Before getting to a short trip to Scripps Pier, I want to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to everyone! It’s Minhan’s first Mother’s Day and we celebrated with Booker’s Auntie Minhsang. She did us a solid and babysat while we watched Avengers: Endgame, which was great! Here are a couple of photos of our first Mother’s Day:
I hope any of you celebrating enjoyed your day! Anyway, here’s a post about a quick trip I took down to San Diego for a conference.
The Famous Scripps Pier
One of the most iconic places to visit and photograph in Southern California is San Diego’s Scripps Pier. Most days, people walk down to the beach and line up to take this iconic shot underneath the pier:
This particular day, however, was a wedding day and a lot of people were there. As you can imagine, this made photographing the pier tricky.
For the above shot, I waited until golden hour and took turns with other photographers to get a good shot of the pier. I wanted to give the pier a little room to breathe, so I zoomed a bit to add some space on either side of the pier. I only had a few seconds to myself, so I quickly framed up the shot and tried to get it as symmetric as possible. People normally shoot the pier with a tripod and long exposure to smooth over the water, but the turbulence of the water matched the chaos of people trying to get a clean shot, and I decided to shoot this with a faster shutter speed to capture the waves.
Because it was so crowded that day, I decided to turn my camera a bit to capture the pier and the sunset without all of the people. For the following shot, the sun hovered on the horizon and cast a beautiful orange hue in the sky. I darkened the image a bit in Lightroom to reflect what how I remembered the experience and am pretty happy with the results.
What was really cool was there was a new photographer hanging around and he asked me about some of the gear I was using, as well as for some tips. We ended up having a nice chat and I wish him all the best!
A Different Perspective
As the sun continued to set, I enjoyed a nice stroll on the beach. As I walked away from the pier, I turned around to get one last look. Seeing the reflection of the pier in the sand made this shot an easy decision. I decided to leave some of the people in the frame to remind myself of the crowds I encountered. From this perspective, I think Scripps Pier looks bigger than it actually is.
The following shot is my favorite of the set. The sun was kissing the horizon at this point, and the texture of the clouds was beautiful. I framed the shot by placing Scripps Pier on the right and the sun on the left, following the Rule of Thirds. The Rule of Thirds is a guideline to place focal points of an image in the “third” portions of a frame instead of smack dab in the middle of the frame. So the sun is on the left third, the pier on the right third, and the shoreline on the bottom third.
The people in the water add a bit of calmness to the shot. In addition, I really like the reflection of the sun in the sand. The shoreline moving towards us from left to right adds a very fluid element to the shot. It’s almost as though the scene is tight on the left and grows as your eyes move to the right, making the pier appear to reach out to the ocean.
I can see why Scripps Pier is such an iconic place to visit!
A Bit of History of Scripps Pier
Scripps Pier is actually a research pier built in 1915 and later reinforced in 1926 and 1946. In 1987, Ferver Engineering and Kiewit Pacific Company reconstructed the entire pier to enhance its structure. The pier’s current full name is the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier, named for donor Ellen Browning Scripps, who provided all of the funds to construct the original pier. Actually, a lot of the Scripps family supported developments in the area. Ellen originally wanted the pier named for her brother George, but the University of California decided on the overall Scripps surname in 1912. In 1988, the pier was officially named after Ellen.
Currently, the pier helps in gathering ocean data and plankton. It also supplies fresh seawater to labs – about 1.8 million gallons each day! The Diving Facility is home to the oldest underwater breathing training program for scuba divers. It has been around since 1951, and has established many rules for how to safely dive underwater with equipment. These practices are still used today.
Thanks for reading! As always, comments, questions, and feedback are welcome.
Love reading your story..
Thanks!