Tag: journal

Photographing the California Central Coast – Day 3

Tag a long on a scouting expedition of the California Central Coast.

I’m on a three-day scouting trip to photograph the central coast of California from the Sonoma Coast north of San Francisco down to Santa Cruz to the south.  I am preparing for the 2018 Central Coast and Napa photography workshop.  The first two days covered the coast north of Frisco. Today would continue south, picking up the coast at Half Moon Bay.  You can read about the first to days here:

Unlike the prior day where I didn’t roll out of my sleeping bag until 8:00, this day the alarm was set for 5:00.  That’s more consistent with what I’m used to when photographing.  I arose in the dark, took a quick hot shower and broke camp as silently as possible.  When I left the campground it was still dark.

Gleason Beach, which I had photographed the day before, grabbed my attention in the morning light and I had to stop for it again.

Gleason Beach Morning

These two sea stacks that hadn’t impressed me in the afternoon stood out in the soft morning light.  As with the first two days, there were occasional splashes of large waves.  But, from this distance what impressed the eye didn’t impress the camera.  So I was more intent on photographing the patterns made by the surf after the waves broke.

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Photographing the California Central Coast – Day 2

Tag a long on a scouting expedition of the California Central Coast.

I’m continuing a three-day photography scouting trip along California’s Central Coast.  I’m preparing to lead a group here in November for the 2018 Central Coast and Napa Valley workshop.  In the previous post (Photographing the California Central Coast – Day 1), I was joined by a friend and we covered the north end of the Sonoma Coast.

Today is the second day and I’m on my own.  I enjoyed the company yesterday but today will be a more typical experience.

I started out by sleeping in.  It was almost 8:00 when I finally rolled out of my sleeping bag and emerged from my tent to a blue sky.   After yesterday’s overcast and foggy start, this was good news.   A quick breakfast and a hot shower and I was ready to go.  This day was going to cover more mileage than the day before but with fewer stops.

Gleason Beach was the first.

Gleason Beach

There were some sea stacks at this stop but they didn’t stand out.  The severe gash in the cliff that led down to the cluster of sea stacks just off shore, however, was far more interesting. I timed the shot to get two concentric rings of surf which added the grace of curved lines to an overall rugged composition.

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Photographing the California Central Coast – Day 1

Tag a long on a scouting expedition of the California Central Coast.

It wasn’t long ago that I spend three days along the California Central Coast, scouting good shooting locations for the upcoming Central Coast and Napa Valley workshop.   I’m very familiar with the Big Sur coast but this was my first real exposure to the Central Coast north of San Francisco.  And I am excited with what I found.

My base of operations was the Schoolhouse Canyon Campground, a privately owned campground just east of Guerneville on the Russian River.  Clean, quite – I couldn’t have been more pleased.  But on with the photography….

The plan was to start to the north and work south over the next three day’s.  I was joined by a friend the first day which started out overcast and foggy along the coast.  That’s not a huge surprise as this area is still susceptible to the marine layer in September.  But, in this line of business, you work with what you got.  The first destination was Salt Point.  It’s hard to find because there are no marked turn-offs, just a sign saying you’re entering and another sign a few miles up the road saying you’re leaving.  So we overshot it.  And I’m glad we did because we came upon a creepy house that was falling apart.

Creeph House

My friend suggested framing the house with moss hanging from the tree.  That was the perfect touch to give it the macabre feeling we were feeling,  And the overcast sky provided the perfect light.

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Rain, Slides, Floods, Sirens

How I spent my morning trying to keep the rest of the slop from sliding down the hill.

When big things happen in your neighborhood a blog can be more than for just photography.

What will a year’s worth of rain do to the foothills of Orange County when it all falls in five days?  WOW.  You’d have to experience it to fully appreciate it.

So my morning started with checking my unscientific rain gage on the patio and when totaled with the rain fall I measured from Friday to Monday, we’ve had 15 inches of rain since this series of storms started on Friday.  OK, that’s a kind of record. And the biggest storm hit last night.  I remember the rain waking me up with a solid roar like that of a strong wind but there was no wind.

As I was leaving the house I happened to notice that the slope was washing away.  There was a big gash through the spring green working its way toward our neighbor’s hours.  The first thing I did was call the association to report it.  The next thing I called our neighbor.  From above it looked, well, it wasn’t possible to see how bad it was and I headed off to work.

When I got down the hill to Santiago Canyon Road the county  sheriff had it shut  off.  OK.  Not surprising with all this rain.  But then a fire truck went on up the road.  Paramedics?  If so, bad accident.  I noticed other canyon roads were also closed and a huge earth mover was positioned ready to go into action when needed.  (And who says our government sucks.  You’ll get an argument from me, that’s for sure.)

I noticed as I drove by our local fire station that people were there filling sand bags.  I got to thinking that I just couldn’t go off to work and ignore what was going on, especially with huge storms forecast for the remainder of the  day.  So I swung the car around and headed back home to change into my grubbies.

I got my daughter’s car and went back down to the fire station to get a load of sand bags.  There were already a couple of other people there filling bags.  We chatted the chat of people that are in the process of rising to meet a situation.  I filled my bags, loaded them into the car and brought them back. 

To get down the slope I pulled out my old climbing rope, slings and carbineers.  Talk about your slippery slope.  This is a steep 30 degree slope with wet, slick vegetation on top of really slippery mud.  It took a while to figure out  how to get about 300 pounds of sand bags down this slop but we finally worked it out.  Once in place it became apparent that we were going to need  more – lots more.

So I made three more trips to the fire station to get more sand bags – 60 in all.  I figure about a half a ton of sand bags (the sand was wet don’t you know).  At one point the captain came out  and helped us fill bags.  These  guys and gals are great.  (The only problem is they  filled them too full an they  were way  too heavy – but don’t tell them.  I’m not complaining.)

The other thing that was apparent at the fire station was the constant whine of sirens coming and going.  It was like they would never end.  And the full contingency of fire fighters were mustered out to be ready.  They were already well into a very busy day.

So I got the 60 or so sand bags deployed on the slop.  The next ten to fifteen feet above where I placed the sand bags is ready  to go so I don’t know if they’ll do any good.  But you gotta give it your best.

My wife called and said it took her two hours to get to the freeway this morning because so many roads were closed.  And  the one road that was open out of the area was down to a single lane.  It normally takes 15 to 20 minutes to get to the freeway.

Well, I’m de-mudded, dried out, hot showered, freshened up and ready to head in to get a least a couple of hours of work in.

Today’s  storm will pass, tomorrow will be sunny and so will Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  If the meager sandbagging efforts holds through the  day we might be in good  shape for Christmas.  There’s another storm heading our way next week but that’s too far off to worry about just now.

One thing I enjoyed while sitting in the mud on the slope and schlepping sand gags was the sound of the stream at the bottom of the canyon (a joy we don’t get very often) and the smell of the vegetation.  The grasses, mallow and fillaree smelled good enough to eat.  Actually they are good enough to eat.  And if I hadn’t something a bit more pressing on my mind I would have taken a moment to enjoy them.  But the smell was heavenly. 

So with that though I wish a hearty…

Merry Christmas to all.

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