San Diego Spanish Art Village

Picture: Table and Chairs at Balboa Park Spanish Art Village, San Diego, California

On Saturday I went to San Diego to shoot the Spanish Art Village and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. I got off to a late start however and got stuck in a stop and go traffic from Irvine to La Jolla. That was very frustrating but since traffic is a way of life these days in Southern California you just deal with it.

I wanted to shoot some more of the colorful southwestern type of subject matter so I thought the Spanish Art Village might make for a good shoot. I'll try to go early in the morning before the galleries open next time because the colorful doors will be closed and no tourists will be creeping into my pictures. I think diffused lighting would lend itself very well to this place.

Some tourist lady got on my nerves as I was shooting pictures of a colorful door. I noticed that she was hanging around my vicinity and looking at me for quite some time so I made eye contact with her. She asked me what I was shooting so I mentioned the door looked pretty cool. She started laughing condescendingly and said, "ookay." Some people just don't know when to keep to themselves...

Immediately after that incident I recalled that Galen Rowell used to always preach about how important it is to learn how to see the way your camera sees things rather than how you think it looks. By not doing so, you're likely to always be disappointed that your photos never come out the way you intend. That lady clearly has clearly never reached that level of seeing and probably never will. If she understood how photography works then she wouldn't have been questioning the validity of what I was doing.

After the Spanish Art Village, I went to Old Town San Diego. I had driven through a few times but never had walked around there so I thought maybe it would be like Olvera Street. There was only a little bit of mexican culture there but the state historic park was quite interesting. It reminded a bit like Old Town Sacramento because it in a wild west type of setting. I had to rush my way through there though and treat it like a scouting trip however because the shops were about to close as I was walking around. In particular, I thought the cigar shop had a lot of photographic potential and took some pictures in there. Next time I'll be sure to do that place some justice.

After dinner I noticed some nice looking victorians at Heritage Park as I was driving off so I'll have to go back another time. I wanted to shoot the San Diego city skyline at Coronado Island but noticed that it was overcast along the coast. My map indicated that there was a toll to cross the Coronado bridge so I didn't feel it was worth it considering that it was overcast. I ended up driving to Shelter Island instead which was located nearby. It was alright but a bit too far from downtown to get a strong photo of the skyline. I took some pictures and thought of driving back towards home in hopes of catching some sun in La Jolla or Carlsbad but it was more of the same until it was dark outside.