Tag: Monterey

Shore Path

We spent a few days up on the Monterey Peninsula last week.  I took lots of pictures, some with the camera, some with the phone.  Digital is wonderful for catching so much – but it also keeps you from seeing things at times if you use the scatter gun approach that digital photography allows.  I tried to frame my photos more thoughtfully than I sometimes do, taking time to consider composition and so on.  All of this was with reference to the idea I would like to use material from my trip as potential painting subjects.

Above is one such example.  Once more, my sense of depth is not the best.  I tried to employ some of the techniques I know – atmospheric depth, less detail in the distance – but I really didn’t do a great job.  In some ways, the painting sort of created itself.  The path in the photo was curvier – way curvier – but it decided to become straighter as I painted.  I just noticed that!

Anyway, I am planning to continue to paint every day.  I do have some great subject matter.  I plan to alternate watercolor and gouache, and become a bit more academic – find things I want to work on, and then study it, whether from a book or an online video.

I can say I have improved over time, but I am not where I would like to be.  The question always at the back of my mind is, what do I do when I get where I want to be?

Whaler’s Cove with a 1937 Welta Weltur

There is something so different in the quality of a photo taken with a film camera, rather than a digital camera.  It is apparent even more so when it is done with an uncoated lens from 1937.  The lens in question is a lovely Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 2.8, 75mm, taken using 1937 Welta Weltur camera.  It is a folding camera that takes the still-available 120mm film.  I used Ektar 100 by Kodak, and applied the Sunny 16 rule for manual exposures.

I have a 6×6 version with a 6×4.5 reduction mask.  I thought I had removed the mask – but hadn’t.  All my supposedly square images came out rectangular!  I stitched two images together in PS6 and then tediously removed threads and dots of dust that were apparent even after scanning with Digital Ice on the Epson V600.

This photo makes me think of landscape paintings of the 1700s and 1800s – especially that turquoise sky.  Mayhap a painting will follow.

Vacation Videos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Some thoughts on videos and blogging . . . 

Technology has caught up with me!  I decided to try some videos at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, just because I could.  I used my phone and digital camera.  In some ways I really appreciate the video as a format, but it also takes up a lot of space.  Videos are like the home movies of old – rather tedious if seen too often.  Still, it is the ability to really show people what something looks like is the beauty of a video – but it is really never the same as being there.  The sounds and smells and other environmental elements are missing (even though there are sounds, they aren’t the ones you might like to hear!).  I am not so sure I like the usage of videos, but what the hey – give it a try!

A short trip . . . 

Last Sunday we headed up the coast to Monterey, California.  Because of a slab leak, our funds for travel were rather depleted by that adventure.  Nonetheless, it is so important to get away from everything familiar, to see new worlds or revisit old ones.  We chose Monterey – it’s close, we like it, and there are many things to see and do.  We stayed at a B&B in an area that allowed us to walk nearly everywhere.  One is the Monterey Bay Aquarium,  It sits right out on the Monterey Bay, with a wonderful viewing deck.  Sunday night we walked down to Cannery Row, to look around, to shake out our legs, and get a lay of the land after being in a car for several hours.

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The Aquarium houses fish, birds, and otters!  Many of the birds and animals have been rescued after being injured.  These otters are just too cute for words – and you could easily watch their antics for hours.

The Aquarium is not only a living museum, but a resource for biologists and other professionals in the area of science.  Animals and birds are rescued and rehabilitated.  Research is conducted in many areas.  Fish are not just in big tanks, but also experienced first hand.  Here is a “petting tank” where you can touch the silky skin of a manta ray.  (Sorry if this video makes you motion sick!)

There are similar displays throughout the Aquarium.  Tanks contain sea urchins, anemones, kelp, fish and other things.  Docents know their subject and can answer a number of questions.  To me, this is one of the best ways to experience the Aquarium – contact, doing, playing.

There are individual displays of different sea life.  One room is dedicated to jelly fish.  I am sure that what they have on display is a tiny bit of all the jellies that live throughout the world, but being able to see them, large and small, swimming and moving, is entirely different in experience than seeing a still photo.

Smaller jellyfish, too.

Besides jellyfish, the kelp beds are well-represented.  There is an enormous aquarium in the center of the building, about 3 stories high.  Kelp is rooted at the bottom, and within the kelp forest swim fish, from bottom feeders to those who use the kelp as a means of hiding from predators.  Here, some rock fish (I think) are hanging out.

So many things to see and do at the Monterey Bay Aquarium!  More to come!

 

Old Pine at Whalers’ Cove

Every now and again a place calls you, and you know that your life is changed by what you have seen and heard and smelled – a total sensory experience that nothing will ever equal.  Returning to it may destroy the memory or add to it.  Here, I think returning to the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve will only add to the experience.

We headed out to have a short 3-night vacation up in Monterey, California.  We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, probably for our 4th time, as well as Point Lobos for the very first time.  It is unparalleled.  Tall pines, rugged coast, water, rocks and cliffs, pines and cypress, and history all combine to create a world into which it would be so easy to stay immersed in, never to return.  The area of Monterey is stunning, with many beautiful and historical areas to be explored, such as Carmel, the city of Monterey itself, Pacific Grove.  An abundance of parks and preserves are available to all.

I brought my art supplies with me, but couldn’t sit still.  I had to keep exploring, along trails with rocks and roots and staircases, and easy paths lined with views of trees and meadows and plants not found in my neck of SoCal.  In particular, the pines and cypress caught my attention, but so did the rocks and water and cliffs.  I expect there will be a lot to draw from as I took a lot of pictures, most taken with care to composition and color.

Here is an old pine tree standing against the sky.  It’s dying as it’s old, wooden branches attest, and yet it still bears needles and reaches to the sky.  I fall in love with trees such as this – if they could just tell their tales!  I used my home made iron gall ink with a very fine pen nib on Bee watercolor paper.