Pacifica Pilgramage

January 7, 2015 at 10:05 pm | Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

This afternoon, I decided to take a road trip to Pacifica, CA to take a few pictures of the sunset. I left Palo Alto about noon and drove the back way (through the hills) into Half Moon Bay where I connected with CA-1. I drove south out of town for about 5 miles until I found a photogenic beach (unnamed) that didn’t charge a fortune for a day pass. It parked in the turnout and walked the 100 yards to the bluff overlooking the ocean and took these pictures.
 
Left: A shot of the ocean. 16 mm wide angle.
Center: The little beach. Shot at 50 mm. (If you look in the distance toward the upper center, you can see some of the town Half Moon Bay).
Right: The same shot, only shot at 16 mm wide angle.

Next, I drove back toward Half Moon Bay and stopped at Half Moon Bay Golf Links for lunch. After a mediocre, and over-priced, hot roast beef sandwich I drove to Half Moon Bay State Beach. I drove to the entrance and pretended to be lost (sly devil that I am). I asked the guard for directions to the pier, which I already knew to be 5 miles north from previous experience. I thanked him for the “information”, then as a pre-planned afterthought, asked if I could just enter the park for a few minutes to take a few pictures (this ploy works most of the time, and today was no exception). He said “no longer than 10 minutes, or he’d be in trouble.” I said the that would be ample time for what I wanted to do, and proceeded into the park to take these pictures.

Left: Beach. Taken at 16 mm.
Center: Ocean. Taken with the 210 mm lens.
Right: Ocean and beach. Same basic shot as the picture on the left, but taken at 50 mm.

My next little jaunt was to the aforementioned pier. I took these pictures there.
  
  
  

Top Left: Parking lot of Pillar Point Harbor
Top Center: Sign outside the Harbormaster’s office at Pillar Point Harbor.
Top Right: Boats at Pillar Point Harbor. 16 mm wide angle.
Middle Left: Boats at harbor. 50 mm.
Middle Center: Traffic management at the harbor. 16 mm wide angle.
Middle Right: Same shot, but with the 50 mm lens.
Bottom Left: Duck taking a leisurely swim in the harbor.
Bottom Center: The sea gulls here are fearless. He acted as though posing for pictures were his job. (Taken from a distance, about 20 feet, with my 210 MM telephoto lens).
Bottom Right: Like I said, fearless. I took the picture of this sea gull from a lot closer, about 3 feet, using my 50 mm lens.

As sunset drew ever nearer, I departed the harbor and headed toward my ultimate destination, a beach on the north side of Pacifica that I had seen a few times before, but never had the time to stop. Along the way, I stopped at Montero Beach, another free beach. Basically, another wide spot in the road. I took these pictures there.
  
Left, center, and right are basically the same shot, with the different lenses; 16 mm, 50 mm, and 210 mm respectively.

That didn’t take too long. I then drove to the Public Beach on the north side of Pacifica. I took these last pictures there.

  
Top left, center and right: The setting sun reflected beautifully off of the cliffs, beach and rocks.
Bottom left, center and right: The sunset was a thing of beauty. I just wish there would have been a few more clouds to enhance the sunset’s majesty.

It was a fun trip, and I will be doing more “day trips” in the future; as I learn to use my new camera. I arrived back in Palo Alto at around 6:00 pm.