In Search Of ... M. angustirostriss (National Geographic this is not !!)

When last I left you I was heading home and going to do some studio work and hopefully get back down to the beach and do some surfing with the Elephant Seal...maybe even get some shots of him with my underwater housing.

Got my work done (and keeping my promise to myself to exercise whenever possible) grabbed my surfboard, underwater camera and headed down to the promise of 74 degree January Avila beach weather and enjoying our beautiful Pacific Ocean.

All looks good on paper, right ?? Well it had been four weeks since I took our daughters boyfriend out to surf right after New Years. The mind is a funny thing...sometimes we forget the painful memories, just kind of slide those in the back of the brain.... Well it all came back to me as I threw my 98.6 degree body into the 51 degree salt water.. I don't care what any $50 an hour trainer tells you, my heart was racing from the electric ice cold H2O. Heavy duty cardio without doing a thing... my heart was racing as if I had just done 30 minutes at the gym (and I hadn't even paddled out past the breakers) Here's a pic of three Cal Poly college kids getting a dose of Pacific Ocean numbing

Well anyway, once my body had completely become numb I was impervious to the cold and was really enjoying the warmth of the air (not the water) So my search was on for the lone Elephant Seal I had seen that morning. This was a great excuse to paddle my board up and down the beach getting some great arm workouts without knowing it. I am still in the very early stages of this diet and I find I need to cloak any form of exercise in an enjoyable form such as surfing. I forget even more that I am excercising as I have my camera along with me and that always guarantees I am in my own little bubble of a world. Pretty devious aren't I ?? But thats the COLD truth. Sometimes the cliche of "ignorance is bliss" can be spot on. As I continue my search for this 1/2 ton body of blubber known as M. angustirostriss  I realize slowly that he/she on land is slow and lethargic but in the water an adept ballerina emerges and keeps me guessing where he/she might pop up. Nothing like the sound of a 1/2 ton mammal popping up behind you letting out a loud exhale to freak you... Everytime I get a glance...boom.. I barely get a glance and he/she is probably 20 feet under me. I realize my hunt is futile but by chance get one shot of him by the pier, but once home see that I wasn't even close to capturing an image. Lets just say in this shot below you need to imagine him between me and the pier (no Photoshop to insert him in the pic. I despise Photoshop and what it has done to photography)

So, before I leave my blubbery friend ( I am not speaking about myself) I thought I would get a shot of the town I live in. This is Avila Beach.

In Winter there is usually not a soul around but come Summer the throngs emerge from Bakersfield, Fresno and other Central Valley garden spots to escape the 100 degree heat. We locals love Fall Winter and spring as we pretty much have paradise to ourselves !! As I surfed my way in and looking forward to a warm shower I snapped this shot as the wave was bringing me that much closer to warmth again !!

I will include one more shot that I took while paddling over by Port San Luis (a decent paddle away) I took this shot because I had not noticed the formations before. Once home I looked into it through Wikipedia and found out that it is "Pillow Lava" My youngest daughter, who has her PhD in Seismic Engineering would laugh at my lack of knowledge but even at 56 years I am still learning every day... Here's a short description from Wikipedia.

Pillow lava is created when magma reaches the surface but, as there is a large difference in temperature between the lava and the water, the surface of the emergent tongue cools very quickly, forming a skin. The tongue continues to lengthen and inflate with more lava, forming a lobe, until the pressure of the magma becomes sufficient to rupture the skin and start the formation of a new eruption point nearer the vent. This process produces a series of interconnecting lobate shapes that are pillow-like in cross-section.^[7] The skin cools a lot faster than the inside of the pillow, so it is very fine grained, with a glassy texture. The magma inside the pillow cools more slowly, so is slightly coarser grained than the skin, but still classified as fine grained.

Here, below, is "Pillow Lava" Just for you Melanie !! Your old Dad knows all about it now !! It is amazing that thousands of years this was below the surface of the ocean and from where my house now sits you would experience volcanic eruptions... Come visit me in Avila and I will take you on a tour of the "Seven Sisters". a series of volcanic "morro's" that begin in the Edna Valley and extend to the ocean. Hence the name Morro Bay.

Okay, all this fun and learnin' and I got a huge workout to boot !! This diversion thing is working !! I am starting to dream up new adventures to take my point "n" shoot camera and get a solid workout while not realizing it... Since Sunday (four days) I have lost five pounds but just as importantly I am re-connecting, feeling more centered with myself all the while discovering and visualizing. As my Mom would say, "wide eyed and bushy tailed"... More later...

Day One, Full Of Motivation, Full Of Mind

                          Well, here we go...day one and I am encouraged by the start.

I should start this off by saying I will be using a point and shoot compact camera. These images in the following months will be basic point and shoot imagery. I do not want to drag out the heavy, cumbersome Nikon's... couple of reasons for that and it mainly has to do with sticking to my initial goal of losing weight...the camera part is just a diversion for my weak willpower and mind.

