On Thanksgiving Day

Receding Tide

Yesterday was not a good day for the kind of photography I had in mind. First, the weather was bad, clouded, with a 30% chance of rain along the California coast. Then it was the "severe weather alert", warning me of "big waves". However, I picked up my camera and headed for the coast, believing that I could still find subjects to photograph, and, since it was Thanksgiving day, there would be no people on the beach, it would be just me v.s. Nature. How wonderful it would be!

Wrong. I forgot the beach I wanted to photograph was composed of yellow, and gray rocks. While during sunset the distorted rock formations might look surreal and magical, under a clouded sky, they were just messy. My idea of photographing wild life was also off target. Even animals (harbor seals, pelicans) knew to stay put in bad weather. After spending hours of composing bad photos (which directly went to the "delete" key after I came home), I was frustrated and very disappointed about my ability as a photographer.

Before I called it a day, I noticed the "waves" had left very interesting marks. The marks only lasted a few seconds. By next wave, they were gone. Though the weather was against me (very windy and very wet, my glasses were all foggy and I had to wipe my lenses once in a while), I decided to give it a try. The result was not perfect. But these photos reminded me the possibilities of photography.