Best Viewed On Black or on my photostream in Fluidr
I drove in to the small but very politically correct and "hippie" town of
Bolinas California. It is a quaint town with a somewhat artistic style
distinctly left over from the 1960's and for good reason. As I approached
the beach I noted a multitude of hand painted signs with various
instructions including but not limited to picking up after your pet, not
littering, no dumping, not disturbing wild life, no this, no that... There
were so many signs it seemed somewhat cluttered with them and it reminded me
of the song from the same 1960's period with lyrics "Sign, sign, everywhere
a sign, blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind..." and I had to somewhat
laugh at the irony of so many signs in this little hippie town. I guess
the song has long been forgotten.
At any rate the town didn't have a good view of the sunset on that day so I
drove back to Highway one and across the mud flats of Bolinas Lagoon. I
could see a sand bar across the lagoon with a number of VERY high priced
homes happily awaiting the next tsunami. Well, let's hope it's not anytime
soon. It was a stark contrast from the town of Bolinas. I thought it
might be cool to take some shots from the sand bar so I drove on over only
to find it was a gated community. I was about to turn the car around when
I remembered that a favorite photographer of mine had mentioned in an
article to always ask even if it was private property. That he had luck
with many people allowing access to their property as long as they knew who
it was and what they were doing there. So I approached the guard and
politely asked if I could drive out to the far end and take some pictures.
He was nice about it and allowed me to continue provided I didn't offer the
images for commercial purposes. I agreed and headed out to the sand bar at
the far end. From the sand bar I had a good view of the small town of
Bolinas which I had just visited on the other side of the outlet from
Bolinas Lagoon. The tide must have been out as water was rushing out of the
lagoon and into the Pacific causing a lot of crashing waves. Surfers
could be seen on the other side of the outlet catching some of the larger
waves. The beach was strewn with thousands of sea shells and sand dollars
and my wife was on the hunt while I set up to take pictures.
I stayed for most of the sunset watching photographing the small sand piper
you can see in the image as it chased the waves looking for a quick meal.
He wouldn't let me get too close but didn't fly off either. Another great
day at a California beach. After the sun dipped below the peninsula I
moved further down to Stinson beach a popular Bay Area sun and surf beach to
catch the final light.
The image is mapped so you can see where it was taken.
Darv
© Darvin Atkeson
LiquidMoonlight
