montara state beach – Matt Tilghman Photography

Montara Beach at Sunset

Matt Tilg — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:34:29 +0000

The fog broke up just in time for a beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean, at Montara Beach, California.

Montara Beach is a beautiful state beach near Pacifica, California. We chose this beach as the location for a friend’s birthday picnic. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very picnic friendly. It was foggy and cold all day… and very windy! This wasn’t all that unexpected, since such conditions are pretty common along Central/Northern California’s Pacific coast. The location was chosen more in hopes of ending the picnic with a beautiful sunset. The fog seemed really socked-in all day, so we were pretty sure that those hopes were dashed, too. But right as the day was ending, the fog broke up just enough to give us a stellar sunset, with the perfect amount of clouds (which is pretty rare for California).

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Martini Creek – Montara Beach

Matt Tilg — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 02:54:48 +0000

From high above Montara State Beach, California, one can see the final stretches of Martini Creek as it winds toward the Pacific Ocean

Just let it go. That’s the way I felt when soaking in this sublime scene of Martini Creek flowing into the Pacific Ocean at sunset (located in Montara State Beach, near Pacifica, California). So that’s the way I approached the post-processing of this piece, too. Specifically, the highlights. All too often, photographers spend hours upon hours obsessing over “controlling” the highlights, or bringing them down in brightness. I’m as guilty as anyone, and sometimes it certainly is necessary, since our eyes can observe a much wider dynamic range than the camera. But on this day, even to my, eye, the highlights were blown. The sun was piercingly bright. So why try to fight it? Just let it go.

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Ebb and Flow – Montara State Beach

Matt Tilg — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 01:27:52 +0000

Martini Creek carves through the sand on its way to the Pacific Ocean, at Montara State Beach, California

Beaches in California are so different from beaches in Florida, where I grew up. The sand is yellower and coarser, unlike the soft white Florida beaches. The sun is just as bright, if you’re looking for a tan, but it’s often still not enough to make it a truly warm experience. On the day I took this photo at Montara State Beach (near Pacifica, California) none of us even took off our fleece, even though it was April! The cold Pacific Ocean keeps the air chilly all year long. That’s another thing — the water is too cold! In all my excursions to California beaches, I think I only swam once, and it was miserable. Those statistics are unthinkable in Florida. But for all their differences (downsides, to me), watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean easily makes up for it all.

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