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| A trip to
The trip was attended by Subrata,
Animesh, Fran, Beth, Dan, Norman and me
& my wife. The day started with Subrata
picking us up very early. We picked up Norman & Animesh
in
We reached the seal lion point in Point Lobos at around
9:15am. Fran, Beth & Dan were waiting for us at the parking lot.
From here on, Norman took the lead. He led us on a trail he had been
on many years ago. He started talking about various compositional
techniques as we moved along. Along the way, we could hear the sea
lions roaring in the distance. The view was awesome from anywhere
along the trail. I ran into this couple shown on the right enjoying
the view, and I thought it made a good picture of them looking out
towards the ocean.
About half a mile into the walk, we came upon this
rock below which really stood out from the vista, begging to be photographed.
I have seen pictures of this rock in various books and cards, but
I just can't remember what it's called. I tried various compositions,
and finally settled on this one. Although it was taken under sunny
& bright lighting, I still think it looks decent.
After completing a loop of the entire trail, we headed
back to the parking lot, at which point we were pretty hungry. We
started a 5 minute debate about where to eat, and settled on Nepenthe,
further down south on Hwy 1. True to its reputation it offers some
great views of the Big Sur coast and ofcourse the food is great too,
although a bit expensive to my liking. At the end of our meal we took
some quick snapshots and headed back north to the Garrapata beach. We wanted to get to a vantage point to get a good shot of the Bixby bridge, so we took a turn out on Hwy 1 just after crossing the bridge. But apparently the road was simply meandering through the hills back to Big Sur. So we turned around and continued on Hwy1 on our way to the Garrapata. By the time we got there, the sun was at a very interesting angle, partly obscured by the clouds. We quickly started hunting for locations to park our tripods and get some compositions together. Below you'll see some of our group members doing the same, while Dan got busy with his pair of binoculars and Vidya was simply taking in the whole scene.
As the sun got lower, light started to get more interesting. This is when the fun began. As I gazed out at the sunset, I realized that I was missing my wide angle lens. I was only carrying my 70-200mm for the entire trip. I had lost my 20mm wide angle last year, in Dallas. At this point I just felt helpless. But Norman said, "Use what you have". And use I did, my 70-200mm. I got it out of my bag, attached it to my camera and took a series of pictures, which in the end I found to be very satisfying. At the end of the day, I didn't even notice I was missing a WA lens. Thanks Norman, for I started seeing compositions even in places where I didn't think a meduim telephoto would cut it. Also, Norman was kind enough to lend me his filter adapter for me to use myND filter for getting that cotton effect of the water hitting the rocks. So here are some those images.
On our way back, we stopped by at Norman's place in the beautiful hills of Los Altos. It was nice to meet his wife Louise and his mother-in-law, Marlene who will be turning 90 in a few months. Norman then indulged us with some of his big prints. All I can say is - Excellent work, Norman. Finally I'd like to thank Norman for providing us with some valuable tips on some of the aspects of photography and also to Subrata for arranging the whole trip and giving us a ride to and from Big Sur. And it was a pleasure meeting all the other groups members as well - Dan, Beth, Fran and Animesh.
Can't wait for the next trip. So long .... 04/25/2004 |
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