Brown Pelican

I've spent the last few days cleaning out my hard drive that has all of my photos on it. 120 gigs and I only had 4 left. I've now got 43 gigs left and most my photos are a little more organized. I'm still working on transfering more to DVD's. It's been tiresome on the one hand but fun finding photos I'd forgotten I'd taken and never shared. I thought I'd post these of the brown pelican.


I love taking shots of the pelican and I've got enough photos to prove it. I think it has such an interesting face and it's one of the few birds I've managed to easily catch in flight. These were taken at Cabrillo Beach.

Footprints In The Sand

Just a few more things I took pictures of at the beach. The first two are shots of seaweed washed ashore and drying out in the sand.



As I was walking across the rocks that lead down to one side of the beach I happened to look down and see this cat nestled between the rocks. That was a big surprise to me. I've never seen a cat at the beach. Maybe it knew how many birds hung out there and was tired from trying to catch one. :-) Then again, maybe like a lot of people, it just enjoyed the sea breezes and the warm sun.



And these are my shoe prints in the sand which I thought made for an interesting shot. It reminded me of my favorite poem which I posted below the photo.



Footprints In The Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”

- Mary Stevenson

What a Face!

Although some of these aren't as sharp and clear as I would like I thought these faces were worth sharing. I didn't remember to get the names of anything, sorry. I do like the little smiling faces of the eels (if they're eels), and the funky halo around one of the fish is actually the frame of the lens of my camera. Not a bad unintentional effect, huh? :-)

In Flight - Sky Watch Friday #11

I already posted this earlier and thought I may as well use it as my Sky Watch entry.

I spent my time at the beach trying to capture the birds that were out and about. I don't know if these are all brown pelicans or not so feel free to chime in if I've got this wrong. There were so many of them out that a couple of times they flew overhead in a flock. Since I couldn't seem to capture them as they dove into the water I took a short video clip. Now mind you, this is a horrible clip because I was fighting the wind and the bird was so fast, but I wanted to document at least one dive into the water which comes at the end of the clip.





I still think they look like pterodactyls. :-)





To see more great photos of the sky from all over the world Click here or on the Sky Watch Icon below:

Wings & Waves

I was so happy that there were a few birds out taking it easy on such a pretty day. I don't know what any of these birds are except the sea gulls. The minute I saw the big one it was all I could do not to run over because I knew it would send them flying. (Click on any picture for larger view).

Cabrillo Beach

I've been wanting some place different to go and remembered Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro here in Southern California. The first time I went there I was a kid on a field trip and we went to the Maritime Museum. I've been back several times, mostly on dates just to kick it. It's not one of L.A. County's most popular beaches, it's not one that stretches as far as the eye can see and part of its skyline is the the unattractive docks. But I like it. I found out the museum is no longer there but they now have an aquarium.

Why can't I go anywhere and not take less than 500 pictures? :-O Needless to say, I'll be posting pics from my visit to Cabrillo beach over the next few days.