Moonstone beach, near Trinidad, California
My wife and I just returned from a trip to Northern California, a trip to celebrate our 15th anniversary and to get away. We have both been wanting to go to see the giant Redwoods, first time for me, and a second for her as well as spend time with the ocean. So this trip just kind of fell into place. This will be a short post as my body is still on Pacific time, but on Eastern in reality, so the clear chain of thought is disappearing when my body thinks it is 3 am.
Overall it was a great trip we both enjoyed, and saw a lot of unique places. Of course the Redwoods are incredible, creatures that truly make you feel really quite small and insignificant. They are more important to our climate, and the climate of this region than most people realize.
Seeing the ocean always seems like returning to visit an old friend. We managed our way through the hell of San Francisco traffic, saw an elk herd on a beach, worked our way through some hairy-scary roads, walked through a canyon of ferns, visited a couple of vineyards in Napa, explored tide pools, and put a total of 1,400 miles (2,253 km) in 6 days on the rental car. Needless to say, we covered some territory! Best of all, we avoided a majority of the heat wave here in the Midwest because the temps on the Northern California coast rarely rose above 62 deg F (17 deg C) or dropped below 55.
This was a nice stretch of beach that went on for miles south of Trinidad, California. Grey skies prevailed most evenings as the fog rolled in, so not much as far as spectacular sunsets. I was playing with some long exposures here (30 seconds) to really smooth out the wave action. I kept the tones cool as a reminder of the cooler temperatures. The silky water reminds me of how relaxing it is to sit near the ocean and listen to the waves. Perhaps it will be of some relief to look at for those of you stuck in the heat wave.
More posts to come of course. I have a lot of editing to do and a lot of cleanup of images, where I thought I cleaned my camera sensor, and ended up with it being worse than ever.
I love that picture. It’s really unbelievable, like looking at something that shouldn’t exist.
I’m a bit late catching up on reading my blogs. I love this blue, one of my favoritest colors. The blue alone gives us such a cool feel. Glad you two were able to get away and congratulations on the 15 years.
Lovely! Oh, wow! We are going for the first time to northern California the last week of August! I hope to be able to hike with the fog, also! (but a sunset or two would be good!) Enjoyed reading your too small write up, very nice writing! The picture, of the beach, hope I can take some half that pleasant!
Jan – I believe the Northern redwoods closer to the coast offer a bit more of a chance with the fog than say Humbolt. At least that was what it seemed like when we were there. Have fun!
I love the beautiful variations of the one shade of blue. Also, the flat, nondescript ocean adds to the mood of tranquility that I perceive.
Thanks a lot David!
Belated happy anniversary. Northern California must have been a joy and an ideal spot to celebrate such a special occasion. Traveling 1400 miles gave you a good sense of the territory.
Those long exposures sure worked. This is beautiful. The music playing with this (in my mind) could send me off to pleasant dreams. Who needs showy sunsets?
Thanks a lot Anita. Your description of the photo and imagining music with it is a very nice compliment, thank you!
Glad your back – I was missing your posts 🙂 happy anniversary to you both. Lovely photo, looking fwd to seeing the rest
Thanks Suzy. Trying to find time to work on them. I still have some from Bonaire months ago waiting to be processed. 🙂
Beautiful, Mark. Ahh, yes, Northern CA… I’ve lived in this area for over 30 years and never tire of her beauty. I look forward to seeing more of your images.
Thanks Diane, I always knew you lived in a great place, and now I was glad to see it for myself.
Terrific image. This seems like coincidence. I just talked to my husband about doing a trip to photograph the Pacific Coast Highway in California/Oregon yesterday. I look forward to seeing more. Elk on the beach?! I hope you have shots of that!
Thanks Roberta. Your plan sounds like a good one! 😉 We didn’t make it to Oregon, but we were pretty close. I do have some of the elk. It was quite unique to see a herd of 25 there.
I love the simplicity and tone of this, Mark. I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with on the redwoods. I went to see them years ago and it’s an unforgettable sight. Congratulations on 15 years!
Thanks Ken. I appreciate the vote of confidence but don’t think I came up with too much original stuff. Was just happy to be there with my wife and take some pics along the way.
Mark, a wonderful blue scene. For some reason it looks more “exotic” then Northern California — no offense to California.
I hope the trip was everything you guys thought it would be and I look forward to enjoying those photo you share from it.
Welcome back to the heat! 🙂
Thanks Earl. Yeah, the long exposure tended to make the water a bit more turquoise than I would have thought. I did shift the white balance towards being a bit cooler, but there are not many other tweaks than that. Trust me, the water was not so warm! 🙂
Beautiful soothing photo, Mark. I really like all the blue and espcially the azure/turquise hues.
It sounds like you had really great time and enjoyed your anniversary. My congratulations to those 15 years!
Thanks Tomas. Hey, what’s up with your site?
A typo in URL. Fixed now 😉 Thanks for reminder.
I love the colors Mark. Hopefully you were able to catch some fog in the redwoods. I didn’t get fog when I went up there three years ago unfortunately though I’d be told it was a frequent occurence during the summer.
I certainly was hoping for the fog Richard, and it was around at the ends of every day. But it never seemed to move low enough to be amongst the trees. There was only one hike we took where we had a little bit.