maxxsmart
Rainy Rodeo Sunrise
Rodeo Beach - Marin County, California
Some heavy storms rolled through on Friday afternoon, finally slowing up by mid evening. I decided that I would get myself up for sunrise Saturday morning, in hopes of catching some nice cloud cover, and colors.
Around 4:00 AM (50 minutes before my alarm was set to go off) I woke to the sound of rain pounding the windows, and streets below. There, lying in bed, my mind went back and forth.... Should I go? Should I sleep? I said to myself.... (as its been said a lot these days) "you don't know till you go". So back to sleep I went for another 45 minutes. 4:50 rolled around, and it seemed to be raining even harder, so thoughts of not going came to mind again. Laying there for another 10 minutes, I decided..... I'll just go!
I grabbed coffee, and made my way around the usual spots.... Sausalito... Nothing special. Marin Headlands... I stopped and snapped a couple, but nothing great. As my last 3 minute exposure of the GGB finished up, I noticed a very very VERY dark sky over the pacific. Not just dark from the lack of sunlight, but dark from the heavy clouds out at sea. Rodeo Beach is my go to spot if all other areas look bad. I had nothing to show for the morning, and I was up, so I made one last stop out at Rodeo Beach.
Just as I pulled into the north parking area, rain started to drip on my windshield. I sat and listened to the reports of the giant earthquake that hit Chile, and finished up my coffee. I sat and watched the violent sea pound away on the rocks for about 15 minutes. The rain started to slow, so I grabbed my giant golf umbrella and made my way down to the busted opening of the Rodeo lagoon.
Normally, Rodeo lagoon doesn't flow into the Pacific, but the extreme rain from the night before caused a the lagoon to flow free into the ocean. The light was soft, but getting brighter as the sun came up over the city a few miles south east of me. I setup and composed a couple verticals (for a 1x1 crop) and a few horizontals as well. The light was looking amazing so I continued to make as many long exposures as possible while standing as close to my camera and tripod as I could with my giant golf umbrella. By the way...... Its probably the best $10 I've spent!
When All was said and done, I came away with a couple images I really liked, but I've had a hard time deciding what one I liked most. Some had a better sky, but the water was not to my liking. Others had great water, and a flat sky.... Sometimes it can be so hard to pick.
Thanks for the views and comments!
Canon 5D MarkII
Lens: EF 24-70 f/2.8L
Lee .9 hard edge ND grad
B+W ND110 (10 stop solid ND_
Wilson golf umbrella
Exposure: 165
Aperture: f/14.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 50
View my stream on black here
Rainy Rodeo Sunrise
Rodeo Beach - Marin County, California
Some heavy storms rolled through on Friday afternoon, finally slowing up by mid evening. I decided that I would get myself up for sunrise Saturday morning, in hopes of catching some nice cloud cover, and colors.
Around 4:00 AM (50 minutes before my alarm was set to go off) I woke to the sound of rain pounding the windows, and streets below. There, lying in bed, my mind went back and forth.... Should I go? Should I sleep? I said to myself.... (as its been said a lot these days) "you don't know till you go". So back to sleep I went for another 45 minutes. 4:50 rolled around, and it seemed to be raining even harder, so thoughts of not going came to mind again. Laying there for another 10 minutes, I decided..... I'll just go!
I grabbed coffee, and made my way around the usual spots.... Sausalito... Nothing special. Marin Headlands... I stopped and snapped a couple, but nothing great. As my last 3 minute exposure of the GGB finished up, I noticed a very very VERY dark sky over the pacific. Not just dark from the lack of sunlight, but dark from the heavy clouds out at sea. Rodeo Beach is my go to spot if all other areas look bad. I had nothing to show for the morning, and I was up, so I made one last stop out at Rodeo Beach.
Just as I pulled into the north parking area, rain started to drip on my windshield. I sat and listened to the reports of the giant earthquake that hit Chile, and finished up my coffee. I sat and watched the violent sea pound away on the rocks for about 15 minutes. The rain started to slow, so I grabbed my giant golf umbrella and made my way down to the busted opening of the Rodeo lagoon.
Normally, Rodeo lagoon doesn't flow into the Pacific, but the extreme rain from the night before caused a the lagoon to flow free into the ocean. The light was soft, but getting brighter as the sun came up over the city a few miles south east of me. I setup and composed a couple verticals (for a 1x1 crop) and a few horizontals as well. The light was looking amazing so I continued to make as many long exposures as possible while standing as close to my camera and tripod as I could with my giant golf umbrella. By the way...... Its probably the best $10 I've spent!
When All was said and done, I came away with a couple images I really liked, but I've had a hard time deciding what one I liked most. Some had a better sky, but the water was not to my liking. Others had great water, and a flat sky.... Sometimes it can be so hard to pick.
Thanks for the views and comments!
Canon 5D MarkII
Lens: EF 24-70 f/2.8L
Lee .9 hard edge ND grad
B+W ND110 (10 stop solid ND_
Wilson golf umbrella
Exposure: 165
Aperture: f/14.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 50
View my stream on black here