PixlBit

Happy Wednesday Pixl Peeps! As I currently wait for the mini PC to get the Windows 10 lovin’ (let’s see if it happens) I figured it was time to go Part 2 of my second day-cation. In the first part I went up the Aerial Tramway to check out some mountain life, so my second trip would naturally have to be something Southern California, and that is a trip to the beach. Yep the beach. I didn’t go swimming because I wanted to take pictures, and enjoy the breeze plus the family wanted to go fishing. My plan was to walk around take pictures and enjoy the day, and luckily for me a surf competition was taking place. Anyways lets get started with Part 2 of Chris’ Day Trips Around Southern California!

The day began somewhat early on Sunday when we packed up a van and headed to the coast. The trip was interesting because we went through the desert, used an expressway to cut through some farmland, hit the normal freeway and finally saw the beach. There is a faster way but why not take the scenic route? After a couple of hours and a pit stop we finally get to Oceanside California. Now its not the fanciest beach but this is where the family likes to fish and hey it has the same crowded beach charm that any other beach in Southern California has. While sitting in a little bit of traffic we saw this guy

 

It got a chuckle and I’m assuming since it’s a Florida plate, he is probably a Marine from Camp Pendleton which, is right outside the city. Anyways we made it to the beach and after 10 minutes of looking for parking, we found one right at the entrance (all luck.) During the same time the Paul Mitchell Supergirl Pro was going on so one side of the pier had a ton of people while the other side

 

wasn’t as crowded. We decided to set up shop on the side that wasn’t as crowed and there were more folks fishing off this side of the pier anyways.

 

Good old Ruby’s Diner at the end of the pier. This would be the spot for lunch. While everyone was setting up their fishing poles I was busy checking my 3DS for any new Spotpasses, and getting my camera ready. Instead of going one lens today I split up my picture taking into two separate groups: One group with the 50mm and the other with the Zoom Lens. There were some hardcore photographers on the pier. Many had the fancy Zoom Lenses and a couple of folks had the white lenses.

 

These guys were out in force and a couple of times we heard sirens and telling folks on Jet Skis to not go in certain areas.

 

At one point they were fixing the event buoys and again telling folks not to enter certain areas.

 

On the slow side of the pier folks were trying to catch a wave or two.

 

Making my way to the entrance of the pier you can tell which side had the surf competition.

 

While checking out the competition side I decided to try out a couple of shots with the fun filters my camera has. One of them I couldn’t really use around the neighborhood but since I now had a higher vantage point it would be fun to give it a go

 

After a couple of different shots, I like this one. I will probably have to go up a bit higher to get more of a toy feel but I like it. I’ll give it another shot when I go to Las Vegas in a month.

 

Here is a normal shot of the same area (I might have moved a bit)

 

I went back to our little spot on the pier and I tried to be artsy with one of the fishing poles

 

After this it was time for lunch, a little bit of rest and then it was time to go back out and take pictures. This time I switched out lenses and decided to take in the semi finals of the Supergirl Pro. I imagine the folks with the super fancy cameras and lenses got some really good pictures because I think I got some decent shots with my beginner camera

Professional surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb

And here is Nikki Van Diik

 While using the burst mode I ran into a bit of trouble. I was using one of the new memory cards I bought the week before and they seem to take a second or two longer to write than the one I was previously using. I didn't miss much but I thought this was a bit of a downer.

After their 30-minute session was up it was time for the celebrities to get in the water. There were four groups of 2 and their goal was to have the highest score to win cash for their charities.

 

Here are a couple of surfers. The only name I recognized is Lindsay Jacobellis, Team USA Snowboarder (she’s the snowboarder who had a huge lead in the Olympics, tried to do a hot dog jump at the end of a race, and ate it.) Anyways since she’s an Olympian I watched. She’s in pink next to the guy in white.

 

Here are a couple of the other competitors. The guy is from Prison Break, and I think the other two are singers. The announcer had trouble figuring out who the people were during the event, which was kind of funny.

 

This is Lindsey’s teammate during the competition.

 

And this is Lindsey catching a wave. I kind of drifted off towards the end of the competition so I don’t know who’s team won. At this point I was trying different styles taking pictures of water hitting the pier posts, getting an idea of how to take pictures of water. This would have been a lot easier if I would have brought my 50mm lens. Anyways as I made my way back to the event the competition just ended and Courtney Conlogue

 

This was her being carried to the interviewer and signing autographs. After the event ended the street walkway was packed with folks trying to leave and taking part in the food truck section in the back

 

The tournament tree

 

And a view of Ruby’s on the pier. We camped out a bit to the right. Folks were fishing next to the restaurant and were catching some fish.

 

We saw this guy fly over Ruby’s. He has one of those big fans on his back and was just flying around. There was also a WWII plane flying around as well as a plane pulling a banner for the next Ronda Rousey fight (chants “Ronda’s Gonna Kill You!”)

 

After a spending a good portion of the day here it was time to say goodbye to the beach and head back to our little piece of Southern California. Later on that night I check my 3DS and well I didn’t have these folks in my collection that morning so all is good.

8 new Miis are now in my collection. Well Pixlbit thank you for taking time to look through my pictures for these two blogs, much appreciated!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris