Lupine at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 12 June 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

Perhaps my most favorite location to photograph in any season along the Big Sur coast is Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. I was reviewing some images I shot while teaching a private lesson about a month ago and spotted this frame. I remember having to lie down and extend my tripod through a wooden fence to capture this image. Other than a polarizer, no other filters were used. The sun was setting and this shaft of light broke across the lupine giving the scene that extra added punch! To see more of my images, please visit my website at http://www.donsmithphotography.com

Comments (19)

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, United States

beautiful intense colors. :)

12 Jun 2008 5:34am

deny from diy, Indonesia

nice compotition

12 Jun 2008 5:35am

Stefan from Thiersee, Austria

Wow, fantastic colors, great image!

12 Jun 2008 6:06am

ManuelaR from Hainburg, Germany

Tis is gorgeous Don! The light so magic... :)

12 Jun 2008 6:33am

Stéphane from Near to BXL, Belgium

Very nice picture. The spot is beautiful, it looks a bit like some little places that you can still find at the French riveria. I tried to capture one with less brillant colors in my picture of yesterday (see Jovat).

12 Jun 2008 7:35am

MOHAMMAD from BANDAR ABBAS, Iran

really good

12 Jun 2008 9:59am

Marie Le Corre from Dauphiné, France

Nice composition and colours.

12 Jun 2008 10:25am

Marion from Nanaimo, BC, Canada

Awesome colors. Your photography is really a cut above.

12 Jun 2008 10:38am

Evi from Athens, Greece

Cool colors!

12 Jun 2008 10:46am

Don Smith from California, United States

Thanks to all for your comments,

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is one of those locations where you can make a really nice image regardless of the time of year. The sun streams up McWay Cove most of the year and the turquoise water and the colors you see at sunset / dusk are incredible. The lupine just helped balance the image.

12 Jun 2008 2:36pm

Jazie from quimper, France

superbe paysage, joli composition et très belle lumière !

12 Jun 2008 2:48pm

Don Smith from California, United States

Thanks Jazie!

12 Jun 2008 2:50pm

Ivan Makarov from San Jose, United States

Always a beautiful spot - I've only been there once but will be making my way back soon. What a terrific color and light.

Saw you on TV today. Hopefully, you'll share an image or two of the new coach here on your blog. So far he's very impressive.

12 Jun 2008 7:39pm

Nicholas from Shah Alam, Malaysia

Awesome colours! I love vivid colours and this is fantastic!

13 Jun 2008 2:09am

DarkElf from Perth, Australia

oh this is nice! brilliant colours and I like the way you have composed the land shape into the shot...

13 Jun 2008 4:29am

Don Smith from California, United States

Hi Nicholas and DarkElf,

Thanks for the nice comments. The colors were very special and I believe contributed to the success of this image. The turquoise (cool) water and the horizon line and the color of the lupine (warm) are complimentary colors. Whenever I can juxtapose those two colors in nature I take advantage of it - you don't see it as much as you would think.

13 Jun 2008 3:31pm

Don Smith from California, United States

Hi Ivan,

Don't think I will be posting a shot of the new Shark's coach - I don't want to bore everyone. The Sharks have put together a slide show of my images on their site if you are interested: http://www.sjsharks.com. Thanks for checking in. I hope all is well with you.

13 Jun 2008 3:33pm