Crawling the HB Boardwalk

A habit I've been trying to get into ever since I moved back to SoCal is exploring the down towns of the various beach cities. I'm a native of the area and some of my favourite memories as a young kiddo were exploring downtown Seal Beach with my family. The weather yesterday was beautiful, so I decided to take photos today when the weather was nice and shitty. The destination, Huntington Beach Pier. 

My weapon of choice for this photo crawl was my Nikon Z50 kitted with a 16-50mm. Not the fastest lens, only opening to f 5.6 at its maximum focal length. The Z50 hasn't gotten a lot of use from me yet, so this was gonna be our first journey together. 

As soon as we got to the boardwalk I realised how crap the conditions were for the shots I had planned to get. The end of the Pier was essentially shrouded in haze, and the entire sky was grey and difficult to expose for. 

As we made our way down the boardwalk, I started to snap some photos here and there. Nothing incredible but after a few edits, I'm please with a few. 

Really cool of that White SUV to pull out as I was taking my shot. Wish it was something cool at least, like a minivan. As for that sign, I honestly just like taking pictures of street signs. You know, like how grainydays likes shooting toilets?

As we went along, we found ourselves under the pier where I took my favourite shot of the day.

I'm really happy with this shot, The columns frame the image nicely, the overcast day actually adds to this shot and makes it more dramatic. The only thing is I wish I had tried to shoot this vertically, I think that would have been a more well composed photo; but that's a lesson learned. 

We decided to head back pretty soon as the weather wasn't really allowing for good landscapes. I had plans to get some really cool shots of lifeguard towers but that didn't really pan out with how washed out everything looked. But I tried damn it.

I really should have shot this closer, but it was never going to be the shot I wanted on this particular day. I decided to try and get a candid shot instead and it really doesn't make me feel anything. I do want to show my successes and my failures though and process the lessons I learn through every photo.

As we were almost at the car, I decided to snap one last photo of PCH. With a little editing in Affinity Photo, I am actually kinda happy with this shot. It's not a portfolio shot or anything, but it has a vibe.

The Nikon Z50 proved to be enjoyable in shit lighting. It's small, lightweight, can use the Z Mount & F Mount lineups, and honestly just feels like a smaller Z6 when using it. The only thing I really missed when using it was the joystick for shifting focus points and navigating menus. I don't look at these photos and think Full Frame would have magically saved them, I do look at these photos and think I should have brought a lens with more reach. 

Overall, not a wasted trip. Got 3 keepers out of the bunch. This obviously wasn't all I shot today, mainly the highs and lows. With that I'm out.