Wilder Ranch State Park - Santa Cruz, California

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Recharging the "Batteries"

I needed a day like today. My computer is about to die, and I can't seem to fix it after hours of work. I've been given an extra day off at work, which may sound nice, but I have to adjust my finances like a lot of us have to do these days. I was feeling a funk settling in on me.

So, I decided on my first official "extra" day off to spend it enjoying the outdoors. From 8am-8pm, I enjoyed a glorious day along the coast. We'll see how bad the sunburn is tomorrow.

After dropping my girlfriend off in the morning, I drove to Año Nuevo and took photos of the blubbery, lovable elephant seals. Now that docent led tours are no longer required, I can spend as much time as I want shooting. I even enjoyed the pain of lugging 30 pounds of camera gear for the 3-4 mile round trip walk.

Swinging back through town, I grabbed some good eats, and watched the ocean along West Cliff Drive. The surf was huge! Ok, let's extend the photo fun and head to world famous Steamer Lane for some surf photography. Awesome stuff.

I then headed back up the coast to explore Wilder Ranch State Park. I've only been to the coastal side once before (there is a more mountainous side as well). That was in 1997, and I left the trail that day only to come home and find 3-4 ticks in various places. I kept to the trail this time.

I had a grand time scouting about and ultimately decided on a spot. The surf was amazing today, really, there were some monster waves pumping through. So, it is no wonder I wound up shooting 50-60 feet above the water. Yes, that rocky shelf in the lower left of the frame is about 40-50 feet straight down.

Nikon D300
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 14mm
1sec @ f16, ISO 100 (did some blending with a darker exposure for the sun, and a lighter exposure for parts of the cliffs and foreground)
Tiffen .9 ND Filter
Lee .9 Hard and .6 soft stop filters angled 8-2 o'clock to avoid darkening the hills too much

Taken on: April 6, 2009

Tags:

Wilder Ranch

State Park

Cruz

California

Highway 1

bluffs

trail

sunset

surf

waves

rocks

shore

shoreline

coast

coastal

coastline

clouds

sky

ocean

sea

Pacific

landscape

seascape

Nikon D300

Nikkor 12-24mm

Jim Patterson Photography

jimpattersonphotography.com « less

Sets appears in: • The California Coast

Groups appears in: • The Truth Gallery (Post1, Award1) - Group activity suspended :( • The Golden Truth (Qualified Posting Only; Post 1, Award 1) more » • Images with Filters • Davenport, California • WALKING LANDSCAPES « less

Camera: Nikon D300, f/16.0, 1 sec, 14mm (=21mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D300
Lens:	12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	1
Focal Length:	14mm (35mm equivalent: 21mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	Unknown (-1)
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
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