California's Central Coast
Photographs by Ken Rockwell
15, 16, 17 & 18 May 2024
Join us on this year's tour, 06-09 May 2025!
How I Created These
Introduction
I made these photos on a trip I helped lead with Dave Wyman to California's Central Coast. Join us on this year's tour, 06-09 May 2025!
This was a real photo trip where we were outside from well before dawn until long after dark, shooting all day, every day. This wasn't a nerd-a-thon fiddling with computers in a motel room; we were outside hiking around the whole time.
Viewing top
Everyone's screens, from iPhones held vertically to computers with squinty 16:9 monitors, have different shapes. I can't make my differently-shaped shots fill everyone's screen at the same time.
On iPhone and iPad, everything changes size when you rotate between vertical and horizontal.
Click or tap any image to make it fit your screen. On Mac Safari, command ⌘ and + or - will change the size of the page or image, and command ⌘ and 0 brings it back to normal.
Turn up your screen brightness for best results.
These are 1,920 pixel-wide images; the originals are much higher resolution. These images will fill your screen horizontally, up to 1,920 pixels wide (3,840 pixels wide on Mac Retina displays). The vertical size will vary with how I cropped each image.
Enjoy!
15 May 2024, Wednesday top
We met the group in San Luis Obispo at 3PM, we wandered downtown and then to the Madonna Inn:
Alex Madonna's Gold Rush Steak House, The Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo, California, 4:24 P.M. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max panorama mode with 1× (6.785 mm actual or 24mm eq.) camera at f/1.8 at 1/120 (indicated) hand-panned at Auto ISO 2,500 (LV 3.9), perspective correction in Photoshop CC, Radiant Photo software to put detail in all the shadows. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Gold Coast by Last Light, Pismo Beach, California, 7:42 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 105 mm at f/3.2 at 1/160 at Auto ISO 100, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 10¾), Radiant Photo software to make it glow. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Last light bathed the coast in a golden glow through a hole in the clouds, while all else was gray.
Surfers' Heaven, Pismo Beach, California, 7:48 P.M. Horizontal crop from a much larger vertical Canon EOS R6 Mk II shot, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 105 mm at f/4 at 1/200 at Auto ISO 100 (LV 11.6), Radiant Photo software to make everything glow. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
The Splash Café, Pismo Beach, California, 8:02 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 63 mm wide-open at f/2.8 handheld at 1/15 at Auto ISO 100, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 7.0), Luminar Neo software to make everything glow and add deliberate vignetting. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Cool Cat Cafe, Pismo Beach, California, 8:12 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 58 mm wide-open at f/2.8 handheld at 1/30 at Auto ISO 100 (LV 8.0), Radiant Photo software to bring up the shadows and add more glow. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Harry's, The Pismo Sign and Random Gull, Pismo Beach, California, 8:14 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 68 mm wide-open at f/2.8 handheld at 1/30 at Auto ISO 100. -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 8.0), perspective correction in Photoshop CC, Radiant Photo software to brighten this up without losing the highlights. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
16 May 2024, Thursday top
Tree Tunnel, San Luis Obispo, California, 7:04 A.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 24 mm at f/4.5 handheld at 1/13 at Auto ISO 100, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 8.0), Radiant Photo software to brighten the shadows without losing the highlights More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen or camera-original unprocessed © 24 MP JPG file (13 MB).
Grilling in Front of F. McLintocks, Farmers' Market, San Luis Obispo, California, 6:45 P.M. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max 1× (6.785 mm actual or 24mm eq.) camera at f/1.8 at 1/126 at Auto ISO 50 (LV 9⅔), Radiant Photo software to put detail in the smoky areas and a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop CC to make gray shadows blacker. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Neon Sign, Fremont Theater, San Luis Obispo, California, 8:22 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 92 mm at f/8 handheld at 1/15 at Auto ISO 125, -0.3 stops exposure compensation (LV 9⅔), perspective correction and I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to select the yellows and shift the hue -5, saturation +41 and lightness +12 to get them to look as I wanted in Photoshop CC (otherwise they were too green), Radiant Photo software to add brilliance to dark shadows without losing the color on the neon highlights. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Woodstock's Pizza, San Luis Obispo, California, 8:29 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 31 mm wide-open at f/2.8 handheld at 1/20 at Auto ISO 800 (LV 4.4), perspective correction in Photoshop CC, Radiant Photo software to add brilliance everywhere, lightening dark shadows and not losing color in the neon highlights. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
Méxican Delicacy Vendor, Farmer's Market, San Luis Obispo, California, 8:52 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 58 mm wide-open at f/2.8 handheld at 1/25 at Auto ISO 100 (LV 7.6), Radiant Photo software to add just a tiny bit of air in the shadows (this was pretty much good-to-go as-shot, and Radiant leaves it alone if it is). More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen, or camera-original unprocessed © 24 MP JPG file (5 MB).
17 May 2024, Friday top
Today was mostly overcast. We went to Ragged Point, San Simeon, Harmony, Cayucos and saw loads of elephant seals, turkey vultures and sea otters, but I didn't snap anything particularly exciting as it was gray and my work is all about color. Here's a turkey vulture in flight:
Turkey Vulture in Flight, Ragged Point, California, 11:02 A.M. Cropped from Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 100-400mm IS USM at 400 mm wide-open at f/8 handheld at 1/500 at Auto ISO 200, +0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 14.0), Radiant Photo software to brighten it up. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen, or camera-original 24 MP © 1.8 MB JPG file.
Here's the uncropped image. 24 MP has loads of pixels from which to crop:
Full frame image. bigger or camera-original 24 MP © 1.8 MB JPG file.
We ended our day with dinner at Morro Bay:
Crazy Red Door, Morro Bay, California, 8:19 P.M. Canon EOS R6 Mk II, RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z at 37 mm wide-open at f/2.8 handheld at 1/20 at Auto ISO 500 (LV 5.0), perspective correction in Photoshop CC, Radiant Photo software to push-down the blue background a bit to add contrast against the red (Radiant is very smart and figures this out for itself). bigger or fit-to-screen.
18 May 2024, Saturday top
Today our group had breakfast at Louisa's Place in San Luis Obispo, then headed towards home. We stopped in Los Olivos:
The G Spa, Los Olivos, California, 8:10 A.M. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max 0.5× (2.2 mm actual or 14mm eq.) camera at f/2.2 at 1/787 at Auto ISO 40 (LV 13.2), amped-up in the free Snapseed app in-phone. More tech details. bigger or fit-to-screen.
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