Pic of the day - Friday

It's been a great few days. Along with following our smartphone GPS navigation to the wrong places, we got to meet up with some old friends down here which really tied the week together. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with Northern Virginia traffic on I-95.

Pic of the day - Thursday

I didn't go as crazy shooting in Myrtle Beach as I did in California, because I actually wanted to do nothing. It was awesome ha. However, it's hard for me to pass on photo opportunities when I see them so I tried some new techniques on for size. I'd take one general shot over and over again, different times of the day over the course of the week, in the same places, to push my skills a bit further. Taming daylight outside of golden hour isn't for everyone, but I enjoy challenges and am admittedly hard headed on process. If I want to accomplish something that's outside of Photography 101, because I like what my eyes see, then I'll work at it until I can pull off what most don't attempt. Great thing is it's only digital, developing shots takes minutes and any success is well worth the effort. Then it's rinse and repeat until the desired effect is achieved and reproducible.

Pic of the night - Wednesday

The only bad thing about the weather being so nice last week was the fact that daylight savings time (and the time of year) robbed me of a couple hours of sunlight to play with compared to summer. While it felt like June out there while the sun was shining, it felt like early March after the sun dropped. We ended up finding a nice Thai food joint off Kings Highway not long after this shot and ate like...Kings. Damn hell ass Kings!

Pic of the day - Tuesday

There's nothing better than turning back the clock psychologically and wearing shorts/flip flops in the warm sun did the equivalent...it was this past June all over again. The thing that comes to mind most when I visit areas that have sweet scenery within minutes, is if the locals know how good they have it; or does their norm, great to outsiders, become boring to the regulars? I can't answer for them, but I like leaving my norm for varieties sake.

Pic of the day - Monday

I was finally able to ditch the daily grind for a few days and take a short trip down south this past week. Drove down to Myrtle Beach for a couple of days and was thankfully able to eek out one more set from a lovely locale for the year. 70 degrees and cloudless for five days straight; you couldn't have asked for better. Here's the fullsize wallpaper/pic of the day, retroactive edition.

FYI, all of my 'Pic of the day' posts going forward will have a fullsize shot (~1300x800) you can throw on your computer at work or at home; if you're late to the party, the last series was in July. If you're one of those techies with a screen bigger than 19" (higher resolution) and need a bigger shot to fit, just drop me an email using the logo at the bottom of my page or my service inquiry link above. Simply link the post in question and I'll be happy to set ya up.

Pic of the day - Friday

We flew home today, but made a quick stop at the harbor on the way to the rental car place. This vacation week flew so quickly, it's a shame to be back home in a way; but if it lasted forever it would just be moving.

Pic of the day - Thursday

Last day of the trip before flying back tomorrow. Beth, our friend Sara and I went to the Bernardo Winery for a little relaxation mid-afternoon. Leaving coastal San Diego to just another 13 miles north-east changed the weather by about 20 degrees. Twas hot. Sweatin to the oldies. Slow arm drip. But the heat was dry at least (ahem).

The final shot tally for the past 6 days is ~2400 pics, so I guess I'll have a long weekend ahead of me. On to In-N-Out for our last dinner.

Pic of the day - Wednesday

Today was a good day. After all the running around I finally got to lay out on the beach for a few hours. This vacation is almost over but I've come to terms with it...sigh. What made this day even better than the beach was getting to see my buddy Mike out here before he gets deployed this August to Afghanistan. We caught up on the past year or so over dinner and a couple microbrews in Carlsbad. I got mildly lost before getting to the restaurant, but made some lemonade.

I really hope coastal Californians don't take their scenery for granted. Seeing an ocean from home is a great thing.

Pic of the day - Tuesday

Today we have returned from the desert to a very pleasant, familiar and sunny disposition here in SD. I've shot so much out here (1k shots in the last 24hrs) I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to share them all, but I guess another post is a start. This has been put up special, computer desktop-sized, for all those needing to get away while at work. While blogger upload quality isn't perfect (ahem), this will do for now.

Editing is going to be a PITA, but it's been a pleasure shooting up the West Coast.

Pic of the night - Monday

Well I think I figured out a solution to not posting my pics of the day on time...retroactive posting! If it worked, you won't be able to tell the difference ha. Continuing a tradition forged from a 05' trip to Vegas for our friends Megan and Jasons' wedding, we took a quick trip to the strip while we were out here close enough to do so without a flight. 320 miles one way through the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas Blvd, it was nice to go back. Vegas pics aren't as good unless they're night shots in my opinion (but I did take a few day shots before leaving).

Keep an eye out for earlier days' posts showing up through the end of the week.

Pic of the day - Sunday

Well I went out and shot today, but the sun still wasn't quite out. More specifically the sun came out for a few hours late morning through early afternoon, but I was watching the World Cup and couldn't get outside ha. After the Cup was claimed in the name of Spain, I shot under unfortunately bland skies. So the pic of day for today is a beer I bought last night at the LQ next to Hodad's, up the block from our room at the Ocean Beach Hotel (both highly recommended btw). 

New Belgium Brewery out of Colorado makes an ale called Trippel. It has great flavor and more importantly packs quite a punch (7.8%). I tried several micro brews in while in San Diego, as there are literally hundreds on parade here-whether it be by bar, restaurant or many local beer and wine stores. This selection was good enough to bring back in my checked luggage rather than leaving it for the OBH cleaning crew. 3.5 stars.

Pic of the day - Saturday

Remember me saying I was looking forward to vacation? Well I'm on it now. We got in Friday to clouds and went right from the airport to In-N-Out Burger off Sports Arena Blvd. Jet-lag and a lack of sleep rolling into our 6:15am flight from BWI kept things real simple. We crashed to fight another day.

Today we went to Davey's Locker in Newport beach to look for whales in the Pacific. Beth has wanted to see whales in the wild for years now so I figured why not, regardless of the time of year they're typically seen (not July). It was cold in socal upon our arrival on Friday and today was no exception; clouds and wind. On the open water it wasn't much warmer, but I was smart enough to bring a hat with me to keep the scull warm. The good news is we saw a pod of dolphins, which was cool. Bad news is the 'common dolphin' was apparently part of the whale family so they technically fulfilled their obligation ha. The Captain apologized for the lack of action with a half-off voucher for another day...ah well.
 
There were a few other boats out where we were, one of which was in this shot. The dolphins like playing of course and will 'run' with boats, using the surrounding wake as a guideline. While you only see a small group of dolphins here, there were about 100 out in this pod occasionally breaking the surface with a flip or two. I hate to say it, but I would've loved something longer than my 135mm out there. This was a cool side trip, regardless of clouds, but Beths' whale watching hopes will live on.