Kelp Detail #2, Weston Beach. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. January 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Detail of kelp and other debris (“wrack”) washed up by winter storms at Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.
Perhaps putting more trust in the words of the weatherman than was appropriate, I slept in on this morning, having heard the night before that it was going to rain. But when I got up the sun was shining, and I realized that I should have been out shooting! After taking care of a few morning chores, I managed to get away and drive down to the coast. I didn’t have a specific plan besides “the coast,” but as I drove I kept an eye on the sky since the weather from was starting to come ashore and high clouds were beginning to diffuse the light.
As I got near Monterey I figured I might as well take a look at Point Lobos, even though it seemed like the clouds might be starting to build along the coast – I figured that if it turned out to be too cloudy there I could just come back by way of Moss Landing. At Point Lobos the seas were fairly high and very choppy and the high clouds still hadn’t thickened so much as to cut off the light – although at times it got a bit murky, in between there was soft light diffused by high, translucent clouds. I started shooting the more distant landscapes from low bluffs near Weston Beach, working in the wind and the spray from the high surf. After doing this for a while I decided that I’d head a bit south before the time for my short visit ran out. As I walked around the curve of the edge of Weston Beach (which still seems to me like it really should be called Weston Cove – there isn’t much of a “beach” there at all) I saw that a lot of seaweed and kelp debris had been washed up by earlier high surf, and I decided to wander around there for a bit looking for interesting compositions that included the sandstone rocks and the kelp.
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keywords: kelp, plant, rock, pebble, sea, ocean, life, nature, washed, up, storm, debris, wrack, winter, point, lobos, state, reserve, park, california, usa, monterey, carmel, peninsula, pacific, pattern, brown, red, orange, yellow, rock, sandstone, landscape, detail, close, up, stock
Hard to pass up kelp at the beach, especially after the huge storms and surf we have had. I always like the popping sound you get from it when you step on it. I am always amazed at how many tons of it get cleaned up after we have huge surf from the storms. Cloudy conditions are perfect to photograph the kelp, as you really see the red, orange, brown tonal transitions in the kelp detail.
Funny you mention the sound of the kelp – I know exactly what you are talking about. I was glad for the cloudiness when I shot this series. It would be very tough, going on just about impossible, to shoot this subject in full sun!
Dan
A great composition of Nature and an excellent work of the photographer !
Cordially,
Jean-Michel