Have you been to White Cove Beach in San Pedro?! No?! You should. Its amazing.

Amazing in the fact that there is plenty of parking and the water is still and shallow. Its quiet. Either not a lot of people know about it yet or it's far away enough where nobody wants to commit to the long drive there. It has been on my "have to go to" list for a long time ( its a loooong list and I feel like I might not have enough lives to cover all the ground listed in there...).

When Asma contacted me for a photo shoot and mentioned the beach as a possible place to get together and play, San Pedro made top of the list for that weekend.

In all honesty, I could have done a better job scheduling this shoot. Between the make up and picking an outfit, I had about 15min to shoot before the sun went away. Deceiving little one... You feel like there is enough time, but really, when you are taking pictures in that beautiful creamy gold light, you feel the burn. The light is just right for about 5 seconds. Erika did a great job putting on the make up as fast as humanly possible ( thank you!). While she was doing that, I was pretty much sending mental sun salutations to all the Gods and the Sun himself, hoping to prolong that fabulous light. I wasn't able to. The Sun was hiding behind the ocean at first slow and at the end, it felt like it just dropped in the water from a million miles away. No warning. 

The close up portraits you see here I took in near darkness--- With this opportunity I would like to extend thanks to my camera for not letting me down and performing like a champ... Also, Caroline  for holding that pocket flashlight like a true professional :)

There is a certain rush that comes with overcoming situations like that. It could have been bad. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I knew it the moment I saw that first close up on the back screen of my camera. The golden light, the beautiful sunset, the water, nothing even mattered. I had the shot. It wasn't what I thought I went there to do, it was better. It was true to me and my soul. I appreciate the light filled, ethereal pictures I see from other photographers. I can take them but for some reason, as soon as they hit my computer screen they feel wrong. They make me feel like an impostor.

I love how this set turned out. Its dark, heavy and gritty.

Press play :)