About Black's Beach Sunsets by Julie Davis


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As the book cover says, I am a hobbyist photographer who lives in California. This book was a fun project for me using Amazon.com's CreateSpace site for self-publishing. Many people had seen my photos on the computer screen and said I should set up something to share them.

None of the photos were digitally enhanced, color corrected, or Photoshopped. All I did was crop and resize them. I honestly never thought of doing a book until January 2011 when I learned about CreateSpace.

All the pictures were taken with small point-and-shoot cameras, which one person told me was "old school." Hey, maybe I'll get me a really good camera someday and see what happens. The Celestron IS70 I used to capture the videos *is* pretty fancy, but none of this is what I would call "professional" level photography. This was all really just for fun. I would see something beautiful and photograph it.

Creating this book was a lot of work. I have heard that people re-formatted their book several times to get it into shape, and they weren't kidding! I think I overhauled this project at least 3 times top to bottom, but I looked at it as a labor of love and as "art therapy."

CreateSpace was remarkably user-friendly and I highly recommend it if you would like to self-publish something.

Authors, Share Your Book with Millions of Readers


FAQ


1. Where is Black's Beach?
Black's Beach is located in the northern part of La Jolla in San Diego, California. According to Wikimapia, its coordinates are 32°53'20"N 117°15'13"W. Check out their site at http://wikimapia.org/760827/Black-039-s-Beach . Please use the marked trails or the paved access road unless you enjoy being rescued or recovered by a helicopter. I think if there was a secret, easy-access trail, someone would have found it by now so please be safe.


2. Why is it called "Black's Beach"?
This beach is named after a previous owner of the land, William Black, Sr. He bought 200 acres in the area in 1949 and the beach became known by his name.


3. What causes the green flash and why is it hard to photograph?
Green flashes are caused by the refraction of the sun's rays through the atmosphere. Think of a prism: visible light is separated into a rainbow of colors by the prism, and when there are different-temperature air layers, the atmosphere acts like a prism. On very rare occasions, the "flash" goes into blue and even purple, like the video on March 10, 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1wyCi3bZTI

Dr. Andrew T. Young at SDSU has assembled a good site covering some of the scientific literature on the subject, which states there are different types of green flashes. His site is at http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/explain/explanations.html

In my experience, green flashes are incredibly hard to photograph for three reasons:

  • They are very small - a tiny fraction of the sun's diameter.

  • They are fast - they only last about a third of a second. This is very tough to anticipate if you have a shutter delay like in most digital cameras.

  • They are rare - green flashes don't happen every day.

    Green flashes usually aren't like the thing depicted in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies - check out Dr. Young's site for a description of the green ray, which I have never seen: Green Ray


    4. Why didn't you print this on glossy paper? Wouldn't it look better?
    Yes, it would look better and the resolution would be more true to the photos, however, CreateSpace does not offer that option at this time (mid-2011). I looked into using other self-publishers like Lulu, Blurb, and VioVio, but it turned out that I would have to set the price very high in order to print the photos in a glossy format. But, who knows? Maybe I will do it if people ask.


    5. Why does this site look like it was designed in 1997?
    Heh! Well, I never learned Java, and I dislike the flashing ads and moving parts which distract from the content of most pages these days... so I stuck with Notepad-style low-tech type design.


    6. Who was Christo?
    Christo was a friend of mine from the 1980's who was a photographer. He died in the Sierra Nevada mountains during a storm. Although he was able to send an alert with his beacon, rescuers were unable to get to him in time. His widow gave me permission to dedicate the book to his memory in part, and to use the photo I took of him long ago.

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    This page, images and content (excepting CreateSpace banner) copyright © 2011- Julie Davis.


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