Day 1 — Day 2 — Day 3 — Day 4, Part 1 — Day 4, Part 2 — Day 5, Part 1
Day 5, Part 2 — June 9, 2023 — San Simeon & Morro Bay
There were twelve photographers on the Central Coast tour: Dave Wyman, Ken Rockwell, myself, and nine others. Seven of those nine had previously been on at least one other of these tours (some had been on several), which I think speaks strongly of the value the excursions. It was mostly an older crowd; there was a young college student, I was second youngest (at 43), and I’m pretty sure everyone else was in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s—most above the age of 60. One was shooting Canon. Three had Sony. I, of course, was using Fujifilm. The other seven had Nikon. Ken seems to especially like Nikon, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that so many on this tour had that brand. I believe there were more DSLRs than mirrorless. I saw a lot of long telephoto lenses.
For this part of Day 5, after the abandoned cars, we wound our way back to the Pacific Coast Highway, then up to Elephant Seal Vista Point north of San Simeon. I had already photographed this location on Day 2, so I used the opportunity to try some underutilized lenses in my bag, and take a more laid-back approach. Following that, we went to the San Simeon Pier below Hearst Castle. The last stop of the day was Morro Bay to photograph the famous monolith.
The group was going to assemble one more time the next morning, but I wasn’t going to join them, so this was the end of Ken and Dave’s tour for me. I captured a lot of images—more than I’ve shown in this article series—and it was a highly rewarding experience. I would definitely recommend it, for anyone considering joining one of these tours in the future. It was very insightful, and I had a good time. I said goodbye and called it a night.
The camera gear that I used on the second part of Day 5 (you can read the entirety of the gear that I brought with me in my Ultimate Travel Compact Camera Kit article) was a Fujifilm X100V with a 5% CineBloom filter, a Fujifilm X-E4 with a Fujinon 18mm f/2, Meike 35mm f/1.7, Pergear 10mm f/8, and Xuan 30mm f/10, a Ricoh GR III, and the RitchieCam App on my iPhone 11.
For this part of Day 5, the Film Simulation Recipes that I used on my Fujifilm cameras (which can be found in the Fuji X Weekly App) were Kodak Tri-X 400, Kodachrome 64, Superia Premium 400, The Rockwell, Pacific Blues, Urban Dreams, Vintage Color, and 1981 Kodak. On the GR III, I used the Monochrome Film Recipe (which can be found in the Ricoh Recipes App) for the entirety of the trip, treating the camera as a monochrome-only model. For the iPhone, I used my Standard Film filter on RitchieCam.
The photographs below are in order of when they were captured. The picture at the top of this article, Flowers on the Coastal Bluffs, was the first image captured during this part of the day. The second photo, Boats in the Bay, fits in-between Lifeguard Tower 1 and Cocktail Cruise. I hope that you enjoy the pictures!
This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.
Fujifilm X100V — Amazon B&H Moment
Fujifilm X-E4 — Amazon B&H Moment
Ricoh GR III — Amazon B&H Moment
Fujinon 18mm f/2 — Amazon B&H Moment
Meike 35mm f/1.7 — Amazon B&H
Pergear 10mm f/8 Fisheye — Amazon
Xuan Focus Free 30mm F/10 — Amazon