Big Sur
Big Sur California. What an incredible drive, what incredible views, what incredible wildlife.
Michele and I drove from Santa Barbara to Monterey Bay 2 years ago and it was one of the best vacations we've had. It's also a photographer's dream and some place I could spend years exploring. The big in Big Sur certainly holds weight here. Everything is on a grand scale. Big cliffs, big ocean, big view, big trees and big animals.
Here's a view looking back down the coast to the south after crossing a bridge. Some of the homes here are big too, and spectacular to match.
All along the drive, we saw plumes of mist exploding into the air from the pods of humpback whales surfacing to breathe. When we passed a spot where cars were stopped and their occupants were staring over the cliff and chatting like giddy school kids. What we found was that we were about 600 feet over the ocean and directly below us was a pod of humpbacks feeding. AMAZING. I added a doubler to my 200mm lens and took a variety of shots as the whales circled underneath blowing bubbles to create a 'net' to trap their food, then surfacing with mouths agape to filter the krill out of thousands of gallons of water with each mouthful. Even at this height, it was easy to hear them communicating with one another, slapping the water and clearing their blow holes and taking breaths. All around them circled sea lions which you can see at the bottom of the photo. I wonder if any of them accidentally get swallowed up? What happens then? Game over I'm guessing. Makes me reconsider my thoughts of how amazing it would be to be one of those kayakers you see on the internet who've taken the amazing videos of whales surfacing and eating just feet from their boats. What happens if YOU are in the middle of one of those mouth fulls?
The sun set not long thereafter. I wish I could spend days shooting the sunsets, sunrises and views in Big Sur. The sun shining through the clouds looked like showers of gold dust falling from the sky.
