Sea Stacks, Rocky Point. Big Sur Coast, California. December 18, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Sea stacks dot the rugged Big Sur coastline at Rocky Point in evening light.
Continuing with the theme of evening light on the Big Sur coastline, I made this photograph along a favorite section of this portion of the California coast not long before sunset. (I left enough time after photographing this scene to drive back up the coast to more or less the small road-cut just visible in the upper right corner of the frame, from which I made another photograph shooting back into a large cove that is out of the range of this photograph to the right.) At this time, perhaps a half hour or so before sunset, the color of the light was warming and intensifying but had not yet reached that obviously red stage that comes right at and right after actual sunset.
The peninsula in the upper part of the photograph is known as Rocky Point and, among other things, is a spot many may know because of a restaurant perched there above these stunning views of the Pacific coast. (I hear it is pricey!) My camera position was at a pull-out along the Pacific Coast Highway at a spot where the road rises to pass around another bit of land that extends to the west, and this high camera position let me aim the camera down to minimize the sky and fill the frame with the ocean, the rocky sea stacks and cliffs, and the “point” itself. With the main variable being the unpredictable patterns in the surf, I made a series of exposures at what I thought might be likely moments and then selected from among them in post. I like the series of diagonal lines in the foreground surf and the way the low sun picks off the tops of the waves.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell, Happy New Year and thank you for the stunning photo of the Rocky Point sea stacks! There’s a hidden jewel on the upper left of your photo; the small tower jutting into the ocean. That’s where my Scottish ashes will be dispersed, someday; hopefully not soon. If you park in the Rocky Point Restaurant lot, and follow the small path to the Southwest, you can traverse the “true” point. There’s an easily attainable, and very safe, ledge on the ocean side. A bottle of Cabernet, a good camera, and you’ll truly observe where the mountains meet the sea and the sun says farewell to the horizon, and, with luck, killer whales patrolling for otters on the kelp beds. In March, a full moon will rise atop the mountains over your left shoulder. The casting of that light over the green recess of that shallow valley is indescribable! Too bad still photos can’t capture sounds and smells. Thank you for my temporary moment out of another Chicago winter.
Paul: Beautiful post – thanks for sharing it! Now I have to wander out onto that actual point! I’ve stopped at the restaurant and looked about a bit, haven’t gone beyond it. You are right that a photograph cannot capture the sounds, the smells, or the feeling of the cool ocean breeze (or raging gale!). With luck, a photograph might be able to evoke a memory of those things…
Dan