When I was planning our road trip up the Central California coastline, I had wanted to create some peaceful and quite seascapes. For most of 2018, I had been doing a lot of work in the deserts and forests, so I was really looking forward to creating some different imagery.

I had visions of really long exposures of silky smooth water wrapping around sea stacks along the coast. So when packing my kit for the trip, I made sure to grab my filter kit (6/10/15-stop ND filters, holder and polarizer).

On the third day of the trip, we made it down to the beach to make some long exposures. The swell was pretty rough but I knew I could slow it down enough with an ND filter. We arrived at the location I had scouted earlier that day and I started to set up for the long exposure. Then my heart sunk, I had forgotten the adapter rings for my filter kit at home. This meant I could not use my ND filters to get the ultra long exposures I had in mind (beyond 30 seconds).

I made do with what I had but even with a 30 second exposure it wasn't giving me that super silky water look that I wanted. There are workarounds to get that effect but I wanted to get it in one exposure and not have to stack a bunch of frames. The other option was to wait deeper into the blue hour to get the longer exposure time but we did have dinner plans and had to go. Regardless, it was nice to hang out and simply enjoy our time at the beach.

The next day, we returned to explore some of the exposed rock formations. We noticed the waves were hitting even harder than yesterday. Off in the distance, I noticed there where a few sea stack getting hit hard by waves creating amazing explosions. I went back to the car to grab the long lens in hopes to create some images of the exploding waves.

After taking some time to observe how the waves were hitting the coastline and checking the tide times, we moved to a safe viewing location. The amount of energy those waves were carrying was wild. I have not done a lot of wave imagery but there is something really special about it. Each wave is so unique. The ocean carries so much power. It really does remind you how small we are in the grand scheme of things. 

Though I was not able to create the silky smooth seascapes I had envisioned on our trip, I was really happy that I got a chance to experience these high-energy waves. It was an amazing show. 

Below are some of the images I created that afternoon. Have a great weekend everyone.

- Marco