Sea

Moving water first inspired my photography and seascapes capture the ocean as it crashes onto our shores.

Fizzle Sizzle
Lava Entering Pacific Ocean Kalapana, Big Island, Hawaii In May I traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii for a week long vacation and there were 2 things I was most looking forward to: scuba diving with the Manta Rays and seeing hot scalding lava. The trip delivered everything and more! A lot of back and forth decisions finally led my friends and I to sign up for an evening lava tour with Kalapani Cultural Tours. The hike out to the lava wasn't too bad -- about 2 miles along mostly flat lava. Our guides LOVED to talk about the lava but unfortunately they couldn't seem to do it while we walked. We spent so much time stopped 'resting' that our arrival time started getting dangerously close to the best light. At first we came upon the surface flow -- where some of the lava had bubbled over and began to creep along the surface. After taking my picture 2 feet away from 2,000 degree lava I decided I wanted to go see the ocean flow. The lava conditions change every day. A lava bench that was around yesterday may have fallen off and will be completely gone the next morning. When I arrived there was no safe viewing spot close up to the lava. I had to stay far back, high on a cliff, and used the 80-200mm telephoto to get nice and intimate with the lava. On this evening the lava was flowing so fast that there was a TON of steam everywhere. More steam than I would have liked. As we watched 2 new streams of lava broke through the tube and made their way down into the ocean (you can see them on the far right of the photo). Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm: 145mm, f/6.3, 0.4 sec, ISO 800

Spotlight
SkyrocketSunset at Pfeiffer Beach Big Sur, California One of the coolest shots along the CA coast-line occurs during December/January every year: the sun just happens to set at just the right spot that a light-beam peeks through Pfeiffer Arch at Pfeiffer State Beach in Big Sur, CA. If the light beam happens to hit a splash of water it can also light up the spray. Willie, Celina, and I arrived about 2.5 hours prior to sunset to get the prime location. We heard a rumor that a workshop would be there and we wanted to beat them to the good spots. We were the firsts to arrive, picked the best composition that we could find and waited. About 45 minutes before sunset the light beam started to show up. At first it was just a faint beam but about 20 minutes before sunset it really started to glow orange and red. We waited for a large wave to come through the arch and create a lot of mist and spray which would catch in the light and make the beam visible. Luckily for us there was a strong surf and about 15 minutes before sunset the light beam just lit up like crazy. I snapped away as fast as I could to make sure I captured it. About 15 seconds later this large beam was gone. There continued to be beams all the way until about sunset but they were never as big as this one. Despite the fact that the D700 is supposed to have slightly better dynamic range than the Canon 5D Mark II, Willie kept getting great exposures all in 1 shot while I couldn't seem to avoid clipping if I exposed the rocks properly. In order to get this shot I had to expose one photo for the light beam and then a much darker exposure to capture the suns reflection off the splashes. I also blended a 3rd image in to keep the foreground rocks a bit sharper than the f/9 original exposure produced. My apologies to the people behind us who were hoping to get a shot of the entire Pfeiffer Arch (wide angle). We setup early so we could get our shot and we knew that the light would only get better and didn't want to lose our spot by moving. I guess it worked out because a bunch of other photographers ended up moving close to us and at that point there was no way the guy who wanted to shoot wide was going to get his shot :( Sorry again! Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 62mm, f/9, 1/10 sec, ISO 160, Tripod No filters, NOT an HDR

Sunsets' Gym
Sunset over Seastacks San Francisco, California COVID put a major damper on my photography plans for 2020. As I look back through my photos for the year it became clear that there weren't many new photos. A couple sunset outings to the coast, a few Redwoods trips (and *lots* of tree photos) ... the Comet ... a few drone pictures ... so when any chance to get away from our normal day, get out of the house, and take some photos is appreciated. Willie and I have been photographing the San Francisco Bay Area coastline for nearly 10 years now, so we've photography most or all of the popular beaches more times than we want to count. It's easy to grow tired of them, so when he suggested we explore an area we hadn't shot before, I was very excited. The beach is really only "epic" at a super low tide, which we had on this evening. On higher tides, the beach is under water and it's extremely hard to photograph the coastline. Escaype correctly predicted a beautiful sunset. The color was isolated to a band just above the horizon but it surely was beautiful. I had intended to photograph a different part of the beach but the scene looked further south and the colors weren't quite reaching that way, so I picked up and redirected the scene. I loved how the rocks and the seastacks make a triangular line that sucks the eye in. I used a slow shutter to add to the lines in the scene. And of course the orange-red reflected light on the rocks seals the deal. Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 0.6 sec, ISO 80

