diverse needs, including active and passive recreation. The Report recommended creating a regional park authority with power to raise funds to acquire and develop parks and other natural public places.
Each of these recommendations remains valid today.
Implementing the Olmsted vision would have made Los Angeles one of the most beautiful and livable regions in the world. Civic leaders killed the Report because of politics, bureaucracy, and greed in a triumph of private power over public space and social democracy.
Advocates and activists today are restoring a part of the vision and the lost beauty of Los Angeles through the urban park movement.
Click here to visit the core maps and analyses for the Los Angeles region covering healthy, livable communities for all.
Click here for the The City Project's Policy Report
Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region.
Click here to visit the Olmsted Homestead on The City Project's flickr site.
The bride while the groom says his vows, August 11, 2007
Image by Conlawprof
Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 lens. Shot at 200mm, f/4, 1/200 sec., ISO 200 and processed from RAW using Adobe Lightroom.
Sharing Exposures August theme: backlighting.
Okay, Sharing Exposures types (and others), here's the story. I did my first wedding shoot this past weekend, helping out a friend who got the gig at the last minute. I found the shoot to be very difficult because (a) I'm a complete amateur who's never shot a wedding before, except with those little disposable Kodaks folks like to put on the banquet tables, and (b) the wedding took place outdoors, in the early evening, under some of the most variable and difficult lighting conditions imaginable.
This shot of the bride, for instance, was taken during the vows. Behind her was the setting sun reflecting off a lake; I was shooting from a shady area under a tree. Bad combination. My strategy was to use spot metering and focus on the darker subject, risking blowing out the background in order to get some detail on her face; I used ISO 200 to compensate a little for the potentially slow shutter speed (although that wasn't an issue here). Then, in post-processing, I tried to make a virtue of the backlight by cropping the photo to eliminate the blown-out background and emphasize the play of light on the bride's veil; I used a little fill light on her face but kept some of the shadows for a more naturalistic, dramatic effect. I boosted the color saturation and vibrance a tiny, tiny bit, compensating for the oranging effect on her skin by reducing the saturation of the orange channel.
I personally think it came out okay, but I'm game for suggestions about how to process it better (or how to shoot it better next time -- I'm supposed to photograph my brother-in-law's wedding in the spring).
WeShareMusic - KKN live
Image by Exit Festival
More info: eng.exitfest.org/news-all-fiktivni-94/12000-we-share-music
Photo by: Jovan Djokic
