Nothing fancy here, just common shore birds down by Los Angeles harbor - at the Cabrillo yacht basin and Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, just behind Fort MacArthur.  And here's the thing - Fort MacArthur is an old facility from World War I, named for Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas MacArthur, the man who commanded American forces in the Pacific during World War II and was dismissed by Harry Truman during the Korean War.  Now Fort MacArthur is a "residential community" for personnel of the Air Force Space Division up in El Segundo - housing for spy and communications satellite gurus, the "full bird" colonels who make sure things get done right up at TRW and places like that.  In their off hours they can sip scotch and consider old-fashioned natural flight.

These, of course, are studies in framing, natural patterns and color.  Noon, Friday, July 21, 2006, full sun, in the high eighties, moderated by a good onshore breeze off the Pacific - 

If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me

These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.