Pastel Beach

After sunset at Torrey Pines State Beach

It's been just over a month since my last update and I promised back in May I that these types of lapses wouldn't happen, so I apologize! It has been a busy summer to say the least and we've had less than stellar weather for photography. San Diego's marine layer has persisted far deeper into the summer months than it normally does, more or less erasing any chance of sunrise and sunset (when the light for landscapes is at it's absolute best).

Towards the end of last week I started seeing far more clear sky in the evenings and checked Friday's forecast. The cloud cover was predicted to be about 8% at the coast and, with a high tide near sunset, I couldn't resist the call of the surf anymore. After work Friday I grabbed my camera and set out for Torrey Pines State Beach. You may remember this image, also taken at Torrey Pines State Beach, but at low tide.

When I arrived, I found total cloud cover. Absolute, 100%, not an inch of open sky overhead cloud cover. I had to fight the urge to turn right around and head home, but I convinced myself that getting some sand between my toes and going for a walk on the beach with my camera bag & tripod could count my exercise for the week. I hiked to the far end of the beach and was rewarded for my troubles with this scene on my walk back.

With the heavy cloud cover moving off to sea as if it was following the sun (it can be seen above the horizon on the left side of the image), the sky took on a pinkish glow which was reflected by the wet sand as the waves receded. I had to scramble to find an interesting foreground subject as most of the rocks in the area were underwater with the high tide. When I came across this rock, with the wet sand sweeping over top of it I had just a few moments to capture the scene before the glow in the sky faded.

Sometimes you just have to stick it out and get your toes in the sand...

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.

Layers

Layers

This is probably the last of the erosion inspired images for a little bit. I know, I know, you're all thankful and want to see the sunset images I created while using the Chris Skopec Homemade Custom Camera Water Proof Housing (patent pending) and those are coming, I promise!

Near the bottom of this image, you can see the Swirlstone from the previous post. I was drawn to both the form of the swirl and the surrounding layers. Those above don't show the same twisting deformation and those below show only a slight curve. Also noticeable is the effect of erosion on the texture of the stone. The Swirlstone marks the top of an outcropping of sandstone, if you look closely you should see the edge all the way across the image. Judging by the textures alone, it's a relatively safe assumption that the smooth stone of the outcropping gets some regular attention from the waves while the water rarely reaches the much rougher rock above.

As in the previous image, the late evening, low angle sunlight set this stone a glow and I actually had to desaturate the colors a touch to keep the image realistic looking.

Swirlstone

The Swirlstone variant of Sandstone

As a follow up to last week's Grains of Sand image post, I offer another image showing the finer details brought to light by the forces of erosion. On the surface, this image speaks more of the process of sedimentation and how the sandstone was created and subsequently twisted. However, without the effects of erosion to remove the rock above and around this twisted knot of stone, we would probably never see it.

Here, the sandstone's regular, warm tone has been enhanced by the late evening light as the sun was beginning to set. The light in the late evening "Magic Hour" adds a warm glow and enhances the stone's texture. Scenes like this abound along the California Coastline as the ocean has cut into the bordering rock surface exposing the details of the relatively soft rock. Up until this particular evening, most of my attention while at the coast has been focused out over the ocean waiting for the sun to dip to just the right angle but this image is a healthy reminder that I shouldn't ignore the good light and scenery behind me.

Grains of Sand

Grains of Sand on a sandstone ledge.

Here's something a little different for me, a macro (almost) image. My eye, at the moment, seems trained to see the grand sweeping expanse of the landscape and I often miss these smaller scene that can be found by getting up close to the details. And in fact I really just chanced upon this view down at La Jolla Cove a few nights ago.

The La Jolla area coastline is composed almost entirely of sandstone in various stages of erosion. Steep vertical cliffs drop into the ocean or give way to small, course-grained sand beaches while other areas, as seen in my previously image,  feature an expanse of wave polished rocks extending some distance out into the ocean.

While waiting for sunset, leaning against one of the areas sandstone cliffs with my feet firmly planted in the warm sand, I looked to my right to find these small grains of sand perched on a small ledge and lighting up in the late afternoon sun. The majority of my lenses are better suited for the wide vistas my eye favors, but my 50mm prime lens allows for super close focusing so I was able to get almost right on top of these grains of sand and still have them in sharp focus. Such a close focus creates a razor thin depth of field (the area of the image in focus) allowing the textures of the sandstone to melt away into a pleasing, golden blur.

