Those who saw what happened rushed to help.
They clambered down the rocks to save a man they'd seen topple over Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, but it was too late.
The man, identified by the county medical examiner and by family members on Facebook as 33-year-old Joshua M. Burwell of Sheridan, Indiana, died.
As NBC San Diego reports, witnesses suggest that he may have stopped in a car to capture the sunset.
It's unclear whether the device in his hands might have been a camera or a phone. However, San Diego lifeguard Bill Bender told NBC: "[He] wasn't watching where he was walking. He was looking down at the device in his hands."