David W. Rowlands, Fillmore City Manager.

Porch Fest – 2018

The Bridges subdivision, located east of Rio Vista Elementary School, has been selected as the host location for the first ever Porch Fest. This is a community event that celebrates music and community. The event is an open invitation to whomever wants to drop by and enjoy the live music which will be performed on front porches, yards or driveways within The Bridges subdivision. Porch Fest will be held Saturday, August 4th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 p.m. Information on band locations and bands will be on the city web site www.fillmoreca.com and Twitter page. Parking is available on the street.

The “All Digital String Band” will be performing traditional Bluegrass with highlight performances from local Fillmore musicians.

Notable local blues festival favorite “The Kingfish” will stop by for a short cameo acoustic performance. Kingfish is a favorite at the Long Beach Blues Extravaganza where he performs with his band The Other Mules.

Fillmore Association of Businesses – FAB Up and Running

FAB is an association of downtown business owners, managers and property owners working together to bring innovative ideas and events to promote a sustainable, energized, and creative environment within Fillmore’s downtown business perimeter. FAB will work in sync with the City’s Downtown Strategic Plan focusing on business retention, expansion, and attraction. If you are interested in joining or have ideas to share please contact Ernie Villegas, Special Projects Manager at (805) 524-1500.

Entrepreneurs – Fillmore Now Allows Pop-Up Businesses

The City Council recently changed its laws to allow “pop-up” businesses to locate within the Commercial Highway, Central Business District, Commercial Neighborhood, Manufacturing/ Industrial and Business Park zones in the City if the business is a permitted use or allowed with a Development Permit in that zone. Businesses will be allowed for an initial time of 45 days and up to a maximum of 90 days without needing to seek entitlement permits. Allowing additional temporary uses in the zones will promote economic vitality by temporarily locating business and uses in buildings and structures which might otherwise remain vacant.

Fillmore Pavement Resurfacing Completed

Paving was recently completed on portions of B Street, C Street, D Street and Mountain View Street.

Let’s work together to keep Fillmore the “Best Last Small Town.”

David W. Rowlands, Fillmore City Manager

Bob Crum

I've been shooting the Fillmore fireworks show for about 87 years, so it seems. Normal camera settings are auto white balance, ISO locked at 100, aperture f/11 and 'bulb' mode. Bulb mode allows the shutter to be held open for a period of time. Assistant #1 holds the shutter open with a remote control until I yell CLOSE! Assistant #2 fetches another cold beer. Just kidding.

In years past, I noticed that bright bursts are, you know, too bright resulting in blown out highlights. No big deal considering there isn't any detail in bright light blobs. But super bright lights tend to overpower the image. Attempts to cool down the highlights in post processing just make the highlights an ugly shade of gray. I'd like a better balance of the bright light and colors while executing longer exposures. So what to do?

A Ventura friend photographer suggested installing an ND filter on the lens. Hmm. An ND filter reduces light coming into the lens like sunglasses for your eyes. Why do that? Because theoretically reducing light entering the lens allows for longer exposures without overexposure. BTW, works wonderfully for photoing mermaids frolicking in squally seas.

I decided to use a 0.6ND on my Tamron 16-300mm lens which will reduce the exposure equivalent to 2 f/stops.

One disadvantage of using an ND filter is that it darkens what you see through the viewfinder rather dramatically. Worse, depending on the filter used auto-focus may not work. However, neither issue was a problem regarding fireworks photography. I simply used the camera's live view (LCD screen) to initially compose the images and used manual focus with the lens set at infinity. The only problem is that live view goes dark the instant the shutter is actuated so can't tell what is being recorded. Hello guesswork!

The overall range of my firework exposures is from 3 to 14 seconds for a reason described below. Did the 0.6 ND filter accomplish the anticipated results? Yes with an unexpected benefit. The foreground is better exposed from the ambient light the result of longer exposures. A delightful bonus. Love surprises!

It's important because what are fireworks for if not to be observed? So, from my perspective, adding people in the foreground provides some 'show' context. Knowing that a train with people on open-air flat cars will be parked near the firing stage, I took a position between the train and Old Telegraph Rd. Viola... people and fireworks thanks to the ND filter.

Now, about the long 3 to 14 second exposures. A single firework burst is not by itself necessarily impressive. On the other hand, two or three bursts in a single frame... now that's exciting! I could shoot single bursts and create composites afterward. Composites are simply the blending of two or more images to create one final image. While this definition makes compositing sound quick and easy, it’s anything but, often times requiring several hours of editing work to complete. I don't have the luxury of time to create composites. So I go rogue and improvise. When the first firework is fired into the air, I open the shutter... and hold it open (in bulb mode) for the duration of two or three firework bursts. This is like creating a composite in the camera. Much quicker to do it in camera... another reason for the ND filter. Now you know a craft secret. Shhh.

See the fireworks slide show video featuring John Wayne and Kate Smith: https://youtu.be/aggnhfHH5Gk

Happy photoing.

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