Big Sur Favorites?

[z_photo]

Don, do you now what time(s) of year the sun sets "in the hole"?

[Don Kellogg]

Actually, I don't attempt to photograph it with the sun "in" the hole---it's way too many EVs (too bright) different from the face of the rock and water in the foreground. Having the sunlight strike the water and adjacent rocks works for me. I have found that the best shots are when there is a fair amount of wave activity and a clear sky--usually in the winter as we often have a lot of fog (although the fog can be good unless it's "socked in") in the summer especially that late in the day. You can move around on the beach for the best tangential angle depending on the time of year. You may have a fair amount of company of other photographers on a good day. The last time I did the shot was at the winter solstice and there must have been 50-75 people there. It's worth it though.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Frank,

It's all been a bit overdone, but here are a few of my favorite landscape places:

Sycamore Canyon Road to the USFS concessionaire parking-managed Pfieffer beach. Used to be topless, but no more. The rocks are worth the hike anyway.

Andrew Molera State Park Cooper-Molera Trail to the beach and the Big Sur River Mouth.

Garrapata Beach, just North of the Sobranes Canyon, across the road and along the cliff edge to the sea-stack arch. Nice rocks, best with big swells and an offshore breeze.

If you get socked in with fog for 3 weeks solid, dig up a tide table and hit Weston Beach in Pt Lobos or the Great Tide Pool area in Pacific Grove at a minus low tide if you can. Bring a black brolly and a polarizer for tide pool close-ups of anenomes and baby octopus.