Thursday, August 21, 2025

Gone Surfin'

 Surf Camp, summer of 2025, for granddaughter Lilly. I was getting tired of driving her and her friend back and forth every day for a week (about 45 minutes each way), but I love the ocean and enjoyed all that beach time. And it gave me lots of time to get creative with my iPhone. Here's one of my first attemps to add music to a video. I tried to sync the beat to my footsteps. Fun stuff!
 
I guess you could call this a "vertical pano". Usually you pan horizontally, but this was an attemp at panning vertically. Makes for a long, skinny photo!
 
Flotsam and jetsam: I did long walks on the beach a couple of mornings, and couldn't resist taking pictures of some of the stuff that had washed up on the sand. The textures are really interesting. Technically, I think it would all be considered "flotsam" since jetsam is defined as something deliberately thrown overboard by a ship in distress (had to look that one up!).







This brown algae is kind of alien looking! The round part is called a float, and is filled with air. It keeps the fronds up near the surface of the water and closer to sunlight for photosynthesis. The long tentacle-looking thing would have a "holdfast" at the end (not visible) that would anchor the algae to the ocean floor. Technically not classified as plants, algae are fascinating! The scientific study of algae is called phycology.
 
We had overcast skies every morning, clearing to blue skies in the afternoon. Perfect!
 
The most interesting sky of the week!
 
Lilly's becoming a good surfer and loves being in the water!
 





There was the occasional wipeout!
 
Strange to see a military helicopter flying along the beach. Maybe following the coastline down to the marine base at Camp Pendleton?
 
Another low-flying aircraft. This guy was so low I could see the pilot's face! He was pulling one of those banner adds behind the plane, which seemed to be slowing him down.
 
Thanks for joining me for this week at the beach!
Linking with Skywatch Friday.

44 comments:

  1. Lilly is beautiful and very talented! Beautiful and fascinating series of photos!

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  2. Wow ... the beach music sure wakes you up! Lily in action is a marvel.

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  3. great job on the beach walking and love all the photos.

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  4. Look at you and your first surf dance video!!
    Granddaughter is really good. Kudos to you for being a great grandfather.
    At beach vacation in Alabama we got lots of Navy aircraft going down the beach. Headed to the air station in nearby Pensacola, Florida I'm guessing. The tiny little bit that I worked offshore in Texas, the pilots would take off from the base in Freeport and buzz down the beaches of Galveston to check out the ladies before turning for the 120 mile trip offshore.

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  5. ...this beach bum is jealous!

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  6. Wow! That is an awesome sky shot ~ fun video of walking on sand to music ~ You have a great eye when photographing ~ thanks, ~ Lily looks all grown up ~
    an artist reflects

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  7. Your vertical pano idea and flotsam photos both capture the beach in such a unique way

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  8. It looks like you were having fun at the beach. And Lily, too.

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  9. Great captures! Love the surfing shots of your sweet girl. Great choice of music for the walking video!

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  10. Some great images of what comes out of the sea and the sky above. Lily looks like she's having a grand time surfing.

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  11. I enjoyed your beach photo essay, especially the sky shot. Aerosmith was the perfect song choice for the footsteps video! ☺

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  12. Amazing series of photos, Great videos. Glad to see Lilly's surfing pic, Great.
    Greetings.

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  13. The sky shot is amazing. Beach life is always good fun.
    Enjoy your weekend!

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  14. What a delightful beach photo-essay! The sky really steals the show.

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  15. Lily is lucky to have a gramps like you. Great pictures of beach stuff too!

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  16. I can’t watch your vids right now, but i enjoyed your images, especially of the little things. They are quite interesting. I once took a vertical phone pano. I was very close to an interesting door and couldn’t get it all in the frame otherwise. I’ve heard someone call it a vertorama.

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  17. Beautiful beach photos, I love them.
    Your granddaughter is quite a young lady now.

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  18. love your experiments with the phone. Great to see active kid who enjoys outside activities.

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  19. Wow... a fantastisc mood on the beach. It's fun indeed, I agree.
    Thank you for sharing.

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  20. WOW love the surfing pictures, good stuff. Also I see what everyone who comes here sees, you can find beauty with a camera!!! Loved it all.

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  21. I personally would have gone with "Stayin' Alive" but your choice would have been a close second for me.

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  22. Always some thing interesting to see on the beach, the flotsam looked like aliens teeth

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  23. Good for Lilly. She looks so happy :-D Great photo, I love seeing what you can find on the beach :-D

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  24. When you have time on your hands, you create some nice art and a very fun surf walking video. As kids, at the beach in Bandon (nearly every weekend), we'd stomp on the float ends of those seaweeds and also use them as whips to taunt one another. They were very common wash ups there.

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  25. What fun. You are so fortunate to spend that time with Lilly.

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  26. A disfrutar bien de los momentos. Me encanta la vista del mar y lo bien que se lo pasa los que se introduce en él.
    Feliz fin de semana.

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  27. Surfing, flotsam, a beautifully different sky (not sure I've ever seen clouds like that), and a helicopter. What was there not to love? I loved your Walk This Way video.

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  28. An empty beach is a true treasure trove of all sorts. Beautiful photos. Have a wonderful weekend!

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  29. Wow!!!! The sky picture is fantabulous!!! Your grandbaby looks like she's got the hang of it.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  30. Awesome sky shot! Lilly can surf well.

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  31. Looks like Lilly had a blast! Great way to keep in shape too. It is so interesting what you see on beaches. Most people would walk by what you saw without a second thought, but they are interesting nonetheless.

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  32. What an excellent series of photos that showcase the life you found outside the water! I couldn't help but think of a jellyfish when seeing that cloud formation in the sky. Lilly sure has demonstrated her great talent of conquering the waves. Have a great weekend!

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  33. Fantastic to join you at the beach. Beautiful captures of the flotsam. I am bemused by the brown algae reference. It just looks like jetson [rope] to me. Google didn't confirm any brown algae of this nature, so I thought your decription was tongue in cheek, until I read Strayers comment.
    Impressive captures of impressive, surfing Lily.

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  34. I loved your little video. You timed it perfectly.

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  35. Fun times at the beach! I have never tried surfing- the closest I have gotten is water skiing. Now that was hard to learn in my 30s! There is always neat stuff to find on the beach!

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  36. Great photos. The beach is always full of interesting bits and bobs.

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  37. Love the beach! We are living in the south of Germany and have some lakes only. But there are Mountains.

    A wonderful mood in your Post.

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  38. I love the beach and wish someone needed me to take them there every day :) I could just get in my car and go by myself but I like going with a friend or family.

    When my husband was in the Army they went to Camp Pendleton for some kind of training. I went with him and we stayed in a nearby hotel. San Diego was beautiful.

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  39. Reminds me of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA."

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