The one that got away…

Earth shadow over downtown Los Angeles

…or, the balance between socializing and photography.

No doubt I’ve written about this before; it’s a recurring challenge whenever I’m out and about.  A particularly productive photographic excursion requires concentration, flexibility, and a bit of selfishness.  Hanging with friends and family (provided they don’t also have obsessive photographic goals or are not, like my husband willing to let me take over for a while) requires that I think of others, talk about other things, and make plans unrelated to photography.  And still I struggle to mix business with socializing.

 

Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival

Marco and I spent a couple of days in Yuma Arizona for the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival.  Typically this is a photogenic event, but high winds prevented the balloons from taking off.  One morning none of the pilots even unloaded their trailers.  No photos there, nor during the Saturday evening “glow,” which proceeded without the inflation of the balloon envelopes this year – it was just blazing propane flames.

Instead, we went to dinner with friends.  It was a lovely time, except when we were following them from their house to the restaurant and the sky exploded with color.  I shot with the phone out the car window, but a real shot that evening eluded me.

 

Oceanside CA Sunset

From there we had a few quiet days in San Clemente CA.  We had mostly clear and then mostly socked-in stormy days there.  Neither is very inspiring.  This time, we planned dinner with friends for after sunset and spent some time at the Oceanside Pier for pre-storm color.  There’s a lesson in here somewhere on planning.

 

San Clemente CA Sunrise

The following morning allowed me some cloud structure as the storm began to roll in, so I shot at dawn.  These were the only shots worth sharing from 4 days at the beach.

 

Post-storm Los Angeles

From there, Thanksgiving in L.A.  We would only be there for a couple of days, so extended photo safaris were really out of the question.  Besides, rain, rain, rain.  My sister, though, lives on the 25^th floor and has a stunning view.  Post-storm light on icons of the City of Angels (the downtown skyline, Hollywood Sign and Griffith Park) was inspiring, but only after I missed the real shot.

The camera gear was in the car when the rainbow showed up. Now there’s a real rookie move! The second lesson, then, is on readiness.  I constantly battle laziness, and this fight I lost.  Anyway, here’s the iPhone shot – it was all over by the time I got back with my gear.

Oh well; socializing is good, too.  Right?

There’s more on the website, in the Autumn 2019 Gallery.