Inside the new Disney California Adventure Park is an area they call Radiator Springs, which comes from the Disney Pixar movie Cars. The sandstone background is very impressive and makes you think you’re in Nevada somewhere. The background scenery wraps around a new ride and really gives a sense of depth and distance.

Yet on the outside, which we can see from our hotel balcony, the set is not that big. The visual magicians at Disney have just figured out a way to make you think the rocks are way in the distance. Pretty impressive.

Too many shots for the larger thumbnails, so click away.

Sarah received her Louis Shores award from the American Library Association and RUSA tonight.

Ups and Downs of the Week.

 Red Sox – 8-2 for the last 10 games. Not bad, but they’re still battling with Toronto for Kings of the Basement. Meanwhile the Yankees seem to have remembered how to win consistently.

Anaheim – We’re here for Sarah’s ALA convention and our hotel is this close to Disney.

The neighbors across the street have a rat terrier named Sparky. They should have called him Mighty Dawg. He’s fearless when it comes to raccoons (but scared of the cats). Tonight he came charging over and waded into a pack of raccoons who were foraging out back. I thought they would eat him, but they all ran up trees. Here’s Mama and one of her young ones waiting for the ruckus to subside.

Ups and Downs of the Week.

Red Sox – Shut out by the Cubbies? Really? How low they have sunk.

Kitties – Always ready to pose.

In photography there is a term Depth of Field (DOF). It refers to the area of sharp focus in an image. Shooting with wide apertures, like f2.0, will yield a very narrow DOF. In extreme cases a portrait of a person may have the eyes in focus but the person’s ears and hair may be be out of focus. The narrower the aperture, the wider the DOF. Shooting at an aperture of f8 or higher will usually leave most, if not all of the image in focus. In the demo below, the aperture settings can be seen in the lower right corner of the image. Watch how the DOF is very narrow at f2 and widens until everything from the nearest cornstalks to the farthest trees are in focus at f22.

Ups and Downs of the Week.

Red Sox – Crashing and burning now that they’re back at Fenway. I can’t understand why this team can’t win at home.

Home Again – Good to be back.

Celtics – Even though they lost Game 6 and allowed the Heat to tie the series, they’re doing better than I thought they would. Game 7 tomorrow in Miami.

One side note: 35 years ago today I got off a bus at Ft. Knox and started 13 weeks of basic and advanced training. I can’t believe it’s been that long.

This morning I walked over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is one of the more famous cathedrals in NYC. It’s in the middle of a three year restoration, of course, so it’s hard to get pics without scaffolding or other construction material in them. But I tried.

On the way back to meet Sarah for lunch, I stopped by the Rockefeller Center.