sanfran to lobos

Between December and May you may be lucky enough to see gray whales. It was a bit too early for me so by 4-0 PM I was off to Monterey to visit the famous Aquarium. As time was limited I stuck to video and got some lovely footage of the jelly fish - beautifully housed in a big tank. For the video clips
you may require RealPlayerG2- http://www.real.com

There are plenty of trails to choose from, with plenty of photographic opportunities and a walk down Sea Lion Point trail will take you to telephoto distance of barking Californian sea lions who hold their noisy meetings on offshore rocks. The shot below is a composite of two 300mm shots merged in photoshop.

As you can see from the above map it was quite a long trip lasting three weeks with a many highs and a few lows. The flight from Manchester to SF was delayed quite a bit so combined with a wait for my hire hire car I set off for the first motel quite late.Luckily it turned out to be only a block away so my driving skills were not to be tested that first evening. The changeover in Newark was an opportunity for a few pictures and as you can see on the right you get a view of the New York skyline from Newark airport.

All photo images are the copyright of RICHARD TUCKER

High res versions are available for prints etc.

Half way down South Shore trail is Weston Beach a great location for close-up pictures.

There are numerous examples of varicolored patterns formed by erosion etc.

An early morning start and drive to Point Lobos on the coast. This area was made famous by Ansel Adams - who I was fortunate to meet many years ago and Edward Weston. The Park does not open until 9-00 am so I was an early bird being third in the queue when we were allowed to enter. The weather was quite warm even at that time in the morning so with plenty of gear to carry and a lot of walking to do it was going to be a tough day and so it proved.
Point Lobos has been part of the US park system since 1933 and is a great source of photographic material. The artistically twisted Monterey pines and Cypress make it a place to remember.

Not many pictures today, just a trip to Alamo Square ( pics below ) and some video on Ocean Beach watching the Pacific rushing in (You may require RealPlayerG2- http://www.real.com)

It was an excellent relaxing start to the trip. However the first blip of the stay was near at hand. After a late afternoon drive to Hollister and the Cinderella Motel I was rather put out to discover they had lost my pre-booking and the the motel was full !
However a Best Western motel nearby saved the day but a definite black mark to the Cinderella !!

As you will see from the above map it was quite a long trip lasting three weeks with quite a few highs and a few lows. The flight via Newark from Manchester ( UK ) to SF was delayed quite a bit so combined with a wait for my hire car I set off to my first motel quite late. Luckily it turned out to be only a block away so my driving skills were not to be tested that first evening. The changeover in Newark was an opportunity for a few pictures and as you can see below you get a view of the New York skyline from Newark airport.