I've yet to find a better illustration of Elegant Erosion than these grains of sand resting on a ledge they were most probably a part of not too long ago.

Last shot of the Day

Last Light at La Jolla Cove

After nearly 2 months of not taking any new photos because of various other projects, I've been down at the coast three times in the last week. Now that some other projects are done (or at least done for now) I can get back to having some fun.

The first two nights, last Thursday and last Saturday nights, were both something of a bust. I haven't looked through the complete catalog of images from those two nights and may very well find some compelling images, but neither night had a true sunset. On Thursday, the sun dipped behind some low lying clouds our over the ocean just before sunset and on Saturday it never even had a chance with near total cloud cover at the coast from late afternoon on. When photographing the landscape, you're really counting on Mother Nature to do the lighting for you and when she decides to end the show early, there's not much you can do about it except go home and try again another night.

And try again I did! Last night more than made up for the previous two nights. I headed down to La Jolla Cove where a high tide about twenty minutes after sunset meant the full power of the ocean was coming straight at me for much of the night. And though there was a sizable cloud bank out over the ocean, it was still small enough to let the post-sunset glow show through.

High tide here at La Jolla Cove is a dangerous time, both for camera and person. The splash of the waves can wreak havoc with a digital camera if proper precautions aren't taken (I fashioned a "dry suit" for my camera and lens out of a one gallon Ziploc bag. Worked like a charm!) and this rock under foot, even though it's sandstone, has very little texture to it after countless years of abuse by the sea. I opted to go barefoot while out there as my feet offered better traction on the rocks than my sandals.

This particular shot is out of order. It's the last photograph of the night from last night. It's a thirty second exposure taken about twenty minutes after sunset and just a split second before a large wave crashed down on my location almost knocking my tripod over. I saw the wave coming in and had appropriately braced myself for the wave, but going from mostly dry to knee deep in a split second was enough to tell me that it was time to get out of the way before the waves got any more intense. Thus I present to you this last photograph of the night as a Badge of Honor that my camera and I made it out safely!

Soft Light, Soft Water

Long exposure after sunset, looking at the Ocean Beach Pier.

I love long exposures! There's a bit of mystery in long exposures as you can never tell exactly what you're going to end up with. You can guess and try to envision the effects of the increased exposure time, but you'll never know for sure until you see it on you LCD screen after the shutter closes.

Case in point, this photo was a 30 second exposure about 30 minutes after sunset. It was taken the same night as End of the Day and the image for 12 Minutes Makes a World of Difference, back in mid-April. As I set up for the shot, the sky was already a deep dark blue, edging quickly towards black but I knew the long exposure time would allow my camera's sensor to pick up the last remaining bits of color in the sky. What I didn't know was that I would end up with such nice, soft pastel colors in the sky.

I also expected the waves would be smoothed out quite a bit. My hope was that I wouldn't lose all definition in the ocean, but I couldn't have predicted the reflection of the pier's lights on the smoothed out waves. The reflections of the lights wasn't apparent to the naked eye that night, probably because of the motion of the waves, but once the motion was taken out of the equation, those reflections were allowed to shine.

Coastal Rocks/Wave Explosion Combo |B&W|

The previous 2 images combined.

This image is a combination of the previous two shots. Still no interesting sky, but since the exposures and black & white treatment were identical, it was easy to combine them and use the best of both for one image.

 

According to some folks, this photo is a lie or at least cheating.  I would argue that I didn't create unnatural circumstances in this image and therefore have not cheated and since I'm writing about it, clearly not lying either. Both parts are realistic and this particular image probably occurs naturally. I couldn't capture it in one image when I was there because the waves weren't coming in fast enough. By the time a wave was coming ashore, the previous one had already dried out, leaving no reflections.

 

In the end, whether it's cheating or not, I think the resulting image is greater than the sum of its parts!

Wave Explosion |B&W|

An "exploding" wave.

Last Friday's photo and this photo came just seconds apart at Crystal Cove State Beach/Park. Both were shot about a half hour before and 180 degrees from my Sunset at Mordor Beach image.

