410 - Punta Brava
Finally! My first pure landscape photography shot of Baja California that I fucking love. This shoot was a Punta Brava.
It's been a hectic week, and for the first time we had an entire day to ourselves to in Mexico to dedicate purely to landscapes. If you read my last adventure at Malecon Playa de Hermosa, you would know I barely came out with a shot alive.
We started off this adventure getting our campsite at an overlook near La Bufadora. I'm not sure how, but this campsite looked straight out of movie. $5 (100 pesos,) and we got 360 degree views of the ocean from on top of a massive cliff.
It had to be fake. This kind of place doesn't exist in real life.
Once settled, we walked over to the trailhead we wanted to hike, which was named Punta Brava. What entailed was pure magic. It was about 1 mile of winding along seaside cliffs, with cacti that would make even a botanist shit their pants.
These cacti were MEAN. I'm talking spikes 1.5 inches, plus. If you fell on one, you'd probably have a serious injury on your hands. But at the same time, the things were utterly fascinating.
I've always had a soft spots for plants that can hurt. Think about it, it's the most ironic thing. The thing can't move, has no brain, and simply exists. Yet it can STILL inflict heavy damage upon you. That's badass.
I made up my mind that a cactus was going to be in my foreground, and there was nothing I could do to change that. I just had to find the perfect one.
About 20 minutes later, I struck gold. The perfect specimen. Vicious, evil, and goddamn beautiful.
The only problem was that sunset wasn't for another hour and a half.
Well, shit. If I wandered more than 100 feet away, I'd probably lose it amongst the thousands of cacti and never see it again. Now I had a decision to make.
Since we were at the end of the trail, Haley wanted to go back to a bay we saw about .5 mile back for a certain composition she liked.
But, we're all adults here, right? Even if it's in the middle of nowhere in Mexico?
So we split up, and I set up camp next to my favorite cacti. I figured the 90 minute wait would be a good exercise in patience. I also realized it might force me to look a little closer in my environment, and snag some intimate shots in the meantime.
And like a self-fulfilling prophecy from a Mexican genie, I found the perfect abstract. The water was rippling almost too perfectly, like a fresh drywall dipped in blue paint.
I got out my Sony 70-200mm 2.8 GM and zoomed in. Wow. And there also happened to be a pelican right where I was aiming. Thanks genie.
I snagged this bad boy, which I love:
“Skrrrrt”
Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-20mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 500 ~ 200mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/2000s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Notice how the bird is fairly hidden. Most people won't notice the bird until they look into it for a couple seconds. This photo technique forces the viewer to have an "ah-hah!" moment upon closer observation, rewarding deep inspection. By adding smaller, "hidden" finds in your shots, you can add the new level of awe to your photos. I applied that today. The idea first popped into my mind from this Garden of the Gods photo I took awhile back, and it finally clicked how I could use it today.
And that's about it for my intimate scenes. The rest of the time I just sat there, staring at the ocean like a fish from above.
Once the sun got closer to the horizon, I lined up my shot. A barrage of clouds began to move in, and I suspected this little gap might be the only peep of light we get.
I snagged this baby:
“Spear Shot”
Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 500 ~ 17mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Doesn't that cactus look like something out of Harry Potter? I couldn't take my eyes off it. And I'd never seen a photo like this anywhere, ever. Shit, I never even knew these things existed.
I also learned a new editing technique! I was watching a tutorial by Ryan Dyar I'd purchased called "Light Contouring," and learned how to dodge/burn clouds with luminosity masks to enhance colors and add dimension.
I used this technique in the edit of that photo significantly, adding orange light to the lighter parts of the clouds and darkening parts of the sky to add drama. I also added an orange cast glow over the ocean, to sell the light from the sun better.
AKA, the lesson in that edit was don't be afraid to add extra color to your clouds, and dodge/burn them to add drama.
After that shot, I met up with Haley on the front end of the trail, and we hiked back to our camp and slept like babies. We survived our first full separation in a foreign country.
What a shoot.
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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