Drifting
DriftingSunset at Natural Bridges State Beach Santa Cruz, California The beginning of May 2012 greeted us with 3 straight days of beautiful sunsets. I almost missed all of them. On this particular morning I checked the weather forecast and saw that it was supposed to be completely clear and decided to leave my camera gear at home, rather than throwing it in the trunk of my car. Later in the evening, when I left work, I looked up to see beautiful clouds. Willie sent me a text message with the same thing: "Lets get to Santa Cruz, NOW!" Oops, I had no camera gear! Willie left for Santa Cruz, I raced home to get my gear, and we decided to meet at Natural Bridges State Beach. The sunset didn't look like it would light up any of the clouds over the typical Natural Bridges composition, the "bridge", but I found a nice piece of drift-wood to use as a foreground and waited for the waves to recede to create beautiful lines. As we waited the sky went from a dull gold, to absolutely beautiful oranges, and lastly some pinks and purples slowly crept in. An explosion of color at Natural Bridges! Both Willie and I went home very happy campers! At the end of the day I had 2 photos that I really liked. I decided to post one right away and saved this one for the archives, to post at a later date when everyone forgot about the first one! Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/9, ⅓ sec, ISO 250 HiTech 0.9 Reverse ND Grad

The Fire is Burning Bright
Sunset along the California Coast Santa Cruz, California "Now that the light is fading Silver and purple at twilight Scenes of the day remain with us Bright as the fire is burning bright Blue as the sky above the lake And blue the water flowing" -Maggie Rogers Just as I was trying to figure out what to title this photo, this song came on and it seemed like perfect inspiration as it captures this morning pretty perfectly! It's been a quiet year for me, photographically, as I haven't been out taking photos as much. The skies towards the end of the year started to explode and thanks to Escaype, I was able to get out on a number of occasions, this morning included. Willie and I arrived in Santa Cruz pretty early. The sky to the east was *burning* well before the sun even came up (we call this the "pre-burn"). It was purple for almost a full hour before sunrise. We walked out to the bluffs and spent the next hour shooting pre-burn, the first burn, and then a second burn. In between the light faded, the clouds turned grey, and then blew up in color again. This photo here was taken during the 3rd and final burn (the "2nd burn"). I loved how the water crashed around these cliffs, the rock out in the ocean, and the sky lit with color above. Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/20, 0.6 sec, ISO 64

Iced Over
Icebergs Wash Ashore at Sunset Jokulsarlon Ice Beach, Iceland One of the main attractions in Iceland is a giant Ice-Lagoon filled with icebergs as they melt off a glacier and float away into the Atlantic Ocean. The powerful waves break up the icebergs and push them back onto shore, where they wash up on a black lava sand beach. The ice-lagoon and the ice-beach were 2 of the spots that I desperately wanted to see on my first trip to Iceland. I first went to Iceland in the summer but the weather was so crummy we barely saw the sky until 10 days into the trip. I got a neat photo from the ice-beach but never with any color in the sky. When I went back a year later, in the winter, I got a lot luckier and for the first time I was able to enjoy the entire Icelandic landscape (I could finally see the mountain tops, the beautiful peaks, the hundreds of glaciers...) On this particular evening we were hanging out at the Jokulsarlon ice-beach and the sun just managed to peak its way out of the clouds and cast a little bit of orange light into the sky. Willie, Alan, Rebecca and I kept dashing back and forth, trying to get close to these icebergs while also not getting completely soaked. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 17mm, f/20, 1.0 sec, ISO 100

Morning Meetings
Sunrise over Boronda Lake Palo Alto, California Foothills Park in Palo Alto has, for many many years, been exclusive to residents of the city of Palo Alto. Visitors were only allowed if accompanied by a Palo Alto resident, or if a Palo Alto resident was having a party at the parks picnic grounds and put your name on "the list". As such, I had been to the park 2 or 3 times but never really explored. Recently the city opened the park up to non-residents and Willie and I ventured here, to Boronda Lake to catch reflections in the sunrise. On our first visit 2 friends arrived just as we were packing up. They popped their trunks, got out some blankets, and then 2 coolers, some snacks, and coffees. They walked out onto the pier, put their blankets down 10 feet apart, and proceeded to have a wonderful morning picnic. I can imagine this is a peaceful place to enjoy the morning. Escaype was predicting a nice sunrise but Willie and I didn't want to drive far, so we ventured here. We had hoped for a brighter sunrise but just enough of the clouds caught light that we were able to enjoy a nice sunrise. To the south (the left of the photo), the clouds caught more color but lacked texture. To the east, in this direction, the clouds were more interesting but didn't quite glow pink and red and orange. None-the-less, it was still a quick and nice morning. Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/13, 1/3 sec, ISO 64

