Carmel Bay, California, in spring
On a fine day in early March 2021, AAA Washington member Daniel Pabst pointed his Canon 10–22mm lens at Carmel Bay. The Pacific Ocean’s dark blue water was framed by wispy white clouds and a light-blue sky, and the grays, browns, greens and reds of the rocks and rugged ground.
Pabst, a Tacoma resident and retired financier of machinery, says he regularly takes mostly black-and-white photos of historic sites as a hobby, but some pictures are “about the color.” This ocean view brought back memories.
As a young man in the early 1970s, Pabst went to the nearby Defense Language Institute in Monterey, where he learned Mandarin prior to being stationed in Taiwan for two years. During his time in the U.S. Air Force, he often hiked the entire stretch of 17 Mile Drive, stopping for a rest in places like this one, to sit on the rocks or under the shade of a Monterey pine.
Over the years, Pabst and his wife, Pat, have regularly visited Northern California either on business or to escape the gloom of the Pacific Northwest.
This photo was taken in the early afternoon with a Canon EOS 70D. They had just visited the nearby Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo. Pabst says if you turn around from this spot, you’d see a fairway at the Pebble Beach Golf Links.
–Written by Victor Whitman
