We Hit The Jackpot - Sea Turtle Encounter in La Jolla, California

A few years ago I had a belief that I had to travel to a place like Hawaii to have the experience I had yesterday, twenty minutes from my home. The week after we flew back here from Oahu, where we swam with dolphins in the open ocean and had many encounters with sea turtles on each part of the island, the water temperature in San Diego was warmer than in Hawaii, approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In that week I saw someone post a photo of their encounter with a sea turtle in La Jolla. I couldn’t believe it, but the surroundings in the shot sure looked authentic. Browsing their feed I saw that they also scuba dive so I chalked it up to them being in locations on the sea floor I’ll never see.

Then, yesterday happened. The Z-man and I ventured out on the SUP to crystal clear, super warm water in La Jolla. There were leopard sharks everywhere, dolphins doing front flips alongside Z as he did them off the paddleboard, and sea lions cruising between us and the beach. As we explored the reef area, we hit the lottery. There, feeding on kelp was this beautiful sea turtle. It was super chill around us and we swam with it for twenty five minutes. What an amazing and peaceful experience and sweet memory for Z as he grows up. This all further plants the knowledge in his and my head that maybe we don’t have to fly far from home, we just need to get out and look more often.

📷 Shot with #GoProHero9

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Imagination Can Become Reality!

Let’s pretend for a second you are a pilot and can fly anywhere you want. Where would you fly, and why?

This is my son under the flight path at San Diego International Airport pretending he’s flying his World War II era P-38 Lightning over snow covered mountains we can just about see and feel through the lens of my GoPro! This shot was featured by GoPro as their photo of the day on September 2nd, 2019.

We attempted this shot a few times. At first, we went with clothing we thought could work from his closet, but I wasn’t feeling his jacket. Since he is really into old planes and wants to be a pilot when he grown up, my wife bought his this aviator jacket from Up and Away Jackets.

Practicing our moves and getting into position! I can see the clouds lining up to be spectacular!

We waited for it to arrive before going out a second time, and I’m so glad this delay happened the way it did. Every once in a while when shooting sunsets I’ll have my camera set up, pointing out to sea, toward the sunset. Then I’ll scramble to try and find a new composition when nature plays a trick on us and all the beautiful color is in the opposite direction in the sky. I rarely end up with anything in this case because I spent all my efforts focusing the other direction. This time was different. I wanted the setting sun to be the fill light on my son so my camera was pointed away from the sunset. When Mother Nature attempted one of her fake-outs we were ready! Get your shot like this with a GoPro by visiting this link.