Grandmother Rock bears witness to yet another impressive sunset at Trinidad Beach, just north of Eureka, California. First image in a series made during this evening! 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/349703097...
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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 21
1/4-second exposure @F11
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.6 angled from 8am-2pm
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
ISO 50
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Keen water shoes
Last weekend, it looked like the week ahead would be unusually stormy for Late April in California. Usually we are dry until November. So I headed north on Monday from my place just east of San Francisco do do a little shooting. I heard about Trinidad State Beach from a co-worker and what I saw on Google Earth looked impressive, so I found a place to stay nearby for the entire week. I wanted to make sure that I had several chances for good light at sunset.
Also, in addition to the US National Weather Service satellite images that I use,
www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/satl.php
I find the California Coastal Records Project website to be the best way to figure out how to get to the places I want to go:
www.californiacoastline.org/
(Be careful or you will spend several hours looking at every foot of the California coast!)
So anyway, on Friday an impressive storm (for this time of year) was heading to the coast. It rained hard all day but I watched the satellite photos all day and the final front looked like it may pass overhead right at sunset. Of course, if it was was 1/2 hour too late, my planned shoot would be doomed.
I headed to my planned beach, and 30 minutes before sunset, I could see a thin line of clearing way out over the ocean, and it was headed my way. Would it reach me by sunset? Then it started to rain heavily and some fog dropped the visibility to a few hundred feet. The few people at the beach headed home. But I knew that the frontal edge was hiding in the mist.
So I headed out onto the beach in the driving rain with my umbrella hoping for the best. I could see hints of light appearing in the fast-moving clouds so I ran across the beach as fast as I could, looking down to avoid the waves. When I got to my spot, the rain was ending and I looked up and I was literally shocked at what I saw in the sky. Brooding mammatus clouds, multiple cloud decks, you name it. I have never seen anything like this in my life!
I got the camera ready and was actually nervous that I would not be able to record this event! I took a few shots and realized that the focus ring had moved while I was fiddling around. Fortunately I noticed or my whole series might have been lost. And I have never shot a series of photos like this.
It was high tide but I wanted reflections so it was extra hard to hold the umbrella while chasing the wet sand from the previous wave. But the reflections really add to the overall effect.
So here is the first image of many!
The map shows exactly where this is.
See my profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
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Tags: Trinidad California Humboldt sunset clouds mammatus rock tree forest sand beach storm travel landscape seascape 5d canon canon 5d mk II grandmother rock wallpaper wave sea ocean pacific coast SearchTheBest nature water interestingness moonstone beach moonstone 17-40L PhotoContest-TNC10
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About 10 minutes after my last upload, I saw this at Trinidad Beach, just north of Eureka, California! High tide. Still raining. 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/351518133...
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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 29
1/4-second exposure @F11
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.6
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
ISO 100
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Keen water shoes
See my last upload for the trials and tribulations of getting to this spot at this time.
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3497030979
So, as the sunset continued, the colors continued to look totally unreal to my eye. I can't say I've really seen the sky like this. Usually when I get home and process the images, I can remember what it looked like and make sure the picture looks that way, but here I knew that I would not remember. So after each shot, I'd look at the viewfinder and then at the sky, to compare the two. The viewfinder looked very similar to the scene before me. Often, it looks much more flat and color-less. So when I got home, I had to look at the viewfinder in order to process this series. I really had no reference to go by!
It was getting a bit darker, so I bumped the ISO up to 100 to keep the 1/4-second exposure time that I like when I want to shoot a breaking wave moving at this speed. I've found that anywhere from 1/8-3/8-second exposures show waves at their best. Not always though. Slow moving water can look good at 1/2-second or longer if it is all moving in the same direction.
So, I noticed how much I liked the occasional wave strike on the rock, so I moved over to have the rock be right in front of the background island for extra contrast. Then I took several shots as the waves would strike until finally I got one with the sand in a good reflective state.
After this, I put on my very dark 10-stop Hoya ndx-400 circular filter for some long-exposure action while the sky was still full of color. No more waiting for things to get dark before going for a long-exposure now!
The map shows exactly where this is.
See my profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
.
