Picture: Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo County coast, California
I got back home this last weekend from my recent shoot along the Central California coast. One thing that I’ve noticed while working on my current book is that finding a good ground based shot of the “Classic California Beach Town” is not as easy as it would seem. The biggest challenge is actually getting the sense of a “small town” in the same scene as “beach and ocean”. One simple reason is that usually when you are getting shots of the ocean and beach, you’re often facing away from a town. From an editorial perspective, I like the variety of elements that are in this photo. For instance, the cars denote travel and transportation, the open beach for uncrowded, the couple walking for romance, and the ocean, pier, hills, blue sky, and clouds all combine to give this photo a good sense of place. I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear me say that getting a good sense of place is vital for making a successful travel photo. 🙂
Nice insight Gary. There are a couple classic beach towns depending on how big you want them. I think Manhattan Beach, Huntington, Santa Barbara and San Clemente rank pretty high on the list as well.
Gary, if you want a good ground based shot of a “Classic California Beach Town” I would suggest you head down to Capitola. You ought to be able to get a nice shot with the beach, the wharf, and the beach front commercial district near the corner of Monterey Avenue and Esplanade.
Thanks for the comments, guys.
Richard – I don’t thinkl of those as towns, but more like cities.
Peter – you mean like these:
https://enlightphoto.com/webpages/caba5/ba5_104.htm
https://enlightphoto.com/webpages/caba5/ba5_112.htm
🙂
Cheers,
Yup, like those and then some.
🙂