Excuses to buy new gear
We've been working on some stop motion projects for various toy companies recently and have a Star Trek project coming up that has some pretty small and detailed props. The 35mm is not going to cut it this time, so I went ahead and ordered an RF 85MM macro lens for the job. I have already done some test shots and it looks fantastic.
Today when we did our daily walk, I decided to go to the beach and take the Canon EOS R with me along with the new lens. One thing that I've noticed about these RF lenses is that they are quite sharp compared to the old Canon EF lenses. I am not what you'd call a professional photographer, but I get the general concepts. The following are a few shots that I took while walking along the pier at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, California.
In the above shot, I pointed the camera toward the beach from the pier. There is a long man-made wall meant to break the waves as the come crashing in. The reason for it, as far as I understand, is to calm the water down before it reaches the LA harbor where all of the containers are being moved around and shipped in and out.
Next, you can see a container ship which looks like it is parked at the moment. I've not sure if it is coming or going. There are so many of these that are constantly coming and going. I was wondering to myself what it must be like to work on one of these ships. Is it a relaxing or stressful job? It seems like there wouldn't be a while lot to do for the small crew once out to sea. But that is with basically no knowledge of how things are run.
Here you can see the wall that stretches way out and surrounds the harbor. Lots of people like to sit against this wall and hang out, even though there is a danger sign attached to it. I think it is really referring to past the sign, as opposed to in front of it. I've not really seen anyone ever on the other side. Although, I wouldn't put it past some of the Mexican nationals that like to sneak past the warning signs to get to a better place to fish. I've seen them walking out to some other dangerous areas where the lifeguards have to coax them back to safety.
This is a covered area sort of in the middle of the pier. I am not really sure what this is for. Perhaps people like to hang out here and have picnics or whatever. In theory it looks like you could do a lot of things in here. Maybe live music and such. But I can tell you now, that would be a bad idea. It gets so windy out here! There are times when the wind picks up so much that I can barely hold onto little Ricky's stroller. I've kind of stopped bringing it for that reason.
My friend 
There are lots of lifeguard huts around Cabrillo beach. As you would expect, there aren't a lot of people in the water this time of year. Of course there are always the old guys who love to do Wim Hof style cold water exposure as this part of the Pacific is friggin' cold most of the time. There are always a decent number of surfers around.
About halfway down the pier is where most of the fishermen set up. If I am being honest, there's no way I would eat anything that comes out of here. I think this has got to be some of the most polluted water around with all of the container ships nearby. There are even signs all over the place warning about the types of fish that should not be consumed. It doesn't stop people, though.
There's a sidewalk leading down to the pier from which you can look back at the rocky ledge around the side of the beach. Today was a super quiet day down there. It's funny because for me, this is the idea time to come down because as I've stated in a previous post, I really love walking in the crisp cool wind. But to be fair it isn't that great for lounging in the sand.
At this point I'm headed out of the park. There is a nice little climbing frame area where I like to take the little one to play. However on this day there were a bunch of teenagers smoking on it, so I just decided to save it for another day! On that note, time for me to go and cook some dinner for the family! Fish pie tonight. Here's hoping it doesn't suck!