Pacific Grove on iPhone 6

Yesterday was hot, and I have a sunburned back to prove it.  We drove down to the Monterey Bay and spent the morning and the early afternoon on the beach of Pacific Grove's Lover's Point Park.  Save two dead sea lions rotting in the sand and seagulls stealing whole bags of Cheetos, it was an amazing Saturday.  The ocean was calm and clear, the sky was a deep warm blue, and the light was brilliant, promising the arrival of summer soon.  The kids slept through the entire ride there, and only whined a little bit on the way back, nothing a song or two couldn't take care of.  Also, Grandpa John stopped by and hung out with us, making the family fun complete.

I didn't bring my camera as I already had a ton of stuff to carry (traveling with kids is like a perpetual move across the country, even if it's just a day trip), but I had my phone charged and my eyes peeled for the good sights.  I am very happy with the snapshots I took home - my new year's resolution was to return to shooting for my own pleasure, and it's definitely working out great.

I hope you are having a spectacular weekend, too!

Escape to Santa Cruz

This weekend we visited Santa Cruz.  It was like coming home - suddenly I didn't look like the odd kid on the playground, but blended perfectly in the crowd.  The weather was magical, be it a little ominous in light of the snow blizzard that's engulfing the East Coast.  Temperatures in the low 80 confuse the heck out of my biological clock but I admit I enjoyed it.

Santa Cruz is an amazing place!  It is the land of the fifty year-old skateboarders.  There are beach bums, regular bums, and just people who look like bums but aren't.  Nearly everyone has tattoos and their hair is a bit too long, and they wear weird clothes.  Tie dye is very popular here.  So are VW vans in bright colors.  I saw an actual open top military Jeep pass by full of teenagers who were listening to Sublime as loud as they could.  The rich drive their vintage cars on Highway 1, and the not-so-rich ride bicycles and carry all of their earthly possessions on their backs.

There were a billion dollar view villas overlooking the Pacific, piercing parlors and record stores, liquor stores and cafes, souvenir shops, cotton candy and deep-fried everything on the Boardwalk, calliope music and arcades, yuppies and hippies, yoga moms, youths looking like gangsters, people smoking cigarettes and other stuff at street corners, beach goers and surfer dudes, and sunshine - lots and lots of sunshine!

And honestly, as crazy and unusual all of this seemed, I feel it's still more natural and organic than the wastelands of Suburbia.  In Santa Cruz there's a real sense of culture, of community.

We arrived at high noon so I resorted to taking photos countre jour.  I was shooting while pushing a stroller, so don't judge my composition technique too hard!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

iPhone 6 Showcase - Half Moon Bay

Things are busy and I haven't had the chance to feature many images from my iPhone yet.  Well, here are a few - we took a short last minute trip to Half Moon Bay this weekend and we had a wonderful time at the beach as the sun was setting over the ocean (one of the last images is from Foster City Lagoon).

Under the Sea

This weekend we traveled to one of my most favorite places on Earth - the Monterey Bay, and we finally visited the Aquarium.  You might wonder why are there almost no images of my kids, husband, Mom or father-in-law, even though they all came in tow.   Well, it's quite simple really.  The baby stayed outside with my mom and John Sr. and they walked down on Cannery Row to the Fishermen's Wharf, and once inside, I practically lost sight of Johnny and John not 15 minutes in.  It was crowded, noisy, hot, and dark in the Aquarium, and if it wasn't for Johnny's flashing shoes, John would have lost track of him too...  Besides, there are way too many photo of my children in this blog already :)

At any rate, we had fun.  The turtles, sharks, octopus, and the rest of the sea-life were amazing!  I quite enjoyed the jellyfish and the schools of silver fish swimming in circles in the elaborate Aquarium tunnel tanks.  

Photography-wise, this was one of the most challenging environments to shoot in.  Not that I was really set up for achieving some sort of award-winning perfection, but I wanted to do justice to the lovely ocean occupants.  For the most part the exhibit rooms were too dim to focus properly, and the fish were moving too fast to use slower shooting speed.  Flash was not allowed - and was useless anyways because it would have thrown terrible reflections off the tank walls, but there was no room for a tripod either, as it was a tourist-packed Saturday morning.  And cranking the ISO helped some, at the cost of way too much noise... 

Considering that all of these are hand-held and that I used my kit lens, however, I should say I did pretty darn well.  Enjoy!

P.S.  You gotta love the new statue at the city wharf with Steinbeck perched on top!

A Good Sunday

We attended a great birthday party today - there were animals to pet and friends to talk to, and although we couldn't stay for the cake, we had such a fun time.  Getting out of the house and taking photos was long overdue!

I am loving the beautiful warm light in these.  As the season changes to Fall, the sun shines so softly! 

Portraits From Half Moon Bay

My Dad is here and we have been touring our immediate surroundings as best as we can in the past few days.  The State beach at Half Moon Bay was on our list today.  We had a good time - my Dad hasn't seen the sea in over 20 years, so he really enjoyed the salty air and the sound of the crashing waves.  The lighting conditions were really weird; it was blinding and dark all at the same time! 

I am nine months pregnant now, and it really shows in my work - I can't bend, lean, kneel, or duck easily to take a shot, or keep the horizon line straight, which is rather funny.  I used to literally lie in the middle of a busy city intersection for a good PoV.  Ah, well.

This time we didn't see any whales, but I am once again super huge, just like I was about a week before Johnny was born. The Instagrams from that day were considerably sunnier, though....

Here are some of the Nikon images, the ones from my iPhone will of course go on my personal blog soon.  

America is a tune. It must be sung together.

~ Gerald Stanley Lee, Crowds

This is the first of many images from the archives I will be posting here in the days to follow.  Finally got around to carry out a massive backup project, and I would like to share my favorite candid photos.  

I took this one in the winter of 2008.  John and I still lived in London at the time and since we got married earlier that year, the California trip served us as a Honeymoon as well as a visit to John's parents.  We has a swell time - rode horses, (sort of) swam with dolphins, had a Chinese Tea Ceremony, and drove all the way down to LA to see the sights.

The Golden Gate is something to behold, and seeing it for the first time was quite a memorable experience.  So it was for these Tibetan monks, I believe.

Taken with my old point and shoot Kodak.

Postcards from Coyote Point Marina

This morning we drove over to the park and walked along the bay to look at descending airplanes, docked (pirate) boats, and sunbathed succulents.  The air smelled of salt water and freedom - something Johnny isn't quite old enough to appreciate, unfortunately.  We got there early but not early enough for the good light, and everything was washed out and overexposed, so I resorted to post processing most of the photos I took in black and white.  

Enjoy!