Pictured is the team showing off their awards in front of Fillmore City Hall. Congratulations Condors! Left to right - back row: Coaches Phil Ramirez, Ben Garcia, Gerardo Flores and Felix Zuniga, runners Noah Flores, Diego Rodriguez, Leah Barragan, Diego Felix, Abel Arana and Ayden Barajas. Bottom row: Carolina Lucy Zuniga, Destina Guzman and Coach Connie Guillen. Not pictured: Lindsey Ramirez and the Theobald sisters.
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Submitted by Ericka Arena

The Fillmore Condors concluded their 2019 cross country season by participating in the USA Track and Field National Cross-Country Junior Olympic Championships on Saturday, December 14th. Over four-thousand elite athletes competed at the Yahara Hills Golf Course in Madison, Wisconsin. The Fillmore Condors Cross Country is a non-profit organization under Heritage Valley Blazers Inc. Thirteen athletes ranging from ages 7-13 traveled to Madison, Wisconsin where they began race day with 21-degree temperatures and by noon, it had dropped to an unbearable 18-degrees. The 400 acres of the rolling hillside golf course had patches of solid ice throughout overlooking a frozen pond.

USATF is the highest level of competition with athletes from all over the U.S. Yearly, the top eight athletes in each division from Valley Youth Conference come together to create an all-star national team, The Valley United Striders. The Fillmore Condors athletes who qualified were, Abel Arana, Ayden Barajas, Leah Barragan, Diego Felix, Noah Flores, Carolina Garcia, Destina Guzman, Lindsey Ramirez, Diego Rodriguez, Kailey Theobald, Kistern Theobald, Kristen Theobald, and Lucy Zuniga.

The first race of the day began with the 7 and 8-year-old girls competing in the 2,000-meter (1.24 mile) race with 157 runners on the starting line. Condor runners were, Destina Guzman, Kirsten Theobald, Kristen Theobald and Lucy Zuniga. Top runner for this Striders team was Kristen Theobald with a time of 8:35.0 finishing 11th; On her feet right behind was first time cross country teammate, Destina Guzman in 14th place with a time of 8:36.4; Not far behind was Lucy Zuniga in 19th place with a solid 8:43.8; Kirsten Theobald who fought and raced with the stomach flu finished 125th, in 10:32.2. This Strider team was a powerhouse! Five of the girls earned an individual All-American award, which is only given to the top 25 finishers and three of those girls were Condor athletes. They also came home with a 1st place gold team title, to become the back to back Jr Olympic Champions.

In the 9 and 10-year-old girls’ race of 241 runners, Condor athlete Kaylie Theobald finished in 36th place, 12:26.4. Abel Arana and Ayden Barajas were the fourth group to race in the 9 and 10-year-old boys division. They managed to race within sight of their teammates in a field of 306 runners. Ayden finished in 12:01.6 for 88th place, and Abel Arana 6 seconds behind him in 96th place, running a 12:07.99. All 3 ran the 3,000-meter (1.86 mile) race and the boys team missed the podium spot by 10 points, to finish in fourth place overall.

Following, was the 11 and 12-year-old girls race with 317 runners. Condor runner Leah Barragan finished strong in 12:28.6, to place 160th. The boys 11 and 12-year-old race was made up of 364 runners, with two of our Fillmore Condors; Noah Flores who finished 93rd with a time of 11:12.4, and Diego Felix crossing the line in 11:27.3, for 148th place. This division also ran a 3,000-meter (1.86 mile) race.

316 runners were in the girls 13 and 14-year-old race. Lindsey Ramirez finished in 94th place with a time of 15:42.9 and teammate Carolina Garcia in 166th place, 16:19.5. Together with their Strider team, they earned a 2nd place national title. Diego Rodriguez ran the loaded field of 380 runners in the 13 and 14-year-old boys’ race. Diego was able to finish his race in 14:49.1 earning 199th place. All 3 Fillmore Condor athletes ran the 4,000-meter (2.48 mile) race.

