More to the Point

North Beach #1

North Beach #2

I’m knocking out these words as I shuffle between setting up a new computer, prepare to spend the weekend in Santa Fe celebrating the Harvey House railroad hotels, and writing my article for the November-December issue of Shadow and Light. It’s due Wednesday and I haven't really started. The easy way out for the blog and the article is to wrap up my California Coast photo safari with a last nod to the Point Reye National Seashore. Smiley Face. The other choice is to weave together stories of First Encounters, those fleeting yet amazing moments when I’ve met someone at the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere or in a dive bar and have said adios a few minutes later knowing the most important things in their life. To date I have dozen or so if I don’t bend the rule. The rule being that it’s a first and only encounter. I’d have dozens more if I were more in the moment, listened better and thought to photograph my subject when I had the chance. As recently as last Thursday I had my old computer cloned. It took two visits. In the visit to pick-up the old and new machines I learned the arc of the repair dude’s life. But it didn’t occur to me to get his picture. Does it count If I go back to the shop to get his photograph?

North Beach #3

North Beach #4

And speaking of magazine articles, First Encounters will be the subject of the Shadow and Light article. That’s the working title. Other contenders are Encounters of the First Kind, Fast Friends, Snap Shots, First Takes, First Impressions, blah blah.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody here are four shots of Point Reyes’ North Beach on my last day on the coast. Mr. Easy Way Out that’s me.

Parallel horizons and surf. Check. Birds, too.

The Gift

Petaluma to Point Reyes #1

Petaluma to Point Reyes #2

After photographing Point Lobos with Rupert Chambers I followed my nose north toward Sonoma, West Marin and its crown jewel, Point Reyes. From the moment I discovered my computer didn’t function on my first afternoon in Cayucos I was off my game. I couldn’t focus, literally or figuratively. Everything I posted from the coast was taken with my trusty iPhone. That thing saved me my sorry ass. So instead of aborting my adventure and driving back to Taos I plodded on through an storm of rookie mistakes. Poor depth of field and shutter speed combinations were rampant. Rain speckled lenses went unaddressed. I was a mess. And while there were worthy photographs from Cayucos, Morro Bay and Point Lobos my batting average was underwater.

Petaluma to Point Reyes #3

Petaluma to Point Reyes #4

Despite all I would soon encounter scenes that were magical. In Moss Landing and Davenport I got nothing. The only highlight of the Carmel to Sonoma stretch was a stellar cappuccino in Half Moon Bay. But after my first night in Petaluma and some killer BBQ, I hit the bricks at the crack of 7 and drove toward Point Reyes Station and my real target, Point Reyes National Seashore. On the 20 mile Petaluma to Point Reyes Road I had a mood-altering moment when I encountered the farmland between Petaluma and the Coast blanketed with fog. What a game changer it was. Coastal fog was the inspiration but inland fog was the gift.

Stacks and Rocks

Murky Morning. Cayucos Beach.

Surfers. Cayucos Beach.

Sea Stack. South Beach.

Before I meandered toward Morro Bay on September 10^th I braved the morning fog and drizzle on Cayucos Beach for one last shot of the empty strand. Then I drove to the southern most point on the beach for a photograph of two surfers walking south and another of a sea stack cloaked with cormorants. Five miles south I entered Morro Bay and drove straight to Morro Rock for a wide view back at downtown Morro Bay and the smokestacks that still stand after the power plant closed a dozen years ago. A sailboat motored to open water along spit of land.

Power plant in fog. Morro Bay.

Motoring to open water. Morro Bay.

Since the power plant closed the plan has been to demolish it, but the town can’t afford to tear it down. It’s a situation that suits most locals just fine. To them and to me for that matter the three stacks and Morro Rock are the symbols of the tourist town. The town’s nickname is “Three Stacks and a Rock” after all.

I’m more drawn to the stacks than the rock anyway, especially in dense fog.

I spent a week in Cayucos one night

Dense fog, mist and surf, Cayucos Pier

Pilings, Cayucos Pier

Morning stroll. Cayucos Pier.

Into the fog, Cayucos Pier

The first evening and morning of my West Coast photo safari were spent on the beach in Cayucos which is 25 miles give or take from Paso Robles, my usual stop. But since it was 106 in Paso and a cooling 71 in Cayucos, I had made the right call. As for fog there was plenty. Then it drizzled Saturday evening which darkened the sky, muted the colors and brought even more mood to the scene. I am nothing if not a sucker for moody tableaus.

Cayucos, on the other hand, was almost forlorn. It felt like its time had passed. I couldn’t find a good seafood dinner and wound up in an empty saloon with a world weary bartender, two Chicago dogs and an IPA. Not quite the first night I dreamed of. Cayucos was sleepy. Morro Bay ten miles to the south was bustling but a tourist trap and Cambria fifteen miles up the coast might have been a better call. I reckon that's how you learn.

Today it’s all Cayucos all the time. Next up some Morro Bay and north to Sonoma, West Marin and Point Reyes. That's where the fun starts. Point Reyes is my north star o' the moment as you have learned already.