While in San Diego this past week, I rediscovered how beautiful the ocean is. I don’t understand why I never enjoyed going to the beach growing up just 4 miles away from the Pacific. I always used the excuse of my “failure in the seaweed cave” during our seventh grade Catalina excursion to explain my distaste for the ocean. Ah, the things we do to deprive us of great experiences! Had I the mindset of today back as a youth, things might have been different. Isn’t that always the case with 20-20 hindsight?
It sounds trite and hackneyed, but there’s something to be said about seizing opportunities and venturing away from the familiar and off into the unknown. We all know we should do it, but something always seems to hold us back. If we don’t have the necessary resources or financial wherewithal, it might be understandable, but why is it when we’ve reached the level of being highly risk tolerant that we’ve also become so risk adverse?
I met up with John Blake and Jerry in San Diego. David also dropped by for a few minutes on his way back up to the LA-area for his residency. John is off for a three-week European Excursion today with Krista. London and Ibiza await! He’s going to have a great time travelling around Europe. After dinner in Mission Valley, the two of us went to Ocean Beach to bask in a Southern California sunset. That’s certainly something I rarely did growing up! What a beautiful sight to have been able to catch that on my camera (though it would have been better 2-3 minutes earlier). I enjoy taking sunset pictures where the foreground is almost entirely in silhouette. Of course, that’s pretty much what you get when you forget your flash for those fill-flash opportunities!
Jerry and I debated the benefits and drawbacks to today’s youth addiction to video games, all while playing Deimos Rising on the new iMac at home. These Ikari Warriors clones still hold entertainment value! The crappy thing was version 1.0.0 of Deimos Rising (which comes with the iMac) doesn’t have cheat codes enabled, so we were stuck at level 4. 1.0.1 enables “supermunki” but you have to pay for that version. Grrrr!!!
My fascination with film cameras continues. In San Diego, I noticed a photograph of my grandfather in front of the Forbidden City in China. He was holding a very small camera which I couldn’t identify. Later, while rummaging through some drawers, I came across a vintage and well-kept Rollei 35S camera. With a fixed 40mm 2.8 Sonnar lens, the 35S is a highly portable (think Canon Elph), quality manual 35mm camera. I first read about the 35-series on Luminous Landscape. Now I have the opportunity to test the 35S for myself. Cool!
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