Tags: trinidad california humboldt cloud sky ocean sea sunset wave rock 5d canon mk II surf eureka beach sand reflection travel landscape seascape wallpaper SearchTheBest FrHwoFavs nature water interestingness moonstone beach moonstone 17-40L PhotoContest-TNC09 bestwishes-TNC09 PhotoContest-TNC10
© All Rights Reserved
Oct 20, 2010, look for this photo in the next Nature's Best Photography Magazine as an honorable mention in the Windland Smith Rice Awards, Ocean's category!
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
It is amazing what cloud layers moving in different directions for three minutes can do to a sky! 10-Stop circular ND. No HDR! Trinidad Beach, just north of Eureka, California! High tide.
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/353625805...
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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 20
3-Minute exposure @F11
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.6
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
Hoya ndx400 (10-stop) very dark circular ND filter, very little vignetting @20mm wide!
ISO 200 (I had to bump up the ISO to keep it at 3 minutes)
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Bare feet (soft sand)
See my first upload of the series for the trials and tribulations of getting to this spot at this time.
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3497030979
So, as the sunset continued on, the colors became more intense. I usually wait to go for the long exposure once it is too dark for my shorter ones, but I have my new 10-stop filter so I have to give it a go. So why not use it while there is still good light in the sky? This exposure started about 5 minutes before sunset. The lower layer of cloud was moving one way while the higher clouds were moving another way. I had no idea it would turn out like this. I like the long streaks from a long exposure, but here, a streak would begin and then get erased by another cloud moving in to block it. The higher layer had all the colors, so the lower clouds would stop the streaks of colors. I'm going to experiment with crossing cloud layers more, now that I see what they do.
It was getting a bit darker, so I bumped the ISO up to 200 because my usual ISO 50 would have meant a 10 minute exposure perhaps. I studied where the waves broke on average, so I would know where to put the tripod so that over 3 minutes, a reflection would be visible.
I knew that in order to get reflections, I'd have to get hit many times by waves, so before starting the exposure I dug the tripod into the sand about 1 foot and let a few wave cycles wash through to stabilze the tripod. The full res image is totally sharp.
The map shows exactly where this is.
See my profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
.
Tags: ocean sea wave beach sand rock sky sunset seascape landscape california eureka trinidad humboldt grandmother rock cloud 5d canon mkII surf reflection travel nature water interestingness 17-40L wallpaper moonstone beach PhotoContest-TNC10
© All Rights Reserved
The spacecraft hovered over the... erm... I mean..A swirling vortex of clouds moved in and was off the right side of the frame in about 5 minutes! When I saw this in my RAW editor, it just didn't seem possible. So in order to process it accurately, I had to look at it in the back of my camera. 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/355691064...
Also, 2009/06/03: The photo below is a winner in the 2009 Nature's Best Ocean Views competition.
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/2925429309/
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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 17
1.4-second exposure @F11
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.6
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
ISO 50
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Bare feet (soft sand)
See my first upload of the series for the trials and tribulations of getting to this spot at this time.
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3497030979
Just before my last upload, I could not believe my eyes as the light reflected off the bottom layer of clouds and up into underside of the top layer. And then light came through the 'eye' of this cyclonic thing. I felt like I was wintessing an historical event rather than just a nice sunset. The colors remained rather subdued but the drama was incredible.
I made sure to get the sand at it's most reflective moment. It was high tide so it dried up in just a few seconds. Timing was everything. So I had to keep running around and planting the tripod in the wettest sand just after a wave would hit a particular spot. I'm glad nobody was watching because they would probably think; "This guy just can't seem to make up his mind!"
The map shows exactly where this is.
See my profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
.
Tags: ocean sea wave beach sand rock sky sunset seascape landscape california eureka trinidad humboldt grandmother rock moonstone cloud 5d canon mkII surf reflection travel wallpaper nature water interestingness 17-40L Holidays-Vacanze-Urlaub art
© All Rights Reserved
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...
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Settings etc.:
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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.
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Tags: ocean sea wave beach sand rock sky sunset seascape landscape california eureka trinidad humboldt grandmother rock camel rock luffenholtz vacaton travel
© All Rights Reserved