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La Jolla Sunset
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Mother Teresa.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

It was by pure accident that I heard about the Hospital bluffs of La Jolla Cove near San Diego, California. When I saw the images from this location, we realized that while we have visited San Diego many times, we never visited La Jolla Cove. So we packed our backs and headed to this amazing little coastal town. We reached well in advance and Immediately saw that there were two coves with a considerable amount of marine life on display with a good amount of seals and sea lions playing in the water as well as resting on the beach and rocks. Near the cove side cliffs, there were also a good number of cormorants resting on the rocks.

Well, that meant that I spent all the time I had allocated to scouting, photographing cormorants and sea lions on the La Jolla Cove. So, when my wife warned me about the setting sun, we had to rush trying to find the hospital bluffs and found this place. I am not still hundred percent sure these are the bluffs that I was looking for. But what an amazing place to shoot a sunset. I took this shot about a minute after the sun went down and had to use about 4 stops of ND grad filters to balance the light difference between the foreground and the background. I also used a polarizer here as the rocks were incredibly wet and were creating lots of reflected light that messed with my metering. This is a single shot image in a very high dynamic range scene where the light was balanced with old-fashioned tools like ND grads and polarizers, very little software editing is actually done to this image. Another cool thing about this trip was that my wife took some stunning video footage of me photographing the bluffs and they are available at my Instagram profile.

Sandstone and Sky #2 - La Jolla, California
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

The sun rises over La Jolla California, only it wasn't the sun that caught my eye! No HDR....

Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6...

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La Jolla Surfers' Sunset
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

I spent four days in San Diego last week. Boy what a rude awakening going from 75° to 4° back here in Boston. Brr. Sure miss it out there already. ...

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View From Coronado
San Diego

This past weekend I was in San Diego for a quick trip and I managed to squeeze in one night for photography. I had been meaning to re-capture the...

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San Diego Skyline
San Diego

View in original size**** www.flickr.com/photos/stefanbock/6870921441/sizes/o/in/ph...

>>>>> S C R O L L E N...

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The Lady is a Tramp [explored]
La Jolla Sunset

It was a tale of frustration to elation on a recent trip to San Diego. I have wanted to shoot the interesting "tidal pots" at La Jolla for a while,...

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Shores of Neptune
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

Another shot from my recent trip to San Diego. This is taken along the shores at Nicholson point near La Jolla. I really felt like I came away with a...

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the Torrey pine
Broken Hill

The Torrey pines along the sea cliffs suffer from persistent drought. Their roots are growing in poor sand which can hardly be called "soil". The...

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Downtown San Diego Panorama
San Diego

The San Diego skyline as seen from across the harbor in Coronado.

This image is a stitch of four originals, each of which was captured multiple...

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Cubs Vs. Padres
Cubs Vs. Padres

Drove down to San Diego to see a couple of Cubs games in Petco Park. This was my first time in Petco, which is a great downtown park. Cubs lost...

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Office Obelisk
Office Obelisk

Office building in La Jolla. In camera B&W.

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The Glass Prison / II
La Jolla office building

La Jolla office building

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Sunrise over San Diego
Sunrise over San Diego

Here's a view of San Diego's waterfront at the Embarcadero Marina Park. Super pretty views here — northeast to the city, south to Coronado, southeast...

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Winter Light at La Jolla, California
Winter Light at La Jolla, California

A winter storm whipped up the ocean and spread a glowing light onto the sandstone for just a few minutes before the rain hit. I got close to show...

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Silence is the mother of truth…
La Jolla Sunset
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Benjamin Disraeli.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

When I first moved to the west coast, I was thinking my days of early sunrise shots were over. I am in the west now and sunset would be the ideal time for my perfectly lit coastal landscape shots. Then on a beautiful fall day we decided on a trip to see some coastal landscapes. It all went beautifully till about 4pm and then as sunset approached a thick layer of fog rolled in from the ocean and we just couldn’t see anything. I was confused on so many levels as this repeated the next three evenings. Later I leaned that the shots you see of stunning California coastal shots you see are mostly taken during the dead of winter as it’s the only season, the fog is reliably absent. I had posted a shot of the Bixby bridge that looks like a tropical paradise, but it was taken with me wearing three winter layers from head to toe.

We have driven the entire coastal roads of the west coast and found this to be mostly true except for the little bit of coast around San Diego. That’s the one spot where I have gotten brilliant sunset colors without any issue with fog. Its actually my second favorite spot only behind the American southwest for spectacular sunset shots. This shot was taken at the hospital bluffs at the La Jolla Cove north of San Diego. I only got like 4 shots here as there is a bit of limitations regarding compositions.

