A series of recent photographs from the Big Sur California coastline will appear here over the next few days, and I thought I’d share a few things about these images beforehand.

Last weekend I headed down toward the Monterey Peninsula with a new lens that I wanted to try out. My plan was to stop early in the morning at Point Lobos and shoot some familiar subjects there. Knowing that this park opens late (absurdly late, from the perspective of any self respecting photographer), I left home later than usual and stopped for coffee on the way. I still arrived a good half hour before the gates would open at 9:00 a.m. I turned off the car, opened the windows, and prepared to sit in the line and wait.

And then it hit me that sitting there in my car for a half hour on such a beautiful morning was absurd. I did a u-turn and spontaneously headed south on Highway 1. Within the first mile or two I stopped a couple times but the view was only “predictably pretty” and not really worth photographing. I did notice unusual amounts of mist hugging the waterline, the result of some very big winter surf. I kept driving, with a vague plan to perhaps go as far as the Bixby Bridge.

I came over one of the rises that sit between the creek drainages that you cross as you drive this route and there in front of me was a stunning sight. Along the road in the vicinity of Bixby Bridge the coastal bluffs sloped down toward surf/mist from huge waves that was partially obscuring the coastal rock formations, and the mist was glowing luminously in the morning backlight. The waves were stupendous and the coastline hills rose above this mist into blue sky. I was stopped dead in my tracks. Or my lane. Or something.

I pulled over and set up the tripod, fitting the new lens on my camera, and began to take in the scene, looking for compositions that caught the combination of backlight, surf, mist, and coastal formations – and hoping that it wouldn’t all disappear before I could start shooting. In the end I came up with four images that I like a great deal, all of which will appear here during the next four days. I’ll give away my preferences in advance and say that my two favorites are a portrait orientation photograph that includes a natural arch in the foreground with Bixby Bridge barely visible in the distance, and a telephoto shot of a lone fisherman on the rocks with roiling surf and rugged rocks in the background.

And all because Point Lobos didn’t open early enough for me. :-)

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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