I always wanted to photograph these beautiful beaches along Big Sur. On Tuesday morning I got up at 4:30AM and started driving along HWY 1 in search of a picture-perfect place to catch the dawn. An important lesson learned. "Sun rises from the east!" So photographically, sunrise is not a forte for California coast. Instead of looking at the sky, I looked down on seashore to find some interesting objects. Here’s one I managed to snap in San Simeon.

My next stop was Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. There was a beautiful 80-foot waterfall that drops from granite cliffs into the ocean. Again, the hour was too early and the lighting wasn’t optimal.

Coming out from the overlook, I saw the stream of water emptying into the cliffs, so I backtracked for a bit, and ended up spending the next couple hours hiking along this stream. Here’s my artistic version of the creek.

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One place I’ve been wanting to visit was Pfeiffer Beach. The only problem was that I knew neither the name nor its whereabouts. The only thing I remembered about this place was a famous picture by a famous landscape photographer named, Robert Knight. So I went into a local sandwich shop, got my breakfast and asked the young man who was serving me. "Could you tell me where I could find this gigantic rock formation that has a hole in the middle into which waves crash?" He said, "There are many, which one do you want?” So I said, "the biggest one!" He finally said, "that’ll be Pfeiffer Beach, just down the street." If you are not familiar with which rock formation I’m talking about here’s a picture of it.

By the time I got down to the beach, the sun was way too high for any any photographic opportunity. So I scouted out the land, and decided to come back for sunset. I drove to Carmel, took a nap, washed up, shaved, and drove back to the beach around 4:00PM. There, I prayed for a beautiful sunset. And I got my sunset! I stayed right till it was pitch dark, clicking my shutter.
I think I pushed my luck too far this time. When I was taking my last shot, the tide was almost full, and the waves rose above my height, getting me completely wet. I wasn’t too worried about my clothes, though. My camera on a tripod was drenched by the deadly salt water. That was it for me. I came back to the car, disassembled the camera gear and thoroughly cleaned them. Fortunately, the damage was not as severe as I thought it would be.

and and

Initially, I was planning to stay till the following day. But, I had brought only one piece of clothing that got completely drenched. Luckily, I had an extra undershirt and a pair of boxers. Enough to keep me dry, but not enough to survive another night in a car. That was the end of my trip. By the time I left the beach, I couldn’t even stop for dinner ‘cause I was driving in underwear. All for the hope of making that one keeper image that you always dreamed of. What an adventure!

Feel free to visit “Earth, Water & Sky” gallery for more pictures if you are interested.