Grab shot.

G1, kit lens @ 20mm, 1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 320.

At 24th Street and Mission in San Francisco.

The mural at its best.

Spotted in downtown Santa Cruz, CA:

G1, kit lens @ 43mm, 1/400, f/7.1, ISO 320.

At Point Lobos.

My annual trip to enjoy the wonders of Point Lobos was spoiled this year by the fact that the Bird Rock area, where you can see cormorants tending their young on stick nests placed on bare rock, was closed off for repairs. Not that that stopped the State of California charging the full entrance fee which, had I known of the closure, I would have refused to pay.

Still, there is always much to see and revel in here. Take this whalers’ cabin:

Whalers’ Cabin, Point Lobos. G1, kit lens @ 14mm, 1/160, f/5,6, ISO 320.

The cabin overlooks Whalers’ Cove. Like your Mac it was built by slave Chinese laborers, this one in the 1850s. It will outlast your iPad. Slaughtered whales were processed here in the years 1862-79 and many of the tools of the trade – killing weapons, pots for melting blubber, primitive diving suits and so on are well displayed here.

Worth a visit, especially when Bird Rock is closed.

How to take this?

Hard to know how to interpret this mural, spotted in Carmel and quite out of character with the chic feel of the town:

G1, Oly 9-18mm @ 18mm, 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 320.

How do these things happen?

Snapped at Bean Hollow State Beach on the way down to Monterey, on Highway One:

G1, kit lens @ 24mm, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 320.

How do these wonders happen?