The Serpent Jetty, Visit #2

Every surfer knows how much sand can move around from week to week.  It becomes really apparent when you have a point of reference like a jetty.  This morning, I went back to the Serpent Jetty to see how different it looked today from a month ago.

The berm that I was standing on last time wasn’t nearly as big as it was last month so I didn’t try to match the same perspectives as before.  Regardless, you can see in the final two images how much more sand was built up around the jetty today.

It’s this constant movement of sand that plays a major factor in the shape of the waves at your typical beach break.  You could have super fun corners one week and beach-long closeouts the next.

Serpent Jetty, Perspective 1

Serpent Jetty, Perspective 2

Serpent Jetty, Perspective 3

Serpent Jetty, Perspective 3 (from January 25th)

Nate, Bean, and the Power for Bribes

So it took a few shots to get this portrait of Nate and his buddy, Bean.  The first few shots were all about getting their silly faces.  Once that was done, I bribed them with a cookie (great parenting, I know) to get them to smile nice for the camera.  It worked.

Nate and Bean, pre-bribe

Nate and Bean, post-bribe

Our Friday Night

I was up late last night trying to catch up on all the Olympics coverage that I had missed this week.  So I slept in this morning meaning that I woke up a little after 7AM instead of 5AM like I did yesterday morning.  So without my morning photos, I decided to keep things low key by shooting our evening activities.

My wife’s birthday is this Wednesday so we decided to celebrate early by going to our favorite sushi joint with Nate Dogg.  Nate enjoyed his smelt egg sushi and shrimp tempura.  He kept us entertained by making funny faces throughout dinner.  After dinner, we headed over to the Westfield Culver City for some ice cream and some running around.

The mall used to be called the Fox Hills Mall, but it was remodeled recently and they changed the name to go with the new digs.  I’ve been to the mall a couple times since they reopened and I have to say that the entire mall looks really nice.

Now we’re at home, Nate is down for the night, and my wife just cracked open a bottle of wine.  Time to sign off.

The sushi chefs at Sakura

Seared rib-eye sushi with avocado and sea urchin - amazing!

Nate, mugging for the camera

Nate at Westfield Culver City

Nate Dogg and Marie-Z

@Nate

The Westfiled Culver City, post remodel

Cabrillo Beach

Shortly after starting this project, I knew that if I was going to keep it fresh and interesting for myself, I would need to be willing to explore a bit and find some new places. This past week, thanks to the suggestion of a few friends, I’ve hiked a couple trails that I’ve never hiked before and got to see some really cool stuff.

A friend on Facebook mentioned Cabrillo Beach in a message on Wednesday, and so last night, after I looked it up on a map I decided that I’d get up a little earlier and make the drive down to check it out.  These are some of the images I got this morning.  The clouds killed any chances of me getting a colorful sky, but based on what I saw, I think I will definitely be going back for some more pictures at some point soon.

Cabrillo Beach, looking west

The lifeguard station

The Cabrillo Beach Jetty

The Breakwall

Millard Canyon Falls

Just north of Altadena is a great little hike called the Millard Canyon Trail.  I met up with my friend who suggested this hike for what is normally about 1.5 miles hike roundtrip, but today it was more like 3 or 4 miles with some significant elevation gain in the early going.  The recent rains had caused sufficient damage to the roads and the parking lot that the entry road was closed to motor traffic.

The good news is that the rains also made the falls much very picturesque.  I’ve seen a few pictures of the falls online and it is little more than a trickle in most of the images.  But today, it was a full-fledged 50′ waterfall!

I eagerly set up my tripod and pulled out my camera only to find that I had taken the tripod mount off of my camera!  Bummers.  So I had to make do and simply rest the camera on the tripod and hope that I could hold it steady as I snapped my long exposures.  I think they came out fine despite not having a rigid mount.

I hope you enjoy today’s images.

Millard Canyon Falls

A mid-trail cascade

Temescal Canyon – Second Attempt

As you may recall, I had a post about my first attempt to see the Temescal Canyon waterfall.  I wasn’t able to get past the creek due to the recent rainfall.  Today, I went back and was able to get up to the falls before sunrise.

I had started off at 6:10AM so it was still dark and I have to admit that I got a bit sketched on my hike.  I saw a coyote in the parking lot – that didn’t bother me too much.  But the first 1/4 mile of the trail from the paved road was pretty muddy and squishy.  I was just concentrating on my footing when an owl or some other big bird flapped its wings and flew by me from about 6 feet away.  That really got my heart rate going!

By the time I got to the falls, the sky provided enough light to get some shots using a slow shutter.  Here are my results.  I hope you like them.

Temescal Canyon Waterfall

A Temescal Canyon Cascade

A serene pool downstream from the waterfall

I thought it might be fun to show you the part of the path today where I was stopped on my first attempt to the falls.  What a difference the rain makes!

What it looked like today

What it looked like on February 6th