Heavy Surf at Panther Beach in California

Panther Beach, California coast, 2013. Photograph @ Stewart M. Green

Here's a cool photograph I shot back in June, 2013, for my book "Scenic Routes & Byways California's Pacific Coast," published by Globe Pequot Press that autumn.

That day I photographed the Big Sur coast, one of America's iconic coastal areas, and then drove north to Santa Cruz in the early evening. When I reached the rugged coast north of Santa Cruz, the heavy surf, pushed by strong westerly winds, was running high at Panther Beach.

I set up my tripod and Nikon on the edge of a vertical cliff and shot up the coast, where I found a young man perched above the Pacific maelstrom. His tiny human figure seemed to be conducting this magnificent and elemental symphony at the meeting of rock, sand, and surf.