The Traveling Widower

Category: Camera gear

  • The First and Only Day – Baja Part III

    A sandy path leading to the ocean with a pier in the distance under a clear blue sky.

    February 24th, 2026

    It was not easy getting up early on Tuesday – I was still tired from my late night E/R experience on Saturday/Sunday, and had to get up at Oh-Dark-Thirty on Monday for the trip to Ensenada, so a 5:45 AM wake-up was tough. But, I managed to stumble off for breakfast at 6:15, and had everything ready to go for loading up the vans for the short drive to the dock. 

    The “visitor center” for the whale watch tours consisted of an office for buying tickets (which we did not have to do), a small cafe and gift shop, and a room where you get your life vest. And a few port-a-potties back in the parking lot. After getting the vests, we all headed out on the long dock to load on to the boats (Panga’s) – the loading dock was kind of fun since it floats and rocks, so boarding the boats can be a challenge. The first boat out only had four passengers while mine had 7. Not crowded, but I’d rather have been in the first boat. 

    My plan for  this first trip was to get the lay of the land so to speak for photography.  I had three cameras plus my phone, and I wanted to experiment and find out what worked best for the remaining 5 trips out to the lagoon. After all, I’ve never photographed whales from 6 inches away before. 

    This was absolutely a perfect day – just warm enough, no wind, and the water was really calm. We saw lots of whales as soon as we headed out. The first boat was far ahead, and already had a bunch of whales surrounding them, so we went over to share. No whale hogging allowed on this trip. That was not a problem as it turned out.

    A group of people in life jackets interacting with a gray whale next to a small boat in calm waters.

    It was an amazing experience. We had 3 or 4 whales coming right up to the side of the boat, rolling over like Golden Retrievers. Yes, I did rub one of them – really soft skin. And no, I did not kiss them. Other people in our group did that. At one point, we had two adults and one baby on one side of the boat, and one swam under, scraping along the bottom of our boat. It was impossible to get a full photograph of the whales – just whatever portion of their body that was sticking up next to the boat. They move around quickly, so it is pure luck on what you capture with the camera. 

    I started out photographing with the Sony when the whales were over by the other boat, but quickly switched to the GoPro when three or four whales approached our boat. I wish that I had just used my phone for the close up. I totally gave up on the other underwater camera I had brought along. One other challenge was the other passengers in the boat – I wound up with a lot of heads, arms and other body parts in my photo’s – not much you can do about that. Not everyone is focused on photographing the whales. So, here are a few of the still shots I made that morning – mostly close-ups of the head and blow holes.

    A close-up view of a whale partially submerged in clear blue waters, displaying barnacles and other marine life on its skin.
    A gray whale partially surfaced in the ocean, showing its head and upper body, with ripples and bubbles in the water around it.
    Close-up of a gray whale partially submerged in calm water.
    A close-up view of a gray whale surface feeding near a small boat with several people observing it. The ocean is calm with a clear sky in the background.
    A close-up view of a whale's dorsal fin partially breaking the surface of the water, with a background of clear blue water and a distant shoreline.

    I did luck out with some of the GoPro videos – this one is the best. I managed to get most of a whale, including the eye. I have a few more clips I’ll put on the next post.

    All good things come to an end unfortunately – the boat drivers have to be back after 2 hours, so we left our friendly whales and headed back to the visitor center. I was pleased – I figured out what I would do in the afternoon session – just use my phone and the GoPro, and maybe switch out the wide angle for the regular lens on the GoPro.  Once we got to the dock, I managed to get out of the boat without falling in the water, and made it back to the center to turn in my vest.

    A wooden pier extends over calm water, leading away from a sandy shore. Several people wearing orange life jackets walk along the pier, with a seagull perched nearby. In the background, there are buildings and distant hills under a clear blue sky.

    On the drive back, we noticed an Osprey having lunch, sitting on a sign. These birds are all over the place – they build huge nests on top of the port-a-potties, or any other structure convenient for them. This turned into a great photo-op for me with the Sony camera

    An osprey perched on a wooden sign that reads 'No Pase Zona de Restauracion', with a fish in its talons in a natural landscape.

