Morro Rock
Within an hour of leaving the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery in San Simeon on November 3, we arrived at our Morro Bay hotel. It was close to the coast, so when I awoke early the next morning and saw some color in the sky, I hurriedly walked the few blocks to the water in hopes of recording the famous Morro Rock at sunrise. I think this was the only time in my life I’ve done back-to-back sunset and sunrise pictures.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
No wonder Homer said “rose-fingered dawn”.
beachbooksblog
December 14, 2016 at 5:03 AM
I like your Classical reference. I haven’t thought of that epithet in years. I wonder if the sea beyond Morro Rock looked wine-dark.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 7:02 AM
I read “Iliad” this year. Must admit – for the first time from cover to cover. I counted all the epithets of the sea, more than 20. None of them was “blue” 🙂
beachbooksblog
December 14, 2016 at 7:46 AM
When I started college, the first book assigned in the required Humanities course was The Iliad (Richmond Lattimore’s translation). I imagine the ancient Greeks who lived by the sea became much more attuned to its nuances than could be caught by as simple a description as blue.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 8:25 AM
And as you who love the sea must likewise be attuned.
I just came across an article about Homer’s sea epithets that I think you’ll enjoy:
http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sea/winelike-sea
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 9:08 AM
I must say, it all started with this article. Can you imagine 🙂 Because this article was so interesting. I read this in January this year and had an epiphany that “sea is the one” that I want to write about, that I want to explore through the stories of other writers and through living side by side with the sea. When I discovered, that Caroline Alexander, the author of this article, has made a brand new translation of “Iliad”, I started my voyage with this classical text. And everything else grew out of it. And it’s just the start.
beachbooksblog
December 14, 2016 at 9:16 AM
And an excellent start. May your quest fulfill you.
When we visited New Zealand last year I was fascinated by the colors of the sea
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/new-zealand/
and by the things I found along the shore in various places.
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/new-zealand-last-late-afternoon-in-the-country/
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 9:43 AM
Just when I think you couldn’t possibly outdo yourself, you outdo yourself. I didn’t think anything could be better than the leafless aspen. Then, I thought nothing could be better than Cathedral Rock. Now, I’m thinking nothing could be better than this. The colors, the rock, the reflections, the ripples: it’s perfect.
shoreacres
December 14, 2016 at 6:30 AM
I’m afraid I’ll be pushing my luck after the trifecta you’ve mentioned. I see some pink in the sky outside my window in Austin as I write this, but it’s not the same.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 7:06 AM
This is the absolute best photograph of Morro Rock I’ve ever seen. Great job Steve!
David W Moll
December 14, 2016 at 7:37 AM
Thanks, David. I’d passed by Morro Rock two or three times in earlier decades without spending any time there. It’s a good thing we stayed the night so we could explore a bit in the morning.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 7:40 AM
What a perfect place to meditate…
lensandpensbysally
December 14, 2016 at 8:42 AM
I didn’t notice anyone meditating there, Sally, but you could have if you’d gone there in the quiet of the early morning.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 8:50 AM
Thanks, Steve, not only for this one but for all the other fantastic sights in this series!
Pit
December 14, 2016 at 10:39 AM
You’re welcome. I still haven’t come back down to earth from this trip. Plenty more pictures from it will be coming along, easily extending into 2017.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 11:15 AM
You just gave me one of the few reasons to be looking forward to 2017: let these pictures come!
Pit
December 14, 2016 at 11:25 AM
Thanks for the kind words.
Yet be of good cheer:
The forthcoming year
Will allay your fear.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 11:33 AM
Great quotation. Let’s keep our hope up.
Pit
December 14, 2016 at 11:36 AM
You’ve made my heart leap up with this one. How I love this rock 🙂
melissabluefineart
December 14, 2016 at 11:10 AM
Your words made my mind leap to Wordsworth:
http://www.bartleby.com/106/286.html
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 11:12 AM
Oh yes that is a good one. Thank you for the image and the poem 🙂
melissabluefineart
December 14, 2016 at 11:19 AM
You’re doubly welcome.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 11:22 AM
🙂 You wouldn’t wish to be here this week~we are “enjoying” single digit temps, snow and wind. I’m hibernating.
melissabluefineart
December 14, 2016 at 11:25 AM
My heart would take a definite leap down if I had to endure it. That’s why I moved to Texas 40 years ago.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 11:29 AM
That was a wise move on your part.
melissabluefineart
December 14, 2016 at 11:45 AM
It was the wisdom of a cold-sensitive body.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 12:05 PM
Much to my son’s amusement I have deleted all of the Wisconsin homes I was saving. Too bad because several of them I could nearly afford but this is too much for me. It happens every year and yet I seem to forget.
melissabluefineart
December 15, 2016 at 8:57 AM
Your winters can easily turn an optimist into a realist.