Arctic Swallow
Stormy clouds in the fjord Lofoton Islands, Norway I always had said that Iceland was the most beautiful place I had been ... until I visited Norway. Andy, Rebecca and I made our first trip in 2017 and were blown away how every turn in the road led to some more amazing view. The fjords with their mountain peaks, snow, and waves are just breathtaking. We ended our first visit by spending 2 days backcountry skiing in the Lofoton mountains, which proved to be one of the highlights of the trip. Since then we've trained ourselves to avoid Avalanches (as best we can), purchased backcountry ski touring equipment, and planned return trips. We returned in 2019 to do the reverse: ski 5 days and then sightsee for 2. Our 5 days of skiing were wonderful. Andy, Amanda, Eric, our guides and I climbed some amazing mountains and had days of great skiing. The views continue to blow my mind. Unlike last trip (which had great weather), this trip had rainy/snowy weather every day. I barely took the camera out because it was so gray. Our sightseeing days were no different, with rain consuming most of the day. I had previously seen a photo from Mike Mezuel from a beach near here that I thought was just superb. On our way to our cabin we passed by the beach and I knew I had to stop. The storm seemed as if it was breaking up and I grabbed my tripod so I could capture the wave movements with the ominous clouds. Rather than shooting ultra-wide like I normally do, I wanted to zoom in a little to make sure I didn't make these beautiful mountain-peaks feel so teeny. D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 21mm, f/22, 1/5 sec, ISO 31

Pfeiffer
PfeifferSunset at Pfeiffer Beach Big Sur, California In August of 2009 I decided to plan a camping trip with a couple friends down in Big Sur. The weather was form and we were lucky that the fog stayed away the entire weekend. After a beautiful drive down the coast along CA-1 we spent a relaxing weekend hiking, exploring, cooking, and drinking. I had heard that Pfeiffer Beach was a must-see spot for sunset and decided to spend one evening at the beach. After finding the almost-hidden sneaky road down to the beach my friends and I enjoyed a wonderful evening sipping wine and picnicking on the beach. As the sun began to set I grabbed my tripod and began wandering all over the beach trying to capture sunset. The fog began to creep in and I loved the way the purple colors of blue hour cast a wonderful glow on the beach. I was having issues with my D80 and a friend was kind enough to lend me her old D70 for the weekend. Nikon D70 w/Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5: 35mm, f/18, 6 seconds, ISO 200

Land Ho'
Lava Entering Pacific Ocean Kalapana, Big Island, Hawaii When I first visited the Big Island to see the lava spewing into the ocean I was in for a real treat! I watched lava pour beautifully into the ocean for almost an hour. Despite having to wait a few seconds for the wind to blow the steam away from the scene, I came home with a ton of amazing photos. However, one thing I didn't witness were the lava bombs! The lava bombs occur when the pressure from the lava tube builds up so much that the lava explodes to the surface. Using a long shutter length you can capture the explosion as if it's silky and on a string. One our second day on the Big Island we got to the lava flow early and just as the sun began to come up, the tube began to explode! For almost 15 minutes we watched this lava bomb go off over and over. We snapped away, hoping we got all the settings right in our cameras and sure enough, I did! Nikon D800 w/Sigma 150-600mm: 150mm, f/6.3, 2.0 sec, ISO 500

Taking a Break
Sunset at Secret Beach Brookings, Oregon One thing I've noticed when taking pictures is that if you stare at a scene too much, you end up taking the same photos over and over again. So it was nice to get away from the Redwood forests and rhododendron blooms and see something different for this sunset. Miles had wanted to photograph some of the Oregon coast and since it was only 30 minutes away, we decided to hop on up. He knew of a few beaches and we stopped at 3 or 4 before deciding to head to Secret Beach. We arrived after a mile hike, in which we were *very* careful not to step on Poison Oak, which filled the sides of the trails at every step (and of course when we arrived, I set my camera down in a clearing surrounded by more Poison Oak). Thankfully none of us ended up touching the Poison Oak. The seastacks along the Oregon coast are known for there bulbous shapes that dot the coastline. Secret Beach is no different and was a beautiful place to watch sunset. At one point David walked out onto these rocks for a selfie, and he was a perfect model in my composition. I ended up loving having the human element in this photo. It reminded me of the break we were taking from life, from COVID, from the Redwoods and Rhodes ... and even the break David was taking from photographing to just BE IN THE MOMENT. Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 18mm, f/22, 1.3 sec, ISO 31

Sinking Ship
Sunset at Pescadero Beach Pescadero, California On this particular evening Willie and I noticed that sunset was supposed to be excellent. My co-worker, Mike, also wanted to get his camera out so he joined Willie and I at the coast. We had wanted to find these neat striated rocks on a beach that we had scouted previously and sent Mike ahead to see if he could find them (we gave him decent directions). Sure enough, we found the beach with all the striated rock, and just as Escaype predicted, we got a beautiful sky to match! Unfortunately for us, the tide rose a bit while we waited and most of the striated rock started to become covered by the rising tide. I ran off to find some other compositions. While exploring I found this set of rocks and loved the way it made a number of triangles pointing inwards. It almost reminded me of being on a boat and getting ready to set sail, only to find that our ship was sinking as the water surrounded us. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 19mm, f/10, 0.8 sec, ISO 100

