Whenever I am unsure where to go for photography, I seem to comfortably revert the decision to La Jolla. This phenomena could be attributed to the town's variety of wildlife along the beaches and caves, or maybe the attractive "new" feeling that tourist cities lend to possess, or simply, just the prospect of a nice walk along the boardwalk with a light sea breeze and sound of water resonating from the tide pools. On top of all that, the sunsets are refreshing, magnificent and offer closure to the day.

I faced a new challenge with the outing yesterday--the rising high tide. Although well aware that the tide arrives and fills up the tidelands periodically, I have never actually stayed to watch. After all, I then would be unable to see the hermit crabs crawl atop the slippery moss. By the time I had arrived, the tide already covered the beach and part of the rocks, and I was constantly having to move further upland closer to the sea wall to avoid getting salt water on the equipment, and myself. The high tide did bring at least one benefit. It did not require much walking to get to the end of the rock since it was effectively much closer now.

As the day progressed and the sun hid behind the heavy off-shore cloud cover, I looked for a comparable sunset to the one I had previously seen here. With the sun still high, I looked for an angle in which I could capture the linearity of sun rays and the waves' ferocity. Having tried this to no avail I realized maybe I need to change my approach and somehow get closer to the slippery rocks to minimize my depth of of field and maybe even input some fill-in flash. Until I find a way to do this without getting wet, this idea will have to wait.

The idea of a reflection came up during my last visit to this beach. I had noticed a colorful image of the puffy clouds in the static tide pool water, but shortly after, it disappeared into the arriving tide. This time, I started looking for this reflection a bit earlier, and thought to incorporate it into a larger picture. The small puddle offered just a bit of extra color and brightness to illuminate the smooth rocks.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy the sunset.