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McWay Cove (2011)
Big Sur, California
The waterfall at McWay Cove is
very popular, heavily photographed and justly
so. McWay creek comes tumbling down from
the heights of the Santa Lucia mountains and
plunges 80 feet over this cliff to the beach
below. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park has
a huge day use parking lot to accommodate all
the people who want to see this amazing site.
It's not the only waterfall
along the California coast that empties onto the
beach. But the other one, near Point
Reyes, does not compare with this one.
The clouds were teasing us on
this day, blocking the warm sunlight that would
set the cliff aglow. The sun never did
make it out but not to worry. As a
landscape photographer who can't drop everything
to take advantage of great light or weather, you
learn to work with what you have.
And what we had on this
afternoon was some good surf. Capturing
the optimum moment in a surf break is like
shooting sports. I set up my camera for
multiple exposures and attached the remote
shutter release. Then it's a matter of
firing off four or five images at just the right
time.
One quickly learns that when
photographing the surf the big waves come in
sets. Surfers know this for sure.
And it's a good thing for photographers to know
too. So you start by just watching.
Most of the waves will be small. Five
minutes will go by and then three, maybe four
large waves will come in and then the sea will
be calm again. So you wait.
Then the set comes in.
The first wave is always followed by an even
bigger one. You watch the large swells
coming in, thumb poised on the button.
Ready.... Ready.... Reaaaady....
Now! And you fire off four or five.
You don't want to fire too many in case they
all don't get written to the memory card before
the next wave comes in.
You end up with a lot of
images this way. And back in your digital
darkroom you scan through them looking for the
one that stands out, the one that says it all.
This was it.
I set the black point in the
caves at the bottom of the cliff and a white
point or near white point in the surf's foam.
The rest of the tonality adjustments consisted
of establishing an overall tonality and contrast
that was pleasing.
In the process of adjusting
tonality the ocean became too saturated.
So I had to decrease green and cyan saturation
in the water. I increased the saturation
in the cliffs just a little to bring out the
yellows and oranges.
The tonalities and colors
work. They're not overdone and do not
distract from the waterfall's graceful plunge to
the beach and the crash of the breaker on the
rocky shore.
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