South Texas sunrise
A beautiful sunrise along the Texas Coast...
From a few years back...a lovely sunrise along the Texas Coast!
I will admit that our Texas coastline is not as beautiful as other coastlines in the US. That's just a personal opinion of course, but having seen several beach in Florida, California and Oregon in my travels, I have to say that those other ones are prettier.
But that doesn't mean you won't find plenty of beauty along the shores of Texas beaches. I was down there a few years ago for a Spring Break trip with the family, and since we were all up, we walked down here to check out the sunrise. I'm glad we did!
The light and cloud combination was just perfect and I was able to capture quite a few shots like this. It was a great morning for photography, and it just goes to show that you can find beauty everywhere.
Baker Beach
I went here for a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge...and saw lots of fog.
Haha, that happens in San Fran. What can I do about it? Just shoot away, fog or no fog, right?
My plan when I arrived here was to stick around and get some nice light around sunset, but with the fog dropping in so heavily, it never happened. So instead I hung out, climbed some rocks, took some photos, and watched some of the tourists walking around...and enjoyed the heck out of it.
It's really a beautiful spot, whether it's foggy or not. Someday I hope to get back there with the camera and try again, though I must admit the location isn't very convenient for my travels to San Fran, as I am usually stationed on the far other side of town, near the Bay Bridge (that other bridge in SFO). And of course, that's why I usually end up with a lot of photos of the Bay Bridge. I shoot what I can get to, in other words.
So, I will cross my fingers that someday I can get back here to Baker Beach and shoot sunset on the Golden Gate Bridge, because this is definitely a great place to be to see it!
It's sunny in Hawaii
Ok, I am not currently in Hawaii, but I suspect that statement is true.
It's cold here in Austin, and it's REALLY COLD in a lot of the rest of the US. We have the whole polar vortex thing going on, whatever the heck that is. Sounds to me like a hole in the space-time continuum...and Santa is going to fly through it. Certainly makes me think of Back To The Future. "It's the flux capacitor, Marty"!
Anyways, hope you are warm and comfortable, wherever you are. Unless you want to be cold, in which case I wish that for you. You know what I'm saying. Be good people, and thanks for stopping by.
BTW, this was taken on Maui, which is a place that totally kicks a$$. I'm shutting up now, because this isn't going anywhere. :-)
A beach in Maui
There’s just something about Hawaii. I never really think that I want to move there, but boy do I ever enjoy visiting that place! It’s just so relaxing. I guess part of it is the island lifestyle, but I’m guessing another part of it is that since you are 5 hours or more behind the mainland, you just can’t stay up to speed on what’s happening back there...so you don’t try. Instead, you have a drink with a little umbrella in it, and work on your sunburn.
When we were there in April, my wife and I took a car out for a day to drive around Maui, and headed part of the way out the road to Hana. It’s a famous drive, but it’s really a winding road and honestly, it gets old after a while. So we stopped before we made it, turned around, and found this black sand beach to enjoy for a while. That’s better than driving. :-)
Blue hour at Wailea
Well, I am just back from a trip to Maui, which was fabulous. I mean...it’s Maui...how could it not be fabulous? If you follow my page on Facebook, you will have seen some iPhone shots I posted from the road. I saw a lot, did a lot, and of course photographed a lot. So, it was a great week in other words!
Although I am still trying to un-bury myself from all that I missed while gone (and thanks to everyone who visited and left comments here on my shots), I did manage to process one photo from the trip so far...and here it is.
This was a beautiful evening blue hour on the beach at Wailea, where we were staying last week. Due to the 5 hour time difference, I found myself mostly able to shoot sunrises, but I did manage a few sunset shots as well. More as I get to them!
On Carmel Beach
Carmel, CA is an incredible town. It’s like a little English village in some ways, except it is situated on the beautiful Pacific coast in Northern California. I love it there. If I could afford it, I would seriously consider living there. It’s just great.
Anyways, we were there for a family vacation one week, and did our best to spend time on the public beach, which is a short stroll from the main street shopping and dining area. I of course had my camera with me and at every opportunity, I was snapping some photos. In other words, I was taking pictures about every three seconds. This one was taken a little while before sunset, late one afternoon, while we were enjoying the incredible weather, standing on an incredible beach, on the edge of an incredible little town. I want to go back.
