clouded glory bursts
on wave-washed rock, green, clean spire–
which the true lighthouse?
Took this on a recent vacation. Pigeon Point, about 30 miles south of San Francisco on Highway 1, Dec 2012. My son Ethan helped me use Photoshop to make detail on the rock a bit more visible, and to make the colors pop, but this is not far from au natural. Amazing…
Sivanea 
Such wonderful lighting :)
I’m not very expert at handling the light; there was too much coming from the sun, which is why the rocks were so dark. I notice on your blog that you’ve got filters and lenses and are learning photography techniques; any tips on how to handle this type of situation better?
I’d say the sky is quite well exposed, maybe just a little too bright where the sun is. Because of this your camera has underexposed the rocks which makes them appear too dark. One way you could fix this is by buying a ND grad filter which will, while you take the photo, darken the sky meaning that the rocks will be better exposed. Another way is by using the shadows/highlights tool in Photoshop to lighten the rocks. I wouldn’t be too disappointed with this image, overall it’s very good.
Hope this helps :)