San Luis Obispo County

• Isak Dinesen.

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Another shot from our trip to Morro Bay. I took it about an hour before sunset and used a telephoto lens for a tight crop. Previously my go to lens for vast landscapes was always a wide or standard lens but lately I have been forcing myself to use telephotos to see more details which are present in vast landscapes. The moment I saw that small haystack next to the giant Morro rock, I knew I wanted to get an intimate shot of that rock formation. Once I used the telephoto focal length I also noticed the tons of birds on them. I also wanted to include the gentle waves to give the scene some depth.

• Tadao Ando.

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When we moved to Los Angeles, I was super excited about exploring the amazing number on national and state parks that California has to offer. My wife on the other hand had slightly different plan, she was more interested in exploring the cute little towns, food hubs, and other quirky attractions. To her eternal irritation I often got my way on our initial trips due to my constant planning and her busy schedule. After about a year of national parks and solitude, she put her foot down and got her way. So, as part of her plan we visited the Hearst Castle in San Simeon.

Now this is a very popular attraction for folks visiting California and a lot of the residents of San Francisco and Los Angeles. This makes the Hearst Castle a very busy location and pretty expensive to get a ticket. We visited on a beautiful day and spend our initial time on a tour and then basically wandered around the premises enjoying the fantastic views from high perch of the castle grounds. To be honest we both found the whole thing very boring until we stumbled into the roman pool section of the building. The amazing blue tiles and their stunning reflections in the pool provided me with some stunning photo opportunities. Another shot I took here and posted way before is one of my most popular shots on Flickr and I didn’t think enough of this shot to post it then. But my processing skills have increased since then and I think I have done a decent job on it to be eligible for posting.

• Gustav Mahler.

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Since the day I first saw it, the massive volcanic plug on the beach, Morro Rock has had a special place in my heart. Something about it always attracts me and I have dragged my wife and various members of my family enough times to see this amazing geological formation. But spring is here and when we had beautiful weather in SoCal we decided to head out to Montana de Oro State park and see if we could get a nice sunset shot of Morro Bay. Last time we went there, we took the southern vistas of the rock and this time decided to head north of the Rock to get the classic reflection shot.

My plan was to get a shot of Morro Rock with beach dunes as foreground interest but when we reached about an hour before sunset, we learned that the dunes were closed because of nesting season. So I decided to stick with the classic view of Morro Rock from the beach with the reflection of the sunset sky in the beach.

Sunset was pretty muted due to the thin veil of fog that was present that day and colors only turned vivid once the sun actually went down the horizon. This shot was made with the Nikon’s new D850 and my trusty 24-70, with a 2 stop ND grad used to balance the foreground and the sky.

• Pablo Neruda.

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On our way to Carrizo plain we took one of the most beautiful roads in California, Rt 58. And once it started to snake though to the summit of the Temblor range we got a small demo of what was about to come. We also learned that the San Andreas Fault Zone runs parallel to the range at the base of the temblor range’s western slope, on the eastern side of the Carrizo Plain.

Anyways what we saw on Rt 58 was rolling green hills with massive amount of yellow flowers everywhere. It looked as if someone sprinkled yellow color all over the mountain range. The moving clouds provided nice diffusion whenever they covered the sun and I made this pano shot during one of those brief moments when a large cloud nicely diffused the sun for me.

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• Richard Bach.

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Another shot from the stunningly pretty Carrizo Plain National Monument. The location of this shot is the aptly named lookout hill which is north to the visitor center on soda lake road. I was glad we decided to drive up to the visitor center as a park ranger we met there was the one who directed me to this spot. She assured me that the view is stunning and wow.

As we climbed up to the top of the small hill from the parking lot, we could see the true enormity and the size of the super bloom. Plus the storm clouds brewing over the temblor range provided a nice stark contrast to the bright yellow flowers carpeting the valley. Hope y’all like it.

• William Randolph Hearst.

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The Hearst Castle in glorious California sun. Took this shot couple of weeks ago while visiting the castle at San Simone. I was a bit underwhelmed by the whole place but again compared to all the natural beauty of California.

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• David Viscott.

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This is the Roman pool from Hearst castle which is located near San Simeon California. Located just after the Big Sur coastline, Hearst Castle is a must visit if you love architecture and old fashioned grandeur. The place is nothing short of stunning but pretty difficult to shoot with the light coming through the windows illuminating certain parts of the pretty dark room. I had to jack up my ISO to 500 to get a pretty decent shutter speed. This one is a 5 shot HDR as they dont allow tripods, hope you all like it..

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• Jean de la Bruyere.

