Trinidad, California

In the northwest corner of the State of California there is a little town called Trinidad. It is a sweet little place perched on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. A short squat red and white lighthouse next to the road on the southern edge of the town looks over the boats moored far below by the pier that juts out into a protected cove. The view from here is toward the south and it is expansive. Venturing around the town to the northwest side you will find a sweet little beach with some very nice views. The easiest way to access this beach is through Trinidad Beach State Park where you can easily access a trail that winds back and forth down to the beach.

As with so many sites I visit I first discovered this one on the internet where I found an exquisite image taken by Patrick Smith. It was a time delayed shot taken with the aide of a ten-stop neutral density filter and the colors and textures were wonderful. I wanted the experience of shooting a similar shot, so on my way to Oregon I made sure I had time to stop and explore Trinidad. 

Landscape photography, really good landscape photography, needs to have certain characteristics or elements. Some you can control, like making sure the image is sharp, getting the composition right, selecting an appropriate depth of field. But some things we have no control over, like the weather, the drama in the sky, and the colors that show up. This is why many photographers will say it is one part skill and one part luck.

Well, you just have to make the best of what you are given. On my first visit to Trinidad it was overcast, not much detail in the sky, but a nice, fairly even light. I shot some images as it was late afternoon and a bit of a wait for sunset.  The image above is one of the ones I took that afternoon.

That evening I returned hoping for a nice sunset. There was no dramatic cloud cover, but gratefully a bit of fog just above the horizon to allow the sun to play some color into the scene.  Here is pretty much the same shot as above, just a different time of day with different conditions.

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