395 - Lizard’s Mouth
This under-rated spot in Santa Barbara straight up DELIVERED. I'm still not sure why's called Lizard's Mouth though, it doesn't look like one at all.
Prior to this shoot, we spent WAY too much time trying to find somewhere to shoot in Santa Barbara. Every photography guide you look at just points to pink walls, malls, and strange murals. Must be LA leaking out, because they're all "Instagram spots."
Now that's a super generic term, but under this post we'll assume it means "LA fashion blogger spots". Not exactly landscape photography.
Yet Haley somehow found this spot online, and apparently it's a hidden secret of the local college. Sometimes she's a location monster. IDK how she does it sometimes.
It started off lividly. To get there, you drive up a massive hill, which absolutely blows if you're going up it anytime around sunset. It's extremely windy, dusty, and the sun is DIRECTLY in your face almost the entire drive up. It felt like an oncoming car was going to hit us head on any second.
Finally we arrived at the top, took a deep breath, and looked around. Endless rocks, desert vibes, and an old gun club in the distance. Nothing makes you feel safe like gunshots going off every two minutes before leaving your car to walk into the desert.
Luckily, it was only about a ten minute hike to the viewpoint, through graffiti'd rocks that were at best amateur work. It's clearly a college town spot.
However, we arrived at the overlook, and it was goddamn beautiful. It's like karma said here's something to make up for the journey here. Sweeping hills, trees, rocks, and a bright ocean WAY off in the distance. The thing that stood out to me most was the glowing trees. I snagged a quick shot of some in isolation, and edited it minimally:
“Black Fall”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm 2.8 GM
ISO 200 ~ 164mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/100s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Really been digging these dark edit vibes lately, even though that photo was taken in bright sunlight. Just underexpose heavily, then use luminosity masks in the edit to pull out what you like. I learned this technique in landscape photography at Fern Canyon.
After that I knew I had to wait until sunset. Nothing else was lit up. However, the view was killer, and there was the infamous "Lizard Mouth" rock to look at. It almost looked like something out of the Grinch, except the desert version. The only problem was it was bright as hell and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
Fuck. I didn't want to do a sky replacement, but I had just done a sky silhoutte shot a few days before at Pfieffer Beach, and I wasn't really feeling it again.
Luckily we still had about an hour until sunset, so we hung out and contimplated the nature of photography until I had to make a final decision.
Haley was absolutely COVERED in Poison Oak rashes, and was more miserable than a dog left in the desert sun. A few days ago, at Bixby Bridge, she stumbled into a plant and didn't notice it until the next morning. AKA she slept in the posion oak, rolled around in it, and woke up with it EVERYWHERE. Her face was completely swollen and she'd really been struggling the past couple days.
This made me think. I asked her if she got a solid shot at least from the poison oak, and she reluctantly said yes. Now I'm gonna get deep here, but bear with me. Was it worth it? Probably not in the moment, but at the end of the day, she's becoming a stronger person because of it. She'll remember this for the rest of her life, and has the photographic proof to remember beating it.
I started to realize each adventure we go on is a metaphor for the stuggles of life, and how each shoot is a different lesson in percievereince. However, it's abundantly clear that some lessons are rougher than others.
We hung out for awhile while the sun, and I made my decision. I was going to get the best shot I could get, and just pretend like the sky didn't exist.
I lined up an angle that hit the arch wide, and noticed the rock in the foreground was starting to neatly light up pink colors. I strapped on my Tamron 17-28mm to get that in the frame, and snagged this bad boy:
“Desert Grinch”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm 2.8
ISO 200 ~ 17mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/125s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
As you can tell, I ended up popping in a sky replacement from an extra sky I shot at Thor's Well. I liked the blue/orange contrast in the sky/rocks, so the color worked out perfectly.
Right after I snagged the shot, about 10 college kids showed up and just started eating a pizza on top of the arch. Damn that was close. I walked away with my prize, gloating to myself inside.
Solid shoot, solid week, and an interesting new adventure philosophy to dive into... We'll see where this goes.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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