Monterey County

• Augustus Hare.

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One more shot from Pfeiffer State Beach. Took this one as I reached the beach when I got about 2 minutes to shoot the bridge head on without anyone walking through the frame. I like this shot a little better than the one where the sun is setting through the arch.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you all have a good day..

• Luc de Clapiers.

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A capture of the famous Lone Cypress Tree from the Pebble Beach coast California. This landmark is the best view point among all the vantage points of 17 miles drive, Monterey. The home page says "As one of the California's most enduring landmarks, The Lone Cypress has prevailed on its rocky perch for over 250 years. This icon of fortitude has inspired many and is reversed as eternal symbol of Pebble Beach Company. We reached here at sunset and had to wait along with throngs of tourists who visit the area for this shot. Hope everyone enjoys the capture. Thank you all for the comments and visits...

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• Henry Ward Beecher.

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I have mentioned in some earlier posts about the challenges of shooting Big Sur. There are so many locations and so few facilities that you have to be meticulous about planning your trip. It took me 4 or 5 trips to figure this out. I also was lucky enough to meet some seasoned photographers and learn some excellent tips on the way. I learned about the keyhole arch and the Pfeiffer beach from one such seasoned pro. He was also kind enough to let me know that during January, the sunset can be viewed right through the arch.

I was super excited about the trip, and I didn’t think about adding any other location to the itinerary. We booked a camping location nearby and drove straight to the beach. The last part of the drive to the beach was a bit sketchy for our Mazda 3, but we managed to get to the parking lot. Unfortunately for me, a lot of photographers had the same idea as me, and prime locations to shoot the sunset were already gone. These guys and gals were waiting on the beach since the morning. So I wandered off looking for interesting compositions around the arch, and there were many to be found. This composition is to the right of the keyhole arch. The setting sun was giving beautiful color to the few clouds that lingered. I wanted to crop in a bit to freeze the wave action that was happening near the rocks.

• Ausonius.

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One of the star attractions of the Big Sur trip is the stunning Mcway falls locate at the Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. I have captured some nice images at this location but never managed a spectacular sunset or sunrise shot from here. Every single time I tried to land a shot sunset shot here, it was either cloudy or rainy. So when we were planning the Big Sur trip last weekend, I kind of hoped for a great sunset here and slotted the location into our trip plan accordingly.

While driving to the location, I noticed that there were some clouds but there was also the ever-threatening presence of the fog over the ocean. While we were at the park, I noticed that a lot of the roadside parking that was previously allowed were now strictly marked off limits and the random paths people use as a shortcut to join the main trail has also been fenced off. So, you must take the slightly longer trail from the inside of the state park. I was glad to see these changes and to see the park authorities are an act against the rampant misuse of this stunning little park. Finally, as we were on the trail’s end, we realized that due to the conditions that made the trail unstable they have fenced off about half of the trail and the traditional viewpoint is now closed. Photogs are now forced to take the shots from the middle of the trail, which still provides a good view of the falls and the cove but is not the best viewpoint for the fall. Sill, it was a beautiful composition and the elements worked together to make up for it by giving us one of the most spectacular sunsets we have ever seen. I was so excited to finally get a colorful shot here and to really enjoy this fantastic moment.

Big Sur

• Winston Churchill.

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This was the third time I have been to this location and the past two times I was curtailed by any type of interesting light and the third time it was so foggy we could only hear the ocean. So I had given up hope about getting a good shot here and was almost certain that the light is gonna be bad. But when I reached the location it was clear and the light was coming in nicely. So I made a Panorama stitch with about 6 shots together. I can just imagine how beautiful this location will be at sunset and can’t wait to be here to get an image at a sunset.

Thanks for visiting, have a great day..

• Saint Francis de Sales.

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This was the last stop we had on our way back home from the 4th of July road trip. The McWay falls, pride of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur. I have been here before but it was early morning and the lighting was all weird. I had high hopes about this time as I timed the trip perfectly so that we reached here right during the golden hour. But alas nature had other plans and by the time we reached the location there was thick fog which was coming in from the Pacific which had completely blotted out the sun and muted the brilliant colors of the water and the sky while we were there.