These rocks were lit up with a nice warm, golden glow as the sun set behind me, unfortunately the sky was a flat grey due to the cloud cover. Much of our day here at the coast had been overcast with uninteresting skies and despite my previous follies with black & white images (as mentioned in my last post), I planned for these images to be black & white. Or at least solid attempts at it.

Since the sky was so uninteresting in this direction, I slowed down my shutter speed to catch the motion of the waves and create an interesting element in the foreground to draw attention away from the sky. In the previous image, shot as a wave receded, you can make out the reflection of the rocks in the wet foreground sand. In this image, the next incoming wave hit the smaller rocks with a good amount of force. The slower shutter speed caught the full "explosion" of water created by the wave slamming into the rock.

Both images can be found in my Just Black & White gallery.

Coastal Rocks |B&W|

Coastal rocks at Crystal Cove

I don't create a lot of black and white images. There I said it. And if you want proof, take a look at my Just Black & White gallery. (I know, I need to work on the title for that one. It's not very imaginative is it?) There's only 6 images in there. And while there may be a few others floating around my site that need to be included in this gallery, that only works out to 8 or 9 images out of the nearly 500 up for public viewing!

The reason? I'm still trying to figure out how to do it. "But black & white imagery has been around forever! What are you trying to figure out?!" I hear you asking. Well, even though black & white is where photography started, that doesn't mean it's easy and it all boils down to color theory and the contrast between different colors. What shade of gray should this blue be? How about that blue? And this red over here, what should that look like? It's all subjective and entirely up to me to decide when making the conversion.

Photoshop offers a myriad of tools for creating monochrome magic (new gallery title?!) and each allows you to precisely control what shade of gray individual colors should be. And that's part of the problem for me. There are just too many options and I would much rather be out taking photos on a nice day then experimenting in Photoshop.

This image is the result of a fairly quick and easy method I recently invented (and by invented I mean, I thought about trying it only to discover it's been around and on the internet for quite some time now). After checking the various color channels, I found the red channel in the RGB spectrum held the best looking image and deleted the green and blue channels, resulting in a monochrome representation of the information held in the red channel. A contrast adjustment, some sharpening and a little dodging to further improve contrast and the image was done.  For such a simple process, the results are rather nice, if I do say so myself!

Sorry to bore you all with the technical talk, more information about the location will be in my next update.

12 Minutes Makes a World of Difference

Just after sunset at Ocean Beach

Taken just 12 short minutes after the image in my last post, End of the Day, this image has a completely different look to it. With the sun now completely below the horizon, what was a 1 second exposure for End of the Day became an 8 second exposure for this image.

The added exposure time allowed the waves to blur even more than the previous image. At this exposure length, the majority of the waves and motion in the water has been smoothed out and is nearly unrecognizable. The effect is somewhere in between the two points where I'd like it to be. In End of the Day, the waves show quite a bit of motion blur but still hold definition. At the other end of the spectrum is Only One Way Out, an older image that shows the effect of a 7 minute (yup, minute!!) exposure. The water is completely smoothed out and lacks any real definition. Those two extremes are where I'd typically like the water to be in all of my images.

However, I don't mind the in between look in this image because this image is more about the different conditions in such a short amount of time after the last one. Notice the sky color, no longer a golden, burning orange. With the sun now well below the horizon the sky has picked up a nice pinkish glow. Also notice the rocks in the foreground. They aren't the exact same rocks, of course, as I moved and found a new composition in those 12 minutes, but look at the difference in the color of the rocks. In the previous image they glow and reflect the sky's golden orange. These rocks, without the direct angular sunlight, look much more menacing and uninviting.

While this image is quite a bit colder and may not be as "pretty" as the previous one, I propose that it is no less interesting. It's amazing how much a scene can change in just 12 minutes...

End of The Day

End of the Day - Sunset at Ocean Beach

I shot this image about a week and a half ago on the first evening my friend Jay was in town. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Southbeach so Jay could try their legendary fish tacos then took the short walk to the beach to shoot the sunset.

The beach part of Ocean Beach isn't much to write home about photographically speaking. It's more or less just a sandy beach. But just a bit south of the pier, the beach quickly turns to pock-marked sandstone. That's good news for a couple photographers looking for interesting foreground subject matter. With the sun low in the sky, the sandstone picks up an amazing golden glow. When the sun is very low (as it is in the image on the right), only the top ridges pick up that glow, creating an interesting contrast between the lit up ridges and the rest of the rock.

