391 - Point Lobos
This whole shoot at Point Lobos was basically a bird mania shoot, which wasn't what I was expecting at all. What I was EXPECTING was a lush, vibrant cove with bright blue water type of shoot.
...which it kinda was also. But not really. Let's start from beginning. We arrived at Point Lobos with the idea of shooting the China Cove specifically, but it turned out the park was WAY bigger than we anticipated.
We started our hike up at Devil's Cauldron, and decided to work our way down to China Cove for sunset. I'm not going to lie, the hike started off pretty lackluster. The moment we began our journey the marine layer rolled in, and we didn't have much to work with.
The coast was vaguely interesting, but nothing STRUCK my attention- except for the birds. They were everywhere! And flying in patterns too, which was what really made my eyes turn. I noticed a line of them flying along the ocean, and a wave broke right in front of them. I snagged this banner shot:
“Hold the Line”
Sony a7rIII + Sony 70—200mm 2.8 GM
ISO 1000 ~ 90mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/8000s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Super nice balance between the ocean and the birds there. We kept walking along the coast, but I didn't see much else. We met another photographer by the name of Tim, who's work you can check out here. He told me he was shooting long exposures which made me feel like I SHOULD be shooting long exposures, but honestly I wasn't in the mood. I wanted more action!
The marine layer began to roll in harder, and it was at this point I realized there probably wasn't going to be a sunset. Eventually we arrived at the China Cove, and it was pretty nuts actually. A monstrous cove full of kelp... The unfortunate thing was that there was rope EVERYWHERE, and they wouldn't let you off the path. Which basically killed all of my composition creativity...
You couldn't get close to the edge anywhere! Oh, and did I mention there's poison oak everywhere as well? As I'm writing this Haley has it ALL over here arms and face... So be careful!
As you can probably tell, I was starting to get a bit discouraged. I had one solid bird shot, and that seemed to be the vibe right now. Next to China Cove was this place called Bird Island, where there was probably 500+ birds.
Fuck it. I'm going full on bird today. I popped my Sony 70-200mm 2.8 GM lens back on and shot away. Here's what I came up with:
“Black Blotter”
Sony a7rIII + Sony 70—200mm 2.8 GM
ISO 1000 ~ 109mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/5000s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
That was my attempt to get as many birds as possible in frame, but still maintain a coherent subject. The marine layer helped blur the birds in the back a bit, so I could really pull out the flying bird as the subject here. I liked the shot, but I didn't LOVE it. But I wanted to show a shot of all the birds on the island, and this was the best one I had.
I kept shooting, and eventually ended up with this one, which was my favorite of the day:
“Pelican Trio”
Sony a7rIII + Sony 70—200mm 2.8 GM
ISO 320 ~ 148mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/800s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
The funny thing is that shot is actually CROPPED out of a much wider shot. I didn't like the full shot, but I saw those three birds in the corner and figured they'd be a nice minimalist piece on their own. One thing I'm continuing to learn is that you can CROP scenes out of larger shots that you don't like, which can make an awesome shot! Look in the corners, sometimes there's hidden magic...
And that was about it for this shoot. I have one more shot, but I must confess it's not an original composition. Haley showed me her shot and I basically copied it because I thought it was cool. Sometimes I'm dirty like that for photos. So yeah... Here's that photo. THANKS HALEY.
“Yellow Blur”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 320 ~ 41mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/250s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I didn't even bother to focus stack it because I felt ashamed for copying. Which is funny because no one ever feels shame copying a composition they see online. But here I am, it's happening right in front of me, and I feel shame. Kinda weird, eh? Alright. That's all for this shoot. Bird fucking mania.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
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