Only consolation was that there were less people around and the light, if any, was soft and even. The only way I could make I interesting was to employ the help of my trusted LEE Big Stopper, which helped me to blur the waves nicely and soften the ocean completely. While processing the image I was a bit stunned to see the complete lack of color on the rocks near the falls, as I remember the rocks and the green moss were spectacularly vivid the last time I visited. I was messing around the picture settings and tried converting them to B&W and the image came to life. I added a bit of contrast and structure and the image, to me at least, suddenly became all the more interesting. I generally am not into B&W photography but I do realize some shots look miles better when they are in B&W.

Hope you all like it…

• Michelangelo.

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The Day we visited Big Sur there was a massive car crash near the Bixby Bridge and there were cars backed up for miles without being able to go anywhere. Fortunately our hotel was well before the bridge so we just went to the Bixby Bridge vista point and then turned back to get to Pfeiffer beach to shoot the natural bridge.

• Matsuo Basho.

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This photo was taken just before thick dense fog destroyed my third attempt to capture the Big Sur coast line in glorious golden hour Light. When I moved to California, I was dead certain on making Big Sur my first location and capturing as many photos of the location in brilliant sunset light. I also made it a point to be here too but the first time we visited we had to pass through the coastal highway early in the noon time and the strong sun pretty much washed away most of my shots. Second time it was a giant boulder the size of my car that completely blocked out the highway and closed the road for days. The third time I made sure it will be evening when it drove by and also checked the Cal Trans website repeatedly for any issues but completely forgot about the seasonal thick fogs that completely envelop the coast and the ocean.

This shot was taken at the Julia Pfeiffer State Park just before the fog cover came in. Thanbks for visiting have a good day.

• Hermann Broch.

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Another shot of the beautiful sunrise we got to see at the Garrapatta State Park in Big Sur. After taking the classic viewpoint of the park, I went on a stroll looking for interesting composition and saw this beautiful cove near a viewpoint. I didn’t like the composition from the viewpoint so wandered around a bit and found this spot. The interesting part about this spot was that I could include the tiny beach and the turquoise color of the water in the image. I felt that it complimented nicely with the beautiful pink in the sky.

I didn’t use an ND grad as the rising sun lit up the foreground a bit more but kept the polarizing filter on to cut the glare from the water. I loved the details on the rocks and made sure that the image was sharp throughout the frame. Hope you all like the image.

• Hosea Ballou.

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Recently we took a trip to San Francisco and decided to drive up the beautiful pacific coast highway and enjoy the scenery. It was a pretty foggy day on the ocean but the light was wonderfully diffused and the water had that brilliant emerald color near the shore.

We reached Bixby Bridge around late afternoon and my normal photo sites were all mobbed by tourists. So I found this hill nearby and climbed it to get this shot. Hope y'all like it have a great Sunday.

• Ansel Adams.

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Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is known all over the world for McWay falls. Its waterfall that drains directly into the pacific ocean in a dreamy cove setting and is incredibly picturesque. But it doesn't mean that it’s the only photo op at this stunning state park. About three to four thousand feet north of McWay falls is vista point with a pullout, and it also has some fantastic views that can blow you away, especially if you are looking south.

During many of my visits to the park, I was incredibly obsessed with getting a great shot of the mcWay falls, and this viewpoint got very little attention from me. While going over some of my old images, I recently found this panorama that I captured of the view and decided to try my luck editing it. The final results show how stunning a spot this is, even though I am using a completely wrong focal length for the shot.

• Theodore Roethke.

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Notley's Landing viewpoint on the pacific coast highway overlooks the Bixby Bridge and the coastline to the south. When driving south, it's one of the first spots where you get exposure to the south's stunning coastline. In my initial trips, I avoided this viewpoint because the view was so distant, and I was usually in a hurry to get to more popular spots.