The Condors are coached by Phillip Ramirez, Felix Zuniga, Gerardo Flores, Victor Rodriguez and Connie Guillen from Oxnard. “We strive to teach our athletes how to love the sport that tests their limits, time after time. Every set back is a journey and this 4-month long season, was exactly that. We found ourselves with no support from FUSD on track usage. Therefore, our athletes had to travel outside of our city just to train. Despite the struggle, it was worth it. We are proud of our athletes. The pain, grit and heart they trained and raced with day in and day out, will help mold who they will be in the future.” Condors President Erika Arana and board members would like to thank the following for sponsoring our athletes this cross-country season: Fillmore Lions Club, Fillmore Rotary Club, Central Station, Estrella Market, El Hair Studio, Inkfactuation, Innocenti Construction, Cliton Simonson, California Well Services, Metering Services Inc, American Water, Jamba Juice and Heritage Valley Blazers Inc. FOREVER CONDORS!

(left) Sonia Chessani with Good Times Car Club Founder Paul Sanchez at the National Lowrider Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

On November 16, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, Fillmore resident Sonia Chessani was inducted into the National Lowrider Hall of Fame (NLHOF) Class of 2019 along with 27 others worldwide. They came from as far as Japan, with three of the recipients being awarded the “Ford Dog”, top honor. Sonia was awarded a plaque and ring for her accomplishments.

She gives special thanks to all who have faithfully supported her throughout the years, and to all of her guests who traveled from various counties throughout California to attend the black & white formal dinner/dance ceremony.

To be considered an inductee Sonia had to first be nominated. To her surprise that nomination was submitted through Mr. Steve Morales aka “Duke” of Viejitos Car Club, a Palmdale, California resident who was inducted into the NLHOF Class of 2016.

To be selected for the NLHOF Class of 2019 Sonia had to submit her application along with hundreds of others to be chosen from. She was selected and inducted due to her contributions to the Lowrider Community over the past 32 years.

Sonia has been involved with car club showings throughout California, Nevada and Arizona. She has also been involved in the production and working car shows in California.

She has placed in numerous shows and been awarded various honors over the years. In 2007 she was presented with an award at Long Beach Veterans Stadium by Mr. Art Patino for “Ladies of Lowriding”. In 2014 Nite Life Ventura Co. Car Club presented her with an award for Dedication & Commitment in Ventura, Ca. In 2017 she was presented with an award of recognition by Pachuco Car Club in Oxnard, California at a show dedicated to “Women in Lowriding” for her involvement over the years; and for her 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass being featured in 2017 in Lowrider Magazine and Lowrider Scene Magazine, both published worldwide. In 2017 at an awards banquet in Las Vegas, Nevada, Good Times Car Club Founder Paul Sanchez also presented her with an “Excellence” award for magazine coverage, where she has been a member of Good Times Car Club since 2011.

She says her passion and dedicated lifestyle to the car culture came from her father, John M. Chessani Jr., who was also a lifelong resident, born and raised in the Piru/Fillmore area.

“I will always have my heart in the Lowrider Community as long as I can.”

Bob Crum

I concluded my previous column with this question: Did I post-process the photo of the week? Silly question, right? Of course I did. I'm resubmitting the photo again as a reference for the following discussion. (See the photo in color at fillmoregazette.com) Even though the camera's histogram revealed proper exposure, the camera did not correctly capture all of the elements of the photo. Here's why and the corrections I applied to improve it.

A camera/lens combo cannot see as our human eyes see. A filter on the sensor generates RGB pixels. But seldom does the filter/sensor combination capture the Kelvin of the light (color) accurately. The sensor sends image data to the recording medium. Unless the camera is ultra-high-tech, the dynamic range of the light will exceed the camera's ability to record it entirely. The camera's picture-style algorithms also affect the image produced — multiple reasons why no photo straight out of the camera is as good as it could be.

I like to evaluate a scene before making a photo. Taking a moment to study the scene also helps the mental recall during post-processing. The camera settings for the reference photo were: 'Auto' ISO and shutter speed 1/100 second. I closed aperture to f/22 to create the Sunstar effect. I know that closing the aperture f/22 means underexposing the image. (Remember the exposure triangle?) To compensate, I could slow the shutter speed further or manually increase the ISO. However, shooting hand-held, I prefer not to go slower than 1/100th second to minimize handshake (blur). The camera automatically raised the ISO to 1,000, somewhat high but passable. Nevertheless, the photo lacks the dynamic range of light at the scene. Capturing in RAW mode will permit me to make appropriate adjustments during post-processing.

I made several photos in portrait and landscape mode. On the monitor back home, I was not surprised to see some anticipated issues. Landscape orientation the obvious choice because I wanted to include the Spanish moss on the horizontal branches on the left. (See the hanging moss?)

