Big Sur southern coast, Kirk Creek Arch, Monterey County

 

We found out about an arch along the southern end of the Big Sur coast from a Facebook posting from an avid hiker we're following. She mentioned where she was and included several photos, including an arch in the Pacific Ocean. It was actually next to a campground we were already thinking about visiting, so her posting made us take the trip to see it sooner rather than later. We saw it first during a higher tide, with waves crashing under the arch. We came back about 6 hours later and the tide was low enough that we could stand under it. We took measurements with a laser measurer and reported our results to the Natural Arch and Bridge Society. It turned out that we were the first to report this arch to them.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Comet C/2023 A3 at Morro Bay, California

 

View of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan, Atlas) from Morro Bay, California. Rick was camped next to Morro Creek for two nights hoping to get a photo of the comet with Morro Rock, but it was foggy for those two nights. The third morning appeared mostly sunny, so Rick paid for another night hoping for clear skies that night. He was fortunate that it worked out well that time. The nearly full moon helped to light the foreground for this long exposure. The end of Morro Rock and Pillar Rock appear on the left side of the photo.

October 16, 2024, Fuji GFX100S, 20 seconds, 45 mm (36 mm equivalent), f/5.7, ISO 800

You can watch our YouTube video about this project at: https://youtu.be/j-zvldptmLc

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Pelican flying in front of sun dog, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California

 

After visiting the Big Sur coast to photograph Keyhole Arch (see some of the previous postings), we stopped by Point Lobos State Natural Reserve just south of Carmel, California. We saw many pelicans during our hike along this dramatic and rugged coastline. Late in the afternoon the sun and clouds created sun dogs, or spectra produced by ice crystals in high-altitude clouds. We happened to catch this pelican flying in front of one of the sun dogs, as there were two, one on either side of the sun.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Whimbrel shorebird searching for food at San Carlos Beach, Monterey, California

A whimbrel is a shorebird with a long decurved bill used for probing into the sand to find edible mollusks. This one was searching for food on San Carlos Beach, in Monterey, California. Some of the other whimbrels were competing for the opportunities to feed even to the point of pushing and shoving a little. When one pushed its bill into a promising hole in the sand, sometimes another rushed in to knock the other bird out of the way and get its bill onto the food instead.

These birds are constantly in motion, so the picture was taken at 1/500 of a second to help stop action. The zoom was about 25x.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Redwood Sorrel in bloom in in the Sinkyone Wilderness

During a trip to the Redwood Coast of California in August, 2014, the Redwood Sorrel flowers were in bloom. You sometimes see another type of sorrel growing in people's yards which you can recognize by the leaves, but this one is a wild species native to California. It grows in shady places under the big trees and up the coast into Washington state. This flower has 5 petals with purple veins and 10 stamens. Plants in the sorrel family, including Oxalis, have sour sap.

This Redwood Sorrel was blooming in the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. We saw it during an overnight backpack trip where we camped near a beach. This part of California's coastline is the most remote coast in the state, even though the area used to have a large lumber operation that ceased operating many decades ago. 

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Cape Mendocino and the Sugarloaf Island on an overcast day

Cape Mendocino with the Sugarloaf Island just off the coast of California during an overcast day.This is perhaps California's most remote coastal area to which you can drive. The drive here involves winding 2-lane roads that often look in dire need of maintenance. The area is also mainly private land, so there are only a few places where you can stop and take in the scenery. The Sugarloaf Island really stood out because of how white it appears, even on this overcast day it appeared bright.

This image is the result of two images merged together to create a wider final product. I made sure not to include the breaking waves in the right image, so that only the left image had the waves, so that merging the two images wouldn't end up with blurred waves in the final image.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Point Reyes Lighthouse lit up at dusk

Our first backpacking trip was in Point Reyes National Seashore along the coast north of San Francisco, California.  The centerpiece of this National Park Service unit is the historic Point Reyes Lighthouse, constructed at the very end of the point stretching about 10 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. Once a month from spring to fall, the park leads visitors on hikes to light the historic lighthouse. It was also on our first time out to see the lighthouse that we saw a gray whale for the first time. It was in the surf approaching Point Reyes Beach in water shallow enough that we could see the entire animal.

The lighthouse was first operated in 1870, and was built after a level spot was blasted with dynamite, about 300 feet from the top of the cliff. It uses a rotating Fresnel lens that concentrated the center light source into 24 beams such that someone in a ship off-shore would see a flash every 5 seconds. Each lighthouse has its own distinct flash pattern, so a ship's captain would be able to identify which lighthouse he's seeing.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.