Welcome to Paradise

"There are many like it, but this one is mine." to slightly take out of context the USMC Rifleman's Creed. It's very hard to get an original landscape shot anymore in popular places, like really hard, especially with the proliferation of images on the web now. You could throw a dart blindfolded and get the exact same comp as someone else without even trying. This place is no exception, although I wish it were. It really looks like paradise, but it's heavily trafficked by tourists everyday. But the difference between my shots and someone elses' are that they are my shots. I'm still going to take them. I'm going to get to the spot, forget every image I've ever seen of the place and shoot it the way I want, in my style. Is it original? Probably not, but this one is mine.

Of all the places I've traveled something about this spot is more magical to me than any I have been to before. It really has all the elements; a protected cove surrounded by hills and sheer cliffs, with the 80-foot high McWay Falls dropping into the ocean, palm trees, pink flowers, turquoise water, clouds and warm sunlight. This paradise is not as far away as you would think. It's on the southern border of Big Sur, in California, about an hour south of Monterey. The park is called Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. There used to be a house, just above where I took this shot, owned by the Brown family. Mrs. Brown was friends with Julia Pfeiffer Burns, a very well respected pioneer and rancher in the Big Sur region. In 1962 the Browns willed the area to the state to be reserved as a state park and dedicated the memory to Julia Pfeiffer Burns. Could you imagine though, waking up every morning and looking out your terrace at this!? The beach and cove below are off limits. There is no maintained trail down to the beach and anyone caught trespassing would be fined. But it's good to see something in this world protected for the beauty that it contains.

by : Matthew Crowley Photography