Point Lobos is one of the world’s beautiful places, and every visit has photo opportunities. There is one spot where low tide reveals rock strata with tide pools, ideal for closeups. I was tired from lugging around an SLR with a lens assortment, and acquainted with the old-guy-on-slippery-rocks-while-balancing-equipment problem, I walked around with just my pocket camera. That works great for closeups because the camera focuses very close and is easy to hold with one hand. A shot of the general scene proved irresistible, and that led to some Adobe Photoshop™ retouching of original images that could have been better.

Here we are at Bean Hollow State Beach on the California coast north of Santa Cruz. It’s about 50 degrees (F), which Californians consider cold, but those in truly cold climates consider warm. It’s a chance to take winter photos that look frigid, while actually not frosting one’s telephoto. Surf breaks on a rocky outcrop near a small sheltered beach. There are many seagulls, but seagulls are notoriously poor at taking direction.

I like photos in which there is a lot going on. It gives the eye something to munch on, so to speak. Shinjuku Station, in Tokyo, is the world’s busiest train station. So there is definite potential for shots in which there is a lot going on. The original of this shot of the Vegeteria (or, according to the sign, VegeteriA) had problems. It needed to be cropped, and there were three separate problems with the lighting.

The observation level is glassed in, so if any photos are to be taken at all, they will be taken through the glass. The outside of the glass is prone to dust. On a sea coast like Aomori the problem is compound by fine salt mist evaporating on the glass. The image I took of the city’s bridge and harbor looks grayed-out. … The cure is to grab the arrow on the low end of the histogram and move it up to where the levels of the image start.