Therapy....

It had been several months since i had been able to go out and shoot any landscape photos, in the last couple weeks i began to notice a shift in my attitude towards everything. I was easily irritated, felt stressed about even the smallest things, and was just on edge. It was not at all pleasant and what was even more frustrating is that i could not put my finger on it at all, after some thinking i came to the conclusion that the source of the problem was that i had not gone out to do what i wanted to do. Im working at a photo lab in carlsbad at night now, i get there shortly before the sun sets. Most of the time the marine layer obstructs the sunset, but the times that its clear or there some clouds in the sky makes it difficult for me. Knowing that there is something out there in beautiful light that i could be photographing but am not able to is the worst kind of torture. Im lucky to have a wife that understands this and a boss at the lab that also understands this. When i got the go ahead from jen to go out and shoot on friday after i got off at work i asked my boss if i could leave early, with how busy we have been at the lab i really thought that the answer was no. I was pleasantly surprised when i got the ok to leave early, i decided to head to swamis to shoot. I have lived in north county for over 20 years and had never been there, once i got there i looked for a location to shoot from and planted myself there and waited and watched the light. As soon as i got set up there was a feeling of........i don't know how to describe it but everything that had been getting to me just faded away and i got into the moment. Even the fact that i had forgotten my tripod and limited the pictures that i could shoot didn't get to me. While i waited i found this bush of really weird looking but colorful plants, i shot some pictures of those for a little while and then shot some surfers and watched the light. As the sun went down the light became progressively more golden and red. The clouds over the beach reflected all this beautiful light giving everything this ethereal look to it. All the light just spread all over the place, exposures were easy and so much fun to do, on top of that i also finished my 1st roll of slide film. All in all i had a blast, thank you to my wife and to bonnie for seeing how much i need to do this not just for work purposes but to keep my sanity. I look forward to doing it again soon. Enjoy.

P.S.
Ill post more pictures later, the 2 horizontal photos look pretty much the same but one is shot earlier in the afternoon and the other is shot towards the end. I wanted to show the change in the lights intensity and color as the sun gets lower and lower, the transformation is really quite beautiful to experience :)