The Rock

Anyone who has been to Torrey Pines State Beach, in San Diego, knows of this very familiar site. It was like this rock was put here as a viewing platform to watch the sunsets or just a popular place to have your photo taken. When the tide is low, this rock is easily accessible.

I took this photo on "Black Friday." Me and my friend went and walked around the Torrey Pines State Reserve, which has a trail which leads you right down the cliffs to the beach at this spot. I thought with the chilly weather and it being the biggest shopping day of the year, there wouldn't be too many people here. Well, I was certainly wrong. The parking lots were jammed pack. I guess perhaps the shoppers had seen enough of marked down prices inside a Walmart or Target store and wanted to see something with a little more visual appeal.

I took this photo about a half-hour before sunset, when the golden sun brilliantly makes the bluffs glow in the rich golden light. I had composed this photo with the foreground rocks in mind. But, what made this shot was the group of people on the rock. It's funny how they were aligned from shortest to tallest, with the tallest person waving their hands. I don't believe this rock has any name, but it is certainly a scenic magnet, in the San Diego landscape.

Autumn Along Soleduck

Autumn in most places in the world, you associate leaves turning into vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds. In the Pacific Northwest, this does happen, but what also happens is the rain returns and the rain forests become wet and lush green.

I finally had a few hours to make a trip out and check out the Sol Duc Falls. The Sol Duc Falls are located in Olympic National Park, in Washington state.

Now in this photo, these are not the Sol Duc Falls. This though was found along the trail, heading to the Sol Duc Falls, along the Soleduck Trail. I know. I know. Is it Sol Duc or Soleduck? It is both. The trailhead says "Soleduck." Since these are not the Sol Duc Falls, I will go along with Soleduck, since it is right off the Soleduck Trail. Had enough Soleduck?

Anyways, this is just a part of a small little stream cascading down and through green mossy rocks. You will see these as you cross a small, wooden, walking bridge (~10 feet long). Now from the bridge, these falls look pretty, but you really just need to gallivant a bit up these falls and find some nice pockets, like I did here.

What I really love about this photo is how the 2 logs which fell created a very spectacular, makeshift waterfall. Usually logs falling into a waterfall scene can really obscure and really sometimes ruin the photo. In this case, they are not obscuring the falls, but rather creating a waterfall.

It was a perfect time to photograph this scene, as the clouds moved in and it was even a bit misty around, which is typical of rain forests, of course. Everything was lush green, damp, and beautiful.

The Soleduck Trail is about a .8 mile hike from the parking lot. It is a pretty easy hike and not much hills at all. Be sure to check out my blog again soon, as I will show the actual Sol Duc Falls.

Bottles Of Fun At Bodie

Here is another photo from my recent trip to the Eastern Sierras. This one is from Bodie Historic State Park.

This was my first visit ever to Bodie. I heard and seen images from this place, but they were generally the same image, over and over. When I arrived here and started walking around, I could not believe the abundance of photo ops here and wondered at the same time why there wasn't a much larger variety of photos available to view, on the internet. There are the wide angle scenes and the plentiful amount of details, as well. In the photo, I used my 135mm lens to focus on the details.

The bottles on the window sill caught my attention. What I like was the wide variety of bottles. A secondary subject in this photo is the rickety, wooden picket fence. If you walk around Bodie, you see this wooden texture everywhere. Therefore, when composing this image, I included the fence, but still didn't blatantly give away the place. I left some intrigued. At the same time, if you have been to Bodie before, you might be able to recognize this.

Now, I could have just composed the bottles in the window and that might have worked just fine. But, I felt like a little more context might be needed and make the image, once again, more intriguing. The context being perhaps a worn, old, vintage, abandoned place, etc... A place perhaps that once was bustling with activity. I also just liked how this fence was and the tones of it really pop out and the missing pickets in the fence, really work well. When we see a fence, of course our curiosity makes our eyes want to look past the fence. Here, you eyes see the fence, and then walk right through the fence, where the opening is, due to the missing pickets. Your eyes then scan and examine the long row of bottles on the window sill. Even in an image like this, where I have used a medium telephoto to isolate on some details, there are many photos within this photo, as well.

Bodie is truly a photographer's paradise and there are plenty of bottles of fun to be had here. My recommendation is if you visit here, you do it during the weekday and right as it opens. It does tend to have many tourists around and once noon hits, you are really dodging them.