On our last trip to Big Sur, we tried a newer approach. We decided to stick to two state parks for the entire duration rather than cover the whole expanse of Big Sur. This approach afforded us more time at the parks and resulted in some fantastic images. Since we were not in a hurry to get anywhere, we managed to stop at Notley's Landing for a break in driving and utilized the time to try some short -tele focal lengths. I mentally kicked myself later for not putting my 70-200 on, but I am thankful I had the presence of mind to try the 70mm end of 24-70 lens. We were there in winter, so the meadow in the foreground had a lush green color, and at 70mm, I could get a beautiful view of the coast to the south. I am sure with a telephoto lens could have found some more exciting compositions here. Well there is always next time.

• Charles Lamb.

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McWay Falls is an 80-foot waterfall located in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park that flows year-round. Like Alamere Falls, this waterfall is one of only two in the region that are close enough to the ocean to be referred to as "tidefalls". It is located on McWay Creek and is one of the few waterfalls that empty directly into the ocean.

Took this capture on our Big Sur trip, unfortunately, we made it there by morning and the sun was really bright and the falls were in the shadows with some fog still hanging around. I sure want to return here under better conditions soon.

• Henry David Thoreau.

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Foggy afternoon at McWay falls in the Big Sur area of Southern California. This was taken at the last leg of our Fourth of July road trip. We got a thick fog cover by the afternoon and some really dim light instead of the usually brilliant afternoon light. I didn’t have a clue how temperamental the Pacific can be in the West coast. So I tried some interesting framing tryouts to make the pics a bit interesting and used a Lee Big Stopper to get water to have some blurry motion.

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.

• Warren Christopher.

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This was one of my toughest shots in a long time. I used a Lee 3 stop ND grad to balance the exposure and other that no other gadgets were used for this capture. We reached Big Sur around noon and the plan was to drive all the way down to Hearst Castle with family who were visiting and come back. Unfortunately CA Route 1 was closed that day just after Pfeiffer State Park due to a 6500lbs rock sitting right on the road. The plan was abandoned and we drove all the way back to Carmel by the Sea and had lunch and said farewell as our relatives took Rte. 101S on their trip to LA. We decided to salvage what’s left of the day and get some snaps of the Bixby Bridge, another icon of Big Sur Coastline.

I had this shot in mind since I last visited the place and the sun had already gone down but the sky was lit up in beautiful red hues and the clouds were absolutely perfect for a sunset shot. The only thing missing were some break lights and unfortunately due to the road closing there not much traffic. So my wife decided to drive our little Mazda over the bridge and I ended up with this great shot. While she came back from the ride I realized to my horror that the little case I use to hold all my very expensive lee filters were left on the hood of the car. I couldn’t believe how lucky we were no to drop them. I know I would be crying myself to sleep if I had lost them.

Hope you all enjoy the picture and have a Great New Years..

• W.B. Yeats.

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Another more traditional capture of the Bixby bridge from the car park. The sun had gone down by the time I took this shot but the sky was still lit up by the beautiful after glow. I really love the tail lights of the cars which is lighting up the curvy CA Rt 1. Thanks for visiting any comments and faves are much appreciated.

• William James.

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When I picked up the Lee Big Stopper, it was more out of curiosity rather than any genuine need. At that time, I was living on the east coast and it helped a lot in making those cloudy overcast days interesting. Soon it became one of my most used filters until I moved to the west coast. My usage stats for this filter basically fell off a cliff and the 2 stop ND grad gained its top spot back in my filter kit.

One of the coolest usages of a 10 stop ND filter like the Lee Big Stopper is during the predawn time period. Usually, during this time, the light is very even allowing for even lower shutter speed. Another aspect is that this is the period when color will start to appear in the sky and usually the colors are soft pastel in varying hues and in a longer exposure you will be able to see these colors much better than the naked eye ca. My theory is that since these color patches are the brightest areas in the whole scene they are rendered in a long exposure better while our eyes more tuned for the overall darker scene and misses the faint colors. This shot was taken at the Garrapatta state park just before dawn and I didn’t notice any color in the clouds when I took this shot but when I opened the image in the photoshop I could see the faint pastels in the sky. The added benefit is the smooth surf that provides an ethereal feel to the stunning coastline.