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In the brief 5 years, we lived in California, one of the most spectacular sights we were lucky enough to witness was the amazing wildflower bloom of Carrizo Plains National Monument. We have been to this spot once before in the summer and it's usually so dry and dusty that there is not much to photograph. But all it needed were perfectly timed winter showers to transform this mostly barren looking hillside and plains into a lush flower meadow.

This shot was taken somewhere on the Blue Star Highway that leads into the Carrizo Plain from Rt 5. I had to take a shot of the interesting fence with the rolling hills and the carpet of vivid yellow flowers. This shot was very simple, I believe I didn’t even use a polarizer, as the light was just perfect.

• Tertullian.

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One of my favorite shots from the Carrizo Plain super bloom event this year. I am not sure which viewpoint I took this shot from, all I remember is being mesmerized by the endless fields of gold ahead of me and the rolling hills in the horizon with a ducting of wildflowers.

With the prospects of rain looking high for this winter I hope to see more super blooms next year too. Thanks again for visiting.

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• Maya Angelou.

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On our last trip to Big Sur, I wanted to make it a point to stop at the ragged point outlook an get some good shots. This is an area which we overlook during all our past trips as its about at the beginning of the trip when coming in from Los Angeles. I had to take a handheld pano shot and I didn’t nail the focus down to quite what I wanted but this was one of the images I managed to get, hope you all like it and I wish I could get back there on a day there will not be any fog in the horizon.

• Emily Dickinson.

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Morro Bay has always been one of my absolute favorite places to visit along the California coastline. When you start your trip from Los Angeles, Morro Bay is the last major town before heading into the Big Sur coast. Due to this reason, I have always found ourselves at MorroBay for pitstops getting ready for our trip north. After I started taking an interest in bird/wildlife photography, I got to make a trip to MorroBay to visit this beautiful location. With its strategic location and beautiful beaches, it is an essential waypoint for migratory birds, and it was the first serious wildlife spot I have had the chance to explore as a birder.

While we were there to photograph birds, for the most part, I kept an eye out for the sunset light. I was not disappointed. Just as the golden hour started, beautiful sidelight began to pour in and light the sides of the giant volcanic plug. I had to wait a bit for the perfect wave, and eventually, one of them lined up just right. I would have liked the sun a little to the north and better lighting on the rock face, but the more I look at it, the more I think the golden light just on the edge of the rock formation works well.

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• Henry David Thoreau.

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Morro Bay at sunset. We went to Morro Bay last Saturday for quick day trip and had the opportunity to watch a pretty foggy sunset. I took this shot at the marina south of the Morro Rock. I used a Lee Big Stopper to smooth out the water. The sea was a bit choppy so there was a bit of movement among the boats.

I was not entirely satisfied with the sunset and I am hoping to convince my wife for another weekend trip next winter. Thanks for visiting, hope y'all like the image..

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• Rupert Brooke.

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While we were driving couple of weeks ago to Carrizo plain national monument, we passed through the temblor range. It’s a stunning section of rolling hills formed by seismic activities of the massive San Andreas Fault which runs parallel to the hills. Due to the unusually strong rainy season, the usually golden hills were covered in lush green grass and as we got close to the Carrizo Plain entrance we started seeing carpets of beautiful yellow flowers.

Of all the patches we got to see that day, this particular ranch entrance got my attention. This rustic little fence looked like the gateway to spring and I thought it perfectly illustrated the stunning beauty of the super bloom.

• Alexander Pope.

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An old shot from Morro Bay California. I actually had forgotten about fact that I have even taken this shot and thankfully while cleaning up my pictures folder came across this image. This was an impulse trip we made just to check out the massive volcanic plug located on the shores of this California beach town, which usually is a way point on our trips to Big Sur.

So I didn’t scout my locations earlier and decided to wing it, which was a huge mistake as I didn’t had any new interesting locations ready even as the sunset was upon us. So finally we decided to head towards the boat jetty towards the south of the rock. I created this sunset pano shot as the sun was going down, surprising myself that I had the presence of mind to complete it rather than panic and ruin the shot somehow. Anyways thanks for visiting, hope you all have a great weekend.

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• Martin Luther.

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The beautiful Piedras Blancas Lighthouse is often a difficult subject to photograph. Due to its unique location and short visiting hours as you are forced to use a telephoto lens to capture the lighthouse from far away. Also this being Big Sur getting a fog free shot at golden hour is also left for luck.

This time we were near the are we stayed over at san Simeon and reached this view point just before sunset. I had a stitch pano in mind to include the sea stacks that were some distance off in to the ocean. Hope you all like it..