A week ago today I was still in San Diego. It was the last day of the San Diego Birding Festival and my 6th way from home. Every day in San Diego had been strenuous. Birding, photography, and hiking in the morning (or work on the company website and then out), then the afternoon and early evening being social and showing ZEISS optics to birders at the Marina Village Conference Center, then a late supper and some image processing before bed. By Sunday, I was tired. So tired I was tempted to sleep in and take an easy morning before the last day of the Festival.

But then I made the mistake of asking where to find dragonflies, and was told about Mission Trails Park and Old Mission Dam. A look at Google Maps and the park website showed that Mission Trails was only 15 minutes inland from my hotel, and very likely worth the visit. So I was up again on Sunday morning and out to be at the park when it opened at 8 AM.

In Mission Trails Park the San Diego River (there barely more than a good sized creek) has carved its way through some rugged little hills…just short of mountains…to form what is known as the Mission Gorge. It is not a gorge by real gorge standards, but it is a narrow, twisty little valley with rocky heights above and a good band of riparian habitat along the river at the base. In the early 1800s missionaries built a dam and a flume in Mission Gorge to supply water to the main mission, 3 miles down stream. The flume is long gone, but the dam still stands. (For an excellent history of the region and the park, visit the park website.)

This is an In-camera HDR Mode shot…3 exposures stacked and merged in camera to create a single extended range jpg file. I find that the HDR mode on The Canon SX50HS produces files that can be processed in Lightroom to excellent natural looking images with more shadow and highlight detail than would otherwise be possible. It is a subtitle effect compared to some of the In-camera and post-proeceesed HDR you see around the internet…but I like it!

24mm equivalent field of view. Recorded exif: f4 @ 1/200th @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.

And for the Sunday Thought: You know, I might just as easily have slept in last Sunday, tired as I was, and missed Mission Trails Park and Old Mission Dam. And that would have been a shame. And of course, I have every reason, based on many such mornings, and many such decisions…on a lifetime of such mornings and such decisions…to be confident that if I make the effort to get out, then God will meet me there with blessing! It happened day after day in San Diego, and it happens day after day where ever I am. Green pastures and still waters, or something equally as refreshing to my soul. All I have to do is get myself moving in the morning!