Nicole Vaunt, Venom, and Amber Rose McConnell at Sunset Cliffs (Patreon)

Sunset Cliffs has been one of my favorite places to explore since my first trip down the California coast just a few years ago.  I'd avoided San Diego for a long time because it was two hours away and I didn't really know anyone down there, but after meeting Venom its been one of my favorite cities to hit up.

Its a sunny city so the secret to shooting there is to get up early, and hide in the shade or fog bank for photos, which is pretty easy to find.  The massive cliffs and caves provide ample coverage for nice soft light, and the marine layer tends to blow in most nights and stick around for a little while after sunrise.

For my trip down the cliffs with Venom, Amber and Nicole we were super lucky to find the low tide was incredibly low allowing us to explore more of the shore line than we ever have before and really create some amazing photos.  I bounced back and forth between using my 50mm F1.4 and my 17-40mm F4 to create these photos.  Depending on how big or interesting the field of view was, and how far back I could get.  Even at low tide holding my camera in deep water with my back to the waves is terrifying.  The pacific coast is known for large sneaker waves that can crash over you unexpectedly at anytime, so turning away from the ocean is dangerous, and turning away from the ocean and dedicating all of your attention to photos is even more so.

Still for the better part of two hours we played around in the beautiful cool waters shooting and creating a bunch of different images.  Seeing how differently each of the models approached the place was really cool, and I love how different all of the images were as a result.

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