Greetings!
Tara and I have been talking about how we have kind of lost the knack of both blogging and taking photographs. After many chats and coincidences we decided to partner up and photograph our magic hour walks. Once a month, we will be posting photos and writing about our early evening wanders not too far from home, we're calling it
walking before midnight. We hope to encourage you to grab your camera and go for a walk when the light is its most pretty and your surroundings appear magical. Begin small, take a wander around the block or your neighborhood. Look for color or interesting combinations and have fun!
Tara and I couldn't live in more different environments. She lives in the desert and I live on the coast but we still see magic and beauty in the simplest things. From flowers to rocks to cacti or sand, we aim to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.
I took my magic hour walk along the sands of Avila Beach. Usually I like to walk this sandy stretch early in the morning when the tide is out and there are very few people milling about. Walking this beach after 6pm changes everything about my walk...the tide, the people, the sights, and sounds.
The tide was super high, which made walking in the sand a little more work. My feet would sink, sink, sink, in the soft, soft sand causing the incoming tide to embrace my knees. The air is warmer in the early evening and of course the light, more golden.
There are small mounds of golden seaweed scattered across the sand. Feathers are everywhere, poking up out of the sand like small forests and tangled up like a dance party with the golden seaweed.
After wandering out towards the cliffs as far as the tide would allow, we turned around and wandered up to the small village full of touristy shops, coffee houses, and tasting rooms (this is wine country, after all).
It's a tiny little stop along the coast but there is much to look at if you slow down and look. I love the colors I can see, the rust, the green, and the puffs of pink.
How quickly the light changes but it may be those hills you see in the background. One minute the light was golden, the next it was as blue as blue can be and the temperature dropped. People began packing up and making the trek up the sand back to their cars and their homes.
Really, this stretch of sand I love so is not very large at all. Maybe half a mile from end to end. Mostly sand and seaweed with the occasional sand crab tickling your toes. If the tide is out far enough, you can walk to the end where there are small green crabs that hide behind amongst anenomes and if you time it just right you may see a whale breach right before your eyes, a pair of sea otters will float by, and lines of pelicans cast shadows across the sand peppered in criss-crossed footprints of the seagulls as they do their early morning dance before the sea. Click
here to see Tara's desert adventure.
