The Church

We just returned from a fabulous weekend in Bodega Bay, on the coast of California. It was a quick get away for my wife and I to celebrate our 10th anniversary.We left the kids with Tara’s parents and headed over on Friday afternoon.

We were staying at the swanky Bodega Bay Lodge. It was a very special occasion and I wanted to stay some place very special. My wife would rather me spend that kind of money on a nice place like this every once in awhile, rather than spending it on jewelry or something like that. That’s good, because I’d rather spend it on that too. Our stay at Bodega Bay Lodge was wonderful. The room was immaculately clean, nothing out of place. The only negative thing I can say about it is that it could have been more “luxurious”. For example, they had rather cheap pictures on the walls. Perhaps I can talk them into buying my photos for their walls. 🙂

The idea was to hit sunset at Bodega Head on Friday evening. Well, it may have been a fabulous weekend, but it was not perfect weather-wise. I think Friday and Saturday were the two most color-less sunsets I have ever witnessed. There was nary a cloud in the sky either night, and it was kinda hazy out on the water, so the sunset just fizzled, the sun just plopped down into the haze and that was all she wrote. My friend Brian must know something more than I, because he had fabulous clouds at the coast the weekend before. Whenever I am there, it seems there is just nothing. Blah Blah Blah. And not to mention, on Friday it was COLD! Coming from 100 degrees in Sacramento, you would think it would be somewhat warm at the coast. But it felt like winter, very cold and very windy, and I was definitely not dressed for it. We had to sit quite a while out in the cold waiting for the sun to come down, it was definitely not worth our efforts and I was not pleased with any of the photos I took on that first evening.

Well, things picked up quite a bit after that first sunset. We went to see St. Teresa of Avila church in Bodega. The schoolhouse behind the church was made very famous in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic movie “The Birds”. The church was briefly seen in the movie as well, but it was made more famous by Ansel Adams. I wanted a different take on this church, and my idea was to photograph the church at night. I thought I would have some light from the half moon to illuminate the scene; we did not, but we were here early enough that I did not need it. I think it turned out fairly well. The exposure was 53 seconds at f/4.

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