Tag: Big Sur

2019 Big Sur Photography Workshop

Explore the Big Sur coast with your camera. Broaden your photographic skills with award winning photographer, Ralph Nordstrom.

After a two-year absence from Big Sur due to the landslides of 2017, it’s past time to return. The Big Sur Photography Workshop is on for next month, November 11-14, 2019 and there’s an opening with your name on it.

Big Sur holds some of the most stunning coastline in the entire United States. The mile-high Santa Lucia mountains plummet into the Pacific Ocean, creating a scenery seen nowhere else.

Big Sur Coast

Big Sur is also the home to redwood groves and waterfalls, found in the streams that cascade down the face of the mountains. One particularly famous waterfall spills onto the beach in McWay cove.

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Much more awaits along this 100 mile stretch of coast that will challenge and reward you photographically.  Would you like to join me and experience this beautiful coast for yourself? More information can be found on this link – Big Sur Photography Workshop. Or email me at Ralph@RalphNordstromPhotography.com.

See you in Big Sur!

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Best Big Sur Photograph of 2013

Best 2013 photograph of Big Sur. The results are in. Come check it out.

You have spoken; the results are in.  You have chosen your favorite Big Sur photograph from 2013.  And the voting for first and second place was very close.  But this is your your clear favorite – Pfeiffer Beach Tunnel.

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Pfeiffer Beach is always exciting in winter when the sun’s rays penetrate the tunnel as the waves come roaring through.  It’s exhilarating to say the least.  I chose this one from the scores that I shot that afternoon because, in addition to the golden glow the rays cast on the inside walls of the tunnel, the water appears as a wall about to sweep through.  It’s the moment right before the explosion.  You can sense the power about to be unleashed.

For a limited time you can purchase a gorgeous 16X20 gallery-warp canvas of this beautiful photograph on Fine Art America for only $70.  That’s a 30% discount from the regular price.  But hurry, this offer ends at 5:00 PM Pacific Time on July 3, 2014 and there are only five canvases available at this sharply reduced price.  Check out this special offer.

“So, what was the close second?” you ask.  I don’t think you’ll be surprised when you see it – another display of awesome power.

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Mastering Composition–More Border Patrol

Small tweaks around the borders of your photograph can have a powerful effect on the overall strength of your composition.

It may not be obvious at first but a photograph’s border is a critical element of a successful composition.  All too often we get so focused on the subject that the borders get  ignored.   Because it’s so important I’m writing a second post on the subject.  To read the first post you can click on this link  – Mastering Composition – Border Patrol.

For this post take a look at this photograph.

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The photograph is of the famous tunnel at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California.  In wintertime, as you can see, not only do the waves come crashing through but the setting sun turns the water to liquid gold.  It’s easy to get so absorbed by the spectacle that important elements of the composition get ignored.  Can you see what I missed here?

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Mastering Composition – What?

Asking yourself, ‘What am I photographing?’ can lead to stronger images that communicate the excitement and inspiration you feel.

Composition is one of the four pillars of a strong landscape photograph (See Making a Photograph – The Four Pillars).  There are many approaches to mastering composition and certainly countless excellent books on the topic.  Many books discuss the elements of design and how they relate to composition – line, shape, form, texture, pattern and color.  Others go into the various rules of composition – rule of thirds, golden rule, leading lines, near / far, layers, frames, etc.

All of these rules or principles are very analytical and, I think, are necessary and useful building blocks.  Often creating a strong composition is very much of a problem-solving endeavor.  But in the end I believe the goal of the composition is to support what the artist wants to communicate through the image.  And this comes more from compositions that just feel right, not ones that are mechanically created from the rules.  That’s not to say that one is not aware of these principles as the composition is being worked out.  Rather these principles are like words in a sentence.  They are carefully chosen so that the sentence as a whole communicates the author’s message.  There are several techniques that lead us to this goal.  And one of them is to ask yourself, ‘’”What am I photographing?”

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Mastering Exposure – Expose to the Right

Expose to the Right – put it to the test by creating and comparing actual images.

Over the years there has been a lot of interest in the concept of ‘Expose to the right.’  This is something that is commonly done in digital photography where you intentionally overexpose an image.  The idea is that in digital images there is more information to work with in the brighter tonalities than there is in the darker.  And this will give you more to work with in the darkroom (Lightroom and Photoshop) which will result in a better image.

I’ve written several posts on this topic and if the concept is new to you please read these.  I’m not going to go into the theory here; that is spelled out in these posts.

Lightroom Tutorial – Expose to the Right

Expose to the right – Revisited

Now, I understand the theory.  I’m a computer guy; I had better understand it.  But I’ve always wondered if the promise of a better image actually worked out in real life.  So I did a test during our recent workshop to Big Sur.

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Big Sur Photography Workshop – Highlights

The November Big Sur photography workshop offered some of the best conditions I have ever seen. Read more about it.

We wrapped up the 2014 winter Big Sur workshop last night with a spectacular sunset at Point Lobos in Carmel, California.  But hold on.  Before we get to that I want to share with you some of the highlights from this week.

Let’s start with a funky photograph I got at the Santa Rosa Creek estuary way south down in Cambria, California.  I went up to Cambria a couple of days before the workshop started for a little exploring.  It paid off.  I call this one, “Get Your Ducks in a Row.”

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Also that same day I caught a surfer catching a wave.  The surf was definitely up.

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We start the workshop Monday in San Simeon at the southern end of the Big Sur coast.  To get it off to a good start we photographed sunset at the southern end of the impressive Big Sur headlands.  And we were treated to some equally impressive light.

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Why I Love Big Sur

Big Sur in California is beyond description. Join me as I share some of my favorite locations ane experiences along this beautiful coast.

There are some places you have to see to believe, experience to begin to understand – Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls,…  Photographs don’t begin to capture the feelings you have.  Big Sur is such a place.

Big Sur is a 100 mile stretch of the California coast that has no competition for sheer grandeur anywhere on the West Coast.  Henry Miller claimed it was the way the Creator intended the world to be.

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The first thing that comes to most people’s minds are the towering Santa Lucia mountains that plunge headlong into the blue Pacific Ocean.  And there’s no doubt, this is what characterizes Big Sur.  The mountains in some places are a mile high and drop to the sea in only two miles.  Statistics – interesting but they don’t begin to convey the feeling you have in your stomach when driving the Cabrillo Highway, the two lane road that clings to the cliffs, snaking its way from San Simeon in the south to Carmel-by-the-Sea in the north.

Wherever you have such a precipitous coastline you’ll find plenty of cliffs into which the surf endlessly crashes.  You can experience calm seas like the photograph above.  After all it is the Pacific.  Or you can get a little more action.

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A Great Photography Car

The Ford Escape Hybrid gets to stretch its legs in Big Sur.

My 2003 Prius has had it.  At 230,000 miles it was time to trade it in.  It served me well and we went places I had no business taking it (read “some pretty nasty dirt roads”).  But it wasn’t really a good car for landscape photography.  Nevertheless, it never complained.

So around the end of last year I started thinking about a car that would be great for the kind of photography I do.  I had some basic requirements:

  • Cargo space (to carry all my gear including the stuff I need for workshops)
  • High clearance (for those nasty dirt roads)
  • Good gas mileage (I was addicted to 45 mpg from the Prius)
  • 4WD (again, to go those nasty dirt roads)

A survey on the internet turned up several makes and models but the Ford Escape hybrid was at the top of the list.  I visited the dealer and none were to be found in all of Southern California so on January 11th I placed the order.  The decision looked good on paper but would the actual vehicle measure up?

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