30 Jul
Seacliff State Beach
We’ve been to a few beaches in the Santa Cruz area, and so far Seacliff State Beach is my favorite option when thinking about a place that works great with young kids. Ample parking with a $10 fee (this is important, we spent an hour driving down with a different beach in mind and the parking lot to that one was already full!), paved path down to the beach with no stairs (we took the stroller and dragged it across the sand), real bathrooms, and a half-sunken ship off the pier. If you’re driving down from the peninsula on the weekends keep traffic in mind, since warm days make pretty much everyone feel the need to splash in the waves.
We were set to meet up with some friends (she let me try on her Google Glass the other day, and you can follow her adventures using them via her Glass Momma facebook page) but we left late, and they couldn’t stay long. Still manged to take some pictures though. There’s always time for pictures.
I am in love with this family shot. You may see it on our Christmas card this December.
Beach time isn’t the same as the trips I remember from college. With two kids we play man-to-man (so much for “relaxing” on the beach), dragging our stuff out through the sand leaves us huffing (and sometimes bickering), and when we leave the car is filled with sand.
Still, it’s worth it.
Lately I’ve been handing over the camera to T1 to let him take some pictures. He took the two below, and I’m proud of how good he’s getting at holding the heavy camera up to his face and looking through the viewfinder. Right now I’m choosing all of the settings, letting him spray-n-pray, and editing heavily to make the pictures work, but I think there is great potential for him in the future! I would love to have the kind of family where any of us can pick up the camera and take a picture and do a great job.
I’m still working on TH (he doesn’t get excited about photography at all), but he took this one, which I love. Can never have too many photos of me with my babies.
Also:
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
What settings do you use to get the photos so white and light? Or is that all editing?
Jenna Reply:
July 30th, 2013 at 7:36 am
The edits are based off of a VSCO preset for Lightroom, but it’s mostly about the photos being taken at the beach. Light sand = reflected light everywhere! (And the water too) That’s why photographers love taking pictures at the beach so much
Amazing pics!
2i’m constantly handing my camera over to my hubby and telling him to take the “Yea, mom was here too” shot. There’s always 10 of him with the baby and only one of me!
3super impressive that T1 took those, editing or not. Amazing. Love these!
4I think T1 is doing a fabulous job - love that you’re encouraging him to take photos. Frankly, those shots are more in focus than some ‘pros’ these days!
The great thing about digital is that there’s no loss if the 3 year old’s photos aren’t great - my mother used to give me a camera with 24 exposures and I would run through them and be so sad if they sucked. And sometimes I just had an empty camera to shoot with, haha.
B gets excited about photography to an extent…but he hates having his own photo taken which means there’ll be a couple of photos of me and lots of landscapes…
Love all of these
Jenna Reply:
July 31st, 2013 at 10:41 am
It becomes a problem when we go on vacation with just the two of us - I like taking pictures of people, but he doesn’t want to be my subject, haha
You look great Jenna! Beautiful pictures
6Looks like such fun! And that family photo is really great.
7I love these! You guys look so happy and healthy!
8