Jan 11, 2009
Out of the blue
Last week (and for several before that) I was in California, visiting my lovely sister for the holidays, but in between Christmas and New Year we took a little nested vacation and scooted down Highway 1 (in a ridiculous shoe-like convertible) to Big Sur and the surrounding area.
We stopped briefly in Monterey, just long enough to visit the world-famous aquarium, in the rather tacky and awful Cannery Row bit of town. I’d recommend a visit, though not during a major national holiday as we did – the place was heaving and we could barely get near the tanks for great swarms of tourists schooling through the exhibits like the very fish they were there to see. Once you do manage to see the various installations up close, however, it’s quite stunning, though I must confess to a strong yearning for sushi when viewing the deep ocean exhibit. Well, it was lunchtime and all those yellowtail tuna looked lipsmackingly tasty….
Despite only having my Nikon D80 with standard 18mm lens and a paltry 3.5 aperture, I managed to take a good number of pictures, some of which I’m really proud of indeed.
At the very end of a year in which I’d not really had enough time to spend on photography as I would have wanted, I was pleased to be able to squeeze some good shots out under the constraints of a rather puny lens, very dim lighting conditions, reflections on the glass and approximately 8,000 people getting in the way every time I tried to take a shot. Despite all that, I’m chuffed with the results. So consider this a happy new year hello to anyone still reading this thing, combined with a public resolution to take more photos, in more interesting places, using more techniques, during 2009.
Plus, I hope you’ll permit me a smidgen of proud self-indulgence as I share some of my favourites after the jump.
More here.
Fab stuff. And I know you aren’t saying it in this vein but really, stop showing off!! “Ohh I ONLY had blah.. and ONLY had bleh… and all the people.. bad light”
Then you post photos like that? You do yourself a great disservice!
And yes, I’m hoping to have a more photocentric year myself. Time will tell.
I don’t blame you in the least for being proud of these!
Myself, I’ve only got a Nikon D40, but I plan to learn the ropes and have a lot of fun with it.
great shots! happy new year!
beautiful!
Great photos Meg. How so paltry though ? Was it a fixed 18mm lens or.. ?
Gorgeous photos! I must go back to the London Aquarium – a few hours there with a camera is so good for the soul! (Mine anyway!)
Very nice indeed. I recently subscribed to the RSS for your Flickr photostream (hope you don’t mind) and I’ve been enjoying the regular arrival of your latest shots. I’m quite inspired to learn how to take photos properly one day, but it’ll be a while before I can afford a DSLR. Here’s to many more excellent photos in 2009 :-)