Pastel colors rarely appear in subjects I'm drawn to, with the exception of pre-dawn light. A favorite sunrise viewing location is Eucalyptus Hill in Santa Barbara, where I live. It's unusual for California, because here the coast faces south and the sun follows the coastline as it travels from east to west during the day.

I awoke this day to building color in the sky and raced to get set up to capture what I was sure would be brilliant. The textured clouds quickly went from deep red to bright orange and then finished with this mix of pink, orange, and blue. The ocean picked up the sky's color to contrast with the coastline itself. As is usually the case, this colorful show faded very abruptly moments later so this was the last shot I got that day.