Leon Turnbull Photography

On Monday we took the kids to Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is always a fun place to visit. The kids especially love seeing all the fish there. I took quite a few pics from inside the aquarium, but nothing turned out really special, so I probably won’t post any. But outside the aquarium on the deck, I also took a few pics. This one of a pelagic cormorant in particular turned out really nice. We also saw harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, and even a gray whale that was surfacing quite close in the bay (though I did not get a picture of it). All in all, it was a gorgeous day in Monterey. In fact, it was warm, way too warm for January. It felt more like May or June. But thankfully, we finally are getting some much needed rain this weekend now. Maybe I’ll even get to check out some waterfalls.

We took a very quick trip to Monterey this past long weekend, primarily to take the kids to the Aquarium. But I wanted to try to get one sunset in for photography. I had to play drums in church on Sunday, so immediately afterwards, we left to go to the coast. We arrived at the coast at about 4pm, giving just enough time to find a place for sunset. We went down to Garrapata State Park, just south of Monterey. It is a pretty area, with lots of jagged rocks and beautiful coastal scenery. We even saw quite a few gray whales spouting off in the distance, though they were too far off to get any pictures.

We climbed down from the road into a neat little cove, which required some careful footwork to get the kids down. There were already a couple other photographers down there. However, I realized the sunset would not be visible from there, so I left the wife and kids and climbed back up on the ridge where I could get an overlook of the cove and see the sunset. There were no spectacular clouds around, but it was still a gorgeous view. This shot was taken just after sunset, using a longer exposure to get the ocean waves to smooth out more evenly.

I was not planning to go to this waterfall. After Donner Lake sunrise, I had plans to go find a different waterfall, a new one. But Bowman Lake Rd. was closed due to snow. That was a bummer. I had to turn around. But this waterfall on the same road was accessible with a bit of work. I figured I would go see it, so it wasn’t a total loss for the day. The PG+E Discovery Centre was closed, but I could park along the road and walk into it. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground. I probably should have had my snow shoes, but I trudged through the snow, and eventually made it to the big huge, 10 ft. high waterfall on Bear River.

It is certainly not a spectacular waterfall by any means. And it is pretty darn small. It is also difficult to photograph because of a lot of debris around the base of the falls. In order to get this photo, I had to stand in the middle of the creek (or actually, I guess it is a river!). I was able to make it out in the middle without getting my feet too horribly wet, but it was definitely a bit tricky to do so, and I had to be pretty careful not to slip in the drink. But it was the only decent place to photograph the falls. I’m still not overly happy with the photo, more snow and ice would’ve been nice for one thing. But oh well, it’s something I guess.

The last time I was at Donner Lake for sunrise, I was treated to the most amazing sunrise I have ever witnessed. I wanted to go back and try it in the snow, but how could one ever top that previous encounter? Well, I can’t. Not this time at least. In fact, the weather forecast wasn’t looking too good, and I wondered if I should even try. I was hoping for at least some clouds, but when I woke up in the morning, the weather report said clear in Truckee. But light fog. Light fog, hmmm. Well, that might be cool if there is fog over the lake. So off I went to Donner Lake in search of light fog, and hopefully a few clouds as well. Well, there were no clouds to be had when I arrived at Donner Lake. No spectacular sunrises on the horizon. But there was fog over the lake, and it indeed was pretty cool looking. I waited around for the sun to come up. It did take quite a while for it to come up over the mountains, but it wasn’t very cold out fortunately (but we sure need some more snow here).

If you remember, I recently had a post entitled “Canadians”, which was photos of some Canada Geese that I found, which actually swam right up to me as I was sitting by the river. I had at least one friend complain to me about shooting “foreigners” instead of good old American birds (even though, technically, those geese were probably living in the U.S. permanently on their “green cards”). Okay friend, you know who you are, here’s a photo of a true blue American for you: an American Coot. And it was pretty cool, because this duck-like bird swam right up to where I was sitting by the marsh too, so I was able to get some really good close-ups of it. I figure he was either stupid or fearless, because he paid no attention to me at all, as if I was not there at all. Yet all his other friends stayed well away from me the entire time I was there.Well he may be stupid, but he sure is a pretty guy, don’t you think.