Willie Huang Photo
Santa Cruz Burn
The first few days of May were surely strange in terms of clouds. Three straight days of beautiful cloud action made for some stunning sunsets. On day one, I was convinced (more like being lazy) that it would be too cloudy and stayed home. I was wrong. The sky blew up and I ended up photographing the irradiating sky with my iPhone from home. Day two: the clouds looked very promising again and made a snap decision to jet to the coast. I phoned Aaron to come join me as we met up at Natural Bridges State Beach.
At arrival much of the most textured clouds were still to the west but we had over an hour before sunset. I had hoped the clouds would move enough to position themselves over the arch for a stellar shot. Instead, Mother Nature had other plans. The clouds barely moved if at all and stayed primarily in the west. Rooted at Natural Bridges, we tried to make do with what we had. Much to our luck a photogenic driftwood log lay at the western end of the beach. With high tide, the waves would approach and sweep around the log.
Just as I was setting up the sun approached the all-clear horizon and this massive cloud began lighting up in oranges. Here goes the light show. All I had to say was “dang” this was one stunning sunset. Even at my widest angle I could not catch the entire cloud. It stretched for what must’ve been miles and just burned more a long time. It started out as an orange glow before transforming into fiery orange and yellow and lastly ending with soft pink pastels. I ended up liking the burning orange the most and it surely looked as if Santa Cruz was on fire.
*On a side note, I much prefer winter sunsets. Driving down for 8pm sunsets in the thick of rush hour is frustratingly slow.
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 17-40mm f/4L
LEE 0.9 soft GND
Santa Cruz Burn
The first few days of May were surely strange in terms of clouds. Three straight days of beautiful cloud action made for some stunning sunsets. On day one, I was convinced (more like being lazy) that it would be too cloudy and stayed home. I was wrong. The sky blew up and I ended up photographing the irradiating sky with my iPhone from home. Day two: the clouds looked very promising again and made a snap decision to jet to the coast. I phoned Aaron to come join me as we met up at Natural Bridges State Beach.
At arrival much of the most textured clouds were still to the west but we had over an hour before sunset. I had hoped the clouds would move enough to position themselves over the arch for a stellar shot. Instead, Mother Nature had other plans. The clouds barely moved if at all and stayed primarily in the west. Rooted at Natural Bridges, we tried to make do with what we had. Much to our luck a photogenic driftwood log lay at the western end of the beach. With high tide, the waves would approach and sweep around the log.
Just as I was setting up the sun approached the all-clear horizon and this massive cloud began lighting up in oranges. Here goes the light show. All I had to say was “dang” this was one stunning sunset. Even at my widest angle I could not catch the entire cloud. It stretched for what must’ve been miles and just burned more a long time. It started out as an orange glow before transforming into fiery orange and yellow and lastly ending with soft pink pastels. I ended up liking the burning orange the most and it surely looked as if Santa Cruz was on fire.
*On a side note, I much prefer winter sunsets. Driving down for 8pm sunsets in the thick of rush hour is frustratingly slow.
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 17-40mm f/4L
LEE 0.9 soft GND