Saltwater Without the Taffy

Picture: Powerful Wave Crashing Against Rocks, Venice Beach, California

After taking pictures of the lifeguard tower in the previous post, I walked over to edge of the beach where I saw big waves hitting these pile of rocks. Since I'm focusing on shooting tide pools this year I knew this would be a great photo op as there were mussels and anemones in the water and on the rocks. However those were difficult to shoot as the rocks were past the tide line and a blow hole was blocking my way so I focused on capturing the big splashes. You could see all the waves coming from over the rocks, but when really big waves start forming out in the ocean your eyes grow bigger to a point where it's an "Oh s***!" type of moment. That expression was certainly on the minds of these three little kids walking on the rocks. They were dropping F-bombs and all sorts of four letter words as pronouns and verbs the entire time I was there. I had never heard of such young kids using that type of language as a regular part of their vocabulary. Yes, this is L.A. and it is a tough town but 6 or 7 years old is way too young for that stuff. I'll be the first to admit that my vocabulary isn't much more sophisticated than that at times, but if I was a parent I would know better than to allow that sort of crude language from my children. Their parents were nowhere in sight by the way.

So this monster wave starts forming and as it's approaching I'm using my 17-35mm lens at 17mm to try and capture the whole thing wide in your face style. BOOOM!, and the entire wave comes flying at me and my camera while I'm shooting on rapid fire. I turned my back right as it hit me and got soaked. My new coat got drenched, my hair wet, and my mouth full of saltwater. Yuck. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

There's nothing quite like spending a day shooting pictures at the beach.