Cazalea shares a captivating photo essay documenting a sunrise road trip to the southern tip of San Diego Bay, featuring his Seiko EL-370 electronic pocket watch. This piece beautifully blends stunning landscape photography with an appreciation for a unique vintage timepiece, offering readers a serene visual journey.
We took a bit of a road trip this morning and headed for the very southern tip of San Diego Bay. It was still dark as we passed the Hotel del Coronado, all decked out for Christmas.
We headed south on Route 75 towards Imperial Beach.
I brought my Seiko EL-370 with me. This is an electronic pocket watch (not quartz, not digital, not kinetic, not mechanical). Essentially the movement contains a tiny kicker that keeps a balance wheel moving; otherwise it's quite mechanical.
We had about 25-30 minutes before sunrise. We got out of the car and started walking out a long man-made spit of land, reaching out into the shallow salt water.
This one was taken with my iPhone but all the following shots are from my Sony camera.
It was very crisp, cool, slightly windy, and quiet.
Plenty of ducks in this sheltered bay.
It seemed a very long way to the end of the walk (afterwards I measured about 1000 steps on my iPhone). A bit brighter to the south side of our walkway...
than to its northern side.
I know these pictures don't convey the sense of magic in this light, but maybe they can hint at it.
A huge pelican floated in, inches above the water.
They have to climb a few feet before landing. I missed the splash-down.
View back towards the west. The buildings you see are part of the Navy SEALs training facilities here on Coronado.
...
Sunrise is supposed to be 6:45:31. We are ready for it.
A giant heron flew across my view.
We were truly bowled over by the colors and their intensity
Even the birds were standing expectantly (although this guy is looking the wrong way).
Now he sees it coming
Coming ...
Sunrise!
The light changed suddenly and everything was brightly lit.
In the distance we saw a huge flock of tiny birds fly over our causeway and descend (we thought they went into the water). As we drew closer on our way back to the car, we saw them milling around on the shore, pretty much along our path. Not wanting to disturb them, we waited. And waited.
We didn't want to spook them so walked very slowly, softly and on the farthest edge of the dry land. Cute little fellas, aren''t they?
Staring at the sun. Maybe it's a moment of silence and thanks that the sun has risen for another day? As you can tell from the angle, we have crossed behind them without incident (only about 15 feet away - a miracle) or spooking the flock.
Here's the sign, which we didn't see in the dark when we arrived.
We were there about an hour, and our hands were numb from the cold. Thankfully I have a heated steering wheel.
Now, how to capture that hour in a few images and a few words?
Keep wearing your Seikos please!
Cazalea
