Randy’s!

Randy’s Donuts has probably been in more feature films than Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Of course, I don’t have an exact count, but it seems that every other time there is a montage of Los Angeles, Randy’s Donuts is featured.

Today, it is the feature of my 365!  Who doesn’t love a good donut every now and then?!

Randy's Donuts

Araceli and Maribel

The Classic Sprinkle

Yum!!!

Royal Palms State Beach

My family and I met up with my brother’s family to spend an afternoon at the tidal pools at Royal Palms State Beach.  I brought my camera, of course, and was able to nab a couple shots just before the sun went down.

Happy Sunday!

Tidal Pool

White Point

Ballona Creek

At the beginning of February, I had taken a picture of Ballona Creek at Centinela Blvd just after sunset.  It had rained a fair amount in the preceding days so the creek level was decently high compared to what it looks like in the summer months.

Last night, I woke up several times to the sound of rain coming down pretty hard so I figured that the creek was really be going.  At dawn, I drove out to the same spot while the rain was still coming down and captured a few shots to show the speed of the water flowing out to the ocean.  The water slows down significantly as the creek widens as it approaches the ocean.

There is a good amount of debris in this water.  A lot of it washes up on the local beaches.  I’m sure some of it floats out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  There is a great program about the garbage patch called TOXIC: Garbage Island.  You can watch it on VBS.tv.

The Ballona Creek at Centinela Blvd., looking east

The Ballona Creek at Centinela Blvd., looking west

The Ballona Creek at Pacific Ave., looking west

The Ballona Creek at Centinela Blvd., looking west (February 1, 2010)

The Gillis Jetty Revisited

Today, the lighting was so even and lacking contrast that it was difficult to see the horizon clearly.  The sky just blended into the ocean which was sort of cool.  There was a whole lot less debris and seaweed that had washed up onto the beach than the last time I came to photograph this jetty.  Luckily, the weather was a whole lot nicer today too!

The Gillis Jetty, Perspective 1

The Gillis Jetty, Perspective 2

The Gillis Jetty, Perspective 3

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

Nate at Dockweiler

Yesterday, my wife and our son, Nate, walked around the tidal pools and collected a bunch of sea glass.  Nate was so excited about it that he wanted to find some more sea glass today.  We didn’t have time to make it back down to San Pedro, but we had a 0.5 ft low tide just after 5PM so he and I headed down to Dockweiler to see if we could find some sea glass.

We found a few pieces of glass, but they hadn’t been rolling around long enough to take all the sharp edges off so we just ended up throwing those pieces away.  Instead we collected some smooth stones of various colors, some sea shells, and a couple of nice sand dollars.  Afterward we climbed up a berm and I was able to get a shot of Nate against a colorful evening sky.

Nate at Dockweiler