1986 photographs in storage boxes
In May 2008, we got a call from the California State Coastal Conservancy. They were cleaning out old files and wondered if we wanted a complete set of coastal images from the late 1980's and 1993. Of course we said yes, and flew up to Oakland to retrieve the five file boxes.
1986 photographs in storage boxes
The photos were taken by several private aerial survey companies
and the Army Corps of Engineers for the
State Department of Boating and Waterways.
The imagery was generally taken from
6000' altitude; however, these are 9" x 9" contact prints, and in
good condition. The photographs are vertical, not oblique like our
own photography, and they can be a little disorienting to view, since
they are not presented "North Up"
. The coverage was more extensive
than our photography: The San Francisco and San Pablo Bays were
included, as was San Diego Bay, as well as the last few miles of major
rivers. In addition, there were several inland areas that were
covered in a grid pattern. These non-coastal photographs are not
displayed directly on the website, but can be accessed through
position markers in our
Google
Earth .kmz
file. Photographs of
Catalina Island (taken in 1986 only),
new to our website, are, however, displayed. (To visit the island, go
to the
ferry terminal
and you will find yourself, in the
next photo, at the
Avalon terminal.) There are 2890 photographs taken
in 1986 and 1987, as one survey, and 2407 taken in 1993, of which 1690 and 1539,
respectively, are displayed directly on the website.
Since the Coastal Conservancy was only the custodian of the photographs, they had no additional information about them than what was in the files. A study of the photos themselves and some USGS maps (1986 maps and 1993 maps) included with them showed an organization generally in southeast-to-northwest flight lines; but position information would have to come by taking a rough position off the maps and then using Google Earth imagery to pin down the start and end of the approximately 260 flight lines. The intermediate positions were linearly interpolated, with enough accuracy to generally orient the photograph. Curved flight lines had additional position information added along their length, to provide a more accurate interpolation. It took about six weeks to scan the photographs, using an EPSON Expression 10000XL scanner at 600 dpi, and another three weeks to code in the flight line, section number, sequence and date off each photograph by hand, thumbtack the endpoints of each line, and then examine the photos near the coast, sorting them into a single line to be displayed on the website.
Unfortunately there are many gaps in the coverage; included with the maps was a log of photographs that had been borrowed for various purposes over the years, and the "Date In" column was often blank.