Project 365
2025 - Issue #18
Right after I got home from my trip to Palm Springs, see previous post, my husband and I set out to the California Central Coast to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary. We’ve been all over that area many times and absolutely love it. Of all the beautiful coastal towns in that region, Carmel-By-The-Sea is our favorite by far. It’s a small beach town with a laid back, artsy feel. The people and the architecture1 are both lovely and quirky. And the best part, dogs can run free on the beach! That’s very hard to find where we live. Dogs are allowed on some beaches near us, but they always have to be on a leash. What’s the fun in that?!
Anyway, we went to celebrate our anniversary, with our dog and both of my cameras in hand; one loaded with black and white film and the other with color.
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Here I go again with out-of-focus shots of people! At the time I got these scans back from the lab I attributed the lack of focus to either 1. my aging eyes, 2. my anxiety of taking photos of people, or 3. maybe both. I would later learn that there was something wrong with my camera and it was getting progressively worse! - More on that in a later post.
One of the great things about the Central Coast area is how picturesque and drivable it is. We visited the adjacent towns of Pacific Grove and Monterey. The last time we visited Pacific Grove a few years ago, the migrating Monarch butterflies were there. It was quite the sight to see!
If you’ve ever read, Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, then you might recognize this street. His novel takes place here durning the Great Depression.
All color photos were shot on Kodak Gold 200 with a 1958 Minolta Autocord TLR. All black and white photos were shot on FPP Frankenstein 200 with a 1984 Leica R4 SLR.
Photography isn’t about just pushing that button. It’s about the experience of being there. - Don McCullen
It makes me happy to see photography about Carmel! It's a heavenly place and I almost got married there. We ended up in New Jersey instead (don't ask!) My favorites are the color shots. Re: blurry shots, I started my own folder of them :). Nice Alicia!
Looks like a wonderful trip, Alicia. I especially love your B&W image of the Pacific Grove Lighthouse with the trees in the foreground - really great! Carmel-by-the-Sea is one of my favorite places to visit, and we always bring our dog too (although we’ve generally ignored the leash-on-the-beach law). We’ll be going back in September, so your post has made me even more excited for the trip.