I Bought a Camera for a Road Trip to Alaska

I’m learning to use a DSLR camera so that I can take amazing photos on our road trip to Alaska.  I’m taking classes and becoming a tourist in my hometown seeking out places to practice my photography.

The perfect spot to practice motion and nature photography is without a doubt Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.  It has become my favorite place go.  On the surface it doesn’t look like much.  Except for a patch of trees and a big burst of yellow flowers in the center, the reserve is mostly flat and barren – a 1300 acre coastal estuary with mudflats, salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and swampland.  There are working onshore oil rigs in the distance.  Pacific Coast Highway borders one side and a housing development another.  There is trash in the estuary.  But look beyond the surface and you see it is teeming with bird life.  Soon you forget the reserve is not that scenic and you realize its beauty is found in its wildlife.

This time of year the birds are busy courting and making nests and incubate eggs.  I’m drawn back week after week not just to practice photography, but to observe the spring time behavior of so many different species of birds.

Each time I visit there are docents educating small groups of elementary school kids on bird life.  Perhaps I have stumbled on more than a place to practice photography.  Perhaps I have also found a place to volunteer my time.  People approach me and ask about the birds anyway.  The camera makes me look like an expert.  Or rather, as a friend pointed out to me recently, my attire.  Without intending too I dress myself as a naturalist.

On my last visit I tested out a new telephoto lens (100-400mm).  One that makes photographing the wildlife I hope to see on my trip to Alaska easier.  The lens I’ve decided on is heavy, yet 1/3 lighter than the one I really wanted.  15 days to evaluate it and determine if my arthritic neck and bad elbows can manage it.  A photographer I passed on this visit carried around a lens twice the size (and weight, I’m sure) in a baby stroller!   Photography is not for the weak, I guess.  I surprised myself with 2 ½ miles of relative ease and the quality of the photos met my expectations.  It’s a keeper.

Half a dozen Palm trees each with a nest patiently and lovingly being built one branch at a time by pairs of Great Blue Herons.  Raucous Terns dancing in the sky and congregating in colonies on islands that appear and disappear with the tides.  Canadian Geese, Mourning Doves, Pigeons, Ducks, Hummingbirds, Snowy Egrets, Red-Tailed Hawks.  The list goes on.  So much life for me to behold.  I never would’ve discovered this place if I hadn’t bought a camera for my road trip to Alaska.