Yesterday 4 friends and I went  to Pfieffer State Beach in Big Sur, California. It’s about 100 miles south of my house. Theresa, Dali, and I went in one car and we met our friends Alex, and Rainey in Carmel. From there we caravaned to Pfieffer State Beach. The goal; A couple of times a year the sun sets behind “The Portal” a huge rock island with an Arch through it which allows a sun beam to come through. It’s been on our “to shoot” list for awhile.

We went early to get the lay of the land, and have lunch. We planned a picnic pot luck. We had sandwich fixin’s, chips, dips, fruit, pasta salad, olives and feta cheese, pickles, and Dali brought cake; Chocolate Mocha Cake. Three layers with a chocolate mousse filling inside.

I had great will power and only had one little piece. It was delicious! I might add that in addition to this Dali also brought along for the drive some Mochi, and other Japanese cookies! I wish I had his metabolism!!!

Nature or a previous rock sitter had decorated our spot,

We had a picnic crasher too,

Dali or Theresa threw it a piece of bread and I missed the focus so he’s not as sharp as I’d like. He was quick! Quicker than me that’s for sure.

He struck a handsome pose hoping for more handouts,

After lunch Dali and I hiked up the mountain to check out the view from the cliffs. The hike up was pretty steep. The terrain was mixed. Sand dunes, loose sandy soil, rocky out crops, and bushy bits. In places the trail was washed out and I went up the wash to meet up with the trail nearly at the top. Dali being braver than I went up the wash the whole way. I think the climb was only 150 ft or so, but steep. Our friend Steven had warned me to be careful going up…if I went up. Thank you Steven!

The view of “The Portal” from the cliff,

Shooting into the sun…challenging to say the least! I used my 2 stop Graduated Neutral Density filter to try to balance the light. It didn’t quite work out. I needed my 3 stop. I thought I had packed it but mistakenly grabbed my Reverse Grad instead so I used a layer mask in Photoshop to lighten “The Portal”.  I like the sunburst and the flare.  After a few more shots up here we hiked down to the beach to pick my spot to shoot the sunset.

The sun began to set and the light changed…this is what we came for!

…and,

A large wave came through the Portal splashing what looks like liquid fire! It was so neat. As the sun was going down more and more

photographers arrived to take photos of this event. I think there were close to 30 of us out there. It was great fun. We all agreed this is a place we’d like to come back to again.

After the sun went down we packed up and went into Carmel for a hot dinner, then we said farewell to Alex, and Rainey, and headed home.