PATRICK SMITH   UNIQUE VIEWS OF LAND AND SEA
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Mendocino County and Sonoma County

Although there are just two photographs in this gallery, many more are planned. Big surf and lots of interesting cliffs and rock formations make this place a paradise for landscape and seascape photography. It can be a rather remote place so I have a lot of work to do. I have included the remote Lost Coast region of Humboldt County here because this region has a lot in common with the Mendocino coast. It would take many lifetimes to fully explore this stretch of coastline. This also includes the Napa and Sonoma wine growing regions.
Orbs of Mystery #1 - Mendocino County, California

These sandstone concretions at Bowling Ball Beach, a few miles south of Point Arena, California are much like the Moeraki boulders in New Zealand. This is low tide at sunrise, which is good for reflections. Medium tide is the right time to see water flowing around the builders.

These concretions are embedded in the sandstone cliffs and beach erosion cuts through the softer sandstone and they roll onto the beach where they become almost polished. They were formed before the cliffs were formed.



Portal to Mendocino, Mendocino Beach, California

This 100+ foot long sea cave and arch is located near the center of town in Mendocino.  There is a 30 foot wide hole in the top about halfway along and that allows a little extra light to get into the cave. 

The only tricky part about creating this image was making sure that I did not overexpose the relatively bright cliffs seen through the arch.  Usually this shot is not possible because there is too much contrast between the bright and dark areas of the frame.  But the soft light about 10 minutes after sunset made this possible.



Click to see them big.  Go here for: (Prints)