Mouth of the San Diego River

Going from one coast to the other, just about as far away from Maine as you can get.

I attend the San Diego Birding Festival each year in early March. It takes place at the Mission Bay Marina Conference Center which is next to the flood-wall that keeps the San Diego River in its channel the last mile or more to the sea. It is a good area for birding and bird photography, but, given the right San Diego weather, I always find a vista or two there as well. For this shot I got down low, behind the purple grasses and shot across the shoulder of the wall toward the sea. The clouds and the bird in the air add the final touches. I used Exposure Lock and Program Shift to get the smallest possible aperture for maximum depth of field.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto with Exposure Lock and Program Shift.

Some Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. A touch of Fill Light for the foreground. Added Clarity and just a tiny bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.

From San Diego 2010.