    Once back at the camp, we all headed over for lunch, and had about an hour afterwards to rest before we went back to the visitor center for our next outing. I went back to my cabin and started checking out the battery levels in my cameras, when all of a sudden, the world started spinning around, and my heart was pounding. Crap – this was just like what happened on Saturday night. Once again, I tried to just calm down, but my BPM was way over 100, and I staggered every time I stood up. I realized that going out on the next whale trip was not going to happen, and that maybe I should get some help. Calling 911 was not going to work this time.  Fortunately, the door to my cabin was open, and I must have looked like I needed help – I soon had three staff members asking what was wrong, and one of them rushed over with a blood pressure cuff. Way high, not too surprising. The van drivers were hanging around waiting to see what I was going to do, so I told them I’d stay behind, and the group headed off for the boats.

    One of the staff members came back with a home made Gatorade mix, since I was probably still dehydrated from the previous days, and they set me up in a shady spot where I could rest. I was not sure what to do – I was scheduled to take the van ride back to San Diego on Friday, and maybe switching to the plane would be a smarter move. Or maybe I could switch to Thursday instead. I still wanted to get a few more cracks at photographing the whales. I passed this request on to the staff, to check with Keith (the owner). Needless to say, I was really depressed, stressed and a bit panicked now.

    I rested for a while, and then walked up the hill to the dining hut for a refill of the Gatorade mix, and to have someone to talk to. Keith was already there, waiting for me. He first said that there was no room on any of the flights out. And then he lowered the boom – he was very concerned about my condition and put it bluntly to me. If anything serious happens, I will die there. There are minimal medical services in Guerrero Negro, and there is nothing close by that can handle heart related issues. He told me I should get back to the US ASAP – he could get a car to drive me back later in the day, or early tomorrow. It was my choice, but that was his recommendation.

    I gave it some thought for a few minutes – part of me REALLY wanted to stay. The intelligent voice, and probably my wife’s as well, was saying…”Idiot, get your ass back to the states!!!” Intelligence won the argument. It was not just the risk, but also the impact I could have on everyone else. What would happen if I had one of these incidents while we were out in the lagoon? I guess they could just push me overboard. At any rate, I told Keith I’d leave and he went off to make the arrangements. I finished another glass of the homemade gatorade, and pondered my fate. Lots of bad words. This was a really bad day to have given up drinking alcoholic beverages. 

    After a while, the dizziness was gone, and my BPM was down to something more reasonable, so I decided to take a long walk along the beach, and find someplace to sit and relax. And curse and cry in privacy  By the time I got back to my cabin, Keith had everything set – I would leave early the next day – the driver would arrive at 5:30 AM. Another very early morning. The driver did not speak English, but we would switch cars close to the border, with a driver who could get across the border, and also spoke English. I could hardly wait. I enjoy adventures, but this was one I could have lived without.

    So, I had a nice dinner with the group, enjoyed watching them play some very strange game which involved eating poisoned jelly beans (not really, but it was peculiar and funny), and wandered back to my hut. Such a shame – I was really enjoying this trip – what a fun group of people, and incredible staff.

    My favorite all-round photo from the trip (not really):

    Two portable toilets and storage boxes on a sandy beach with a figure standing in the distance against a clear blue sky.

    One more post after this…I promise. I like to draw out the story.

    If you are interested in this type of adventure, here is a link for the Baja Jones whale camp: wwww.graywhalewatching.com
    I really enjoyed my brief stay – it seems a bit primitive, but the staff is wonderful, the cabins are comfortable, and the trip down to Guerrero Negro may seem complicated, but it turned out to be a fun experience. And seeing (and touching) these beautiful animals so close, was absolutely incredible. I will hopefully be able to go again.

    And if you are REALLY adventurous and want to drive to Laguna Ojo de Libre and camp, you can rent one of the pads, and just sign up for one of the whale watch tours: https://www.campendium.com/laguna-ojo-de-liebre-campground

  • A Late Afternoon Photo Hike

    Great White Fronted Geese, swimming in line at the Cosumnes River Preserve

    February 3, 2026

    It has been about 2 months since my return from Antarctica, and I’m pretty much bouncing off the walls to be somewhere else. Just like my wife had happy feet when it came to moving every year or two, I have my limits for living the Eleanor Rigby life here in Gold River. I did get away for my little jaunt over to the coast, but that was a few weeks ago, and I still have almost three weeks until my serious travels begin anew. So, to preserve my sanity, and to get myself out of the funk I’ve been in since the holidays, I decided an outing was in order today. I need to fill these long gaps going forward. Or pad the walls in my bedroom.

    Last month, I had signed up for a photo outing at the Cosumnes River Preserve with the photography club I belong to but was “fogged out” from that. I still wanted to go there since I’ve never been there before, and I thought it might be a good place to see Sandhill Cranes. Plus, I really wanted to try out some of my gear. Practice makes perfect so they say (who is “they”?). Late afternoon lighting was recommended for photographing birds at this location, so I headed out for the back-roads path at 2:30 – it’s fun zig-zagging through the farm communities to get there, although some of the roads are really beat-up. Too many tractors and big rigs I guess.