La Jolla Ledges
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

This may be my last image post for a while, as I will be taking care of some important business next month.

After capturing my “Tide Pools Sunset”...

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Throwback Thursday: Two hearted neptune
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

A break in the Iceland photo stream with a throwback from the archives.

To this day the greatest sunset I’ve ever experienced, at hospital reef in...

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sun and moon
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

I love the California coast.

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La Jolla Twilight
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

One thing being a photographer does is put me in a constant state of longing. Longing for a moment, a feeling, a shiver, some goosebumps... whether...

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La Jolla Pier
The Light behind the Scripps Pier

A blue sunset on the Pacific Ocean under the La Jolla Pier.

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San Diego
San Diego

San Diego skyline during Dusk, as seen from Centennial Park, Coronado Island, California, USA.

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Sunset at San Diego
San Diego

San Diego skyline during Sunset, as seen from Centennial Park, Coronado Island, California, USA.

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Blue Hour at the Mormon Temple
Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings…

Here's a shot of the Mormon temple in La Jolla. It's not all that great and is plagued by lens flare and there were water spots all over the lens...

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Forever
The Light behind the Scripps Pier

I've been wanting to do one of these "under-the-pier" shots for quite some time, but up until now all my efforts had been pretty lacking. While I...

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San Diego Skyline From Balboa Park
San Diego Skyline From Balboa Park

The San Diego partner to my recent shot of downtown LA over the 110 freeway.

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Geisel
Geisel

As viewed from the Northwest corner.

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Spiral Staircase
Spiral Staircase

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse, at the Cabrillo National Monument. This is looking up toward the tower from the entryway.

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National Cemetery Fort Rosecranz San Diego Point Loma
National Cemetery Fort Rosecranz

Soldatenfriedhof Point Loma in San Diego.

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Nice Neighborhood
Nice Neighborhood

I was in San Diego for Memorial Day weekend and was able to get out a couple of nights to shoot. I headed out to one of the neighborhoods in Point...

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Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings…
Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings…
by Sandeep Thomas

-Agnes Martin.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

On our last trip to San Diego, one of the resident photographers suggested visiting the Mormon temple of San Diego and photographing the architecture. When we visited and realized it’s a truly imposing structure. What was truly surprising was the two young girls who were the church representatives who helped us by showing the best views of the temple and told us the entire history of the church. They even showed us the pictures of other massive Mormon church's. That was such a departure from other sites which often view photographers and tripod suspiciously that includes even the Getty Museum.

Hope you all like it..

Tide Pools Sunset
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

It took three trips to capture an acceptable image of the La Jolla Tide Pools. The negative tide was not the ideal situation for me; however my...

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More La Jolla Potholes
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

Went back and forth about posting this since it's so similar to this one, but what the hell, I like it. Kind of curious to see what you think is...

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La Jolla Sunset
La Jolla Sunset

Going back through seascapes from La Jolla a few months ago. The remainder of this evening with Jimmy Gekas, Max Vuong and Glenn Tunaley. Man I miss...

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La Jolla Sunset
La Jolla Sunset

May Gray was transitioning into June Gloom while I was in San Diego. Despite the clouds I spent one night in La Jolla. A slight break in the marine...

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Neptune's Egg
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

One more from my evening at La Jolla. I'll give it a rest after this. But I really liked the abstract look of this. The tide was coming in and a...

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Blue Sunset
The Light behind the Scripps Pier

...shortly after sunset at Scripps Pier, La Jolla.

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The Light behind the Scripps Pier
The Light behind the Scripps Pier

For 20 seconds, the light appeared, then it was gone!

Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!

...

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Neptune Rush [explored]
La Jolla Surfers' Sunset

Another photo from my visit to La Jolla CA. I really lucked out with an exceptional sunset in a location with all kinds of cool foreground...

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Broken Hill
Broken Hill

With its Lindavista caprock eroded away (remnants in lower right hand corner), the underlying softer Torrey sandstone, a remnant of sandbars from ~...

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Old Point Loma Lighthouse
Old Point Loma Lighthouse

A view of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse from the outside. Various effects in post, including partial desaturation, contrast enhancements, and...

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The Rocks at Windansea
Windansea Beach

Sunset at Windansea Beach in La Jolla from my quick San Diego trip last month. The sunset wasn't anything special, but there isn't much that beats...

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SD Marina
SD Marina

May Gray was in full effect during my weekend in San Diego, with the city lights casting a purplish glow off the marine layer.

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Thanks to all Phoide contributors to San Diego!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas and Kamil Ghais.