• George Halas.

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Here is the other rock formation from Pfeiffer State Park. This one is located right next to the natural Bridge rock and as another visitor pointed out to me this one also has a small arch formation, albeit being a little difficult to observe. I wanted to do a long Exposure shot here to but for some reason the waves were a bit more aggressive and to get a decent composition there is no other way other than to be a little bit in water. I didn’t had the heart to put my D800 on my tripod and hope for the best for 30 secs and retorted to just a regular exposure with available light.

Thanks for visiting..

• Alexander Smith.

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Another shot from our Big Sur trip. We were not able to complete the trip all the way because of a horrific car accident near the Bixby bridge which essentially shut down the road and forced us to turn around and go back. The traffic had backed up for miles and we could not even see what the actual cause of the accident was.

The thing was though the rest of the scenery looked so peaceful and calm with no trace of the horrific incident. When I saw this quote on my favorite website, I immediately thought of this incident.

Thanks for visiting, Hope you all had a very good start to the week.

• Jo Walton

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This was the viewpoint that I wanted to photograph at Garrapatta State park. In fact, when the trip was in the planning stage, I didn’t think this was that much of a good view and relegated it to a morning shoot. From my previous trips, I have assumed that all you can count on for sunrise is that there will be diffused light and fog. But this cold winter morning was different, as we approached the park, I noticed that there were some clouds in the sky but the mountains to the east didn’t instill much hope for a colorful sunrise.

The first light of the day appeared right behind this scene and I posted that image yesterday but after a few seconds the color start to intensify at the clouds close to Soberanes point and I was back at the original spot. This shot required a 3-Stop ND-Grad filter and I used a longer shutter speed by dropping my iso to the base iso of the D850 and then exposing for the foreground. After taking a test shot, I adjusted the exposure compensation by positive two-thirds of a stop to get some light on the hills. This is my favorite shot from the trip as the light on the rocks and the reflection of the pink color on the ocean rare gifts that make landscape photography special.

A quick note about today’s quote, I have been absolutely amazed by the way some people react to my photos. Some not all, think that the color in sunrise/sunset shots are completely generated in post/photoshop and often have a disbelieving look when I explain to them that this happens everywhere you just have to put in the effort to get out and to pay attention. Thom Hogan used to have an excellent article about the late great Galen Rowell titled Magic Moment where Galen explained the importance of sunsets and sunrises that I wish everyone had learned.

• Lord Byron.

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When living in sunny southern California, it's hard to imagine that one of the most stunning coastlines on the planet is just a few hundred miles north. Big Sur has some of the most scenic coastlines comparable to the best in the world. Unfortunately, due to the marine layer, the west coast of the united states is a difficult place to photograph as the golden hour is usually engulfed in thick layers of fog and the only time you get decent light is during the short days of winter, even then its not a guarantee. As you still see the marine layer lingering a short distance from the coast as if waiting for an opportunity to swallow the coastline whole.

My initial years in California were filled with trips up and down the Pacific coast highway trying to take as many pictures of the rugged seashore. But later I started to concentrate more on the tiny little state parks that dot the sides of the highway. These parks took you to another world, the scenery was maybe not as grand as the one’s observable from some of the major scenic viewpoints but more intimate. It was as if the parks were letting you in on its secrets. This shot was taken at Garrapata state park looking north just after sunrise. There was no fog this morning and we were able to get some fantastic color in the sky during sunrise.

Douglas MacArthur.

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One of my favorite shot from the Big Sur trip last weekend. I took this one at the Jade cove from the stairs leading sown to the beach. I had this shot in mind actually as soon as we went there. The only thing that I didn’t anticipate was a thin layer of fog which rolled in just as the sun was setting. I also knew it would be a bear to stitch the shots together when you have well defined wave patterns. I don’t know how it did it but finally my laptop spewed out this image which aligned everything beautifully.

Hope everyone likes it, thanks for visiting..

• Amelia Earhart.

