Month: March 2016

03-14-16 The Caves at La Jolla

The birds certainly don’t mind the wind and rain. . .  (read and see more)

By Scott Shephard

It was rainy, windy a deeply overcast when we parked our car at the overlook to the La Jolla caves. I thought twice about getting my camera out. Frankly, I’ve thought twice about getting my camera out at any time in 2016. Believe it or not, I’ve even thought about just quitting photography. But then what? The fact is that I’ve just gotten lazy. . .

But I did get the camera out and took a few photos. I’m glad I did. As I’ve taught my students, photography isn’t an accident; its a concious process. And it takes discipline, practice and dedication. Oh, and a good “digital darkroom” to help gray days look just a little brighter.

Canon 5DIII 1/125s f/8.0 ISO400 24mm

A few more from this beautiful area:

03-13-16 Self-Absorbed?

Why not try to get your face in most of the things you photograph? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

One of the nice things about people taking selfies in public places is that they are often oblivious that someone is taking a picture of them taking a picture. Am I a creeper? I don’t think so. I’m a photographer. 🙂

And here was the photography challenge on this occasion: How do I get a photo of a massive statue of a sailor kissing a nurse and somehow make it more interesting than all of the millions of other photos that have been taken in this place? (Which is on the San Diego waterfront, by the way.)

One answer is that I could have taken a selfie with the statue in the background. Since I’ve never been to this spot, it would have been truly unique. But I think a better answer to the challenge is what I ended up posting. And are people who take selfies self-absorbed? Maybe. Is it bad to be self-absorbed? I can opaquely answer that with a monumental selfie:

  Deb and Scott strike a pose and generally obscure the monuments at Stone Henge. But they get a truly unique image in the process.
  Deb and Scott strike a pose and generally obscure the monuments at Stone Henge. But they get a truly unique image in the process.

03-12-16 A Pretty Good View

By Scott Shephard

On our recent visit to southern California Deb and I drove over to Point Loma, a peninsula across the bay from San Diego. We went to see the famous tide pools on the western side but I ended up spending more time photographing the Rosecrans National Cemetery, which is located there, than I did anything else.

I have always been drawn to cemeteries as photographic subjects though I don’t often share the pictures I take there. Military cemeteries are especially compelling, in part because they are symbols of sacrifice and in part because of the symmetry, color and geometry that draw my eye.

Beyond all of this, though, the most striking thing to me about the Rosecrans National Cemetery is that it is full. After putting 110,000 soldiers to rest, this cemetery has no more vacancies. Maybe once the military cemeteries all fill up we could find less violent ways to resolve our differences. . . . ?

Canon 5DIII 1/750s f/11.0 ISO250 98mm