Never Ending Fun

By this morning, the rain had ceased leaving just a leaden grey sky and a light fog. After imbibing our first latte of the day, we ambled down to Big beach. High tide was just approaching and presents quite a different view than low tide. Not much of a swell this morning, but, as you quickly learn of the ocean, it is unpredictable, and sudden series of larger swells are really just out there, waiting to race in and take you unaware!





In the closer in, calmer lagoon, a flotilla of small ducks receives a fly-by from a seagull (screaming "Mine!").




This morning, the beach presents a veritable smorgasbord of detritus,

This one reminded me of the radicchio we had on the weekend when my brother-in-law, David, used it in a monumental pizza he made.

We got back about 10 AM, breakfasted, and then, using an internet recipe, set to making up a batch of Cliff's bars. Of all the 'power bars' out there that we've tried, the Cliff's Bars are the most paletteable, and they are reasonably priced (compared to their brethren), but surely you can do better yourself, right? More on that later as we start to actually use the product.

All you photographers out there will relate to this next topic... The angst of deciding what gear to take out on the trails. During the prep for our move, I did a huge amount of downsizing of my photo-related belongings, including donating my sizable library of photographic books to Langara College, thus freeing up almost two full size bookcases. Additionally, several camera bags were culled.

Camera bags are a worthy topic all unto themselves. Who would have thought that inanimate objects could breed in the depths of closets? And having this remarkable ability, is it not astonishing that they never get the result quite right? This, of course, requires you to buy yet another bag, thus adding to the breeding stock.

Well, the result of this brutal culling exercise left me a single, non-breeding pair: my trusty Domke F3 and my Lowepro Slingshot 300 AW. The Domke is like putting on an old, familiar sweater: soft, supple, waterproofed canvas that is light and durable. The Lowepro is more high-tech, with a pull-out waterproof cover, and the sling design works well with the waist belt to haul weight evenly. The trick, however, is to limit how much you really need and therefore need to carry.

So the deliberations shall carry on as I try to pare down the kit to offer a view from ultra-wide (18mm) to long telephoto (300m), using quality optics. The other good news is that over the last few years, my choice of equipment has been downsized (quite literally) to smaller, yet more powerful bodies and lenses. So, the smaller bags work too. As long as they will hold some additionals such as a water bottle and a snack etc.

Want to know what the best part is to all this? (All the other photographers already know this.) You get to do it all over again sometime in the future. Never ending fun!

KCCO