Laugh, kookapelican, laugh...
Mar. 12th, 2010 07:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceSo. We fled the desert for the sea; we shook the dust of Las Vegas from our sandals - well, boots, in my case - and came back to Santa Barbara.
We slept here on the way down to San Diego, but that was literally a sleepover: out of the car, eat, sleep, back in the car and away without ever seeing anything of the town.
This time we rolled in mid-afternoon, claimed rooms in a nice little hotel close to the harbour, asked advice where best to sit with drinks and watch the sun go down. Followed advice, watched sun go down, drank drinks. Drank more drinks. Went for a walk along the pier before dinner.
Correct your maps; Newcastle is Peru.
Correct your manuals: the pelican is a mockingbird. We had sat high on a patio and watched late sunlight do lovely things with blue sky and the hills that encircle the harbour; then at the end of the pier we stood and watched squadrons of pelicans come in against the evening sky - and I didn't have my camera.
I had decided, you see, that I was off-duty for the evening. Helen and I had agreed in an earlier conversation that if you carry a camera, you're always looking for the photograph, instead of just looking; it definitely changes my relationship with the world, and that's not necessarily a good thing. Chaz with a camera in his hand, obsessed with surfaces, is not necessarily Chaz with a story in his head.
So. Yup. Night out without the camera - and I found I kept looking at the photos I couldn't take. Soddit.
Still. Up betimes, up with the sun: I went back to the harbour, with the camera, yup.
Many pelicans, heading out for their fishes, yup.
Many photos took, yup.
I can't tell till I see them on the big screen, but I think they're all useless.
I need sharper reflexes, and better kit. If I'm going to be photographing pelicans, or very possibly other birds in flight.
Thing is, though, I'm probably not. Not as a rule. Just, right now, I really kinda wanna...
*is malcontent*
We slept here on the way down to San Diego, but that was literally a sleepover: out of the car, eat, sleep, back in the car and away without ever seeing anything of the town.
This time we rolled in mid-afternoon, claimed rooms in a nice little hotel close to the harbour, asked advice where best to sit with drinks and watch the sun go down. Followed advice, watched sun go down, drank drinks. Drank more drinks. Went for a walk along the pier before dinner.
Correct your manuals: the pelican is a mockingbird. We had sat high on a patio and watched late sunlight do lovely things with blue sky and the hills that encircle the harbour; then at the end of the pier we stood and watched squadrons of pelicans come in against the evening sky - and I didn't have my camera.
I had decided, you see, that I was off-duty for the evening. Helen and I had agreed in an earlier conversation that if you carry a camera, you're always looking for the photograph, instead of just looking; it definitely changes my relationship with the world, and that's not necessarily a good thing. Chaz with a camera in his hand, obsessed with surfaces, is not necessarily Chaz with a story in his head.
So. Yup. Night out without the camera - and I found I kept looking at the photos I couldn't take. Soddit.
Still. Up betimes, up with the sun: I went back to the harbour, with the camera, yup.
Many pelicans, heading out for their fishes, yup.
Many photos took, yup.
I can't tell till I see them on the big screen, but I think they're all useless.
I need sharper reflexes, and better kit. If I'm going to be photographing pelicans, or very possibly other birds in flight.
Thing is, though, I'm probably not. Not as a rule. Just, right now, I really kinda wanna...
*is malcontent*