California Adventure - Part I
If someone was to ask me what was one of my regrets when I was younger, it would be that I didn't travel the world enough. Since hitting my 30's I have really made it a point to change that and start visiting places that I have always wanting to go to. A big bonus is now that I have found such a passion for photography I look forward to capturing these adventures with my camera. Back at the beginning of 2014, I made a plan with my fiancee that we would set aside money from our paychecks into a tin can and later on we decided that if we skipped a dinner out or drinks out for the night, we place that money in the can as well. With some vacation motivation on our minds we stuffed that tin can a year later with enough money to pay for a 14 day vacation that spanned across Northern California to the South. The plan was to fly into San Francisco, rent a car and venture our way down the Pacific Coast Highway and end up in Anaheim for the Star Wars Celebration (because I am a huge nerd).
The vacation agenda was to pick a couple things to do each day and then wing the rest of the time. I loved this idea and it worked out very well. We weren't restricted by time and we still got to do a ton of adventures while giving us time to do other things we may have not set aside or we found out from locals. The first stop was San Francisco and I was welcomed to the city with gorgeous weather, it was around 55-65 degrees which in my world is perfect. We explored a lot that the city had to offer and still felt like I missed out on a bunch so I am definitely looking forward to going back and exploring the rest. I live in Florida and Florida is flat so my eyes were amazed by what I was witnessing for the first time. Elevations, coastal views, floral and more was just so intriguing for me. I was taking pictures of everything!
On the trip I brought a small backpack, which I brought my Olympus EM5, a film camera and 4 lenses. I brought the 90mm, 50mm, 24mm-100mm and the 80mm-300mm. I found that this was plenty to cover all the focal lengths I needed in most situations for travel, actually most pictures were shot on the 50mm. I did bring a small tripod and remote trigger to include pictures of myself which was rare but I did want a few pictures for myself. I found that it was not much of a hassle to setup the tripod and remote trigger to take pictures of myself vs handing an expensive camera to a random stranger. One thing I did not do is review pictures, I just didn't want to waste time reviewing pictures on my camera when I was there to enjoy the moment, so I took lot more pictures than what was needed but it also saved me time from reviewing pictures at any time and use that time for my vacation, I definitely recommend this approach! I also was scared to lose my pictures so I backed up my pictures 3 times at the end of each day. I backed up to my laptop, a second SD card and a USB key that i kept all in separate locations just in case the worst happened. You never know, and pictures are just something you can't get back. i have lost memories before and it's not a feeling you want to experience, so I would rather be safe than sorry.
Now we can get on with the pictures, I am going to break these posts up into the days of our trips, so without further delay I present you with Days I-III documented through my eyes on my vacation to sunny and beautiful California.
-e
DAYS I-III
San Francisco
All pictures shot with Olympus EM5 and Iphone 6
Last, I'm sorry for neglecting this blog for so long. It was never my intention but sometimes life takes a hold of you more than you give back. I promise to get back to routine posts, the good part though is there have been no shortage of shooting going on in my life. It has actually increased and for the first time since venturing into photography I am actually backlogged on editing and processing pictures by a lot, so expect more pictures and more posts to come!