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On the first day of the road trip, we planned for a sunset shoot at Point Lobos State Preserve, which is at the northern end of Big Sur and is pretty close to Carmel. This worked well as we planned to stay over at Carmel and getting to the hotel after the sunset was great. Unfortunately, since it was a state preserve, we learned that we had to get out of the park right at the time of sunset. So, we couldn’t wait till proper sunset but sunset itself was not that great that day.

There are actually two main coves at the preserve and this one was taken near the Whaler’s Cove on the Granite point trail. The part of the hike where the trail loops around coal chute point provide some spectacular scenery of the rugged coastline. This small cove is known as The Pit and is an easy spot to spot whales and sea lions. While we were there, the light on the cliff walls was just spectacular so I framed the shot with the surf and the pebble beach to frame the gorgeous light.

• Paul Cezanne.

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Mcway Falls is one of the major attractions along the pacific coast highway. It's what makes the Julia Pfeiffer state park one of the most visited locations on the California coast. But just as you enter the park, a small pullout provides a dramatic view of the coast to the south. Over the years, I have tried many times to capture this vista point's grandness without success. After a bit of trial and error, it seemed like the wide-angle focal length I was using was the main culprit. It stretched the perspective and accentuated the distance between the foreground and the background, making it a rather lackluster snapshot.

So I tried a different approach, this time with my 70-300 tele lens. I stitched nine images together at 116mm, recreating approximately the same field of view of a wide shot. The results were much more to my liking. As you can see from the image, the scene looked much more realistic and had a more natural feel. I took the images at noon as a test, and once I saw the results on my computer was determined to retake the shot with better lighting. Unfortunately, that never happened, but I felt like this image warranted a place in my portfolio for its merits, even if the light is not optimal. And who knows, one day, I might get a chance to return and make that shot that has been bouncing around in my head.

• Socrates.

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I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas and spend some great time with you loved ones. We had always passed through the two northern most state parks in the Big Sur coastline in search of the more epic roadside vista points. From the pacific coast highway theparks don’t look as interesting as the southern part of Big Sur where the road is hugging the rugged coastline. This shot was taken at the beautiful Point Lobos state park on our first day. Due to the state preserve rules we had to get out before sunset and we didn’t have a lot of clouds to work with but the setting sun during golden hour provided some beautiful lighting on the coastline and the haystacks near the coast.

I used a longer focal length to make this shot and my goal wa just to get the golden light and the little bit of fog that was starting come in. No filters were needed here as the sidelight was just magnificent. If you zoom into the image you will be able to notice that the rocks are teaming with wildlife. I missed my telephoto lens sorely here but thankfully the longer end of my 70-200 came in handy.

• Horace.

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Here is another shot from the Big Sur trip. This one I took on the second day of our trip, the day had mostly been about relaxing in one of the state beaches. I took this shot just before the sunset as the fog was rolling in from the ocean and Sun’s rays were peering above the rocks making the whole scene look kind of other worldly. I had to wait a lot to get the scene almost completely empty of beach goers and it was getting pretty cold by the time I took this shot. At home I had to use almost all of my laptop’s processing power to stitch together this shot out of 18 Nikon D800 images.

Thanks for visiting, hope you all have a great weekend ahead..

• Anonymous.

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For the past couple of months, I have been bogged down by work a little bit, my wife and I had to tone down the amount of travel we do to almost none. Since I had some free time, I have managed to catalog my older shots a bit better on my computer. I have noticed that a lot of the shots that I have tagged for panorama stitches and exposure blending have been left unedited and I am trying to get back to editing these shots and getting them ready to be published.

Big Sur California is a location that can overwhelm any landscape photographer very easily. It has sweeping vistas and a million viewpoints with one stunning view after another. I found that most of the pics from our first few pass-through trips and the photos were lackadaisical at best. I noticed that the quality of my shots increased considerably when I had time to spend at the location. This shot was taken at Grimes Point after we spend a lazy brunch at the nearby café. The lesson from this experience, the more relaxed you are at a location, the better keeper rates for your pics.

