In September 2009, we did a road trip, heading north up the West Coast. We were traveling in our RoadTrek camper van, which made it easy to stay in state parks and RV parks. The theme for our trip was the lighthouses of the West Coast.
For a bit of lighthouse history, here is an excerpt from the AAA website:
“In the beginning, there was no light, just a vast expanse of unilluminated coastline. That changed in the early 1850s, when Congress voted to fund construction of the first eight lighthouses on the West Coast. By the early 1900s, at least 70 watched over the waters from Southern California to the far reaches of Alaska. Flashing both signs of warning and beams of welcome, they enabled the safer navigation vital to the settlement of the West.
Their signals drew strength from an artistic optical advance. The lighthouse lens developed in 1820 by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel resembled a classic beehive and used a series of glass rings to cast a concentrated beam far out to sea. The “Fresnel” (pronounced fray-NEL) came in seven orders, the largest of which (first order) was the gold standard.”
These photos were taken with a Nikon D700 and a 24-70mm f/2.8G lens.
