The long Columbus Day weekend was a great time to spend in San Diego, CA. We spent a couple days at Sea World and the other day just enjoying the city. The weather was perfect all weekend and provided new scenery to capture with my camera.
The nights offered some terrific city lights with reflections off the water. We stayed on Shelter Island a couple miles northwest of downtown San Diego. The walkway around the island offered relaxing views of the city and harbor each night. We had some cute sea lions put on a show for us at one of the marinas as well.
I included my camera settings under each photo shown below.
Downtown San Diego

ISO 400
Shutter Speed 1/1000 second
Downtown San Diego at Night
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| Aperture f/8 ISO 400 Shutter Speed 6 seconds |
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| Aperture f/5.6 ISO 200 Shutter Speed 6 seconds |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 3200 Shutter Speed 1/15 second |
Marina Sea Lions
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| Aperture f/7.1 ISO 400 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/7.1 ISO 400 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/7.1 ISO 400 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/7.1 ISO 500 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
SeaWorld
Seaworld gave me a chance to work on more action photos with multiple animals around the park. The best action photos I captured were with the seals, dolphins and Orca whales. Check out some of the action shots I snapped below.
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| Aperture f/11 ISO 500 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 500 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 500 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 500 Shutter Speed 1/1000 second |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 800 Shutter Speed 1/500 second |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 800 Shutter Speed 1/500 second |
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| Aperture f/2.8 ISO 800 Shutter Speed 1/500 second |
Summary
This weekend trip was a much needed getaway. I enjoyed capturing some new landscape photos while visiting. I don’t do many photos of cities but I noticed some interesting compositions during this trip. The downtown city lights were great to shoot at night. Many of my long exposure photos ended up with lots of light trails from cars, boats and planes each evening.
I hope you enjoyed this highlighting our weekend getaway in San Diego. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.














