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.

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...

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.

The California Coastline

The rocks of Sunset Cliffs lit up at sunset.

Califonia's Coastline with the Pacific Ocean stretchs on for an amazing 840 miles. This new gallery on my site, approriately titled "California Coastline," is dedicated to documenting my exploration of this fascinating area.

This image is from Sunset Cliffs, just south of Ocean Beach, just before sunset. As the sun gets low in the sky, the almost sideways rays of light cast a warm golden glow on the sandstone of these cliffs. The tidepools in the foreground held just enough water between waves to reflect the blue sky and clouds from above.

I estimate that I've now explored at least 3 miles of coastline, and with only 837 more to go this gallery is sure to keep growing!