Windansea, La Jolla

I almost gave up during the drive to Windansea beach in La Jolla this morning. As I headed toward the ocean, the fog became incredibly thick. Roughly 100 feet of visibility on the freeways, if that. I'm glad I didn't give up and just go home.

The air was clearer at the shoreline, but the fog held thick up to - and through - sunrise. Shuffling carefully down the bluffs, I tempted high tide taking long exposures close to the water's edge. Occasionally, acting as a human shield for my camera from the ocean spray. The photo below looks calm and serene, but all of that soft, white mist came from a lot of waves crashing against the rocks.

Windansea, La Jolla

Processing notes: Apple Aperture only. Single exposure on the order of 4 1/2 minutes. Definition on the rocks, a touch of vibrancy to boost the blues and greens of the ocean, sharpening to the entire image.

Mount Soledad

I've been to Mount Soledad many times, sometimes with my camera, sometimes not. It gives a great vantage of San Diego and a popular spot for sunsets. At sunrise...it's a lot quieter. The weather reports called for partly to mostly cloudy skies - I was hoping for partly. My mind's eye could already see brilliant reds and oranges as sunbeams about the breaks in the clouds.

Partly cloudy turned to mostly cloudy in short order, the sky becoming a amorphous gray mass. The only color splashes I was getting were from antennae in the distance. With the skies not cooperating, I shifted focus to the omnipresent cross. It will - as it does for most visitors - be the foreground anchor for my photo.

The cross has been a source of controversy since the late 1980s - and based on court rulings in 2012, it  may not be there much longer. While not significant to me personally as a religious icon, it's certainly been a long-standing landmark of San Diego. And for that, I'm glad I've got one capture of it to call my own.

Mount Soledad Cross

Stars & Stripes & Stars

After an unplanned hiatus, back this morning. San Diego had rain earlier in the week, which does wonders for washing the dust out of the atmosphere. Couple that with a forecast for very clear skies, I went out very early this morning for some star trail experiments. My plan was to photograph this cairn I'd found unexpectedly a few months ago as the foreground and let the universe do the rest. A short - but steep - hike to the summit of the hills nearby my home I was dismayed to find the cairn was gone.

Regroup. Changed the subject to a flag - a little more tattered than my last visit. About 45 minutes into the shooting sequence, I stopped the camera, hence the abrupt stop to the trails. Although sunrise was still nearly an hour off, the skies were brightening too much. Realizing I'm going to need to start much earlier to a more effective star trail...and I still haven't quite gotten my camera recipe down for these shots yet.

But not a total loss...here's what I came away with:

Stars & Stripes & Stars

And as a bonus, I had a great view of the sunrise. Captured a few frames of that as well. Watchy my Google+ page for one of those.