Son Geoff, granddaughter Lydia, and I flew to California to attend my niece’s wedding in the San Francisco Bay Area. I spent a morning with my good friend, Jerry, photographing at the Black Diamond Regional Park in the San Francisco East Bay hills. This was once the most productive coal mining region in California. The day following the wedding we drove up to one of my favorite places—the Sonoma coast some 60 miles north of San Francisco.
We stopped at Goat Rock, which is at the mouth of the Russian River. Since I’ve taken a zillion photos there, I tried something new. Using a 10X neutral density filter I made images of the surf over 10 to 15 second exposure times. This has the effect of making the surf smooth and abstract. A few images here are close ups of two rocks in the sand. Different exposure times created different effects.
Heading back down the coast, we turned inland along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, a 16-mile windy road to San Rafael. We planned to stop at a redwood grove along the way, but the beautiful Saturday afternoon had resulted in mobs of cars wanting to do the same thing. Ever resourceful, Geoff found a small out of the way Marin County park called Roy’s Redwood Grove. I don’t know who Roy was, but it was a delightful, uncrowded walk through majestic redwood trees.
Goat Rock and Roy’s Grove
