Beach Dog; Life Is A Beach

Lately, my pup has been staying with my parents as my free time finds itself preoccupied with freelance work, and trying to find a full time gig.  Though, whenever shes in town, I like to take her to the dog beach.  Sure, the dog park is a paltry five minutes away (probably less, actually), and has free parking on top of that, its just that I can only take her there so times a week. Plus, there are people there that just don't pick up after their dogs, which really pisses me off.  Most of them do, of course, but for those that don't...  Well, lets put it this way; even at the dog park, the last thing you wanna do is step on poop carelessly left there by some irresponsible douche bag of an owner.  So, I go to the beach a lot as a result.

Here is the asphalt walkway to get down to the sand from the parking area~

I love the look of fresh, wind-blown sand, still untouched, almost like mini dunes~

If I had to guess, over the past two and a half years, I've probably gone to the beach over a hundred times.  And each and every time, I will bring my camera along.  Why?  Because the best camera is the one that's always with you~  So, needless to say, I've got hundreds, thousands even, of photos of my dog at the beach~

I've always enjoyed selective focus to add a bit of variety for my photos.  After going to the same place and shooting the same subject day after day, it gets tough trying to make your photos look different from the last several times you went.  And I figured, one of the ways I can do this is to change the focus of the picture, while keeping the subject the same.  I don't know how effective it is since I'm still a noob, but I like what it achieves~   Also, another thing I've grown fond of is marks; marks of life, of existence.  At the beach, one of the simplest forms of these marks is quite plentiful; footprints~

I was going for a lion-in-the-Serengeti-sunset type look here~

Though, not a great photo in the least, I just love the lights and shadows here~

Sunsets are fun as well!  Especially if you catch someone (in this case, my dog) running through the falling light of the sun.  There's an almost raw, visceral nature to it.  The lights and the shadows and the silhouettes romance each other in their dance with the wildness.  Except, its not the wilderness.  Its Huntington Beach.  And the subject, not wilderness as well, is a person, albeit, a non-human person~

I like that there's a surfer in the background  while my pup runs towards me~

Butt shot, HAHAHA!!!  The background is cloaked in bokeh~

My friends, watching from the sand~

What else is there to say?  Go to the beach and have fun, meet some interesting characters, hang out with friends, enjoy some solitude, get some exercise with your dog, take photos like there's no tomorrow~