Ralph Pace Photography

Happy birthday my dude

Cheers to the legend you are. Cheers to not being an as***le, and cheers to dealing with me when I was one. Cheers to jumping off the garage. Cheers to always trusting your cape. Cheers to being my fu***ng hero.

Cheers to understanding that using the left was as important as the right. To collecting cans and returning arrows when the count was off. To knowing you were only as good you acted, smart as you taught and as good of a father as you did.

Cheers to noticing the light as it dappled the river. The grain that pointed inwards. The boards that were backward. ... Cheers to knowing the importance of the mud between your toes, the smell of cutting grass, the touch of the earth, the freedom of dipping in the Hazel. Cheers to the warm slide on a fresh duck egg.

Cheers to crafting with your hands. Things that you can feel. Things that are real. To sharing it with the world. Cheers to teaching us. Cheers to not fixing the leg.

I always thought we’d have another chance. A few more spins on the lathe, a few more f***s said aloud. Cheers to being able to say f**k with the best of them. Cheers for teaching me.

Cheers to driving the open road. Cheers to the fun of throwing a line without a fly. To spoiling long walks while trying to dodge gopher holes. To coffee in bowls, wine in sailor jars, walking to the end of the world and understanding no place is more important than where you are.

Cheers to being at your best in a vast field running wide open. Thanks for letting us be part of the ride. I’ll never forget the sunset salt, poor pregame diets, milk for stomach aches, gasoline on ivy and the importance of the gentle caress on the downshift.
Thanks to giving me life, the hard head and curiosity of the wild world. To showing me what a big heart feels like and how to wear it on the sleeve.

Cheers to not giving a f**k. To sawdust in your hair. Cheers to winning the dirtiest car two weeks in a row. Cheers to giving away the wash. To understanding it was more important to be you, than to fit the mold. Cheers to understanding the value of conversations, connection and being human. Thanks for not understanding technology, I loved the extra calls.

Cheers to never growing up. And, cheers to always showing up. Cheers to living your dream. Cheers to helping me craft mine.

Be good.

Man’s lens is brought into focus through nature

Happy

Last light on a uptown La Jolla night

Single exposure

Happy days with .

A female humpback whale clutches her calf in the shallows of the AuAu Channel.

Please join us for Whale Tales 2026 on Feb 19-23 in person (Maui) or online. Visit for more information on lineup of presenters and how you can get involved

Image taken under permit #19225

Dogs eating molas. Wonder how many Mola have fallen to the sea floor in recent days around Monterey, CA.

This was from some years back off San Diego when the water was nuked. All the bait moved north and it was estimated some 100,000 sea lions washed ashore starving or dead. Large molas aren’t normal fare for sea lions (esp in SoCal) but they weren’t normal times.

Had a wonderful coffee with the other morning who originally saw this happen off San Diego. Of course these types of events were talked about.

It was a crazy strange feeling to photograph while the Mola who was still alive just watched me as if he was thinking… please make it stop. The sea lions got so deep into the molas belly that his whole head and neck would disappear into it.

This holiday season… It’s a Melibe tree for me

If a dinosaur met a jellyfish, reproduced in a bed of watermelons, you may get something like these hooded melibe (Melibe leonina.)

Hooded melibe (Melibe leonina) feed in the nutrient rich waters of Monterey Bay, California. Melibe are extraordinary predatory nudibranchs, sea slug, that have evolved very unique adaptations.

Jellyfish and dinosaurs? What’s up with the bed of watermelons. Well these little carnivorous sea slugs are an interesting lot. Armed with a giant mouth in their hood, they lunge forward like the Pakkun Flower (those of you familiar with the carnivorous plants in Mario Brothers). Feeding on the likes of tiny crustaceans and fishes that swim by. The stegosaurus like plates on its back are used in gas exchange to breath and in a pinch they can shed them like a gecko tail. Not many predators are known to feed on the melibe except kelp crabs, locally. Maybe it is something to do with their doughy physique composed of mostly water or maybe it has something to do with their smell. Melibe are capable of producing terpenoid chemicals like many plants (think eucalyptus, cinnamon, menthol and Californias favorite: cannabis) that make them smell like little watermelon jolly ranchers. Leading to a group of melibe being called a bouquet. Good thing the neighborhood kids aren’t preying on them.

Happy to have these lil rockstar/rockette hermaphordites around our waters for a little bit.

Fun zipping around California highlighting important work across California for documenting their Pacific Coast Ocean Restoration Initiative (PCOR), a comprehensive, collaborative statewide effort aimed at restoring and recovering degraded marine ecosystems across California. This included sunflower stars, kelp and white abalone.

Amazing seeing all the incredible work being done to save these special animals and places. Thanks to all the amazing partners and scientists that let me hang.

Fun BTS fact: did 3500 miles in the truck in 2 weeks. Was certain by the end I’d be shaped like a chair.

2025 has been a kind year for squishy things in Monterey. I call them squishy things censuses that’s the only box they all fit into.

From squid runs, valella both invading kelp and offshore, phronima coming up in their scalp homes from the deep with eggs, to melibe everywhere you look, to eggyolk jellies, the barnacles that grow on those jellies and to the food caught by those jellies. Plus the normal beautiful locals we get.

Here’s to hoping the rest of the year counties this way.

Kelp Dreams… part 4