With the daylight time slowing growing shorter once again, I can now look forward to heading to the beach to watch the sunset; and one of the perks of living in Southern California is getting to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.  The other perk of the sun setting over the ocean, is the spectacular back drop it makes for creating photos.

Just this past weekend we headed out to the beach for some fun and to watch the sunset.  We hadn't watched a beach sunset in a few months, so I was really looking forward to it.   Southern California offers some spectacular places to watch the sunset from, but one of my favorites by far is Scripps Pier in La Jolla.  Parking is usually easy (off tourist season), the area has great views of the pier as well as the La Jolla skyline, and it has all sorts of beach goers, including lots of surfers, all of these things making it a great place for a photographer.

For this beach trip, I didn't have any photos that I had to or really wanted to create; I simply wanted to just see what was happening and go with the flow.  I did take along my Lensball ( similar to a crystal ball, the Lensball is made of K9 crystal which is clear and hard to damage) with the hopes of finding some inspiration to use it.  Nature cooperated by providing just enough clouds to make the sunset interesting, and the waves were good enough for a throng of surfers to be out hoping to catch a few waves - what I consider a perfect scenario for creating a few photos.

Not only did I get the chance to create some great sunset photos, but I also had the chance to shoot some photos of my son playing in the sand and water.  I absolutely love photographing my son, and the Scripps Pier area provided an excellent backdrop to make the photos a little more interesting than just a kid on the beach

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the adventure.

I think my favorite photo though happens to be this one.  With the purple and orange sky, the clouds, and the surfer carving down the blue/green water of the Pacific Ocean, the whole image just captivates me when I look at it.

A close second, happens to be this one.  The surfer riding the wave as the sunset light shines through the water, and the La Jolla skyline peeking into the background - there's just something about this photo that draws me in and makes me want to be out on the water and enjoying the beauty of the world around me.

I briefly mentioned taking my Lensball with me.  I purchased my Lensball from the Lensball website a little while back, and haven't played with it all that much so I thought I'd take it with me.  As I was down towards the water shooting the surfers, I had a spark of creativity flow through me, so I quickly snagged up my Lensball determined, at that point, to get a couple cool shots with it.

You can find out more about the Lensball over on the www.lensball.com website, and on their Instagram feed at @lensball