Steve Schwartzman
December 15, 2016 at 10:24 AM
As much as the Midwest winter can get anyone down, have you drawn or painted any views of ice that caught your fancy? That would be a silver lining, so to speak.
Steve Schwartzman
December 19, 2016 at 7:25 AM
I am working on an oil of the Des Plaines in a snow storm. It was a lovely day, much warmer than the past few days. Another effect I would like to capture is when an ice storm coats everything in ice. It looks stunning against a dark winter sky.
melissabluefineart
December 19, 2016 at 9:41 AM
Great. We’ll look forward to seeing your winter work.
>
Steve Schwartzman
December 19, 2016 at 11:37 AM
Great rock and even greater background. What a great lot of color you captured. Great shot. Great, great, great. I hope too many greats don’t grate you.
Steve Gingold
December 14, 2016 at 5:48 PM
I don’t find it at all grating, coming from such a great portrayer of sunrises.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 5:59 PM
That’s a much more impressive photo of the rock than mine! You definitely had better weather along the PCH.
Heyjude
December 14, 2016 at 6:10 PM
I did there, but not in some other places that we visited. On a long trip a traveler inevitably encounters some stints of bad weather.
Steve Schwartzman
December 14, 2016 at 6:16 PM
[…] November 4th, a couple of hours after I’d looked across the inlet toward the sunrise colors around Morro Rock, we checked out of our hotel and drove over to go walking around the base of the rock, as plenty of […]
Two wide views at Morro Bay in the morning | Portraits of Wildflowers
December 15, 2016 at 3:31 AM
“Sunsets are so beautiful that it almost seem as if we were looking through the gates of heaven” – John Lubbock
This picture certainly did show me what heaven looks like. Magnificent colors, and magnificent portrayal of the water itself.
genuineoutlooks
December 15, 2016 at 2:46 PM
Thanks for your appreciation of this sunrise image. Had I set out a few minutes later or walked not so quickly I’d have missed it.
Steve Schwartzman
December 15, 2016 at 3:30 PM
By, the way, I tracked down the relevant paragraph from John Lubbock’s The Use of Life. You’ll notice that the wording found on some websites doesn’t quite match the original:
“There is yet a light,” says Ruskin,” which the eye invariably seeks with a deeper feeling of the beautiful, — the light of the declining or breaking day, and the flecks of scarlet clouds burning like watchfires in the green sky of the horizon.” The colours of the sky seem to lighten up the earth, and “the orange stain on the edge of yonder western peak reflects the sunset of a thousand years.” Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we were looking through the Gates of Heaven.
http://tinyurl.com/jelb7xv
Steve Schwartzman
December 15, 2016 at 3:41 PM
The reflection and colors are just gorgeous
norasphotos4u
December 17, 2016 at 8:58 AM
I rarely go out photographing that early. This time was worth it.
Steve Schwartzman
December 17, 2016 at 9:35 AM
Love this Steve .. 😃 the colours and reflection are special
Julie@frogpondfarm
December 17, 2016 at 12:48 PM
Special they are. Going out early was worth it.
Steve Schwartzman
December 17, 2016 at 1:02 PM
Superb subtle colours in this classic shot. Such a shame that the WP reader ‘refreshed for 2017’ by the geeks in WP now crops portrait mode images by taking a slice out of the centre of the image thus decapitating the rock.
LensScaper
December 21, 2016 at 2:19 AM
I’ve almost never used the WordPress reader, but I took a look just now and I see what you mean about the decapitation and depeditation of vertical images. I agree with you that changes aren’t always for the better. I still prefer WordPress’s old editor to the “improved” one.
In any case, I’m happy that you like this early morning view of Morro Rock.
Steve Schwartzman
December 21, 2016 at 3:40 AM
[…] wispy clouds above Morro Rock in California on the morning of November 4th, 2016, appealed to […]
Above and below at Morro Bay | Portraits of Wildflowers
January 30, 2017 at 5:08 AM
Wow great picture. My first time seeing it we just drove through. Would love to stop and visit the area.
cbirdsongblog
December 29, 2017 at 8:58 AM
Decades earlier I’d driven past it too, so this time I made it a point to stay. We’d had a good sunset a little further up the coast before arriving at Morro Bay,
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/winging-our-way-out-of-2016/
and the morning sunrise proved an excellent bookend.
Steve Schwartzman
December 29, 2017 at 11:20 AM