Fine Art Photography Blog

Sunlight pouring down through a redwood forest in the Santa Lucia mountains, along California’s coast. El país grande del sur, or “the Big Country of the South,” offers a spectacular mix of temperate rain-forest and rock formations rising out of the Pacific.

This particular image is from the canyon trail in Juliette Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Less than a mile inland, a trail opens up, following a small river into the mountains. The trail ends at a waterfall pouring down a small, but impassible cliff. It joins a labyrinth of other trails heading to the peaks, opening to incredible views of the azure-colored ocean below.

This image hints at religious imagery, showing beams of light radiate down from the sky. The understory of a redwood forest tends to be a dusty place; light filtering to the bottom can easily get caught against airborne particles. The effect is simple, but powerful.

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