The rocks at Little Creek were covered with a thin film of water. They were in shade, but they were open to the northern sky which was a rich blue. The effect of the film of water on the nearly black rock was to create a mirror.
My memory is not what it used to be. I attribute that to the fact that my brain was totally packed with information about film/developer/exposure. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a craft - I probably put in 50,000 hours.
So here is some information from the photographic past.
An incandescent bulb "burns" at 3200 degrees kelvin temperature (Red-Yellow). Sun light on an object is about 8,000 degrees kelvin. The degrees are based on a carbon body heated to that temperature. So, the color goes from infrared low (cherry red) to very high (steel blue) to pure white (ultra violet). The north side of an object, in shadow, will average around 20,000 degrees kelvin. Very blue.
Ultraviolet and infrared are invisible to our eyes and must be captured by special cameras (filters). But they're all there. We deal with the visible spectrum.
The rocks were in a 20,000 degree kelvin exposure from the open sky while in shadow from the direct sun. The reflection in the mirror surface of the water was probably around 12,000 degrees. Add all of that up, along with the reflectivity of the water and you get a Cerulean blue. Azure. Sky Blue.
Now, that is the film photographic explanation. But we live in a world of algorithms so I really don't know what went on with the camera. When I processed the image I increased the Gamma to balance the colors, but otherwise it is what it is.
