Showing posts with label california sea lion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label california sea lion. Show all posts

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Sea lion portrait

Sea lion portrait

Two takes on this peaceful sea lion at the Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. I like the late light reflecting in the water on the first one, but I'm partial to having the flipper in the second shot. Either way it was nice to see these guys in a more quiet setting than I have in the past.

Sea lion portrait

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

California sea lions, on the rocks

On the Rocks

A group of California sea lions in a relatively quiet moment as they settle in for the evening at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, CA.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Quiet moments at the wharf

My wife and I always enjoy a quick weekend trip to Monterey when we get a chance, and we were down that way over the July 4th weekend. While I was unfortunately fogged out of doing photography at Moss Landing State Beach as I had hoped, we had an unexpected surprise with a sizeable group of California sea lions drawing crowds at the Old Fisherman's Wharf.

Sleepy sea lion

When we walked by on our way to dinner the sea lions were as noisy as they usually are, barking loudly and generally making a ruckus. But after we had our meal and were heading out, the last of the light was drifting below the trees and the sea lions were much more subdued.

Sea lion moments

It seemed to be mostly younger animals in the group, with only one large male along the shore, and this youngster appeared to be enjoying quiet warmth of the last rays of sunshine before they slipped below the horizon.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Cascade along Cataract Falls

Small cascade, Cataract Falls (1of2)

This weekend I really wanted to find some waterfalls since we've had so much rain in the Bay Area lately, and Cataract Falls on the western slopes of Mount Tamalpais has been on my list for quite some time. We picked an awesome day to see it for the first time, as the water was really flowing, and the overcast skies helped to bring out the awesome green colors of moss and ferns found all over the wet rocks. It almost had a feeling of walking through a tropical rain forest, although with the occasional redwood tree sprinkled in.

Here's a vertical take on the same scene that I liked as well, with the lifting fog in the background.
Small cascade, Cataract Falls (2of2)

This was a relatively easy hike, although it is fairly steep as you follow the creek vertically past a number of large waterfalls. It's a hike well worth taking with all of the wet weather we've had, although I suggest getting there early, since there is only limited parking along the roadside, and it fills up quick. This seems to be the place to be though -- as I've seen this set of falls featured on SFGate.com and on one of the local news channels here.

This last shot is of a tiny creek that was flowing into Alpine Lake Reservoir, before we even made it to the real falls.
Redwoods and Waterfalls

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Sunset at Torrey Pines State Reserve

Sunset at Torrey Pines State Reserve

We had a really nice short trip to the San Diego area at the end of last week to finally check out the world-famous Zoos down that way. It rained a fair amount, but we did have a fantastic sunset the first night we were there, as we explored the beach at Torrey Pines State Reserve. I took an awful lot of pictures at the San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park and at SeaWorld, and I'm hoping to find the time to make a few picture-filled posts here this week.

The sky was really quite dramatic throughout the sunset:
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And we were treated to some of the local wildlife as well. It was great to see this young California sea lion come ashore at this really well used beach. We saw him hopping through the breakers for a few minutes before he came out to check things out.
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