Dock on the Bay

We managed to get away for a long weekend to Cambria and the Central Coast. It's apple season deep in See Canyon near Avila Beach and they sang their crunchy siren song to Tina, so we had to go.

Part of the trip was so Tina could paint and I could take photos. We left very early Friday morning and got to San Luis Obispo by about 9:30. After breakfast at the Apple Farm we spent the rest of the midday scouting locations in Los Osos, Baywood and Morro Bay. We found a nice spot, but decided to come back when the light was better.

When we came back later that afternoon, we discovered to our horror that the tide had gone out and the lovely estuary was now more a mudflat than waterway. So we came back the next day.

The spot we decided upon was at the foot of Doris Avenue where it crosses Mitchell Drive in Los Osos. Crosses is a bit of a misnomer as the other side is a small parking space between two houses and a footpath with "coastal access" trailing between them. That leads to two benches between two private yards, a foot path disappearing into the water's edge and a view of the estuary and bay from that spot along the shore.

But it was enough for Tina to set up and paint the estuary and tree-lined shore to the east and for me to shoot the private docks jutting northward into the shallow water. Morro Rock could be seen across the way.

I liked the look of the small docks. I used black and white film in my Mamiya 645 in a more formal setup, but took some grab shots with the Canon Eos 40D. Since my intent was a black and white image, I modified the above shot in Photoshop and tweaked the contrast. I really like the look of the structure and its reflection in the water. It has a more classical appeal than the original color image below - at least I think so. It's one of those cases where the color distracts from the overall effect.

The nice thing about shooting in digital is the ability to take a color image and convert it to black and white. That's a bit harder to do with film, although in this day and age I suppose I could shoot in color transparency and then do a high resolution scan and convert to black and white if I desire. That way I'd have more options.

I may do that in the future, but for this day, it was black and white film. I'm anxious to see how the shots turned out. Hopefully as good as the digital image!

Morro Bay Sunset

Well, that was a long hiatus. In the past two months we've been to Colorado Springs to see the kids and grandkids, I went to San Diego immediately after for the International Society for Aviation Photographers convention, we followed that a week later with a long weekend in Yosemite and then we spent a few days in Cambria during 4th of July week. We also entertained Lin for a great five days and had lots of BBQs and other adventures along the way. In between I managed to write three articles for work and we went to the Hollywood Bowl a couple of times. Oh, yeah, we also prepped for the release of the last Harry Potter movie by having a marathon viewing of all the previous Potter movies the week before release. It's a wonder we found any time to sleep.

Having said that, we've now committed to the gym again. Yes, I got tired of seeing Jabba the Hutt every time I looked into the mirror in the morning. A truly scary thing if you've never experienced it a 0-dark thirty.

The upshot is I'll have even less time than before, so irregularity may be the continuing hallmark of this blog. For that I apologize, but life, as they say, goes on.

I did manage to capture some nice images while we were on our adventures. Part of the reason we went to Yosemite and Cambria was to let Tina get some plein-aire time. She did well. For a sample of some of her recent work check out her website (see link on this page).

We had one really nice sunset while on the Central Coast. Morro Bay was quite nicely lit and the egrets were wading along the shallows looking for targets of opportunity. This is one of the more striking shots from that evening. It was a very peaceful moment - unless you were a fish.

More to come, hopefully soon.

Morro Bay

We spent the past weekend up in the Central Coast. We did the usual circuit of Paso Robles wine tasting, ribs and art galleries in Cambria, seafood and window shopping in Morro Bay and Italian gourmet in San Luis Obispo. Throw in a Lavender farm in Atascadero and fresh apples in See Canyon and the trip was its usual success.

I did manage some photography along the way. Morro Bay is just very picturesque. Besides the famous rock and sand spit, the bay itself offers a lot of possibilities. The colors reflecting on the water is a prime example. I don't normally shoot abstract images, but water and reflections fascinate me. This image was done standing on the little wharf by the Great American Seafood restaurant at the north end of the Embarcadero. The trace of color from a moored boat and bouy made for a pretty image.

As can be expected, gulls and pelicans were plentiful. This gull managed to catch a small fish as it paddled by. It's always fascinating to see how they manipulate their prey in their beaks as they position it for swallowing. I'm sure the fish wished it was elsewhere.

This last shot was thrown in as an example of how mixing images has its drawbacks. The gull is obviously real and recognizable, whereas the water is colorfully abstract. I though it would be neat to have both in the same frame, but all that happened was the gull was camouflaged enough as to be bearly discernable and the water's effects were lessened by the realism of the bird. Oh, well...it was a nice idea.