Photos from my Walks through Mar Vista Hills (California)...and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all.  Let's hope 2024 will be a great year!

 Most of this will be a continuation of my Last Post about the alleyways of my Vista hills this we'll show some of the houses up there as well as some decorations from Halloween and so anyway here are the pictures:

The two photos above are my 2 favorite houses in MV Hills - they are both close to each other on Stoner Ave.  Interesting name for Street.  Some other photos from the area:

Surfin' Santa - He would be catching some gnarly waves along the California coast these past few days!

In addition to my walks, I continue to research everything related to the past 3 years and before.  One of the best, most reliable, and truthful resources is at The Highwire (https://thehighwire.com/watch/).  

UPDATE:  Injured by the vax?  Then you may wish to read this:  Vax Injury Info.  I can't comment on it since I just got it.

We now know that pretty much everything we were told about and regarding Covid was wrong.  The media either didn't investigate or they lied - either way, they were wrong.  I knew this from about a week into the start of Covid.  I researched from the best, most peer-reviewed published doctors, epidemiologists, vaccinologists, immunologists, and more.  I looked at studies, watched mask demonstrations, and used common sense.  I looked at the statistics.  And some history, too.  Such as the fact that masks never stopped viruses...if they did, no need for vaccines for many viruses.  Fauci knew that and told us...then he changed the story.  Why?  Amazingly, some of those in the media were suggesting jail time or worse if you didn't get the vaccine, the one that doesn't stop you from getting Covid (in fact, it increases the likelihood that you will get it) or passing it on and it's list of side effects is terrible, up to and including death.

And that's my final rant for 2023.

Walks Through Mar Vista Hills

 Since my wrist fracture/Break about 11 or 12 weeks ago, I've been limited in my physical activity so I've been going on a lot of walks and decided to explore Mar Vista hills.  It's beautiful up there and it's good exercise.  A lot of hills going up and down, lots of greenery, and some beautiful houses.  Here are some photos I've shot over the past several weeks, starting with today (Dec 23) - hope you enjoy them.

From near the top of Palms Blvd & Inglewood Blvd, you can see the Hollywood Sign

From Palms Blvd near Ocean View - The highest point on Palms Blvd - Yes, you can see the ocean from Ocean View.

One of the alleyways - they are all super quiet, almost no cars ever, with lots of foliage.  More alleyways below.

A Christmas display on Grand View, a little north of Venice Blvd.

Below are a few of the other alleyways

That's it for today, except for this:  All these photos were processed with ON1 Photo Raw 2024 and shot with a Pixel 4 phone.  Due to my wrist injury, I'm not able to use my regular camera.

Sharpening and No Noise in ON1 Photo Raw 2023.5 vs Lightroom 3 or 5

The other day I shot this photo of a spectator at the basketball courts at Venice Beach using the RAW setting on my camera.  I processed it with ON1 and Lightroom.  Lightroom is pretty much manual adjustments for lighting and contrast although it does have presets.  It also has sharpening and noise reduction, also manual.  On the other hand, ON1 has AI for both.  I start with the AI, and then if it needs some tweaks that is easy to do.  Same with the sharpening and noise reduction, where I can see the before and after in a split screen before applying it to the photo.  On my PC it's slow to finish once applied but does an amazing job.  The AI exposure is almost instant.  ON1 gives the best results using RAW images, especially with noise reduction and sharpening.

The photos below were shot with a 28-300mm Nikon lens at 200mm setting, f9, 1/800 second, ISO 1270, handheld

The above photo was processed in Lightroom - if you look at the small details like her bracelet you can see the difference from the photo below, done with ON1.  To see the difference full size you will need to click on the image, then right-click on it, open the image in a new tab, and click on that image.

ON1 has many other advantages - very easy to add a new sky, and too many other things to mention here.  The only disadvantage is it is slower than Lightroom on my computer.  ON1 2024 is coming out this month and is supposed to be much faster and will be adding lots of new and improved things.  Can't wait to test it.

July 4th, 2023 - Muscle Beach Competition - Venice Beach, California

 Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July!  Here are a few photos from the Muscle Beach Competition.  

Not part of the competition but part of the 4th of July fun.

I have seen the older woman at several of the past competitions and today's also.  I found out who she was today.  Ms. Muscle Beach 1948!  91 years old...or I should probably say 91 years young.

The wonderful Kinni Kim making sure the trophies are ready for the winners.

Mar Vista Street Fair - June 24, 2023

 I was coming back from Venice Beach, up Venice Blvd, when I ran into the street fair.  After going home and having dinner, thought it might be fun to check it out since I live only a couple of blocks away and can walk over to it.  Happy I did - caught one band playing "Proud Mary."  They did an amazing job on it.  Just after I got there, I ran into Cristina from paddle tennis, then as I was leaving, I ran into Becca from paddle tennis - two wonderful players...and people.  Had some fun taking photos and then when I got home, edited the photos with the new software I had talked about before (ON1).  Sometimes it can be a bit slow but I can do things with it that I can't do with my other programs.  Here are some of the photos from the fair.

Cristina - right after hearing the band play Proud Mary 

Two nice women posing for me

Several Ping Pong tables were set up - all were very busy - I used to be a pretty good player but haven't played that in a long long time.  These days I'm addicted to paddle tennis.