Location Scout for Field Trip Part 3

This was the third day of the trip with a lot still to see, but after the Milky Way shoot a very few short hours ago, neither of us was all that keen on another early morning so we slept in… until about 7:30.  Even so we were moving at a somewhat slower pace than we had on previous days.  So we got off to a late start anod this time headed inland.

We drove along some great backroads through beautiful rolling hills (that they call mountains here…) to get a feel for some visual options to just the coastal scenery. We stopped to photograph the flower-festooned entrance to one of the many ranches along the way

Flower-filled ranch entrance on Old Creek Road.

The road ultimately wound its way from overviews of the valley east of this coastal range then looped around to come back to the coast highway near Harmony.  We turned south and drove past Cayucos and Mororo Bay to the San Luis Bay to check out the old fishing pier.  Both commercial and recreational fishing are major industries here so are constantly coming and going.  The scraps from cleaning so many fish draw scavengers by the buckets full, including seals and all types of sea birds, but most noticeably gulls and pelicans.

Many of the seals were sunning themselves on the ledge of a small floating structure near the pier. But there wasn’t quite enough room for them all so constant squabbles were breaking out as one would come in from a swim and now want space. Here is a seal determined to muscle into the line of others and big enough to intimidate smaller ones into giving way. They really were not at all nice about it.

Big seal squeezes into the sunbathing line in San Luis Ba

Gulls were everywhere and I took a couple of obligatory shots for stock but I’ve always been more interested in the pelicans. The detail in their heads and feathers has always attracted me so here are a couple of them. The first one just below is sitting on the roof of the pier’s buildings.

Great pelican on the roof of the restaurant.

And here are a pair preening in synch on the rocks along the water’s edge.

Two pelicans preening on the rocks at San Luis Bay.

You could go down under the pier since that is where some of the boats and dinghies were tied up. It is a fascinating labyrinth of piers and bracing.

Under the pier at San Luis Bay. I do not know what the 85 on the piling means.

And tied alongside was an old rowboat that looked as if it was last used just after the Civil War.

And old rowboat dinghy alongside the pier at San Luis Bay

Years ago Lee had crewed on fishing boats for his uncles and had hauled in here on occasion.  He had an interesting chat with one of the fishermen and was a wealth of information about the boats and their equipment.  Here are some of them tied up in the harbor

Boats in the harbor at San Luis Bay

And here is a shot of Lee hard at work…

Lee looking for a shot on the pier at San Luis Bay

We had lunch on the pier then headed into San Luis Obispo to fuel up for the return trip tomorrow then headed back to Cayucos.  The truth is we were both getting a little tired after three days of constant shooting so we retired back to the house to go over our own “catches” and see what we had to work with. The next day we would be heading back so it was good to see if we missed anything we might want to reshoot on the way back.

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