This is a single image, no multiple exposures or blending or even Photoshop trickery. What you see here is largely what came out of my camera. I achieved this single exposure by using my graduated neutral density filter along with a graduated blue filter. Placing the darker regions of the filters over the sky allowed me to effectively darken the sky enough to capture the sky and relatively dark foreground all in one exposure. Typically, only the graduated neutral density filter would be used for this purpose, however I've found that no matter how "neutral" the filter is supposed to be, there is still a noticeable color shift when using it. The blue graduated filter doesn't reduce the exposure by much, but it does tend to shift the colors back towards reality.

Reducing the exposure for the sky, meant using a longer shutter speed to get the proper exposure. That's something I see as a happy side effect, especially along the coast. With a quick shutter speed, the water is frozen in place, but the longer exposure allows the water to show its motion. The wispy, flowing water shown is the result of longer exposure and begins to hint at the forces of nature that shape this part of the California coast.

Sunset at Mordor Beach

It's really Crystal Cove State Park

OK, so I didn't really travel to Mordor for this shot. Not only is it a dangerous place, but it's also quite fictional. Once of the first images that really WOW'd me when I first picked up my interest in photography was a beach scene with a large, prominent rock in the foreground, misty waves and fiery sunset sky. Maybe I had just watched Lord of the Rings for the hundredth time on TBS, but the instant I saw it I thought, "That looks like Mordor Beach!" Forget for just a minute that you never actually see a beach in Mordor in any of the movies. Suspend your disbelief!! If there had been a beach in Mordor, it probably would look a lot like that image all day long. When I first saw this capture on the LCD on the back of my camera, I instantly thought, "Mordor Beach! I have found you!" And while I'm not going to discuss whether I like my image better than the one I remember seeing so long ago, if Mordor had a beach, I imagine it would look very much like this!

This image was actually taken at Crystal Cove State Park near Laguna Beach. I had heard and seen good things about the Laguna Beach area, but had never had the chance to visit until last week when my friend Jay was in town to do some photography. We arrived early and did our best to scout out some locations prior to sunset even though there was heavy cloud cover and little chance of seeing a sunset through it all. The beach has a literal treasure trove of photographic opportunities. Everywhere you look, enormous rocks jut upwards from the sand just begging to be included as a dramatic, striking foreground.

This image can be found in my California Coastline gallery.

Torrey Pines State Beach - Low Tide

Coastal Rock formation at Torrey Pines State Beach

Torrey Pines State Beach and its neighboring State Reserve are quickly becoming a couple of my favorite spots for photography. Just a quick 10 minute drive from home, these parks offer some gorgeous landscapes just begging to be photographed. Every time I visit, something new catches my eye.

On this particular visit, back in early January of this year, I planned my arrival with an extremely low tide associated with that night's full moon. Most days, even at low tide, these rocks are hidden beneath the waves and the beach is an idyllic, gently sloping sandy beach. Only on very low tides do these rocks emerge from the depths.

Fortunately, the tide stayed out long enough to capture these rocks with glowing sunset in the background. In actuality, this shot is from several minutes after sunset. Generally the best sunset colors can be found once the sun is already below the horizon, and this day was no exception.

This shot, along with being a current favorite of mine, was the inspiration behind a new series entitled Elegant Erosion. The series is intended to look at the benefits and beauty of erosion as opposed to its current negative connotations.

Under the Scripps Pier in La Jolla

Under Scripps Pier at night

A recent favorite of mine, this image was taken at La Jolla Shores, under the Scripps Pier and can be found in my ever growing California Coastline gallery. It is actually 3 images stitched together. My current gear doesn't allow me to capture an ultra-wide angle of view, so a relatively small space like under this particular pier is hard to capture in it's entirety with one single shot. (And the gear needed for that runs in the thousands!)

I waited for just the right wave to come in and recede before taking the first shot (bottom of the image). The little bit of water left as the wave receded gave me that nice reflection in the foreground. Once that was in place, I just tilted the camera up a little, took the second image and repeated for the third (top) image. Photoshop did an excellent job of stitching the 3 images together for me, but I had to go in and manually correct some perspective distortion that resulted in the camera being tilted upwards.

