Steinbeck Country
(Written on Tuesday, July 10th.)
This morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 a.m. because I wanted to see if I could photograph fishermen unloading the day's catch at the fish wholesale markets. It was still dark and drizzling when I got there. There were no fishermen in sight nor any active fishing boats but I think I found some interesting subject matter nevertheless. My camera still wasn't working properly so hopefully I was able to focus the pictures properly. When the viewfinder malfunctions, it makes it very difficult to manually focus.
Picture: Monterey Fishing Crates, California
I walked over to Fisherman's Wharf afterwards and a sea otter caught my attention. He was playing around initially then went to sleep. Sea otters are the cutest marine animals in my opinion. They are so playful that it's impossible to be captivated by them.
I'd been to Monterey a number of times in my life but had never been to the Old Fisherman's Wharf. The wharf dates back to 1845 and the buildings have been re-created to look as it did then. The buildings look interesting. Nothing was open yet at that hour so the buildings took on their true character in spite of the tourist traps located inside of them. If Monterey were to strip the signage off of the buildings, Fisherman's Wharf wouldn't be identifiable as a tourist attraction. The buildings have character.
After breakfast I went to Cannery Row. The Monterey Bay Aquarium tends to get busier and busier as the day goes on so I wanted to be there when it opened. I was disappointed to see half of Cannery Row being re-built as new development. A "multi-use" building is being built right next to the aquarium. At this rate, there will probably be a day in my lifetime where Cannery Row no longer has any of the original sardine cannery buildings left.
Photo: Monterey Bay Aquarium Naturalist, Monterey, California
The aquarium was great as usual. My camera had started working again while at the wharf, so the aquarium photography went as smooth as possible for a crowded place with dim lighting conditions.
After taking an email and phone interview break for an hour at the Monterey library, I drove up to Elkhorn Slough. Near the slough, I slowed down for this vulture that was eating another bird in the middle of the road. It flew away as I drew closer. I had to keep driving because the park ranger was driving behind me.
Now if only I knew that the reserve is closed on Monday and Tuesday! I ran into the ranger while I was at the entrance and I had to bite my tongue. He knew I wasn't happy but was still nice to me. He gave me a suggestion to go to Kirby Park, which is on the upper portion of the slough, and he also recommended checking out the old boat yard on PCH. That was the southern entry for the slough and the put-in site for kayaks. There weren't any birds out on the water, otherwise I would have been tempted to kayak the slough. I did see about six sea otters out there at the same time though. It would have been nice to get up close to them in a kayak to photograph. Being overcast though, the water wouldn't look good in the photos.
I had an early dinner then went to the Old Monterey Farmers Market. Often times when people travel, they do most of the tourist attractions but skip on the local flavor. That is unfortunate because the Salinas Valley crops for sale looked great. I had never seen heirloom tomatoes before today outside of a Seed Savers Heritage Farm catalog. I tried a few strawberries and they were as good as it gets. If I had a cooler in my car I would have bought some. I also tried a piece of honeydew but I'm not really a fan of honeydew. It was good though.
The farmers market had a kaleidoscope of colors to focus my camera on. When subjects are that colorful it can be overwhelming. Deciding what not to shoot was more difficult than deciding what to shoot.
Picture: Salinas Valley Heirloom Tomatoes, Old Monterey Farmers Market, California
After the farmers market I spent the last three hours of the day at the Pacific Grove Shoreline Marine Refuge. Point Pinos Lighthouse wasn't open so I had to use my telephoto to shoot it from the beach. And that's it for another long day of photography. These 16 hour days of summer photography are brutal!
This morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 a.m. because I wanted to see if I could photograph fishermen unloading the day's catch at the fish wholesale markets. It was still dark and drizzling when I got there. There were no fishermen in sight nor any active fishing boats but I think I found some interesting subject matter nevertheless. My camera still wasn't working properly so hopefully I was able to focus the pictures properly. When the viewfinder malfunctions, it makes it very difficult to manually focus.
