That October 2020 fire resulted in us having to evacuate due to the bad air quality. There was virtually no chance that the fire itself would threaten our home, but the air quality got so bad that most of our side of the city was forced to leave for a couple of days until the fires was knocked down. We were fortunate as a friend let us use their condo down the coast in San Clemente until we got the all clear. Below is a view of Pacific from the patio of the condo. We almost hated to go back home

The Pacific Ocean, as seen from the patio of a condo in San Clemente, California - October 2020 - Sony a6000, 16-50mm

I took a slightly different approach, focusing on how the 'Earth' impacts us...

Storm damage in Saginaw, Michigan - September 1974 - Minolta SRT-101, 58mm


Gas well fire near Fredric, Michigan - July 1976 - Minolta SRT-101, 58mm


Smoke from a brush/forest fire as seen from our neighborhood in Irvine, California - October 1982 - Minolta XG-M, 135mm


Earthquake damage of a parking structure on the campus of Cal State Northridge, in Northridge, Califorina - Janaury 1994 - Minolta XG-M, 35mm


Smoke from the Santiago Canyon Fire as seen from in front of our house, in Irvine, California - October, 2007 - Sony A100, 18-70mm


Another view of the Santiago Canyon Fire as seen from the highway north of Irvine, California - October, 2007 - Sony A100, 18-70mm


The aftermath of a forest fire near Bastrop, Texas - October 2011 - Sony DSC-H2


Flames from the Holy Jim Canyon Fire as seen from the street which passes in front of our neighborhood in Irvine, California - August 2018 - Sony a6000, 55-210mm


Another fire in the Santiago Canyon, as seen from in front of our house, in Irvine, California - October, 2020 - Sony a6000, 16-50mm


A fire burning one of two former Navy Blimp Hangers at the old, now closed, Marine Corp Air Station in Tustin, California - November 2023 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm

Per a suggestion earlier in this thread, I've posted a new 'challenge':

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-805391-1.html

Enjoy...

During this weekend's open challenge, I posted a picture of a steel fence post and some barbed wire, and someone suggested that perhaps I should propose a 'challenge' involving fences, so here goes.

Please feel free to post any pictures of 'fences'.

Here are my contributions:

This was at my parent's house in Lewiston, Michigan - December 1968 - Minolta SR-1, 55mm


A section of the Berlin Wall, fittingly on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California - July 2009 - Sony DSC-H2


A fence, adjacent to the site of the Oklahoma City Bombing, where people and family members have hung mementos in memory of those who lost their lives in the Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - July 2015 - Sony A65, 10-24mm,


And speaking of barbed wire, here's a display showing the many different styles of barbed wire used on the Western frontier, as seen at the Range Riders Museum, Miles City, Montana - April 2019 - Sony a6000, 10-18mm


And with that in mind, a section of barbed wire fence near Gila Bend, Arizona - May 2021 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


And speaking of fences, this is a Western Fence Lizard, seen in our backyard in Irvine, California - May 2023 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


The fence along the US-Mexico border, near Sunland Park, New Mexico - May 2023 - Sony a6500, 10-18mm


Some more barbed wire fence along the highway passing through the White Sands Missile Test Site near White Sands, New Mexico - October 2023 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


A steel fence post, with barbed wire attached, in the Sonoran Desert, near Maricopa⁩, ⁨Arizona⁩ - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


Another steel fence post, with barbed wire attached, in the Sonoran Desert, near Maricopa⁩, ⁨Arizona⁩ - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm

Some interesting shots from our drive home from Texas last week.

The biggest side trip was to the Natural Bridge Caverns just north of San Antonio. This is the third caverns that my wife and I have explored. The other two were the Meramec Caverns in Stanton, Missouri, in July 2016, and Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico in October 2023.

This latest cavern was interesting as it was a long and humid climb, 180 feet down and of course, 180 feet back up, on wet and slippery switch-back walkways.

Historical Marker at the entrance to the caverns near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


This is the natural bridge, over the entrance to the caverns, near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max


The caverns were quite spectacular, near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max


Another spectacular view of the caverns, near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 10-18mm


More views of the caverns, near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 10-18mm


This is what they called the Emerald Lake, which was at the bottom of the caverns, near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 10-18mm


Afterwards, as we were walking back to our car we found this butterfly garden, and while this might look like a Monarch Butterfly, it's actually what's called a Red Admiral Butterfly, near San Antonio, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


On our last day, we stopped to get some shots of the iconic Saguaro Cactus that you see in the Sanoran Desert, near Maricopa, Arizona - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


Another fine example of Saguaro Cactus, near Maricopa, Arizona - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm


And just for fun, and perhaps for some future 'challenge', a steel fence-post and some barbed wire, near Maricopa, Arizona - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm

They may be late, but they look great...

I made my first sales call at Apple when the Apple II was their mainline product and they were still in a group of spec buildings and you could find employees with double-digit badge numbers. We eventually sold them the CAD system that they still use today to design both products and the tooling to manufacture them. They loaned our Santa Clara office a Lisa and we all had a chance to play with it.

In 1985 we bought our first home computer, a so-called 'Fat Mac', 512K of memory as opposed to the original Mac's 128K. And we've been an Apple household ever since. I'm currently running a MacBook M1 Pro while my wife has a MacBook Air. My iPhone is an 11 Pro, while my wife has a 13 Pro Max. I've also got an iPad Mini, two Apple TV's and connected to my car's media center, an old 4th generation iPod Touch, that's been going strong for over 12-years.

Yes, you could say that we've been satisfied with our Apple gear...

I covered how I accomplished this in a thread I started when I first joined the UH, back in 2021:

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-688357-1.html
..

Sorry, but that speed was 1/1500 of a sec.

Yes. I have that site bookmarked as that's why I knew that there's been Sunspot activity this week

Speaking of the Sun, there appears to be a lot a Sunspot activity recently, as shown in this shot I got earlier today:

Shot with my Sony a6500 and a 400mm lens plus an ND100000 filter using Sony's ClearImage Zoom feature, which doubled the effective length of the lens to 800mm. Shot at f11.0, 1/5000 sec at ISO 100

Again, thank you...

Thank you...

I've purchased at least two serious cameras from E-Bay and have not had a problem, but as others have said, read ALL the fine print on an offer, because, as stated, E-Bay will have your back if it's not as advertised (I had one item which I had to return and they didn't blink an eye).

Note that I've also sold items on E-Bay and have had no problems going the other way. Note that what I've sold were mostly collectables and stuff like that, not camera gear.

I watch the 'Woot' site everyday and they run at least two or three deals per month on refurbished Mac's (and other brands). Over the years, I've purchased a lot of stuff from this site and have never been disappointed. And if you're an Amazon Prime member, you get free shipping:

https://www.woot.com/