Orangy Goodness
Orangy GoodnessSunset at Rodeo Beach Marin Headlands, California Last week my buddy and I grabbed our cameras, left work a bit early, and drove up to the Marin Headlands to take photos at Rodeo Beach. We knew these rock pillars were here and had seen some great photos of it and wanted to make our go. I've posted a couple other photos from this photoshoot but several of my friends really liked this photo so I had to throw this one up too! As soon as I threw on the my circular polarizer and the Graduated Filters the sky LIT UP! It was like an explosion of color! These photos are NOT HDR and have had very little saturation edits (in fact, I had to lower the saturation a bit so that you wouldn't think it was fake)! The clouds kept the sun hidden so I didn't have any clipping from a bright sun. The soft graduated filters worked great -- gave me some great color in the sky and let me slow the shutter for some neat wave movements. I'm quite pleased with how these came out! I've found that the motion of the outgoing wave makes for much nicer photos. I found a nice spot along the beach that wasn't getting too wet and used the rocks to create a line through the photo. I then used the fleeting water to create another line, away from it … trying to draw your eye in and to the right, then back and to the left. The awesome reflection of the sunset off the sand/water made this photo even nicer. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/8, 8 sec, ISO 125, Tripod B+W F-Pro Circular Polarizer + Hitech 0.9 soft Reverse ND grad filter, Hitech 0.6 soft ND grad filter, and Lee FK Filter holder NO HDR. Decreased saturation in some areas (sky), added sharpening and some dodge/burning.

Purple Bliss
Purple BlissSunset at Bonsai Rock Lake Tahoe, Nevada A bunch of months ago I saw a local photographer and one of my good Flickr friends, David Shield (http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidshield/), post a photo from "Bonsai Rock" in Lake Tahoe. Bonsai Rock is located on the north-east side of the lake, about 45 minutes from South Lake Tahoe. If you stand on the east shore you can get spectacular sunset photos with the rock in the foreground and the sunset in the background. Ever since I saw his photo this place was on my list of things I wanted to photograph! I attempted this photo a couple weekends ago but a storm rolled in and there was no color in the sky. I didn't even bother leaving our ski cabin to go shoot. Finally this last weekend the weather looked great and I had a chance to drive up to the north-east shore and find Bonsai Rock. I've read a lot of blogs and viewed a lot of photos of Bonsai Rock but it was 1) harder to find and 2) harder to photograph than I expected. I spent over an hour trying to find the right location to setup the tripod and take the photo. We had a gorgeous sunset (at one point the sunset over the mountains made it look like the mountains were on FIRE!) with some great color but I couldn't keep the photo simple enough to my liking -- there were just too many rocks in the photo. I didn't realize that the water level of Lake Tahoe rises and falls. This was a medium height: some of the rocks that many other photographs show (and lead the eye into Bonsai Rock) were covered up, but a lot of the rocks behind Bonsai Rock were completely uncovered and distracted from the background. Just as I was about to leave and call it a disappointing failure I thought about taking this one last, simple, composition zooming in on the rock. The sun had set about 15 minutes earlier but the color in the sky all of a sudden lit up further west than it had earlier and a long exposure (2.5 minutes) got the silky smooth water and brought out the color in the sky! I'm quite happy with how this came out! To find Bonsai Rock park at 39.183690 , -119.927088 and then climb down the side of the hill to 39.184844, -119.927727. More detailed directions if you're trying to find it: The parking location is about 6.7 miles north of the highway 28/highway 50 junction. There's a small turn-out on the side of the road (on the left side of the road if you're heading from S. Lake Tahoe. If you get to what looks like a highway rest stop on the right you've gone too far. If you're coming from North Lake, it's on the right, just past Sand Harbor after the rest-stop thing on your left). If you want to throw in your GPS coordinates the parking spot is pretty much exactly at 39.183690 , -119.927088. Once you park you have to hike down a steep hill slightly north of where you park. A lot of people mentioned that it was a "steep hike" but I never realized that it was about a 200 foot climb down to the water. It wasn't extremely difficult to get down, but we did have to hold onto some trees/roots/rocks to make sure we didn't slip and tumble into an injury. Getting back up after the shoot was a decent workout (note: if you're going at sunset, I recommend that you DON'T forget to bring a flashlight). Bonsai Rock itself is located at 39.184844, -119.927727. Mike Wiacek has been so kind as to create a custom Google Maps for Bonsai Rock. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 35mm, f/11, 2.5 minutes, ISO 100, Tripod Lee Foundation Kit Filter Holder B+W F-Pro Circular Polarizer, HiTech 0.9 Graduated ND, Hitech 0.9 ND Soft, and 0.6 ND Soft. No HDR!

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