The Oregon coast
The world has a lot of beautiful places, and the Oregon Coast ranks right up there in my book as one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. I was visiting that area this past August with some fabulous photographers and friends, and we had a great time firing shots at nearly everything we saw. It was a lot of work, but we got it done. :-)
This is the view from Ecola State Park, looking south along the coast at a secluded cove, towards Cannon Beach. Isn't this place awesome?
Golden Hour at Haystack Rock
Summer's over
We recently took a family "end of summer" trip down to Port Aransas, TX which is on the coast. It's become a bit of a tradition for the whole family to hang out at the beach as the summer wraps up. It's our last hurrah before school starts and everyone gets back in the routines that we seem exempt from in the summer.
This time we stayed at Cinnamon Shore, which is a beautiful little village community with direct beach access as well as fishing ponds and a swimming pool to enjoy. I grabbed this shot as we set up on the beach one day. It just looked and felt like summer to me.
School starts this week in Texas - hope everyone enjoyed their summers!
Ecola to Haystack
One more photo from my recent Oregon trip. I loved everything about the trip and the spots we chose to photograph, but after 5 straight posts from Oregon, I am a little tired of the subject.
Don't get me wrong - like I said, I loved everything about it - but I tend to crave change here on the blog and I need to mix it up a little. Besides, I can only say "this place is awesome" so many times. It starts to sound a bit hollow, you know?
I do have many, many more shots from Oregon to share, but I will just sprinkle them in here and there. Change is good. Variety is the spice of life. It keeps me feeling energized. Is anyone else like that?
So about the shot - this is the view from Ecola State Park, looking down the coast towards Cannon Beach. You can even see Haystack Rock (the one in my last post) way off in the distance. Just another beautiful spot along the Oregon coast...this place is awesome. :)
Blue hour at Haystack Rock
Some places just steal your heart, and Cannon Beach along the Oregon Coast is one of them for me. You just can't deny the incredible beauty of the coastline here, and no spots are more well-known around here than Haystack Rock.
Haystack Rock is a 235 foot tall monolith which, as you can see pretty plainly here, is just a short stroll from the beach (though access onto it is not permitted). We shot there all through sunset, into golden hour and blue hour, and eventually late into the night where we watched the Perseid meteor shower and shot star trails.
In short, it was freaking incredible!
A Carmel sunset
So many sunsets, so little time...
I caught this one in Carmel, CA on the public beach there. It's a wonderful town to visit and I highly recommend just about everything about it. Well, except for the prices, that is. :)
Technicals: Nikon D40x, handheld single exposure at f/7.1, Sigma 18-200 zoom lens (at 52mm)
Software: Color Efex Pro, Aperture
Wharf Cat
I grabbed this shot right before we boarded a boat from Port Aransas, TX over to St. Joseph Island. The island is uninhabited, and there is only one boat over. We got there early to make sure we could get a spot, because the beach is great for gathering shells, and we wanted to get some! We were lucky and found lots of sand dollars, plus we had a great time hanging on the beach. I hope everyone in the U.S. has enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend - and thank a soldier for their service if you see one!
Here's one other shot I took at St. Joseph Island - I was standing in the water, shooting this and that as I walked along. This was aimed back at the sand dunes because I just loved the deep blue color of the sky!
Memorial Day weekend always feels like it's the start of the summer, and thinking about the summertime always makes me think of the beach - so thought I would share a couple from the Texas coast! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Walking the beach in Naples
I tend to be more of a mountain guy as opposed to a beach guy, but I can totally get the beauty of a wonderful beach under a blue sky. There is something about it that appeals to me at some level. I caught this shot while wandering along the beach in Naples, FL. I only had a little free time there and knew I wanted to see the ocean up close. What I didn't know is how close I was going to get. Take a look at this second photo. The beach was COVERED in shells, literally. They were everywhere, and lots of those little conchs were walking around like they owned the place. It was awesome!
Dreamy Carmel sunset
Sunset on the beach in Carmel, CA is always a great way to wrap up a day. This one was very colorful, which is always nice! For this shot, I went with a little different processing, opting for sort of an Impressionistic look and a dreamy feel overall. It seemed fitting to do so, since I dream of going back!