Waves in the Trees

Eucalyptus Grove Abstract

Another abstract image from a few nights ago at Lake Miramar. The goal of the night was to come away with an image that could be used in the Stripes photo challenge I mentioned in my last post, but the very nature of this type of shooting is unpredictable.

I shot a few hundred frames that evening, doing my absolute best to only move the camera straight up and down while the shutter was open. However, as evidenced by this image, I wasn't always successful staying in a straight line. Many of those images were deleted right away when I saw them on my computer screen, but the gentle side-to-side motion in this one created a nice rhythmic feeling for me, almost like there were waves in the trees.

Natural Stripes

Natural Stripes

When I've got the time (or a unique idea) I try to participate in DGrin.com's photography challenges and when the newest one, "Stripes," was announced I saw it as a perfect opportunity to expand on my Of an Abstract Nature gallery.

Once the idea struck me to create this type of abstract image, the challenge was to find a dense enough grove of trees to make it happen. That might not be a big challenge for many parts of the country, but here in San Diego, there just aren't a whole lot of groves of trees to choose from. Earlier in the week, I just happened to spot a number of eucalyptus trees along the side of the road on my way to the bank and knew they were the perfect subject for this shot. Their tall, slender trucks are generally uninterrupted by branches, allowing for better streaking, or in this case, more distinct stripes.

I returned a couple nights ago after work but just couldn't get the lighting or composition I wanted with the trees I had originally planned on. Luckily, Miramar Lake was less than a minute away. This reservoir had been on my "to visit" list for a while so even if the light wasn't great, I stopped by, planning to scout out the location for future shoots.

Just a couple hundred feet from the parking lot (good short distance because I'm out of shape and it was the hottest day of the year so far!) I found a tightly packed grove of eucalyptus trees squeezed in between the path and the edge of the lake. From the angle I was at, the late afternoon sun lit up only the left side of the trucks leaving the right side in shadow and further emphasizing the stripes created by the slow shutter speed and moving the camera vertically throughout the exposure.

La Jolla Cove Twilight Part 2

Twilight at La Jolla Cove

Another image from my night down at La Jolla Cove. This one was taken about 20 minutes after sunset.

I'm nearly running out of things to say about my photographs from this particular night but I think that's a pretty good problem to have, all things considered. If I came back with so many quality images that I can't think of enough to say about them every time I head out, I could safely quit my day job and start living off my photography. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy this little wave of quality images and wait for San Diego's June Gloom to finally clear up so I can get out to some new locations and take some new photos.

If you're a long time follower of my site here, you've seen these rocks before, a while back. You can see these rocks on the right had side, about mid-picture. Back in those days, I wasn't so adventurous with my camera in hand (I was really a good distance from the oncoming wave, just zoomed in a ways). Now, I just throw a plastic bag over the camera and scamper on out there for the shot! If the camera breaks, it's just a sign that it's time to upgrade...

Also available in Black & White, though I may revisit the conversion and make a few tweaks.

Sunset in Black and White

La Jolla Cove Sunset

Here's another photograph from the sunset on June 21st down at La Jolla Cove. I'm really milking this particular sunset for all it was worth. But with good reason.

This particular night was the best sunset I saw during the week and a half I was out trying to fill my memory cards with worthwhile images and when you find the right conditions, you've just got to go for it. Fill those memory cards and really take advantage of the good light when you've got it.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about this image called out to me for a black and white treatment. As I experiment more with the black and white medium, I suspect I'll have a better idea of what would and wouldn't look good in monochrome, but at the moment all I can really admit to is that I tried it, and I liked it!

And for the curious folks out there, I'm sorry I really don't know what the ridge that starts in the lower left corner is. I've inspected it a number of times and always left empty handed (minded?). In person, it appears that someone long ago embedded a metal pipe into the sandstone and left it to corrode in the salt water but I can't find an opening at either end that would indicate it truly is a long forgotten pipe. It's definitely of a different composition than the surrounding rock and has attracted a multitude of mollusks to it but beyond that I just don't know. It's probably for the best that I don't know. The continuing mystery will keep me coming back for more and hopefully that will mean some more evenings like this one!

La Jolla Cove Twilight

La Jolla Cove Twilight

Taken just 10 minutes after yesterday's sunset image, the mood of this photograph is dramatically different even though it's just a couple feet to the right. The light quickly changes around sunset and the sky begins to really glow during the half hour of twilight that begins once the sun is actually below the horizon.

The quickly changing light makes the time around sunset and twilight a very exciting (read that as frantic) time to photograph. As the last of the day's light fades away, the exposure times increase, I rush around trying to capture as many quality images as I can before the light is completely gone and often times my last exposure is several minutes long when the color on the horizon isn't even visible to the naked eye.

The majority of my images from this time of day showcase a number of educated guesses, especially at the coast. It takes time and experimentation to really begin to see just how the waves will look as they become flattened out over the long exposure. Even now I get surprised on occasion at just how awesome (or horrible) the waves in an image look after 10, 20 or 30+ seconds of  leaving the shutter open. Without much light on the foreground, it can be difficult to compose an image and I often have to recompose after seeing the preview on my camera's LCD after the first couple frames of a scene.

I've still got a few more to come from this evening at La Jolla Cove before we're back to where I started.

La Jolla Cove Sunset

Sunset at the Cove

As promised, I'll move on from the erosion themed images and get back to the photographs you all expect to see here on my site. Though it's difficult to photograph along the coast (especially with the soft sandstone coast we have here around San Diego) without seeing the effects of erosion, but like I said... moving on!

I captured this photograph as the sunset on the same evening as my previously posted Last Shot of the Day image, down at La Jolla Cove. It was taken about 40 minutes before the Last Shot, just when the sun was high enough to still create some interesting highlights in the foreground, yet low enough to begin lighting up the edges of the clouds.

In the short time the sun was at this perfect angle, I managed to capture several different compositions of this scene, but what set this one apart from the others are the leading lines. The various elements throughout the scene work to draw you into the sunset. The middle ground rocks point almost directly at the sun. The highlights on the rock contours in the foreground don't point right at it near the bottom of the frame, but if you follow them up, they eventually curve and point back towards the setting sun. Even the clouds in the upper corners keep your eye from drifting too far out of the image and direct you back towards the sun.

A common problem with large scenic photographs (and I'm sure a number of my previous works suffered from it) is that in a complex scene such as this, with so many different elements, it can be difficult to determine the subject of the image. Without a clear cut subject, your eye will "bounce" around looking for the subject and a place to settle for a little while. The leading lines and  elements of this image work to eliminate that problem and highlight the subject I intended.