La Jolla - From Up Close

by Angela Stanton

Title

La Jolla - From Up Close

Artist

Angela Stanton

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

This photo appears like I am in the middle of the action of all those waves in La Jolla, California. And indeed, I am in the middle--unbeknownst to me--within a minute of this shot I stood in above knee-deep fast moving water. As a photographer, we rarely see past (or around) our noses from having the camera on it all the time. This was a classic case and point of not paying attention and nearly paying the price for it.
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I stood on the flat area right behind the village where the seals come ashore and marveled in the sunset and the huge waves, not paying attention to where those waves were going! Indeed, it was high tide coming on, which meant that waves did not move back but kept on piling up one on top of the other. Within about 30 seconds from this shot, where you now see rocks splashing the water, stood a pool of water fully covering the rocks for the next many hours. In the meantime, 4 of these waves came in that I only saw as I evaluated my photos after the fact and noticed that the one that nearly took me under came from behind! There I was, standing with several thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment in my hand, standing fully dressed up and ready for a fancy dinner after, submerged in water all dressed up, holding my hand up with my equipment yelling Holly Cow!
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I was very lucky to have not been taken by the fast and powerful waves because the survival rate of such rocky wave encounter full of very large rocks and sharp corals in not necessarily a lead to a pretty outcome. Hence this photo, to me, will always represent the moment in which my whole life passed in front of my eyes. You only see the waves splashing but I see me.

Uploaded

March 9th, 2013

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