During one of the final weeks of December in 2014, a photographer and her friend decided to go on a weekend getaway shortly after celebrating the holidays:
The day is Dec. 27, and the location is a quiet, secluded Moonstone Beach found on the Cambria Coastline.
The day is coming to a close but Linda A. Detwiler Burner and her friend go out to catch a brief glimpse of the sun, gradually descending over the Pacific.
Mrs. Burner, 51, staff member, has taken many photographs like this before but agrees to the spontaneous mission in hopes of finding something different.
The waves are creeping up the shoreline, coloring and burnishing the wet sand as they’re calmly pulled back.
The wet rocks glisten with a matted sheen, courtesy of the Pacific Ocean, which lies on the edge of the coast like a never-ending blanket full of wrinkles and abstract reflections of what lies above it.
The sun, behind a thin sheet of clouds, isn’t radiant but, in the form of an inverted pyramid, puts the magic touch on this moment as its golden colors are poured into the atmosphere, dyeing all that it touches.
It’s the kind of view Burner sees and falls in love constantly.
But this is something different.
After mentally capturing the experience forever, Burner carefully captures it with her camera, and names it “New Beginnings.”
“The end of the day? It’s gone,” Burner said. “But a new beginning comes at the end of the day.”
“New Beginnings” is now on display at Bluff Cove Olive Oil Co. located in Torrance, in a photography exhibit titled “Seascapes.”
The gallery displays 11 photographs, all taken by Burner, that represent the shores of local South Bay, the Central Coast and Ireland.
Burner said she loves shooting nature, mountain themes, seascapes and landscapes, because of the awe-inspiring creation presented before her.
“I love landscape,” Burner said. “That’s my first love.”
“Maybe it’s a spiritual connection,” she added.
Her husband, Scott Burner, 61, also an artist, said that the focus of Burner’s work is to bring the experience her audience can’t witness themselves to life in her photos.
“Some of my relatives could never have gone to where I’ve gone, so it’s an opportunity to share the experience with them,” Mrs. Burner said.
“Moher Cliffs in Ireland,” a wide shot of the titular landscape, offers a reflective experience, while “High Surf at Cabrillo Breakwater” offers a much more “dynamic” one, Burner’s husband said.
“Oh look at this, honey,” Leah Hulce, 63, said as she reached out to her partner Carl Brown, 57.
“High Surf,” printed on metallic photo paper, captures the perfect moment after a wave violently crashes into a breakwater, almost transforming the exploding wave into a mushroom cloud of powder.
“I love that,” Hulce said.
“Setting Sun,” shot at White Point in San Pedro, features a cryptic but optimistic array of orange shades from a setting sun that’s not even in frame.
Burner’s husband said that her ability to bring the colors and details out in her photos have progressed over time.
“Rather than a dark art, her art seems to bring out the joy in life and the joy of looking at photographs,” Mr. Burner said.
“Seascapes” was jointly planned by Burner and the owner of Bluff Cove Olive Oil Co., Jessica Lyon, 34, who said she was looking for local artists to promote.
“A lot of people were approaching me with their artwork, but I’m picky with what needs to fit with my color scheme,” she said.
“My goal is that you always have to match the store,” she added.
Never having experienced her photography beforehand, Lyon enjoyed Burner’s use of metallic photo paper.
Most effectively used in “New Beginnings,” the metallic medium perfectly brings the reflective glare that’s beamed into the water and wetted rocks emerging from it to life.
“It adds a nice touch to her photos,” Lyon said.
Already charming on its own, Lyon’s store, decorated with a center-piece chandelier and countless bottles of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, is now complemented with Burner’s artwork, matching the Valspar-branded Brilliant Metals: Copper Gleam paint she’s chosen for the walls.
“Seascapes” will be on display at Bluff Cove Olive Oil Co. at 25414 Crenshaw Blvd in Torrance until March 2016.
Update: Nov. 6, 2015 — An earlier version of this article stated that Detwiler is part of faculty on campus. She is a staff member. Grammatical errors have also been changed.
