black's beach 1.

Right before Christmas, I had some old college friends visit me here in San Diego. We spent a few days down in Ensenada, Mexico working with a church and then headed back up to San Diego so they could enjoy the sights here. Unfortunately, torrential rains hit the coast and we were barricaded in my house for most of the remainder of their time here. Two of them took off  for Louisiana and later that same afternoon, it stopped raining. In an attempt to enjoy the little bit of dry weather, my friend Josh and I went and hiked down to Black's Beach. Normally a nude-friendly beach, we lucked out and there wasn't a soul to be found. It. Was. Perfect. The seagulls were out in full force and the sky was a perfect blue painted with leftover clouds from the storm. I had a blast running down the beach through the flocks of birds, trying to get the perfect photo of them flying off. This is one of many I took and I'll be posting a few more from the trip later on.

sunset surf session.

I've realized that one of the most effective ways for me to deal with a bad day, week or month, is the ocean. When I lived in Greece, nothing took away my worries like floating in the Aegean Sea, so it would make sense that surfing provides that same therapeutic effect for me now. When I finally managed to get off work yesterday evening, I immediately shut off my phone, donned my wetsuit and hit the waves. They weren't good waves, but they were good enough to surf and just bad enough that I had them almost all to myself, which was wonderful. I let myself get thrashed around for a while as I caught a few in, but spent the better part of my time out there paddling around and enjoying the peace of mind the water grants me. Nothing has the ability to melt away bad thoughts and bad days like the ocean. Luckily, I have a great little camera that had an affordable waterproof casing, so I'm able to combine my love of the ocean with my love of photography. I know photos don't always do moments justice, but just imagine being out on that board, the pier to your right and the beach behind you as the sun slowly sinks into the horizon. The only sounds are the seagulls diving for their dinner and the water lapping at the edges of the board. It truly is one of the most incredible feelings to be out there.

surf city.

In a continuing effort to update my photo blog more, I'll be digging through my archives for the little gems I let get past me the first time I edited through. This photo is from my thirty days of travel last September. It was taken right here in Imperial Beach, where I now live. During the few days I stayed here was also when I made the decision to move here in January. Not a bad choice.