Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, CA

Nice big waves at Big Sur last weekend. Took my family to one of my favorite spots – Pfeiffer Beach, which is half point of the Big Sur coast.

The ocean is clean and powerful this time of the year. Best time for coastal photography and whale watching.

Speaking of whales – spotted one just a few miles north of this spot. Kids were ecstatic – first one we’ve seen in the Wild.

This is another shot from an outing with Patrick Smith to the Big Sur where we witnessed what probably was the best light of the season. The color was changing every minute in different parts of the sky and we had to be aware of what was going by taking our eyes off the viewfinder.

You can see Patrick’s shots from that outing here.

Nikon D300
42mm, f/16, 1/20 sec, ISO100
ND Grad 0.9+0.6

And yet another photo from the Garrapata Beach. Do you think I like this beach?

Before the winter began I set a goal to build a winter set from a spot or several spots around the Big Sur area. It just happened that this place turned out to be Garrapata Beach, a place I visited several times in the last few weeks. I also chose to make it color, because I want the photos to stand together in a set. I may have a few more to upload in the coming weeks, but I think I’m getting ready to shoot something else.

There is something to be said, however, about becoming familiar with the subject. After I visited this place several times in different weather conditions after different tides, I feel that my images from there are becoming more personal, and as I continue building that set, it is capturing the character of the subject better than one photo ever would.

Working in projects also provides structure and motivation.

You can see other images in the set here.

Nikon D300
15mm, 1 sec, f/16, ISO100
ND Grad 0.9 (I think..)

I’m really slow processing the photos from that night, because I’m still bitter about that evening.

The evening at Garrapata Beach at Big Sur was going fine. Beautiful light, no wind, big waves (it was the day before the Mavericks competition took place), no one but me and a few teenagers at the beach. What could go wrong, right?

Oh, as always, many things. I left my camera bag where I thought it was safe, where the sand looked dry, almost all the way at the end of the beach by the cliffs. As I was busy shooting away, I noticed that one big wave seemed to kept going longer than all the others. But it was too late. It went straight through my opened camera bag, soaking everything inside and actually killing my laptop that was still running for whatever reason (don’t you hate it when PC laptops doesn’t properly shut down?). The IT guys at my work found sand and salt on the inside disk of the hard drive. I think that wave killed both the hard drive and the laptop shell.

We must respect the ocean.

Nikon D300
24mm, f/16, 1/20 s, ISO100
Lee ND Grad 0.6 + 0.9

Some shots get you really into the scene, like this one.

Last Sunday was another cloudy post-stormy day here in Northern California, and I met up with Jim Patterson and Kendra back at Garrapata Beach. This time around it was a negative tide, so many layers of sand were gone, revealing all kinds of big rocks and boulders that are typically covered by the sand. In fact, the beach was almost impossible to recognize.

Towards the end of the day I ended up close to these sweet looking rocks that the waves keep beating up on. I love the trails that the waves created, and I wanted to capture the blue colors of that evening, as day turned into night. I dropped by shoes, rolled up my jeans up and stood there for 10-15 minutes watching and shooting these waves. How did end? See that big boy in the background? It got to me, as I was focusing my attention on the foreground, and I end up getting immersed to my chest in the water. Luckily, I grabbed the camera, but my ankle still have bruised from all the rolling rocks that the wave brought with it. Needless to say, I was done with that frame.

Nikon D300
20mm, f/14, 0.6 sec, ISO400
ND Grad 0.9