Ano Nuevo's Rocks

©2002, Steve Mekata

Canon D30, 17mm, f/11 @ 0.7", ND grad, ISO 100.

This is one of my faves because it was so fun to shoot.

Most of the waves stopped way further out, but every now and then, a wave would slowly roll all the way up the beach. I was checking out the short cliff along the beach edge when I heard this clack-clack-clack sound mixed in with a soft hissing sound behind me.

I turned around to see this flat, broken wave slowly creeping up. The hissing was the wave, and the clacking was the multitude of small rocks hitting each other as the wave rolled them around. I was blown away that this slow wave kept coming and coming. It receded, and some minutes later, another one came up. Every time the wave receded, the rocks were in a different place.

So, I set up the tripod low, prefocused and set exposure, slotted the ND grad, and waited for the next wave to push all the way up. As it receded, I only had several seconds to run to a good set of rocks, compose and level, set the ND grad, and click before the water receded too far. As it was, I probably took a bit too long.

I've been back there several times since then, and the sand levels have always been higher with the rocks mostly buried (presumably).