This is a bit of an iconic location. It is no Boulder Beach but I knew if I had fog one day I really wanted to come here. The best light is apparently in the late fall/winter as the sun starts to rise further and further to the south, in the summer it just stays in shadow. After shooting a sunrise my first day I decided to go scope this out so I knew what I was getting into. I enjoyed the conversations with the people passing by grabbing a quick picture with their phones. I sat for probably close to an hour or so just watching and snapping a photo every now and then. Luckily, we did get some fog! So this was my first stop…unfortunately the tides were SO low that the essentially the entire beach was clear of water. So I left…the fog lingered…and I came back about 2 hours later, tide rose a bit and I was able to make this image. A bit of planning, a bit of preparation, the idea came together pretty well.
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Hoping this conveys the quite that can be found even in the most popular places of a National Park if you just get up early enough to beat the crowds…
Image feels a bit green, but warming was over warming the rocks. It was cold…it was gloomy…even though it was late June! Really interested in the colors, would like to further separate the stack from the rocks on the ground if someone has suggestions, I don’t want them to blend into one. Finally there is a tiny patch of white in the tree on the LLC that I intend to fiddle with if I can get it to look natural.
I think the balance and framing works well here. The big hoodoo on the right is set off by the jutting coast. The color contrasts are nice even if it is green heavy and probably cooler than it was. Are the mid-tones a little blocked? Seems they could be. The sky looks good though, clearing with a hint of blue. If you wanted to warm the green try using the slider alone to do that and leaving the orange one alone. I think adding some luminosity to the green channel would be beneficial. To make the stack more prominent you could try upping the saturation and exposure for it and lowering it for the beach.
Well, you have pretty much nailed the classic composition for this iconic location. Not that there is much opportunity for more creative compositions (given the limited space/angle that you can shoot this from), unless you are a thrill seeking mountain goat like @Michael_Lowe and scramble down to the base of the Monument.
I think the key to a shot at this location is the tide, and how your shutter speed records the water washing up onto the cobbles. You did pretty well with each of those, and you got some nice texture in the deeper water too.
I agree with @Kris_Smith that the greens feel a bit heavy. I agree with her suggestion to increase the green luminosity, warm green up (ie. shift green hue slightly more yellow), and maybe even dial back green saturation a bit ( it may be not be needed once you increase the green luminosity).
Nice shot from this iconic location. Others would be much better than me with processing tips. My only small nit, well not really a nit. Just a small suggestion. When I shoot from this spot, I usually try to include all the large flat rock that sits at the bottom of the seastack. IMHO the photo looks a little cut-off if not included. @Ed_McGuirk , those days are loooong gone.
When I saw Dave’s Monument Cove image, I PM’ed him and gave him a link to your sunrise image from down below. No matter how many times David (or I) go back to Monument Cove, we will be hard pressed to top that image, it was spectacular.
Dave, contrary to @Ed_McGuirk mentioning my daring exploits , it’s actually not that hard getting down there. On the southern side there is a steep but not hard path down. You can see it in your photo just right of center. There is a large cleft in the cliff face where you can see the rocks leading up. The actual hardest part is scrambling over the couple hundred yards of the cobblestone beach.
, it’s actually not that hard getting down there. On the southern side there is a steep but not hard path down. You can see it in your photo just right of center. There is a large cleft in the cliff face where you can see the rocks leading up. The actual hardest part is scrambling over the couple hundred yards of the cobblestone beach.