Setting up the shot
I haven’t done a sunset shot in a long time, at least it feels like it to me. This was this past Saturday’s sunset at La Jolla shores, I took a stroll down to the beach just to enjoy the warm days as they haven’t left Southern California yet. I was wrapping up my shots for the day and I saw this photographer working with a couple and trying to setup the shot for them; I decided to take a picture of them 🙂
If you’d like to buy a print of the image above click here or on the image itself
PB Pier
An image of Pacific Beach’s Pier in San Diego. This is the unique Pier where its also a hotel for the closer portion of the pier; its a bunch of chalets on the outer edge while the pathway down the middle is open to the public. The remainder of the Pier is just a walkway for the public as the chalets end at one point. You can see the entrance here, check it out its quite funky 🙂
Reflecting Back
When the water recedes around sunset, it creates a nice glare on the sand that makes it act like a mirror. I tried to get the seagull to look right though the lens but it wanted to keep a safe distance from me, so I ended up taking an image of it reflecting back 🙂 This was taken back at La Jolla Shores.
Sunset & Algae
I took this image over a year ago while walking around La Jolla Cove. Right around sunset, I walked down to the rocks as close I could without being on top of the algae as its very slippery; the tripod slides all over it. If you look all around the algae there is distinct ring of water as they absorb quite a bit of it. Not much more to say that I hope you like the colorful show 🙂
To the edge
It appears as if this path leads you all the way to the edge of the cliff, but that’s just an illusion created by using a wide angle lens which makes the background look further and in essence smaller. If you look really closely at the bottom of the path you’ll see that it’s blocked off by a rope and you have to go to the left. This was taken at Torrey Pines around sunset when the Marine layers just came out in full force hence ruining any great sunset opportunities! I had to work with the elements of that day 🙂
Flying by
This long exposure was taken at Torrey Pines State Reserve overlooking Torrey Pines Rd. I took this shot just past sunset, which is one of the few times that you can have the streaking effect with a well lit scene without the use of any ND (Neutral Density) filters. The long shutter speed allows enough ambient light to register on the sensor to produce a normally lit scene while all the moving objects (cars) create the streaking effect.
Even though I wasn’t really going for it, I really like how the Marine layer effect was captured. If you look at the cliffs on the right, that haze is a Marine layer, which is caused by warm air hitting the cool ocean surface. Marine Layers are much closer to sea level (only a few feet high), in person they are a lot easier to tell from a cloud.
La Jolla Shores
A beautiful way to end the work week at La Jolla shores, not sure what it is about sunsets but they really do have a calming effect. A few minutes prior to this the lifeguards had announced that the beach was closing and that people should start leaving the water, and thats why you see all these people running out.
La Jolla Cove Sunset
One of favorite images of all time, its also one of my most popular on flickr. Just thought I’d add it to my blog.
Sunset between the Americas
Canon EOS 5D MkII, EF 16-35 f/2.8L @ 16 mm, f/8.0 , ISO 160
I don’t know why but the shape of the clouds looks like the American continents me! The sun is setting right where Mexico is 🙂
Special Education
Canon EOS 5D MkII, EF 16-35 f/2.8L II @ 16 mm , f/16, ISO 200
Continuing with my series of shots from UCSD, this will probably be the best image I produce out of that photowalk. I still can’t believe that this what UCSD students have to deal with, its true that the scenery is gorgeous but lets be honest, I don’t think I could’ve passed anything if I had the ocean this close to me! Since I’m using a wide angle lens here the far looks a lot further than it really is, the beach was literally a 3 minute walk down. Needless to say its a great campus to just walk around on a beautiful day.
On more a technical side, I went with a really small aperture to emphasize the sunburst effect and keep most of my scene in focus.
Technical:
– 6 RAW Images [-3,-2,-1,0,+1,+2 EV] merged into Photomatix 4
– Lightroom adjustments
– Topaz Adjust on the whole image and set opacity to 50%
– More Lightroom adjustments
Empty Gazebo
Its rare that this gazebo is empty at La Jolla, specially around sunset. I was lucky enough to have a few minutes to take these brackets because shortly after it got occupied as it always does
Technical:
– 3 Handheld RAW images [-2,0,+2 EV] processed in Photomatix 4
– Topaz Adjust was applied to the entire image
– Noise removal was applied to the whole image
– Minor adjustments in Lightroom
Seperated
Canon EOS 5D Mk II, EF 16-35 f/2.8LII @ 27mm , f/9.0 , ISO 200
This was taken at the Laguna Beach lawn bowling club. Even though I don’t understand the game I really appreciate how well maintained the grass is, its just so pretty! I’m really focusing more on composition these days and I thought this was really neet:
– You have the electric box in the bottom right as anchor for the image
– You eyes will guide you through the benches all the way to the Palm tree the splits the two courts, its actually not right down the middle but I tried to move around a few millimeters to help create that effect
– Finally the Palm tree off center to the left balances the electric box in the right.
I really didn’t like the cropped tree on the left but it is what it is… does this work? you like it? feedback is always welcome.
Technical:
– 3 Raw Images [-2,0,+2 EV] handheld and merged into Photomatix
– Adjustments in LR3 to bring more contrast into the pictures… the HDR process produced quite a flat image for me!
– Noise reduction in PS3 with Topaz Adjust filter set at 40% opacity <– This is a trick that I just picked up recently and its done wonders for me… just never thought of it!!
– One last adjustment in LR3 to bring back some of the shadows.
2 Rivers Photos 