SAN DIEGO BEACHES DOCUMENTARY

Professional still documentary photography of the San Diego Beach scene in the early 1980s when I first came to San Diego right out of navy boot camp and photo school.

The young blonde haired female above was filmed on Kodachrome with my Canon F1 35mm camera, and the navy's 300mm 2.8 Canon telephoto lens -- I was probably 10 ft away when I snapped the shutter. She definitely was aware I was taking her photo and was posing a bit as I waited for this moment.

She is quite the young beauty and self-styled with her leopard skin bikini top, tan, straw hat, red sunglasses. Naturally blonde and perfectly tanned, freckled and great example of a Southern California beach girl in the '80s.

TECHNICAL:

The above informal environmental beach portrait was in included in my first printed color portfolio -- the image is a real stunner on Cibachrome (Ilfochrome) and metallic inkjet prints.

I scanned all of these original 35mm films on my Nikon Coolscan 8000 ED film scanner at its optical resolution (4,000 spi/ppi) in RAW .NEF digital format, opened them in Adobe Camera RAW, 16-bit ProPhotoRGB, edited (and archived) them in my professional Photoshop .psd Adjustment Layers workflow.

YOUNG BIKINI GIRL (contest participant):

This is how some of the young Southern California girls were wearing their skimpiest string bikinis in the early '80s -- with a safety pin custom fit -- pictured standing with her girlfriends at a San Diego bikini contest on the beach.

I was about 15 feet away pointing my Canon 2.8 300mm lens and this is about the full frame -- I remember there was about four girls standing together and they all started posing for a group photo, but I had the wrong lens on for that picture (thank goodness).

SAN DIEGO BIG WAVE SURFING:

Top big wave image: Occasionally, the surf gets big in San Diego. A boy cautiously drops in on a solid 8-footer breaking at Windansea Beach in La Jolla.

Windansea is one of the most competitive surfing spots in San Diego.

With waves breaking this size -- you really need to know what you are doing (or the locals will ask you to leave).

CAMERA: The above surfers were shot with a 35mm Nikon, and Nikkor 800mm telephoto lens -- the navy has great gear for its photographers to train.

MISSION BEACH in the '80s when drinking beer on the beach was legal:

I was shooting these types of street photography right out of Photo school -- I seemed to have a super power for photographing people -- I was confident and fearless in my pursuit and used to tell people "I stick cameras in people's faces" when they asked what I do for a living.

If you want to find out what "people" skills a photographer has -- give them a wide angle still camera and have them go take pictures of people.

The above biker giving me a one-finger salute is a good example of what should come back ... nice and tight on the face, and the graphic composition supports the creative to fill the frame.

The biker series really exhibits my original style.

PS: I wanted to meet the breasty girl in the purple tank top -- but I needed to work my way to her through the guys (or risk a stiff rebuke from the drunk bikers) -- it turned out well, they were all nice, fun and respectful.

BLACK'S BEACH Surfing Contest:

Young girls seemed a little different out here in Southern California from the Midwest where I grew up ... pictured a topless young female watching a surfing contest on Black's Beach, c.1980. Shot with a 300mm 2.8 Canon lens about 20 feet away -- she was aware I was pointing the long telephoto lens at her and I waited for the look before clicking this frame off.

In this series -- I was a 24-year-old guy with a military look -- handling an expensive looking media-style long telephoto lens. Those were the days...

Photos by G. Ballard, San Diego.