I recently went to San Diego for business. I had some extra time both the day I arrived and also on my final, non-travel day to get around and see some of San Diego and the surrounding area. For the trip I packed my OM-1, Sigma 24mm f/2.8, Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 and my Sigma 50mm f/2.8 macro and 3 rolls of film since I wanted to travel light. I was intending to have a 72mm polarizer with me, but it was lost in shipping and didn’t show up until I returned from my trip.
Some quick lessons from the trip. I enjoy using primes so much more then zooms, especially on the wide/normal end of things. Also I ended up getting out and seeing a lot more then I thought I would, a telephoto zoom, such as my Vivitar 70-210/3.5 should have been packed and taken despite the extra weight. I did use all 3 rolls of film, again more then I had planned to use, but at least I brought enough. In the future I need to bring at least twice what I am planning on using, not 1.5x as much as I plan to use. Film doesn’t weigh much.
Monday
I flew in on Monday pretty early landing around noon. I then took the bus out to where I was staying. After settling in for a little bit I grabbed my camera bag and headed back downtown to Balboa park. The park has a number of museums in it as well as the San Diego zoo and Air and Space museum. I skipped the later two, but I did visit a few of the museums, but mainly I walked around taking pictures. Most of the museums and buildings were built for two different fairs back in the 30′s and were built in a neoclassical Spanish style.
Across from the Museum is a medium sized plaza.
Sigma 24mm f/2.8
Sigma 24mm f/2.8
Walking around the park a little more lead me to the fairly large Botanical building. The building is semi-open air and has a large assortment of semi-tropical and tropical plants within it. My favorite were the variety of orchids.
Botanical Building
Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 Sigma 24mm f/2.8
Many of the Orchids had spider webs on them, but no actual sightings of spiders. All Orchid pictures were shot with a Sigma 50mm f/2.8 macro.
After leaving the Botanical building I wandered a bit more through some of the museums and then across one of the major roads that runs through the park to the desert section of the park. Afterwards I wandered out of the park to catch the bus to head back to the hotel. All of the pictures in this section were shot with a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 unless otherwise noted.
Sigma 24mm f/2.8
One of the more interesting pictures I took. The two Buddhist monks were wandering around with their friend snapping pictures with a Nikon dSLR. I thought it made an interesting combination.
Sigma 24mm f/2.8
Tuesday and Wednesday
Not really much in the way of photography. I had to work both days and they were 12 hours days. I did manage to fit in some swimming at lunch both days, the benefit of having the conference at the hotel/resort where I was staying. Wednesday night I headed to the bar where the Discovery channel show After The Catch is/was filmed; great food, rock bottom prices.
Thursday
One of my coworkers was renting a car on my final day. Work was only the first half of the day, so we along with another couple of coworkers decided to get out and see some sights. We headed to lunch at the same bar as Wednesday night and then drove up to La Jolla, by Torrey Pines to Del Mar for dinner stopping to take pictures along the way.
First stop, La Jolla. If you are reading the picture details, ignore where it says the pictures was taken. All of the pictures from this day I just labeled Del Mar, even if they were really taken in La Jolla. All pictures in this part were taken with a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8
I don’t know who designed this building, but it was right next to where we parked to wander the beaches of La Jolla. Funky, but cool.
After wandering the beaches of La Jolla, and taking a quick dip in to the Pacific we got back in the car and drove up toward Del Mar for dinner. We made a quick stop along the way just past Torrey Pines as the cliffs found from Torrey Pines down through San Diego flatten out here to beach and hills.
Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8
Sigma 24mm f/2.8
We then went on to Del Mar and ate at a restaurant right on the beach. We had a wonderful view of the sun setting over the Pacific. For whatever reason its just a lot nicer seeing the sun set on the Pacific then it is seeing the sun rise over the Atlantic. Could be that its much more appropriate to be sipping on a beer in the evening then it is at the crack of dawn. Since the restaurant was right on the beach I headed down to take a few pictures while we waited for our dinner.
Sigma 50mm f/2.8 macro
Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8
Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8
Friday
No real opportunity for pictures. It was pack my bags, check out and hop a bus to the airport for a long, long plane flight home.