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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So finally after bugging my wife for a while she agreed to make a trip up to Big Sur with me to shoot the Pfeiffer beach at sunset. I have had the opportunity to shoot this beautiful natural bridge before and heard from many friends that January is the month to be here as you will be able to observe the setting sun through the arch of the Bridge.

Unfortunately for me, many of the photographers in the area had the same Idea and that combined with the fact that it was a long weekend just made the usually peaceful beach a hugely popular destination. I literally had to walk half a mile to the beach carrying my gear while my wife and sis-in-law tried to find parking. Anyways the fact that I got a glimpse of the sun just going down made it all worthwhile. So here is the money shot from the trip, I used a 86mm focal length along with sot metering to get this shot. Thanks for visiting my pictures..

• James Joyce.

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wow wow wow! so three days ago I had reached about 850k views on flickr and was wondering what I need to achieve a Million views by the end of the year 2014. Then I posted the Manhattan Beach Pier shot which got explored and flickr views went crazy. In three days I crossed over to a final tally, at the time of writing, of 1,057,039 views. I am truly blown away and awed by all the comments and interest on my photos. This is pretty awesome and thanks everyone for visiting and their kind words.

Here is another shot I took at the Big Sur trip. This was taken a soon as I reached the Pfeiffer beach, the sun was still high and the light was coming through the arch of the bridge as if coming from another portal illuminating the shadows in front of the bridge. Most of the photographers were positioned directly in front of the arch trying to get the shot I posted earlier so this one was pretty easy to take.

Thanks for visiting again..

...one of the most photographed trees in North America, this cypress can be found on 17 mile drive, between Pebble Beach and Cypress Beach on California's coast

• Henry Ward Beecher.

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One of the best sunset shots I took last year was at a location that is not known for sunsets and sunrises. If you are visiting Big Sur, seeing Mcway falls is an easy task. Julia Pfieffer Burns state park that’s home to this unique waterfall is easily accessible from the Pacific coast highway and the hike to the viewpoint is just a few hundred feet away from your parked car. If any the only struggle usually is to find a legal parking spot, especially after the park authorities started the crackdown on illegally parked vehicles.

While visiting this spot for the first time, I could imagine how spectacular it would look with some great sunset colors in the sky. Unfortunately for me, I had hard luck with sunsets at this location because it's mostly a hit or miss with the fog. So I was super excited when all the conditions lined up during our last trip. I had a decent spot where I could position myself and the fog was completely absent with some great clouds by the horizon. I took this shot when the sun broke through the clouds and gave me chance to shoot a Sunstar. I had the 24-70 lens on and used a smaller aperture but due to the rounded aperture blade design on modern lenses, all I managed was a weak Sunstar.

This is one of my complaints about modern lens design, while rounded aperture blades coupled with a higher number of blades give you smooth bokeh pretty much the opposite gives a great rendering of bright light sources in the frame. I am not sure if providing smooth bokeh on a wide lens should be a priority. Anyway, enough ranting I used a 2 stop ND grad for this shot and waited for the perfect wave before pressing the shutter button and taking this shot. Hope you all like it.

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• Omar Khayyam.

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Another shot I took at Pfeiffer state beach. I took this after the sun had set and almost all photographers left the beach to walk back to the parking lot. We were just packing up ready to leave when the sky suddenly became a vivid red color and as I was shooting this I realized there were almost no one left in the beach and we were completely left to over own devices.

This was truly a beautiful experience to witness the last hoorah of the Sun before he finally said goodbye for the day. Thanks for visiting my stream really appreciate the encouraging comments and faves.

• Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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It’s the dawn of 2019 and I thought it would be awesome to post an image from one of the best sunrises that I have seen this year. This photo was taken at Big Sur’s Garrapatta State park. Now Big Sur wouldn’t be the place that usually comes to the mind when you hear the word sunrise. Its westernmost location and the mountains towards the east usually blocks any light from the spectacular shoreline in the morning.

Also, another factor that many people do not account for about the Big Sur coastline is the ever-present fog. The quote “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” is true in many ways and the Big Sur Coastline if cold windy and foggy during summer and it usually takes a strong sun to make the fog retreat to the ocean. We have visited the coast many times during sunrise and realized that we can only barely see the ocean.