    The preserve runs along Franklin Road, south of Elk Grove near I-5, with a visitor center and trails on the East side, and more trails with larger wetlands on the West side. It’s a pretty easy drive from where I live, about 50 minutes depending on how many tractors are on the roads. 

    As I approached the river, I could see large flocks of waterfowl on either side, and quite a few cars pulled alongside the road. Birders no doubt. I’m not one by the way – I really like photographing them, but cannot remember the names at all. My brother was a master birder, as is his wife, and they traveled the world to add to their species list (and of course, to vist some fantastic places). I appreciate the beauty, but I’m not interested enough to identify the species of everything I see. It’s sort of like collecting baseball cards. Or gnomes. I’m going to get in trouble if I keep on going with this train of thought. I know a lot of serious birders. Sorry.

    The preserve manages about 50K acres of wetlands, floodplains and agricultural land along the Cosumnes River – the river is permanent, but the wetlands mostly dry up during the summer. You can see that on the current Google Maps photos – there is not much water visible when those pictures were taken from space. But during the winter and spring, the river floods into the open areas, and it’s a great place for birding and photography. I opted to start with  the west side mainly because I passed by the parking lot first. It was a good decision. 

    The main trail for this side of the road is a raised levy and boardwalk which winds through the flooded areas and ends in a raised viewing area. I picked a perfect day – very few people and perfect weather. I hooked up my camera and 500mm lens to the fancy monopod I purchased last year, and trudged off in search of things to photograph. The first flooded area had a variety of ducks and geese – nothing very exciting, but very tranquil.

    Cosumnes River Preserve, calm water

    The sun was still high, and the lighting harsh – not really conducive for photographing the waterfowl. But all of a sudden, a huge flock, almost a cloud, of snow geese exploded out of the ponds to the North, and swirled around in waves of birds. The chattering was incredibly loud – time to take some pictures!

    Flock of Snow Geese at the Cosumnes River Preserve

    I’m not sure what triggers these mass flock movements, but it seems to happen every 20 minutes. So, I just kept on walking, and stopped to photograph the clouds of birds every so often. I also switched to video a few times.

    Once I reached the end of the trail, I hung around at the viewing area for a while, just watching a flock of Coots paddling around. The lighting was still awful, so I decided to head back to the car, and drive over to the visitor center. Which unfortunately was closed. Darn. I did wander around some of the trails, one of which goes to the river and another which leads back over to the other side of the road. Since the sun was setting, I decided to head back to other area and take advantage of the improved lighting conditions.

    I pretty much had the boardwalk and viewing area to myself as the sun set. I shot a few more photos of the Coots and geese, and just enjoyed the incredible beauty and tranquility (other than the noisy geese). 

    A red-winged blackbird
    Great White Fronted Geese
    Great White Fronted Geese
    American Coot

    I did have a surprise guest as I approached the viewing area – cute little guy.

    The one creature I was hoping to see, Sandhill Cranes, were somewhere else. When Jan and I first moved to the South Bay, we drove off one day to some other wildlife refuge, where the big birds flocked to during their migrations. It was pretty amazing. But it was an open agriculture field, dry, not flooded. I chatted with a couple of birders along the boardwalk, and they gave me directions to a couple of farms where I might see the cranes. Maybe next week. Or not. I’ll probably visit this preserve and another wetlands area again instead. 

    And I did get to play around with my toys – this was the first time I really had an opportunity to use the fancy monopod I bought last year. Worked really well. I also played around a lot with focus, ISO and exposure settings, something I really need to gain some expertise in instead of experimenting on a trip.

    Viewing area at the Cosumnes River Preserve
    Viewing area and my strange monopod

    In three weeks, I’ll be photographing gray whales in Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Baja)…maybe even petting one. I made a promise to not pet or kiss the whales…forget kissing. Gross. But I would like to touch one, even though the naturalists with National Geographic said that is not proper etiquette.

    I’ll be shooting mostly video with a GoPro on this trip. No big lenses. And switching gears, here is the finished product of the changes I made to the fireplace in my living room, with the rotting log photo I had printed on acrylic.

    I’m through printing acrylics for a while – I’ve got too many trips coming up, and want to save some wall space.

    Peace

    Here’s a link for the preserve if you ever want to check it out:

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