Category Archives: Twilight

I saw you standing there.

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Copyright-JackFosterMancilla

Pluto And Charon in false color.

by Stuart Rankin

Where is our moon right now? What can we see, were we to look at our moon right now? Is it near the horizon? Is it a full moon, a new moon, or some other phase of our earthly moon?

Now, let us visit Pluto and its moon, Charon. Charon, like our own moon, is tidally locked to the planet it orbits. Charon has one hemisphere that always faces Pluto, and one hemisphere that never faces Pluto.

And if we were on Pluto, directly under Charon looking straight up and saw Charon in the sky above us, we would see that one face of Charon that we always see. … Now here is where it gets a little strange. … What if we looked up again in an hour? A few minutes, two hours, a day, a year, fifteen years, where would Charon be? What would we see?

So Pluto, is like Charon being tidally locked to Pluto and only showing one face to Pluto, Pluto is also tidally locked to Charon and only faces one hemisphere to Charon. … That means that if Charon were straight above us from the planets surface, Charon would always be straight above us, forever. … As the Charon lunar month progressed through all the phases of the moon, we could lie on our backs and watch the moon go through all its phases in one place, never moving in the sky at all. One day we would look up and see a quarter moon, and another day we would see a full moon, and on the days approaching the new moon, we would see Charon slowly change to one crescent and then fade out, and then, in a few days, Charon would slowly fade back in with the opposite crescent. All the while as it was directly overhead, never moving.

The sun would move. The stars would move. Charon, the moon, would stare down at us like an ever watchful god.

That also means that if we were born on one side of the planet, we may never even know there was a moon at all. We would never see it. Imagine a Plutonian Magellan circumnavigating Pluto only to discover, not a new continent, but a moon. This imaginary Magellan would be navigating by stars, until he saw this giant orb in the sky. Holy crap, I would surely shit my pants if I were there.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

One Day Road Trip – Beach Cities from Encinitas to Mulholland Drive.

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I am starting to offer “One Day Road Trip workshops.” The intent is to teach a very small single-car group of people how to use their cameras to capture their imagination in various situations. I do that by showing you how to decide what we want to shoot, and how to use their cameras to capture the needed images for a wide range of photographic targets, from a single image, to multiple image HDR panoramas.

This workshop worked the San Diego to L.A. route from the south, north. The next time, we will work from the north to the south, ending with a sunset somewhere along the coast.

The day went something like this, Drive and talk about options for the next target, and plan those shots while driving. Pull over at the target, and shoot the images we discussed, plus a few non planed shots. Then drive again, discussing the post production that those captured images will go through, and plan the next stop. … We did that all day long.

For example, this day, the first stop was in Encinitas, where we visited the art gallery of Kirk Saber. This is an Image of Kirk and Renee in the gallery. It is a multi image stitched panorama. You can click on the image to see a larger version.

We stopped, and started, all along the way. … Here we did some light painting in Venice. This is a combination of 10 long exposure images.

The gallery of my Workshop images created during this trip.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Walter Redondo – Artist

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This past Thursday evening, Alexander Salazar Fine Art brought Walter Redondo, and his art to the Zanzibar Cafe. The art remains on the walls. … Pop on down for a cup-o’-Joe and a bite to eat, while you check out Walter’s art. You will have a good evening in the San Diego Gaslamp district.

The evening was filled with snacks, a little wine, and many interesting people. Walter brought his family. They were wonderfully happy, taking it all in.

Link to -> The complete gallery of the evening.
Link to -> Alexander Salazar Fine Art
Link to -> Walter Redondo – Art Culture Life
Link to -> Zanzibar Cafe

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

On The Hill

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This is the cross on Mount Soledad, just after sunset.

The cross has been talked about, outlawed, saved by lawyers, re-outlawed, and now it is in limbo, saved by lawyers, and still in threat of removal.

The fight between those that want the cross removed, and those that wish to keep the cross, has caused the cross to become more than it was some years ago. Now, it has become a memorial. Below the circular brick steps, encircling the cross along the black wall at the bottom of the image, are numbers of plaques honoring the dead of the U.S. military.

I remember when I was released from the Marine Corps, although the cross was there, the location was mostly a big dirt parking lot. We used to go up there, look at the city, and make out. … I suppose some of that still goes on there, but in my many visits, I no longer see any making out. … The world has changed.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Moon Before Sunrise

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Dreaming of leaving the earth starts with dreaming about the moon. I do not dream because I dislike where I am; I dream because I want mankind to travel to the stars. I want mankind to live between worlds.

Is that such a weird dream?

Whenever I raise my eyes to the moon, I see beyond the moon, into the future of humanity. We must travel those dark places between the stars as a complete package of this earth. We need to travel in seedships that encompass the entirety of earth. … At least, that is what I think.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

After the Sunset

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Let us speak of sunsets and the time just after the sun has gone. Here is one of those images. …

Usually, I like clouds to grab the light from the sun as it slips over the horizon and out of my view, but it lights the remaining, high altitude, clouds very nicely. … On this evening, there were no clouds. I was a little disappointed for the nonce, because I always think about what I am planning to shoot before I head out to shoot. … The weather chose to ignore my planing, and the sky remained cloudless. …

Still, I looked at the sky, and what was there, and I thought it beautiful.

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

The Alexander Salazar Fine Art Gallery – A History of Sorts – 48 openings.

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For almost a year, I have been shooting events for Alexander Salazar, for his Fineart gallery at the corner of 7th and Broadway, and at the Contemporary White Box gallery, between Broadway and “C” street, also on 7th avenue, and most recently, his exhibit space in La Jolla. … Inadvertendtly, the collection of galleries create a reverse chronological history of those events.

These events include Dancing Downtown, his one year anniversary party, and his White Birthday party downtown. They also include events at the Hilton Bayfront hotel.

You can go and meander through the past year, and you can find all the events that you attended, by name and by date.
This is a link to a single page with all the galeries in reverse order.
Link to the 48 Galleries.

The dates are listed like this, YearMonthDate, for example these are the four most recent events. …

20120209-TrueDelorenzo
20120304-FredBriscoe
20120203-HeidiThompson
20120120-AlisonVanPelt

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

The El Valencia Hotel – La Jolla

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This is The Valencia Hotel in La Jolla. Since it is in a town that I have known for most of my life, it has never seemed very special. Boy was I wrong. I have come to realize that this is one destination hotel that many people know about. Mostly people with a generous income. 😉

It is a beautiful Hotel. Inside and out. This is just the street side. It has a wonderful garden courtyard, pool area that seems like it is in a tropical land. 😉

Jack Foster Mancilla – LensLord™ – Home –

Looking Towards the Convention Center

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I love living in San Diego, and I love shooting for Alexander Salazar Fineart galleries. Shooting for Alexander gets me out and about to different locations ad interesting times. I can go a little early, and wander home a little later, and the opportunities for catching a cool moment abound.

For example, I was shooting Alison Van Pelt evening at the Bayfront Hilton. – Please check out those links if you wish. – And that very evening gave me the opportunity to shoot this twilight image of Down Town San Diego.

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