Moss Point is one of Laguna Beach’s many hidden little coves. A short side street off of Pacific Coast Highway takes you to a steep stair case down to the little hide away beach. Lately the tide has been high at sunset around this part of California, which doesn’t leave me with a whole lot of time to work with. The ocean was already creeping up to the base of the staircase when I got there and I knew right away this was going to be a wet evening. Once high tide rolls in, the waves turn into shore breaks that pound the sand with curtains of water consuming everything around it.
Before I head out to the shore line, I always try to time the sets of waves so I can go in during a lull to get everything set up without getting too soaked. It’s an old trick I learned back when I used to surf. If you paddle out during a lull, you won’t have to put up as big of a fight getting out to the line up. The same principal works well with seascape photography too. Well, I thought it was safe and headed out. I had my tripod all set up, my camera perfectly level, and my new Zeiss 21mm wide angle lens mounted on my camera; then out the corner of my eye I saw one final wave in the set start rolling in. It happened so quickly I didn’t have much time to react. I grabbed my tripod by the legs and lifted it as high above my head as I could while the wave drenched me from the chest down. Soaking wet, thankful that my camera was still dry, and freezing my butt off, I quickly set my tripod back up and waited for the next set to begin. The water started receding back to the ocean and I could tell a wave was forming. I quickly fired off the shutter as the water swirled around the rocks, then grabbed my tripod and ran back as far as I could to avoid getting hit by the incoming wave. I took a glance at my camera’s LCD and feeling satisfied with the results, I packed it up and called it a night.
Leave a Reply