Cambria - a collection of waves

Perhaps I am just easily amused, but I love the blue-green water, the bright white foam, and the dark black rock.  I could just sit and watch the waves crash into the rocks and ease onto the shore.

This is a handful of wave photos, most of which were done with fairly long exposures, between .5 and 4 seconds.  The last one is the notable exception.  Nothing spectacular, just pretty.

Cambria - Part 4

Another day, some more photos.  It's tough not to in such a gorgeous place.  The fog cleared out a bit early so Julie and I headed into the Fiscallini Ranch Preserve.  It is a big permanent open space in the heart of Cambria.  For residential development, it would be worth a fortune.  It is a mix of rocky beaches, ocean bluffs, grasslands, and heavy pine forest.

A lot of the pines had a dainty moss growing on the branches.  It was beautiful when back lit by the sun.

There was a group of seals (not the huge elephant seals from earlier in the week) hanging out on some rocks.  Bad news though.  The tide was coming in quickly and they were just about to get washed away.  So much for nap time.

Just above the bluffs, a yellow wildflower was blooming everywhere.  Each flower wasn't that pretty but when you carpeted a hillside with them, it made a statement.

I thought I had seen every kind of trailside bench, from basic logs to something that looks like it should be in a French palace's garden.  This?  Not quite sure what they were thinking when they built this.

We went back to Morro Bay for dinner.  We left early so Julie could hit a pair of stores she liked and I could try to photograph the sea otters and birds before dinner, and hopefully a gorgeous sunset afterwards.  Are you kidding me?  How in the world do you go from brilliant sunshine to pea soup in fifteen miles down the coast?

I found a pair of sea otters dining, but they were far away and the light was still flat from the fog.

I did have a little better luck with the birds when the occasional smidgen of sunlight would pop through.

The egrets and herons have taken over a row of trees in the Morro Bay harbor area as their nesting grounds.  Walking or parking under those trees will almost certainly have bad results.

There is a lot of activity around the nests.  If I had a full sunny day, I think I could grab some spectacular shots.

The hardest to see, but the cutest, are all the babies hanging out in the depths of the trees.  They are getting quite large and must be about ready to leave.

I liked this photo because you can see through the egret's wings.  There are two of them fighting about 60 feet up in a tree.

This poor little egret (same one as above) was getting crowded out by a pushy heron.  He seems none too happy about the whole thing but the heron just wanted a buddy to hang out with.

Sunset in Morro Bay was clearly going to be a bust so after a wonderful seafood dinner, we drove back "home" to Cambria.  We were just in time to walk across the street and grab a few sunset shots.

Another splendid day!

This morning the fog is thicker than any day so far and it shows no signs of relenting.  Bummer.  Time to go for a run.

Cambria, Part 3

Yesterday brought some clear skies (finally) and I went out to do some sunset photography with my beautiful tripod-totting assistant.  She's better looking and more useful than Jasper as an assistant, but less willing to sit in the car for hours at a time while I shoot something.

I always like watching the people who get off from work and head down for some surfing in the last hours of light.  It seems more peaceful than during the day.

While waiting for the skies to get more interesting, I tried to find interesting shots with the water and the sunlight.  This rock was right at the surf line and every wave did its best to pound the rock into submission.

The next few shots are all looking at waves up the coast.  I liked how the sun was backlighting through the tops of the waves.

Finally the sun went down but without clouds in the sky, the show is brief and a little "flat".  Still beats 99.9% of what you see.

We walked back to the house and I started to take my pictures off the camera and look to see what I had.  Then I glanced out the window and noticed the color of the twilight and the bonus of the setting moon and Venus. I ran out and grabbed a few last shots.  This one became my favorite of the day.

Cambria, Part 2

We were sitting in our rented house, enjoying the sounds of the crashing waves.  Then I started hearing birds yapping and screeching. They were clearly upset with something so I went out on the balcony to see what was causing the excitement.

The instigator was a hawk, probably looking for some birds' nests containing tasty young fledglings.

The Mockingbirds would have none of it.  A pair of them would attack relentlessly. They were almost certainly a mom and dad with a close nest.  Unfortunately, the hawk viewed them as just a minor nuisance.

But then the crows got involved.  There were four or five of them and they didn't take the same "I will flutter around your head approach" of the Mockingbirds.  They would fly in different directions around the hawk and then dive bomb him one at a time. Notice the crow's size compared to the Mockingbird's.

Sure enough, off he goes, still hungry.

Not something I would have expected to see here at the beach.  Certainly not right next to our house.  Thanks hawk!

Cambria, Part 1

A few years ago, Julie and I stayed in Morro Bay, on California's central coast.  We are back on the coast, but this time we are here for a week and are staying about 20 miles north in the little town of Cambria.

