Short excursion to Anacapa Island

[schrackman]

The wife and I took a little boat ride today out from Oxnard to Anacapa Island to spend a few hours. We've never been there and thought it would be nice to go. I learned, however, that the BEST time for visiting this island is during May, when the island is filled with green grass and hillsides in full bloom of giant tree sunflowers. As it was, the island looked very dried out. But seagulls were EVERYWHERE and you could get as close as 2 feet from them. Here's a few pics from today and hopefully I'll put up a few more tomorrow.

#1 From inspiration point looking eastward, the remaining connecting islands of Anacapa Island. This was shot looking into the sun but needs to be shot in the morning and with a wide angle lens.

#2 On the way to the island we saw from the boat a large school of dolphins, many of which swam very close to the boat like this one.

#3 A natural bridge along the shore, framed to show a basalt pinnacle characteristic to the west side of the island.

#4 Anacapa lighthouse, my first lighthouse picture! We didn't have time to hike over to it so I had to shoot it from a distance.

Ray

[schrackman]

Let's try this again...

[schrackman]

#1 Another lighthouse shot.

#2 One of the many species of non-native plants in bloom.

#3 A juvenile western gull.

#4 A collage of some of the more interesting people on the boat.

Ray

[Spike]

I think it is sooo cool when dolphins surf off the bow of a boat. I've actually only seen this once, when I was visiting Alaska, and it was porpoises, but same cool wildlife type experience!

I enjoyed your photos, thanks for sharing them.

Spike

[ACArmstrong]

I love the light in the pic of the person in the red shirt standing in the back of the speeding boat. I'd love to see that whole shot. Great job on everything, but that one in particular is really nice.

[Photo-John]

Those are great, Ray! I love them all. I've been wanting to make a trip to the Channel Islands for a long, long time. I love going to Santa Barbara on a clear day and looking down from the mountains on the bay with the islands in the background. So far I've only seen photos of the islands, though. They're always so enticing. And yours are some of the best I've seen yet. Maybe next year I'll go camp out there.

Thanks for sharing!

[schrackman]

Dear Ray: I don't understand why no one has commented on these pictures.

I guess they were all just waiting for you, Penny! Thanks for the feedback, and thanks also to John, AC and Spike for your comments too. This was a very enjoyable trip, even though it was only about 5-6 hours long. We're also thinking of going to some of the other channel islands very soon too.

AC, here's an enlarged version of the picture you liked. This is the whole shot, same as the smaller version. I was using my Sigma 70-300 on our way back when I shot this picture, so it was much later in the day and the lighting wasn't as harsh as the previous pictures.

Ray

[ACArmstrong]

That's freakin awesome - reminds me of one of those Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger ads you see in magazines all the time. I love your use of light and color. Your exposure was perfect to capture his intense and purposeful expression. I even like the blurred out railing in the foreground. Great work.

BTW, I've noticed here people refer to me as AC. That's fine and easier to type, but IRL I'm so used to seeing Andy that I sometimes miss the AC in print - of course, I always think of AC Green of Lakers fame back when I was a kid.

[schrackman]

That's freakin awesome - reminds me of one of those Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger ads you see in magazines all the time.

Hi Andy,

First, thank you! I truly appreciate your comments.

Second, you've got me thinking...what you just said is exactly what villedecorte said in this thread: unofficial photo shoot at the beach...

Interestingly enough, these particular portrait images all have one thing in common: they were all shot using my Sigma 70-300 f/4-5.6 lens. Hmm...normally I've always used my 28-80 for portraits...perhaps it's time to change things around and do some more experimenting with the 70-300.

Ray

[schrackman]

Those are great, Ray! I love them all. I've been wanting to make a trip to the Channel Islands for a long, long time. I love going to Santa Barbara on a clear day and looking down from the mountains on the bay with the islands in the background. So far I've only seen photos of the islands, though. They're always so enticing. And yours are some of the best I've seen yet. Maybe next year I'll go camp out there.

Thanks for sharing!

Let me know if you ever come down this way! I'd be more than happy to put you up for the night and accompany you to the islands for some photography. In fact, my wife likes the idea of camping overnight on one of the islands, and that would provide me opportunity to get some of those early morning shots that I'm wanting to get.

Ray