This image was taken at Bonny Doon near Davenport, CA (outside of Santa Cruz, CA). The cliffs wrap around which allows a you to set up your camera to take a photograph facing the beach. (Not a common occurrence)

I set up my Nikon Z7II with my Nikkor 14-30mm S lens (ƒ/16 - 5s - 30mm - ISO64) on my Benro tripod with my NiSi JetMag 6 stop, and 3 stop, ND filter.

The challenge to shooting this was the highlights off the cliff face. Even though the sun was setting (golden hour), it was shining directly onto the cliff face in the middle and to the right. Not blowing out the highlights was the biggest challenge. All the while, keeping the details in the shadows. Especially, since I did a 5 second exposure with direct sunlight bouncing off those cliff faces. I had to get this in one image because bracketing would not have worked with the differences in the waves. Post processing was fun trying to get this right due to the highlights, as well.

The complimentary colors of the blue water and the golden cliffs make for a warm calming photograph. I was lucky to be able to capture a lone figure walking on the beach. They happen to stop for long enough where they are not a blur in the photo. This gives a sense of scale to the cliff face as well as how much beach you have. All in all, this photograph when printed on a large scale should give people that sense of calm, peace, serenity they feel when watching the sunset over the ocean. Put yourself in the lone figures shoes and think how you would feel. If you live on the western side of the US, you know that feeling well.