Skip to main content

Day 5 – Last Day in San Diego

For our last day in San Diego we went to Balbo Park and did a tour of the USS Midway before our red-eye flight back to DC.  It was a bit of a slow day, because I got too much sun the day before at the zoo, and just was not feeling 100-percent. 

We got up around 7:00AM and had breakfast around 8:00AM and then finished packing things up.  I checked Mom out of her room and moved everything into my room since I got a 4:00PM late checkout for my room.  Being a Platinum Plus member does have its perks.  We then headed up to Balbo Park and walked around there for a bit and saw the Japanese Gardens and the rose gardens.  I really liked the Japanese Garden and would love to do a photoshoot there one day.  


After spending time at the park we headed back to the hotel to drop a few things off and then headed over to the USS Midway.   After touring the Midway we walked over to see the “Unconditional Surrender” statue.  From there, we had a late lunch at Beach Hut Deli, then chilled at the hotel until it was time to head to the airport.

Like I said, not a very busy day.  I didn’t want to pack to much into the day because I worry about traffic and making it to the airport on time.   This is why I hate flights late in the day.  I would rather leave early in the morning; it is a lot less stressful. 

The flight home was rather smooth except for about 30 minutes of turbulence due to a storm system.   Sadly, I didn’t get any sleep on the flight, even though I tried.  I just never nodded off.

Overall it was a good trip, I would have liked it to be a bit longer I never feel a week is long enough. I would like to go back to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree in the fall or winter when it is cooler because I feel there probably are a lot more picture opportunities.  However, it is hard to walk around outside and take pictures when the temperature is over 100F and you just need more then a day and half in San Diego.  Next time I’m getting the explorer pass to cover all the museums. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...

Katsucon 2025 Wrap - Up

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park.   The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy.  I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella.  My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark.  Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions.  I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...