The entire California coast, from the Mexican border in the south to Oregon in the north, holds many treasures for landscape and seascape photographers. Some are well-known spots, while many others are hidden gems. Each year, I escape the winter chill around my home in the high desert of Oregon and spend quite a bit of time exploring this long stretch of coast. While I have been to and photographed many places here, I decided on this one past visit to check out a spot I had never been to before.

I much prefer the rugged and rocky central and northern coast of California over the flat sandy beaches in the south full of sun-worshipping people. My destination this time was the Point Arena lighthouse, located on the north coast in Mendocino County. It’s a short drive off of the central Pacific Coast highway, but it's well worth the effort to get there. The weather that day was cloudy and windy, with some pretty good wave action at sea – a perfect day for seascape photography.

The lighthouse here sits on a promontory of land with a sharp dropoff of textured cliffs and offshore rocks in the sea below. I decided to shoot this image using a long exposure to soften the surface of the water while hoping the wind wouldn’t affect the sharpness of the photo. I converted the processed raw color image into black and white, which made me feel better about expressing the mood of the setting that day. There are also several more areas along this small stretch of coast with some remarkable features that I also spent time photographing. I could easily have stayed there all day, but I had to move on to my next destination. I will surely return to this incredible location.