Last Monday, Dec 14, was a "King Tide" day in Northern California, one of the highest tides of the year. This was combined with a High Surf Warning (NWS), so I figured it might be a good time to add some spectacular wave photos to my collection.
I often photograph from the edge of the cliff, where you can see the low rock wall in this photo. When I stand there I can see the big ones coming in and move back to avoid getting soaked. Today I decided it would be safer to stand back all the time, and try to capture the waves breaking over the wall (about 15 feet above sea level at mean low tide).
I stood in the NE corner of the yard, right in front of a gate that leads to a side alley next to the house. Standing back did not permit me to see the waves as they closed in on the shoreline and rock wall revetment.
I had my Sony a6500 and Zeiss 24 - 70 mm lens set at rapid fire to take 11 frames per second. I saw this wall of water coming over the edge so I held the shutter button down to catch a series of images. Well, the water kept coming and coming and within half a second it pushed the deck furniture against the house, got me soaked, knocked me down and pushed me through the alley gate. I cut my leg on I don't know what, my eyeglasses went missing, and the camera was drenched.
I did not feel scared, and actually it was rather exhilarating.
Being sucked back into the ocean is what would be scary.
The water was cold, so I dried the camera and got in a hot shower. When I turned on the camera a bit later it made some nasty physical sounds (auto focus broken?) and displayed some never seen before error messages on the viewfinder. I took the lens off and battery out, and let the camera fully dry for 24 hours. Testing again, the whole system was dead; both body and lens appeared damaged.
Fortunately, the SD card was still good, and I recorded 7 frames of the event. This is the first photo. The last photo is a solid wall of gray.
Sony a6500, $1,398.00
Zeiss FE 24-70 mm lens, $898.00
Eyeglasses (progressive lenses), $300.00
Followup photos here: (or click the left arrow)
www.flickr.com/photos/agrinberg/50737236318/