In the original RAW file, the moss color is wrong. Also, the bright sun flummoxed the camera's exposure meter, discombobulating the overall exposure. Ugh! And the lichen on the tree lacked the texture that I saw in real-time. Adobe Lightroom (LR) to the rescue! First, quaffed a strawberry margarita, you know, to finesse creativity.

Recall that a RAW file is not yet a photo, just data LR (or any other RAW converter) interprets and forms an image. I exposed the photo for the bright sun, which I knew would underexpose the lower half of the image. Had I exposed for the shadows, the top half of the image would be overexposed. I easily brought back details in the shadows with the LR gradient filter which allows for adjustments of exposure, contrast, highlights, clarity, & saturation in the defined area.

I next tweaked clarity and texture. In the color panel, I decreased blue luminosity slightly to restore sky color. I increased overall contrast slightly. Now the photo is beginning to look as I saw the scene in real time. The last LR step was to apply lens correction. Depending on lens quality and the settings, lenses are notorious for producing various kinds of distortion, chromatic aberration, and perspective issues. LR usually fixes most lens issues, if they exist. This creative process took about three minutes and, yes, I'm legally allowed to have such fun! But I was not yet done! I exported the image, in the tiff format, to Photoshop Elements 2020 (PSE), with NIK plugins. In the tiff format, it's now a digital photo, not just data. To be continued...

Wishing you the Merriest Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Send questions, suggestions or comments to: focusonphotography@earthlink.net

Former Fillmore Mayor Manuel Minjares on Fillmore City Council's temporary moratorium of hemp production inside Fillmore city limits.

The following opinion expressed by former Fillmore Mayor Manuel Minjares was taken from a public Facebook post:

“I want to add a little more context to this issue because Fillmore has wrestled with cannabis in the not too distant past.

On November 6, 2018, Measure T, a Fillmore City Council led measure that sought Fillmore voters say on commercial cultivation of cannabis in specific, business park and industrially zoned areas. The measure ensured that any cultivation would be conditioned to occur within an enclosed building with significant air filtration to mitigate any odor issues. This measure was defeated, 54% - 46%.

The moratorium that the city has passed only affects the few vestiges of agriculture WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS. Our moratorium does not affect or impact agricultural uses outside of our city limits. Our moratorium is also not a permanent ban on industrial hemp cultivation either. It does however give the City time to look at options and different regulatory scenarios.

Without this moratorium, agricultural properties WITHIN our City Boundary could simply register with Agricultural Commissioners office and start growing hemp mere feet from our residentially zoned neighborhoods. Despite what some believe or even care to consider, the odor from outdoor cannabis cultivation has a significant impact on many people, unlike any of our other crops in this country in my opinion.

To be clear, I'm a big supporter of agriculture in our county and as a matter of fact, have been a vocal proponent of well regulated cannabis cultivation within our city limits. I am also aware that certain land uses are going to conflict with one another and can negatively impact the quality of life of many if not regulated appropriately.

To summarize:
1. Fillmore voters said NO to commercial cannabis cultivation on 11/6/2018.

2. Fillmore City Council voted to enact a temporary moratorium on industrial hemp cultivation on 12/10/19.
I felt it was necessary to enact a moratorium before any unmitigated outdoor cultivation could occur with in city limits, directly adjacent to residential development.

3. The Fillmore moratorium only applies to the few pieces of remaining agricultural properties within the city limits.
The Fillmore moratorium does not apply to agricultural properties outside of the city limits where over 99.9% of all agricultural cultivation occurs and should occur.

4. Fillmore City staff will be working on options for regulating industrial hemp for a council decision likely to occur in 2020.”

The Citrus Packing House, a repurposed creative campus at 341 A St. in the Ventura County city of Fillmore, CA, has traded for $1,420,000.00, according to Matt Benwitt of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura, who represented the seller in the transaction.

The 79,000 square foot property at A Street and Sespe Avenue was built as a packing house in two phases in 1917 and 1925 and eventually was used by Sunkist. Under the ownership of the seller, David Storrs, it was repurposed as a group of workshops for craftspeople known as the Packinghouse Creative. Tenants include makers of musical instruments along with Funky Junk Farms, a company that specializes in restoration and preservation of vintage trailers and RVs used for props and filming, and a memorabilia collector. It is located in an Opportunity Zone. The buyer, Brad Vernon, is expected to continue to use the property for creative tenants.