The Open Source Photo Guide Project

November 15th was the annual lighting ceremony at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse which is located near Pascadero, CA. Every year on the Saturday closest to November 15th, the U.S. Coast Guard turns off the lighthouse's modern air beacon for two hours, and turns on the original Fresnel lens. Since most people have never seen a lighthouse with a Fresnel lens, this event has become very popular with visitors, especially photographers.

A few of the twenty four beams of light can be seen in this shot, which was taken this year in very clear weather.

(Pigeon Point Lighthouse, 2008, by Andy Frazer)

Compare the density of the beams with this shot, which I took two years ago in heavy mist.

(Pigeon Point Lighthouse, 2006, by Andy Frazer)

While we're on the subject of Pigeon Point, last NovemberI became part of a project called the Open Source Photo Guide project. Initiated by Brent Pearson, the OSPG is a collection of photo guides to locations all over the world. The guides are written by volunteers who have visited each location and written the guide using a standard template. The guides are then collated based on different regions across the world. Here is our map of represented countries from the whole world. Here is the map of guides for California, USA (I am the administrator for Californi, as well as Hawaii).

And, getting back to Pigeon Point, last week I contributed the photo guide for Pigeon Point. If you want to know how to get to Pigeon Point, or what to expect once you get there, please check out my guide. The OSPG project is always looking for new volunteers to contribute new guides, or even administer and new region. For example, just yesterday night photographer Brian Chapman volunteered to administer the photo guides for Washington, USA. Don't be shy about signing up. It only requires minimal computer skills, and the ability to follow Brent's well-written directions.