Picture: Monterey Fishing Crates, California
I walked over to Fisherman's Wharf afterwards and a sea otter caught my attention. He was playing around initially then went to sleep. Sea otters are the cutest marine animals in my opinion. They are so playful that it's impossible to be captivated by them.
I'd been to Monterey a number of times in my life but had never been to the Old Fisherman's Wharf. The wharf dates back to 1845 and the buildings have been re-created to look as it did then. The buildings look interesting. Nothing was open yet at that hour so the buildings took on their true character in spite of the tourist traps located inside of them. If Monterey were to strip the signage off of the buildings, Fisherman's Wharf wouldn't be identifiable as a tourist attraction. The buildings have character.
After breakfast I went to Cannery Row. The Monterey Bay Aquarium tends to get busier and busier as the day goes on so I wanted to be there when it opened. I was disappointed to see half of Cannery Row being re-built as new development. A "multi-use" building is being built right next to the aquarium. At this rate, there will probably be a day in my lifetime where Cannery Row no longer has any of the original sardine cannery buildings left.
Photo: Monterey Bay Aquarium Naturalist, Monterey, California
The aquarium was great as usual. My camera had started working again while at the wharf, so the aquarium photography went as smooth as possible for a crowded place with dim lighting conditions.
After taking an email and phone interview break for an hour at the Monterey library, I drove up to Elkhorn Slough. Near the slough, I slowed down for this vulture that was eating another bird in the middle of the road. It flew away as I drew closer. I had to keep driving because the park ranger was driving behind me.
Now if only I knew that the reserve is closed on Monday and Tuesday! I ran into the ranger while I was at the entrance and I had to bite my tongue. He knew I wasn't happy but was still nice to me. He gave me a suggestion to go to Kirby Park, which is on the upper portion of the slough, and he also recommended checking out the old boat yard on PCH. That was the southern entry for the slough and the put-in site for kayaks. There weren't any birds out on the water, otherwise I would have been tempted to kayak the slough. I did see about six sea otters out there at the same time though. It would have been nice to get up close to them in a kayak to photograph. Being overcast though, the water wouldn't look good in the photos.
I had an early dinner then went to the Old Monterey Farmers Market. Often times when people travel, they do most of the tourist attractions but skip on the local flavor. That is unfortunate because the Salinas Valley crops for sale looked great. I had never seen heirloom tomatoes before today outside of a Seed Savers Heritage Farm catalog. I tried a few strawberries and they were as good as it gets. If I had a cooler in my car I would have bought some. I also tried a piece of honeydew but I'm not really a fan of honeydew. It was good though.
The farmers market had a kaleidoscope of colors to focus my camera on. When subjects are that colorful it can be overwhelming. Deciding what not to shoot was more difficult than deciding what to shoot.
Picture: Salinas Valley Heirloom Tomatoes, Old Monterey Farmers Market, California
After the farmers market I spent the last three hours of the day at the Pacific Grove Shoreline Marine Refuge. Point Pinos Lighthouse wasn't open so I had to use my telephoto to shoot it from the beach. And that's it for another long day of photography. These 16 hour days of summer photography are brutal!
Labels: California, Monterey Bay, travel
posted by Richard @ 6:53 PM
4 comments
Richard Wong Photography: Image Boutique
4 Comments:
Sounds like 16 hours well spent to me. Great shots.
Thanks Bernie. This was a day that I probably will never forget. It was a blast and best of all very productive.
Hi Richard,
Great stuff! I have been looking forward to what you were going to come away with on your trip - looks like it was a great success!
I received a nasty email from the Monterey Bay Aquarium telling me I couldn't market images of their place. I ignored it.
Ron
Thanks Ron. I would have posted earlier but I forgot to install my wireless adapter hardware onto my laptop before leaving...
That sucks about the letter. It's not like you are using their aquarium as a Niebrugge Images direct mail postcard or anything. I've got a high ranking photo from there on the search engines so I'm sure I'll receive the same thing eventually.
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