About the Image(s)

On the last day of my recent fall trip to California's North Coast, I got up early and drove to a place I had heard about and seen some remarkable pictures of--Glass Beach, just outside of Fort Bragg.

From the early 1900s until 1967, Glass Beach served as the city's public dump. Decades later, little bits and pieces of glass and porcelain can still be found on the beach. The unceasing pounding of the surf over time ground this refuse into intriguing relics. On this beautiful Sunday morning, the area was full of visitors--families with small children and dogs running about, some of them looking for treasures from the past. I found the real treasure through my viewfinder.

I made this image with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and a 16-35 mm lens @ 30 mm. Exposure: ISO 800, f/11, 1/125 sec. Processed with Adobe Camera RAW. Profile: camera-matching landscape. White balance: 5450 temp. Adjustments included exposure + 0.50, contrast +7, highlights -97, shadows, +51, white point +27, black point -9, vibrance +11. No saturation adjustment was made. I also add texture +11, clarity +12 and dehaze -3.

You don't have to look very hard to find signs of human presence on this landscape. Some can be found in this image. I prefer to capture scenes like this as I find them. It's part of the story. The predominant feeling I got on this morning was that nothing is more powerful than the presence of nature. The Earth prevails. I felt grateful to be there amid the rhythmic beat of the surf, the sweet smell of the ocean and the enduring beauty of the coastal bluff.