“Shoreline Trees, Clearing Fog” — Fog clears above a grove of coastal trees at Point Lobos.
the best light usually comes early and late in the day. It often has a warmer coloration, and it can be softer than the midday light coming from high overhead. And there’s a good chance that morning fog and mists may linger. But eventually, on most days, the “good light” period passes and the morning’s work is done. It was that time as I began to make my way back to the trailhead, feeling that the morning’s best light was leaving. But then I saw this row of dense trees along the rocky edge above the water, with a hint of clearing fog in the background.
“Monterey Cypress Forest” — Fog drifts across a Point Lobos landscape of Monterey cypress trees.
This grove of leaning and twisted trees lines the upper edge of a steep, rocky Point Lobos cliff that drops straight to a small bay. You can see the beginning of the slope in the photograph, but if you walked past the trees in this scene you would seen be at the precipice. I made the photograph in one of my favorite light conditions. It had been foggy — the thick, gray kind of fog — but now it was thinning and opening up to let in soft, filtered sunlight. The fog still partially obscures the more distant trees on the far side of the little bay.
“Old Cypress” — An old Monterey cypress tree at Point Lobos, California.
The Monterey cypress trees at Point Lobos are rugged and diverse specimens. This is no forest of uniform Sierra Nevada trees. Each tree seems to have its own personality, formed by its exposure to light, proximity to cliffs, age, and the wind. Aside from the fact that they often grow in groves, many of them remind me of the stunted and twisted trees found at timberline in the highest mountains.
“Trees and Rising Sun” — The sun, slighlty diffused by clearing fog, rises behind Point Lobos trees.
Sometimes I arrive at a location with no specific plan in mind beyond “making photographs.” That was the case on this morning when I drove down toward the Big Sur area very early. Before Monterey I encountered thick fog, and I started contemplating fog photographs, perhaps at Point Lobos. The fog continued as I passed Monterey, skirted Carmel, and started down Highway 1 beyond Carmel Valley. It looked like I would get foggy conditions at Point Lobos… until a moment later when the fog inexplicably cleared.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
