Point Sur Light Station

The Point Sur Light Station is another landmark on the Cabrillo Highway, one that is not especially easy to photograph because it is only infrequently open for tours. However, I highly recommend that you take the time to visit it if at all possible. For more tour info, go to the Point Sur home page. The Station is inaccessible to the public except during these tours. There is plenty of time and flexibility to wander off and take photos of the Station and its various buildings.

The tour is three hours long and is conducted on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays on a first come-first served basis, with a maximum of 30 visitors. There were only a dozen visitors on the day I went. The two docents were informative and knowledgeable. The tour involves a climb up the access road. However, it is not particularly strenuous and they stop frequently to point out sights and to describe the fascinating history of the Station.

Of note, for once I chose to not carry a tripod and that worked out fine. There was plenty of light and there was no need for extra support. The Station does offer a moonlight tour that I'd like to take someday, and a tripod would be a must. Maybe next year!

The image to the left was taken at sunset from the road with a 300 mm lens.

Big Sur: The Bixby Bridge Revisited

Anyone who has driven down Highway 1 in Big Sur has crossed the Bixby Bridge, which is just 12 miles south of Carmel. Built in only 14 months and completed in 1932, it has an elegance of style and function you don't see in contemporary bridge architecture. It may be the most identifiable and iconic scenes on the Cabrillo Highway. I suppose that's why so many travelers stop and take photos of the bridge or just take in the vista of the Pacific coast from that vantage point. The location, along the rocky coast and surrounded by the hills of Big Sur, makes it one of my favorite spots.

Getting good shots of the bridge can be tricky unless you use a wide angle lens.  I like to capture the sweep of the bridge's lines from both ends. The parking area at the northern end of the bridge can get busy, so I like to get right up to the end of the bridge so I can capture some of the coastline. 

Shots from the southern end requires crossing the bridge and then parking in the tiny turnout just past the end of the bridge. Climb up the narrow path and you'll find yourself with a sweeping view of the bridge. With a wide angle lens you can capture the entire bridge, as well as some foreground and coastline. (The shot above was taken with a 12 mm lens on an APS-C sensor, equivalent to about a 20 mm full-frame lens.)

One unwelcome development this year: one evening two women set up portable speakers and were playing guitars and singing. Sorry, but this was just noise pollution in a beautiful setting.

Point Sur from Garrapata State Park

Point Sur at Dawn

I spent part of my first day in Big Sur scouting for likely locations for sunrise shots. I saved them in my GPS so that I could find them the next day when I was half awake. The challenge of sunrise photos in the Big Sur area is that the sun is behind the mountains for at least an hour before you actually see it. On the other hand, it can create beautiful colors, as it did on this particular December morning.

Big Sur from Garrapata State Park

I parked in the turn out and unpacked my gear, and promptly tripped over a root snaking out from the underbrush. Fortunately, I didn't have my camera in my hand and there was no one there to see me fall on my ass. I made my way down a trail with my coffee, tripod and backpack more or less securely in hand. The sage smelled wonderful and I would pinch some between my fingers to capture the aroma. I could hear the crashing of the waves below me and the seagulls wheeling overhead. It was delightful solitude.

As the sun crept up behind Point Sur I captured these images and promised myself to return someday. 

Patience is a Photographic Virtue

How Not to Take Good Photos

Here are the keys to photographic success:

1. Buy an expensive DSLR.
2. Roar up to a turnout near a scenic outlook.
3. Thrust camera out of the window and take several frames.
4. Drive off.
5. Admire your work at home.

This really happened and I caught it, mostly by accident. I was positioned at the Hurricane Point turnout just south of the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, waiting for the light from the setting sun to get just right. My camera was mounted on my tripod and every few minutes I took a frame or two. Suddenly, a car drove up and the scene I just described unfolded. I swung around and captured it.

I don't know how good the woman's photos were. Maybe they were spectacular; maybe they were blurry because it was a low-light situation and she shot without support. But beyond her haste to take pictures, I know she could not appreciate the beauty below us in the few seconds she was there. As I stood on the high bluff overlooking the rocky Big Sur coast I was able to enjoy the golden light falling on the blue Pacific water and the vista laid out before me. Now, when I look at the image below, I will not only enjoy the photo itself, I'll be transported back to the hour I spent experiencing the landscape. Her memory will be much different.

Bixby Bridge at Dusk

For me, photography isn't just about creating an image for my future enjoyment. It's also a pathway to re-experiencing what I did to capture the image. I want to be relive the smells, sounds and the totality of the sensory experience when, years later, I gaze at it and remember how much I enjoyed creating it and the time I devoted to doing so.
What will she remember?