Fernando Ramirez

Here are eight of my favorite photos I took in 2009 and some information about them.

The Milky Way – I drove up to Mount Laguna with John, Gabe and Samantha to watch the Perseid shower in August. Conditions were great, the sky was crystal clear, a little windy but not too cold and the milky way was visible to my naked eye. I decided to take the long way home shortly after moon popped up and dimmed the night sky. As I was passing by Lake Cuyamaca I felt the urge to pull over and take some more photos right behind the lake. This was one of the result.

US/Mexico Border – After spending the day at the top of Otay Mountain with the same group of friends the sun had begun to set and the US Border Patrol had stepped up patrols on the single dirt road we had used to get up the mountain. We were warned that we shouldn’t be up on the mountain after dark due to the extra traffic and possible smugglers and had decided to cooperate. The Otay Mountain Truck Trail has quite a few narrow choke points where you have to pull over to let others by. We were being escorted down the mountain by the Border Patrol and had to stop at one such location. I didn’t have time to jump out and set up my tripod so I bumped up the ISO on my camera and braced myself against the steering wheel. The lights in the top left half of the photo are from the city of Tijuana and the darkness is the US side of the border.

Reuben E Lee and downtown San Diego – I was killing some time near the San Diego airport and I went over to a location I had visited once a few years ago and decided to retake an old photo. Click here to see the same photo I took back in 2005!

Ken – I met Ken while walking around taking photos for the second annual Worldwide Photo Walk. I watched many photographers ahead of me pass by him without even a glance but I had already decided that I was going to photograph him. Now I don’t know normally take portraits but something about Ken made me stop and chat. He had a great sense of humor and was constantly laughing.

Kelp Rockfish – I took this photo while scuba diving with Gabe, Ben and Wendy at New Hope Rock. According to my dive log, visibility was about 15 feet and the photo was taken around 40 ft of salt water. The Point Loma kelp forest is one of the largest kelp forests in California.

Bay Blvd Fire – I was at the Chula Vista Nature Center doing a water change on the trout tank when I noticed a plume of black smoke coming from an area nearby the Nature Center parking lot. I grabbed my camera and went for a walk along Bay Blvd. The fire was already under control by the time I got close but the extra smoke led to some interesting photos. I later learned that the fire was caused by a spark in the power lines but I had heard a few stories of a homeless man who had started a similar fire a couple years ago when he tried to grill some hot dogs in the thick brush.

Otay Mountain Fog – I took this photo while on second trip up Otay Mountain. While driving up the mountain in the early afternoon I was able to see all the way to La Jolla, which is about 30 miles away. Once again I was heading down the mountain around sunset only this time I looked out the window and down the side of the cliff to see a huge blanket of fog rolling in. I stopped in the middle of the dirt road and grabbed my camera and managed to take a few photos before the visibility dropped to less than 20 feet as the fog rolled in. The lack of visibility made for an interesting trip down the mountain.

American Kestrel at the Chula Vista Nature Center – All of the birds at the Chula Vista Nature Center are non releasable due to injuries or human imprint, etc. Mikey the Kestrel was out with his handler and I was able to get a few shots with the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge blurred in the background.