Made my usual early morning drive before photo shoots to the beach in Avila. Avila is where I live, though not exactly. I live in the hills above Avila Beach in an unincorporated rural area with a distant view of the Pacific and her majestic sunsets. I was resolved to take my morning coffee (Diet Coke...I know, I know !!) and start my diet out right by walking the beach and maybe down to the far beach (Port San Luis). got out of the car and snapped this quick pic as my shadow looked so thin and lanky...A good omen ?? no se...


 This morning was/is one of those great California days. low 60 degrees already, light offshore wind and not to many people in sight...Not bad for a February/Winter morning !!

I walked along the beach, trying to keep a nice brisk pace but I kept being distracted by the sheer beauty of this place, this beach. It felt like a Spring morning when all is new and thriving. Maybe this is just the state of my mind now, I am really happy to start off on this diet/blog experience.

Down by the bridge that takes you across the San Luis Creek I was watching the sun play its early morning tricks on the shadows of a dog... It was hilarious !! Being so early in the morning (and Winter as well) the shadows formed are always so exaggerated... kinda like Natures Fun House where you walk in front of those crazy mirrors that contort your body...

This poor dog was truly challenged by it's own shadow and there ensued a standoff...much posturing, barking, and challenging until the poor guy had worked himself into a lather. The dogs owner and I exchanged Good Morning's and I mumbled out something like "reminds me of me and my shadow... I am not to happy with it...trying to lose a few pounds"

Images are amazing things...Sometimes we don't want to really look at them, sometimes they scare us...Sometimes a couple (or three) glasses of wine will blot the memory of that days images if those images/experiences of the day aren't so great.

If you are a photographer (or know one) the question you get asked the most is "What is your favorite picture that you have taken" My answer and I think most peoples is, "My best images/pictures are in my head" Isn't that a cool thing ?? Your most precious images or memories are firmly locked up in your brain...to be called upon when needed.

My new friend "Rodger" the dog made me realize that sometimes how we view ourselves needs to be looked at closer. Rodger's shadow was not a threat and my whimsical description of the image of myself appearing to be as skinny as the telephone pole shadows is/was just wishful thinking.

As I crossed the bridge further my mind was going in 6 different directions at once. This silly by chance encounter with "Rodger" had me questioning all kinds of things including the fact that my stopping and meeting "Rodger" and his owner was not doing anything for my cardio functions.... Was I lacking will power and stalling...resting and not keeping up the pace???... What if I just wanted to take all of life in as it comes to me and I will deal with that excersise part later... ARGGHH !!

I decided this example (I will call it the Rodger Vortex) is how, so many times in the past my firm resolve gets hosed down in the face... too many distractions, one needs to focus and be centered. I have yet to be truly focused...maybe that's why I like cameras and the imagery they provide...ya lock in on a subject, focus, set the aperture/shutter speed and out comes a nicely baked presentation of what you saw/imagined.

As I was stalling from getting back to my walk/exercise, I was looking over the bridge into the estuary that is created when salt water meets fresh (kind of a salt water wine) and froze for a second... the small wavelets that were coming in from the ocean were meeting the same type of energy but with fresh water from the creek creating what looked to me to be an X-Ray of my brain at that particular moment, all mixed up !!!! Wow, this was mesmerizing...I could watch these patterns for hours !!! So there ya go, a perfect example of how easily distracted I get...but how cool was this, it was a natural kaleidescope...After many minutes I continued on with the reason I am out here...my excercise/walk !!

In all the years (55) I have been coming to the shore on an almost daily basis, this is (I think) the first time I have seen a square shape created by waves.... Time for Tic-Tac-Toe !!!


Well, I got near to Port San Luis pier but turned back as I had a shoot to go to and I walked back on the same tracks I had earlier walked. I was thinking of the approach that I was going to take photographically with my model. I had it all figured out, I was thinking clearly and walking briskly...All was good !!! I got back to the bridge on the creek, leaned over to watch those crazy patterns for another moment or so and this was all I saw, over and over...

I almost laughed out loud... my head was clear as was the swell/energy coming from the Sea. At this moment there was no tug of war with the flowing water from the creek... I walked away just laughing to myself !!

So thats it...one moment chaos...the next one clarity... As usual Ma Nature has taught me one more lesson.

As I was getting close to my car I saw something I have never seen at Avila Beach...An Elephant seal had made this stretch of beach his own and was sun bathing. Elephant Seals are really common here in Central Calif. but I had never seen one on this beach, mostly thirty miles or so North up by Hearst Castle.

After watching him awhile, he decided to take a dip... I went home to my studio to photograph and vowed to come back down this afternoon with my surfboard and get in some exercise like my elephant seal friend !! Gonna take my underwater housing to, so I may (or not) get a shot or two !! More later !! comments are always welcome ! Regards, clikko