Following an Impulse

There's something magical about chasing a great idea on the spur of the moment - following something into the unknown and seeing where it takes you.  My entire world has always been governed by plans - planning for my majors in school, planning for my job, planning my life.  Plans certainly get you from Point A to Point B more efficiently than just flying by the seat of your pants (in theory), but sometimes, exercising the willpower and discipline to follow through on a plan is just exhausting and can feel like a chore in itself.

To be sure, I went into this weekend with plenty of plans: beach volleyball, dinner with friends, and errands.  And despite having consistently planned and set aside time to devote to photography for each of the past 3 weekends, I didn't actually go into this past weekend with explicit plans to do any photography at all.

But I literally woke up on Sunday morning with the random desire to go take pictures at Mission San Juan Capistrano... and something about just following that impulse (maybe the instant gratification?) because I wanted to and could... was just so damn satisfying.  Not to mention, I got to give my right brain some exercise and get some creative thinking in, which was much needed after a long week of flexing my left brain.

I love that it's specifically a civil engineering landmark... I wonder if there are others designated around Orange County

Interesting fact I didn't learn during the 4th grade curriculum on missions... Abraham Lincoln actually signed a proclamation in March 1865 which restored ownership of the Mission proper to the Catholic Church after some 20 years being owned by a private owner following a questionable auction
From the other side of the arches - adobe brick really does keep rooms cool during the summer.  Despite fairly hot while I was there, all of the rooms were easily 10-15 degrees cooler
The famous Mission bells
The near bell was damaged during an earthquake in 1812, which also took down The Great Stone Church - pretty incredible to think about what else was going on in the world at the time
One of the arches of The Great Stone Church - didn't see any swallows though (who build their mud nests in the arches), which apparently have been dwindling in number in recent years.  Did meet a nice couple from Argentina who had come to visit since that's where the swallows actually migrate from and got to practice some Spanish with them
Make a wish!
Monster koi in one of the ponds - this little girl threw a cheerio in the pond... not sure cheerios are part of a fish diet but it was funny when the big gold fish unknowingly swam up under the cheerio in the mad dash to eat it

Bloop

Hours to Date: 11 - woooo 0.11% complete!!

Half Day Friday: Beach, Beer & BBQ

One of the many perks of my job is the ability to take half days on alternate Fridays during the summer, and yesterday, we used it as a reason to throw a going away BBQ for a guy who's going back to school.  I'm pretty sure there is no better way to ring in the summer than with a BBQ at the beach, which I then rounded out with happy hour with a friend who happens to live in San Diego.

The only casualty I incurred was some sunburn because I forgot to reapply sunscreen amidst moving around trying to take quality photos and make up for yesterday's laziness.

Still, despite the potential sunglasses-tan-induced raccoon eyes, added some time to this week and took some action shots instead of still subjects.  Photographing moving things reminds me a lot of skeet shooting... you follow the movement and then pull the trigger at the apex - in this case, once the subject gets into an interesting or visually striking position in the frame.  With the pier that juts into the water near the surfing area, I was at a pretty good angle to catch some surfers doing their thing.

But first, an homage to BBQ, which I'm pretty sure should just be its own food group entirely.

Chicken & hot links: yum, yum, and more yum!

Fall-off-the-bone ribs.

Surfer, f/8 @ 1/500s, with the colors punched up a little in Picasa because the light was kind of bleh

Just about to lose his balance - I love the reflection of his shadow in the water.
Fat pigeon that bullied 2 other pigeons out of the way for this perch - what an asshole. Nikon D3100 f/5.6 @ 1/640s.

Pier, as seen from the beach

If only life decisions were this simple - colors punched up in Picasa

Hours to Date: 8