High Tide at La Jolla Cove

Waves crashing on the rocky shore at La Jolla Cove

Tides are good for business. That is, if your business is photographing the coast. Particularly good when it's a very low or very high tide at sunset. In between tides and even normal high or low tides are average at best, photographically speaking. Even at sunset, they lack drama or uniqueness because they are so common. But the extremely low and high tides associated with the full moon are another beast all together. During extremely low tides reveal rocks formally hidden beneath the waves and the high tides bring waves that batter the coast with a brutal intensity.

This image, from my California Coastline gallery, was taken during high tide at La Jolla Cove. While these coastal rocks normally do get wet during an average high tide, the extreme high tide brought an energy I had yet to see here. To shoot this image, I chose a slow shutter speed, to allow the crashing waves to blur and show their movement and energy. This technique is not an exact science and I've found the best way to bring home a great image is to choose a composition, then choose the shutter speed that allows for the best movement in the waves and finally to just lock the shutter down for a while. The result is normally quite a few similar photos to sift through, but the payoff of finding that one image with just the right wave splash in it is more than worth it!

After Dark - Sunset Cliffs

Only One Way Out - Stairs up from the coast, well after sunset

Amazing things happen after night fall. This new image is from a set entitled After Dark, that strives to document the look of the world once the sun goes down.

With very low light, an After Dark scene demands a long shutter speed to capture the details. This particular scene, from the foot of the staircase leading to the beach at Sunset Cliffs, required a 7 minute exposure (you read that right SEVEN minutes!) and was taken about 2 hours after sunset.

It was a full moon night, and I believe that added to the surreal pink clouds and purple sky, but a large cliff directly behind the camera blocked any of the moonlight from hitting the rocks or staircase. The light falling on those foreground objects is from a well placed, but far off, street light. So far off in fact that to the naked eye, it doesn't appear to be adding any light to the scene, but after 7 minutes of adding up, it's clear the light is on at least the railings of the staircase.

A few more After Dark images can be seen in this gallery.

Joshua Tree National Park

A Joshua Tree at night, lit by a nearby campfire.

A couple weekends ago I made my first visit to Joshua Tree National Park and it won't be my last. These trees are amazingly cool looking. The dry, high desert climate these trees inhabit shapes them into truly unique beings. After the first year, when they grow about 5 inches, Joshua trees only grow a half inch a year, making the tree shown to the right here several hundreds of years old. For a Joshua Tree to bloom in the spring, it needs to have at least a brief freezing cold spell during the winter, and remember it's a desert area.

The tree shown in the photo to the right was just on the edge of our campsite and on this night, it was illuminated entirely by our campfire. The image was taken long after sunset as my girlfriend and I relaxed from a long day of hiking around the park. Conditions weren't right to create an image of star trails circling the top of this particular tree, so I opted to isolate it against the dark sky instead. By using a medium size aperture, f/8, and a relatively fast shutter, I was able to get a black sky with very few stars showing up. The couple that did show up looked more like mistakes than reality and were edited out.

Hand in hand with the unique trees, the park also houses some very unique geological features. The soft sandstone that composes much of the exposed rock in the park has been eroded into immense boulders pock-marked with interesting features.

Yosemite National Park

A Giant Seqouia in Mariposa Grove

Back in September I left home on an almost two week journey that brought me to Yosemite National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Lava Beds National Monument and Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was quite a journey and there's no better way to learn your camera than getting out to use it!

That's exactly what the trip was for. With the exception of 3 days while I was visiting family in Washington state, I was out in the field with my camera every day for those two weeks. It was really an awesome experience and if I hadn't used all my vacation time up for it, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

I took nearly 6,000 photos over the course of the trip, and now I can safely say, that's entirely too many. It was good for the learning process, but bad for the processing process. Since I have my camera set to save images in the Raw format, I need to process each image before it's ready for public consumption. Luckily there were quite a few overlapping images of the same subject but with different camera settings, so I was able to pick the best of each bunch and process those.

Yosemite has a number of Giant Seqouia groves. The most accessible for me on this trip (since it was nearby my campsite) was the Mariposa Grove at the southern tip of the park. My camera bag currently lacks an ultra-wide angle lens so it was difficult to capture the full majesty of these enormous trees. That didn't keep me from trying however, and I think this image as the late afternoon sun lit up the tree's bark, comes close.