Event Report
20150325
We live only a few
miles from La Jolla, but rarely go to the cove area. One
reason is that it is "touristy" and therefore the shops and
restaurants are pricey. The other reason is that traffic
in and out of La Jolla is constrained to very few routes and
therefore its natural beauty and tourist appeal frequently cause
massive traffic hassles, particularly at rush hour.
Because the weather was exceptionally nice, I made a
spur-of-the-moment decision to head to the cove to get some
photos. Despite being mid-day and mid-week, our fears
about traffic were realized.
We had lunch at
Alfonso's and it was in every respect mediocre and
over-priced. But, what else to expect from San Diego's
tourist mecca?
The photos below are
what we saw and were taken with my new Sony A7M2 camera.
A walk
to the cove yields a great view of the really pricey real estate
in La Jolla. The views from the ridge are breathtaking but
the homes there are way out of my price range.
There is
a sea cave on other side of this point which is a paid-access
tour. I don't think this particular alcove is accessible
from the cave tour. The "blob" on the cliff at the left of
the photo is a seal. Given the steepness of the cliff, it
is a mystery how the seal got up there.
The view
from a bit further to the west shows the steep cliffs on the
point.
This is
a panorama stitched together from 10 6000x4000 pixel images from
my new Sony A7M2 full-frame camera. PTGui was used to do
the stitching and then the panorama was post processed using
Capture One. CAUTION: Click on image to see full panorama,
but beware, this is a 75 MB image so if you have a slow link it
could take a long time to load it. Click on the large
image to zoom in and click "back" to return to this page.
Stitching images with dynamic objects presents unique challenges.
PTGui provides tools to assist in resolving these problems, but
the process is essentially manual. The waves provide
special problems. Can you find the stitching errors?
Another
multi-image panorama taken from a bit further west along the
cliffs. This panorama is "only" 63 MB, but the same caveats as
above apply.
Continuing
west along the cliffs, we got a great view of a sea bird
roosting area. The birds, combined with seals, leave
plenty of stinky droppings on the rocks resulting in a nearly
overwhelming stench. When you are directly downwind, a
conscious suppression of the gag reflex is required to prevent
decorating the sidewalk.
The
black birds are cormorants, but sea gulls and pelicans are also
visible in the photo above.
Note the
seals on the lower rocks.
This
small seal found an isolated spot all to itself. The white
and dark spots are droppings that contribute to the
less-than-appealing smell of the area.
Flat
spots on the cliff are coveted for napping in the warm sun.
The seals ranged from
small infants to large bulls.
The
seals were seemingly oblivious to the cormorants and generally
ignored them.
Snorkelers
are visible at the top of the photo above.
Many of
the seals had their snouts held high, seemingly an emulation of
their method of sleeping while in the water. The resting
position is referred to as "bottling".
Some of
the seals were quite big. The bull in the center of the
photo was easily several hundred pounds.
Flat
space was at a premium.
No
bottling here; these guys are fully crashed in the warm sun.
Continuing
further west, we saw lower areas where seals were resting on
rock ledges that were intermittently covered by waves. The
density of the cormorants becomes apparent.
Further
west we could see multiple alcoves in the cliff walls. La
Jolla Shores is visible on the far side of the bay.
This beach at the cove
had multiple access stairways. Both swimmers and seals
shared the water.
Pricey La Jolla
condos were right across the street from the coast and
smack-dab center in the scent plume.
La Jolla
is considered the "jewel" of San Diego. Indeed, it's name
in Spanish means "jewel". We were blessed with good
weather, but there were tons of folks in the area and parking was
challenging. Good thing there were pay parking lots close
by. The smell notwithstanding, the area is worth a visit
if you are in San Diego.
Copyright Bill Caid 2015. All rights reserved.