sanmiguelphotographyblog

A friend of mine called me from the east coast in late December, 2007 and said he wanted to visit in January for a California photography trip.  I said great.  We would photograph the Big Sur and Santa Cruz coastline, the Santa Cruz Mountains, maybe Point Reyes National Seashore and possibly Yosemite.

At the time of our conversation, I had forgotten that January is the rainy season in California.  Well of course, it rained near record amounts for most of the week of my friend’s trip.  By the morning of the third day of photographing “spooky mountains” in the rain and fog soaked Santa Cruz Mountains near my home, my friend was seriously doubting me when I assured him that there are excellent photographic opportunities during storms in the mountains. 

 After awaking at 4:30AM to drive up to Loma Prieta Peak (3,806′) which is the highest point in the Santa Cruz Mountains for a sunrise photograph of the morning light over the mountains and the Pacific, we were greeted with more rain & fog.   After taking many forgettable photographs that morning, we were about to pack it in for breakfast when I decided to drive a little farther along the mountain top when we saw a faint rainbow along a distant ridge.  After waiting for over 30 minutes, we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow.

The moral of the story for me is to trust your photography instincts and experience when you have the urge to take a photograph…don’t always trust the weather forecast.