On of the highlights of the coastline near Santa Cruz, CA, is the small and beautiful Natural Bridges State Beach.  There is not a lot of variety here, but the sunset can be spectacular.  Here is what you might see.

The entrance to the Natural Bridges State Beach is only four miles north of downtown Santa Cruz if you take Cliff Drive.  You will have to pay an entrance fee as there is not much street parking here.  It is a short walk down to the beach.

Don’t forget to try black and white, too.  As it was getting dark, we just used a polarizer to get a slow shutter speed to slow down the incoming waves and create that milky look.

Before focusing on the large arch, face north west to capture the sunset.  We were here near the winter solstice and with a little haze in the air, we saw some really sweet yellow light.  I don’t think you need more than a tripod and a wide angle lens (I used my Canon 24-105 mm) for this location.

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