Old Point Loma Lighthouse

Author's Comments

The lighthouse itself is small. That is the first thing to know. Photographs make it look monumental, but in person it is a modest white structure on a high point of land, and the magic of the place has more to do with what surrounds it than what it is. From 422 feet above the Pacific, you are looking down at San Diego Bay on one side and the open ocean on the other, with Coronado stretched between them like a long pale ribbon. The composition I keep returning for is the lighthouse against a winter sunset. December and January give you the lowest sun angles and the cleanest air, and the whitewashed walls take warm light beautifully in that last half hour. The challenge is the gate. The grounds close at five, which in summer means you are walking out before the light has done anything interesting. Winter solves this. The sun sets early enough that you can be inside the gate during golden hour and still leave on time. Work the lighthouse from the south side first, where the path drops slightly and you can frame the structure against sky rather than landscape. Then move around to catch it with the bay behind. A portrait orientation with the tower vertical and the bay reading as a thin band of water and city below is, to my eye, the photograph this place actually wants to give you. Bring a longer lens for the Coronado shots from the overlook near the parking area. The bridge compresses beautifully at 200mm in late afternoon, and that is a different photograph entirely, but worth the same trip.

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