Sonoma County North Coast

The Sonoma Coast is loaded with photographic opportunities. Some areas are in constant change and what you see at one time of year will be much different at another. Take this first image, the waterfall at Stump Beach is usually a rather quiet, peaceful scene with the waterfall spilling over the edge of the cliffs. At a normal tide the cliff's are a good 20 feet tall. On this particular day the peace and quiet was replaced by a raging tide and enormous waves. In quieter times, as seen below, an occasional walker can be seen strolling along the edge of the cliff. Had anyone been walking there on this day, they would have been drenched!

Same waterfall with no rain so less of a waterfall, and a day with a much calmer ocean.

If you like walking along the coast and haven't yet found the Kortum Trail, you might want to give it a try. It is a nice walking trail and if you are on it early or late you will be likely be treated to some gorgeous golden hour treats.

When photographers talk about it being all about the light, this would be an example of what they mean. There is nothing particularly grand about this scene, but the light of the late afternoon sun with the lingering mist from the waves hitting the rocks enlivens it.

Broken cloud layers at sunset along the coast provide an endless joy. There are many times when the clouds are present and it looks to be a good, colorful sunset about to reveal itself only to find it all fizzles out. The most common reason is a barely noticeable fog layer at the horizon blocking the sun from doing its magic on the clouds. I was grateful for broken clouds with no fog bank on this evening.

This is an infrared image showing a portion of Fort Ross Road, just after leaving Meyers Grade Road. Unfortunately a fire destroyed many of the trees and shrubs seen in this image. This represents the northern most reach of the fire and was prevented from crossing the road. The firefighters who fought this fire did an amazing job of containing it, keeping it south of Ft. Ross Road and west of Meyers Grade Road.

Subscribe to my blog by Email

Get new posts by email: Enter your email address in the box and click subscribe to be notified when a new post is published. Subscribe Powered by

Urban Grey Foxes, Santa Rosa, CA

Have you ever awakened in the night to strange sounds outside your bedroom window? I have and I investigated. We live in the city limits of Santa Rosa so I was surprised to discover how much animal night-life goes on in our yard in the wee hours. On one occasion it was a family of raccoons in our fig tree. I thought they only came for the figs once a year, but as it turns out they seem to make nightly excursions through our yard. Likewise with the skunk who only occasionally will nearly drive us out of the house with its odiferous discharge. Much less noticeable are the possums who are seemingly frequent but not particularly regular visitors and no apparent trouble at all. My favorites though are the grey foxes. I like to call them urban foxes as they have definitely adjusted to city life. You might wonder how I know of these visitations. Well, a few years ago we had an outdoor cat. Outdoor cats are fed outside. Having my curiosity peeked by the raccoons in the fig tree, I d

Smoky Mountain National Park In The Fall

There are many places to find fall color and one very special such place is the Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the most visited national park and I would guess the bulk of the visitors come during fall color. When you are driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and the traffic comes to a stop you can be sure there is an excellent viewing location just ahead of you. The waterfall in this picture is Looking Glass Falls and it is viewable from the road, but absolutely worth getting out of the car to really experience it. It is not often that you find a good waterfall with fall colors surrounding it like this. In another part of the park is an area called Tremont. It is a gold mine of scenes like the one above with cascading creeks deep in the forest. A wonderful place to spend contemplative time, alone with nature. Sunrises are special in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the lingering ground mist, gorgeous skies and the awakening of the forest beauty. One of the things I love about sunris

Notes To My Mother

Search This Blog