Steffi Sawyer: www.stephsawyer.com's photostream  

Moonstone Beach Sunset: April 9, 2012. © Copyright Stephanie Sawyer - all rights reserved.

Cambria, California

The wildflowers along the coast were just starting to bloom, making a nice foreground on this coastline. The sunset color was minimal and sizzled out from the next storm that was moving in, but it did create some bands of subtle color.

Lathe Arch View: Oct. 9, 2011. © Copyright Stephanie Sawyer - all rights reserved.

Alabama Hills, California

You never realize how many commercials and films are shot in this area until you visit. I somehow managed to talk my husband into stopping on our drive home from camping in the Eastern Sierra Nevada's to check out the Alabama Hills. I didn't care that is was smack in the middle of the day, or should I say "High Noon" to pay tribute to the western's shot here. The family had a great time, and I somehow got lucky and stumbled across two of the popular arches since I didn't have any idea where they were.

I used my B+W Circular Polarizer and manually blended two exposures to get some detail in this mid-day shot.

My husband was very patient with me when I took this image on our way home from our California Coastal Road trip. I think he felt bad knowing that most of my dawn and evening photo opportunities were almost non-existent on this trip because of the rain. In fact, it was actually raining on our way home when I asked him to pull over, hoping that it might stop. Well, stop it did for a bit, and some spotlights of sun broke through to highlight a few spots, giving me a nice photo of the Big Sur Coastline!

Spotted Jelly: April 11, 2012. © Copyright Stephanie Sawyer - all rights reserved.

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Calfornia

I took a small break from landscape photography to capture some truly amazing creatures from the sea. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a new Jelly exhibit that is so cool!

Stones of the Fire: February 20, 2012. © Copyright Stephanie Sawyer - all rights reserved.

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Sometimes I wish the Golden Hour would last longer than an hour! Actually, sometimes it isn't even an hour long. It doesn't leave the photographer much time to work out great comps. And if you're one of those lucky photographers that gets to scout an area in advance, I envy you!

This was taken near "The Wave". The clouds that were in the sky earlier had pretty much all cleared out, so there wasn't much interest there. However, there were these stones scattered around the wave that just seemed out of place. Me and another photographer were wondering how they got there. I'm guessing humans!