Sometimes when you are doing landscape photography, something will appear that becomes your unanticipated focal point. You may not have much time so be ready for it! No HDR.
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/408131687...
---------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
---------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D mkII
Canon 17-40L @ 40
0.2-second exposure @F14
1/2 hour before sunset
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.75
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer.
ISO 50
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
As I was walking down the beach looking at the scenery and cloud patterns, I saw two beams of light appear in the sky. So I ran down the beach until I saw two rocks to complement the rays. Placing the rays over the rocks did not look right, so I moved to the left to give some space between the rocks and the rays. It is almost like the two main rocks are like Easter Island heads watching the rays. I made sure to include lots of sand ripples in this image.
I was hoping for the small holes in the clouds to open up, but I was not sure that it would happen. So it was a bit of a surprise. I could have just stayed where I was when the spotlights appeared, but the rest of the scene was rather boring. So I risked the spotlights going away in exchange for a chance at something better. I must admit that I should have had the foreground composition ready to go just in case the sky opened up but I got distracted by the reflections in the sand and was not paying attention! So, I really had to run quite a ways down the beach and a barely got there in time.
If you snooze, you lose... unless you can run for long distances!
The map shows exactly where this is.
See
my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.