So, it was a great surprise to get to Garrapatta state park at sunrise to see stunning pink colored clouds above the beautiful coastline of Northern big Sur. We spent an absolutely beautiful sunrise photographing and hiking the various trails of this beautiful state park.

I used a 2 stop ND grad filter to get the sky a bit darker and a polarizer to get the details in the shoreline. The composition was aimed at using the spectacular ridgeline as a leading element to the stunning coast and sea stacks and the rare sunrise sky.

• Richard Bach.

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Another wonderful scene from Big Sur coastline. This was the closest I have been to a edge of a cliff in my life. As I was taking the shot I remember my wife grabbing my shirt to make sure I won't fall off of it. I cannot wait to comeback to this location a on a better day with some quality light.

• H. P. Lovecraft.

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I have talked about the Marine Layer in a couple of my earlier posts. Throughout my time on the west coast, I would head out on a trip to the pacific coast highway with a planned shot in min only to see the thick layer of fog roll in from the ocean just before sunset. First, I thought that my luck was just wrong. Then on a trip to Oregon, it happened again at Bandon beach. The day started warm and sunny only to end up with a completely grey sky in the afternoon, with near-freezing temperatures. Undeterred, I returned during sunrise, only to find that conditions haven’t improved. I still took some fantastic moody shots before meeting a couple walking their dog in the morning. We chatted a bit, and I asked about the fog front. They told me about the Marine Layer and how the cold water of the Pacific combined with the warm air from the land causes the formation of one of the most massive fog layers that envelops most of the western coastline of the United States. That’s also when I learned that for the fog to be absent, the temperature of both land and ocean needs to be close, and that means winter. In the case of Oregon, they tend to have very wet winters, so realistically its just September and October where you have a chance to getting some stunning color in the sky. This bit of info was quite a revelation to me, and I went back to my picture folder and checked my images to realize that the only fog-free shot of the coast that I have taken was during a January trip to Pfiefer Beach. It was my light bulb moment. But the Marine Layer is not all bad, the consistent fog is the reason why Coastal Redwoods grow to their massive height in northern California and southern Oregon. So they are alright in my book.

Now a bit about this shot, taken at the beautiful sand dollar beach, a half-mile long beach just north of the jade cove. Due to the unique crescent shape of the beach, it traps water from the currents, and then the summer sun warms them up nicely. On this trip, we stopped for lunch at the picnic area nearby but had the beach all to ourselves. After learning how warm the water was, we ended up spending the whole afternoon here. I have had this sea stack in mind for the sunset shot, and the clouds were positioned perfectly for a spectacular sunset. My plan was for a wide panorama, and as the sun was nearing the horizon, the fog layer rolled in completely hiding the sun and any chance of a great sunset. Being a relatively new photographer, I panicked rather than adjusting to the situation. To this day, I kick myself for not using my telephoto lens and getting some moody detail shots of those massive sea stacks.

• Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

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Getting to Big Sur and seeing an amazing sunset should be on everyone's bucket list. I remember a time when I used to dream about driving through this amazing stretch of road that hugs the incredible coastline. In my last 5 years in the west coast of the united states, my wife and I have traveled the entire stretch of the Pacific coast highway all the way from San Diego to Portland and we have traveled the rest on Rt 101 all the way up to Neah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula. To see sheer wildness and beauty, I believe, there are no other roads that provide this much scenery in every turn.

This shot was taken at the Point Lobos Natural Reserve during sunset. Since this is a natural reserve, humans are not allowed after sunset and that means you have to wrap up shooting before the actual sunset. We stayed as late as possible before sprinting like crazy to our car and getting out of the park before the gates closed. This cove is known as the coal chute point or the pit and this shot were taken from the granite point trail. This little cove is home to three submarine caverns that make them a popular with divers. I didn’t use any filters here and the light was low enough to afford me a low shutter speed. I took the time to compose with some foreground interest and to focus on the beautifully lit coastline. Hope everyone like it.