Another Epic sunset at Santa Barbara! In this shot, I got super lucky to be able to not only get this monumental show of color at sunset but also to catch the sunburst effect as the sun was setting! I have photographed a lot of sunsets and, in my opinion, there are very few places that can compete with the quality of sunset at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara! Easily one of my favorite places to go and take a sunset shot, even if it means flying there for a day!
Sunset at Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara, one of the most beautiful places to see the sun set behind the mountains from the ocean! Absolutely gorgeous!
Sunrise above the clouds. In this photo, the sun rises above the Santa Ynez mountain range. Santa Barbara is below the thick fog that is captured in the image. Channel Islands could be seen in the distance.
Monterey county
The Monterey county along the highway 1 has some of the most beautiful coastal lines I have ever seen. The purity of water and its unique color combined with unique sand dunes and colorful vegetation give rise to some of the most photogenic sceneries you can find out there. I took the above three photos at the Marina state beach. What I liked about the top left photo was the combination of turquoise color water, white foams, the dark yellow sand beach, and the high entropy in the seemingly haphazard white foams. In the second photo, I was trying to get the wave as it was closing in on the beach. So, the main goal was just to take the wave, but when I looked up the photo on my monitor, I saw the beautiful sea spray created on top of the waves. The third photo shows a sand dune covered by vegetation of different colors at Fort Ord dunes state park.
Left picture: The beautiful Del Monte forest. When I was here taking the photo, I was imagining the type of photo that I wanted to take, but since I was more concerned with having a good footing on a rock I was standing on and hitting the right focus on the image, I did not absorb the scenery as much as I should (quite common when you are sometimes concerned too much with the technical stuff than enjoying the scene). Then, I opened the photo and corrected the white color balance on it and already saw that it is actually one of the favorite photos I have taken. The cypress trees looked so sharp, textured, and green that I had to de-saturate some colors and reduce texture to make the photo more believable to eye. I don’t recall seeing the leaves this textured but it was probably because I was so far away. Yet, my camera picked it up so nicely, resulting in a photo that honestly looks more like a painting to me than a photo! So weird!
Right picture: This photo shows the famous lone cypress of the west coast, which is one of the most photographed trees in the North America. The physical appearance of the tree has been degraded throughout years due to the salty water from the Pacific ocean and also a storm in 2019 in which the tree lost one of its limbs*. You can easily see the cables that have been put in place to protect the tree from further damage. Regardless, it is such an iconic cypress that is just left alone on the rock far away from the rest of the trees, making the adjective “lone” really pertinent.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Cypress
Los Padres national forest
Santa Margarita lake. California got a lot of rain and snow in 2023 and everywhere got astoundingly green and beautiful. I camped here for the night and when I woke up in the morning, the sun had brightened up the grass and mountains and the sky was so blue that I could not resist not taking a panorama of this beautiful scenery. Years like 2023 do not happen very often in CA, maybe every 10 years or so. So, when I see sceneries like this, I enjoy going out camping.