California Coast California Coast

The Last Minute

A point on the Southern California coast, November. The sun was at the exact horizon for perhaps ninety seconds. In that interval the light on the water was unlike any other light of the day — gold, but with a quality of warmth that moves toward red at the very edge, where the atmosphere is thickest. The rock platform in the foreground was wet with spray.

Sunsets over the Pacific on the California coast are not guaranteed. There are many evenings when the marine layer — the fog bank that sits offshore — moves onshore before the sun reaches the horizon, and the light simply disappears into grey. When the conditions are clear, and the sun reaches the waterline unobstructed, the result is this.