It was mid afternoon and Skyfire was giving Corona Del Mar a big fat thumbs down. How? We just had a decent rainstorm (which brings the grand total to about 5 since 1998) and the storm was definitely breaking up from the North. There HAD to be some decent clouds down along the coast. I took a quick look at the Newport Beach webcams and the satellite and sent Eric Gail a text. Time to roll.
Eric beat me down there on this occasion and when I arrived in Corona Del Mar, I found myself with only about 10 minutes to get down to the Arch. I put it into high gear and arrived just as the sun sank below the horizon. Eric was busy setting up some very cool compositions right up at the gateway to the arch and is probably in this shot somewhere. I was about to join him when I noticed that there was a LOT more water in the tide pools on this particular night since the storm had brought in some high surf that morning. I spent the entire time experimenting with different compositions while trying to grab as much of the clouds and light in the foreground as possible. The fun only lasted for about 15 minutes before all of the color vanished from the sky and it was time for the long walk back to the car in my soggy boots.
As for this shot, there's just something dramatic and almost mysterious about this particular archway, especially when viewed from a lower vantage point. If I was one of the billionaires who lived on top of the bluff behind this rock, you could count on me to be down there contemplating eternity and watching the sun go down every night of the week and twice on Sunday. :)
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Tags: Corona Del Mar Arch Sunset
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Here's yet another shot from my new favorite location down in Corona Del Mar. It's definitely more fun to shoot down here when the tide is up, but I barely made it out on my last shoot before being cut off by the rising waves. I am also assuming that this is one of those locations that works better from December through January as the sun sets closer to the archway opening, so the window for me to shoot down there is closing rapidly. I think you could still capture some amazing images of sunsets right through the Summer, but the glow pouring through that archway will be reduced as the sun moves much further North toward June. The view in this shot is looking almost directly South. Hopefully I'll get some decent sunsets in the next couple of weeks.
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Tags: Corona Del Mar Sunset Arch Rock Twilight Cliff Island
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I've now made 4 trips down to Cliff Island on the Southern End of Corona Del Mar and each trip has had its own set of challenges. The archway has been covered, at times, by college kids diving off while screaming hysterically, fishermen swinging their poles in all directions, other photographers, etc, etc. And then there's this issue of the tide. If the tide is high, you'd have to swim here from Little Corona Beach. But it it's too low, you lose the surf in the foreground. I'm still working on some shots that I took last night, so this is from New Year's Day which was surprisingly crowded as I arrived. Maybe it was due to the big college football games being moved to New Year's Eve?
At any rate, last night I learned that there is more to predicting the reach of the surf on the beach than simply looking at the tide tables, i.e. how hard is the wind blowing and which direction is it coming from? The tide was forecast to be just about a foot, which was no big deal on New Year's Day. But with the departing storm today, the wind was howling pretty good and I BARELY made it back up the beach after shooting tonight before the waves completely submerged the rocks I had walked out on to arrive there an hour before. My boots got a bit wet, but my camera and I made it back to the car relatively unscathed.
Still trying to figure out how to make it out there during high tide. Maybe a canoe or kayak? In the mean time, this has definitely become one of my favorite spots in Orange County, and I'm already looking forward to my next attempt.
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Tags: Corona Del Mar Sunset Archway
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A few weeks ago, my buddy Tom and I met up with David Colombo, who was up from San Diego on business. We invited David to hang out with us down at Victoria Beach, which turned out to be a bust between the lack of any clouds and the surprising amount of commercial shoots that were taking place that night. While we were there, David showed me some shots of Corona Del Mar which completely surprised me. I had seen some shots of Corona Del Mar before, but they were of a very small arch rock and some jagged coastline off of Little Corona Beach. The shots David showed me were of a much larger arch and some very impressive looking coastline. Having shot that area of the coast down to Dana Point, I was very surprised as I had no idea that this area even existed.
So a few weeks later I did a bit more investigating and found my spot. The reason that it remains elusive is due to the fact that it's a bit difficult to get to. It would be suicidal to try to reach this location during high tide, which is unfortunate as this location would look amazing during high tide. There is access from above, but unless you know the two or three billionaires who live directly above this arch, you're pretty much out of luck. Which leaves you with medium to low tide. It's worth pointing out that even during low tide this location is a bit dodgy to get to. It involves traversing over sharp, jagged, and often slippery rocks for about 30 minutes or so. If the tide sneaks up on you on the way out there, good luck getting back. If you stay for sunset, you will also be dealing with trying to pick your way through those rocks in the dark with your headlamp.
Suffice to say that I will definitely be making a mid-tide attempt during an upcoming sunset and I'm hoping to run the gauntlet and make it out there and back without getting soaked. Definitely worth the effort to get down there, but I'd rather not lose any camera gear and I would prefer to make it back to my car in one piece.
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Tags: Corona Del Mar Sunset Newport Orange County California
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Last Sunday I saw some high clouds moving in around noon and I managed to fight off the temptation to drive down to the beach for the rest of the day. "Too cloudy" I told myself. Almost a 90 percent chance there won't be any color.
By 4:15, my will power gave out and I was in the car headed down to Newport. I had tried to shoot the Newport Pier last year but couldn't find parking and ended up heading down to Balboa instead. This time, I scouted out the parking situation in advance and had a stack of quarters ready to go. By 4:45 I was hurrying down from 28th street on my way to the Pier.
One of the great advantages that the Newport Pier has over the other Southern California piers in terms of photography is that the beach is so incredibly flat. When the waves recede, a thin layer of water is left on the sand, and it is especially noticeable when the tide is low. The last factor that finally pushed me over the edge was the fact that high tide had already passed two hours before I got there. If you can catch Newport Pier when the tide is heading back out, the combination of that wet sand and that flat beach results in an incredible reflection that can stretch 50-100 feet straight out into the retreating surf.
After arriving, I quickly filled up a 32 gig card and left only when I knew my meter had just expired. I only had my 14-24 with me as I was in a hurry to get down there, but I found myself wishing I had my 28-300 as Catalina Island lit up like I've never seen before. It was like the entire island was on fire. I had a great time shooting the Balboa Pier last year, but if you really want to catch a sunset reflection under a Pier, Newport is pretty tough to beat.
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Tags: Newport Beach California Newport Pier Sunset Reflection
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