This part of the coast has the advantage of almost no temperature swings, either day to day or even month to month.  We have lows in the 50s and highs in the 60s every day.  On the drive down from the San Jose airport, we hit 106 degrees in a town about 25 miles from here.  Amazing what the coastal currents can do.

Unfortunately that same weather can bring the "June Gloom".  This is the notorious cloud cover and morning fog.  The forecast predicts that it will clear by 11:00 each morning, but so far that has been BS.

This was taken on the first evening here and the only time we saw a sunset.

For the weekend, we had our brother-in-law Marty drive in from Fresno to stay with us.  Wish he could have stayed longer.  He's always a lot of fun to have around.

One of our to-do's was to hit the Hearst Castle.  It's only about 10 miles north of here.  I enjoy seeing it but "Wasteful Willy" Hearst sure knew how to go over the top.  Funny to hear how the 250,000 acre ranch was the smaller one in his collection. He had one down in South America that was 1.6 million acres.

Marty and Julie at the castle.

I chose to mirror this lovely statue's pose.  Marty decided to give it a hug, even after the hundreds of "don't touch anything, anywhere" warnings.  Yes, he got scolded.

A few miles north of the Hearst Castle is Elephant Seal Beach.  It's great that they named it that so that all the seals know exactly where to go.  These guys have group napping down to a fine art.

I'm not sure why being covered in sand makes life better, but clearly it does if you are an elephant seal.  There was almost always at least one flippering up a sandstorm.

We also made a trip down to Morro Bay for a hearty breakfast and to find my sea otters.  They were hanging out in their kelp beds, but the light was so grey and flat that I couldn't get much of a photo.  I'll try again another day.

This gull was pretty entertaining.  He had an odd looking fish and continued to pound it over and over on the rocks.  I would guess that he was trying to stun it into submission, but I am pretty sure it was already dead or unconscious.  Just eat the damn thing and get on with your day.

You'll probably have to enlarge this to see the detail, but every little black speck in the water is a surfer.  There must have been a hundred of them.  There must be some pretty complex rules for deciding who gets the next wave.

We stopped in the little town of Harmony on the way back to Cambria.  Total population, 18.  It has a glass blower, some pottery, and a teeny little wedding chapel with a door that looks like a giant wine cask.

Oh yeah, and a post office.  If you ever wonder why the US Postal Service gets pissed off that congress won't let it close a lot of rural offices, remember this place.  It has a post office serving a town of 18.  It is a few miles from Cambria, Morro Bay, and Cayucos, all of which are decent sized towns.

And we will end today's post with a little humor.  Being a marketing person, I know how you tend to stretch the truth to get people to be more interested in your product, like this resort.  If you looked at this sign (and their magazine ads) you would think:

• On the beach
• Has a pool
• Has a golf course (notice the art work)

Reality sets in:

• To get to the beach, you have to cross the highway, and then it is more boat ramp than beach.
• They really do have a pool.
• The picture below shows one of the nine holes on the golf course.  The green is just mowed grass.  You can't putt on it because the grass is normal lawn height.  Of course, that doesn't matter because there isn't actually a hole.

Enjoy your stay!  Psych!

... and the goods news is that we are not staying at San Simeon Pines.

Rowing (sort of) Day 1

I got up early this morning and headed to the Jordanelle Reservoir for my first day of rowing training. The weather was about as nice as anyone could ask for.  Imagine the scene below, before any of the local campers are awake, gliding smoothly on the water, almost silently.

That, of course, had nothing to do with my rowing. All my strength and endurance training on the indoor rower will continue to be useless until I get my act together. The boats are skinny and unstable, even the training versions we were in.  My oars were essentially big splashy sticks.

These are my two classmates in a double.  I was in a single.  The trainers are wider and more stable than the racing boats.  If I had started in a racing boat, I would have gotten more training in swimming than rowing.  Balance and grace are a real plus here and I have neither.

One of my classmates, Jenny, is the head of the Kimball Art Center's education program.  She's my boss when I teach photography there.

 And this is our wonderfully patient instructor, Dayna. I was happy that she didn't have us sitting on shore for long.  No better place to learn than out in the water.

Back again on Thursday.  Hopefully between now and then I will picture a much smoother stroke. Getting the oars in and out of the water correctly is not something that comes naturally to me. Just the same, I think I can learn the basics fairly quickly.

Park City Photographer wannabe's

I have started teaching photography classes at the Kimball Art Center.  My next class will be on Saturday, September 28th and is called "Composing the Fall Colors".  We will spend an hour or two in the Art Center learning about composing better photos, and then head off to shoot what should be the perfect fall colors.

If you are interested, sign up at http://reg125.imperisoft.com/KimballArtCenter/ProgramDetail/3330353234/Registration.aspx

Jasper's llama buddies

Another amazing example where Jasper is able to telepathically summon llamas from a quarter mile away.  I simply have no explanation for their behavior.

If you ever need a llama whisperer, give me a call.