Santa Monica Spin #4 - Santa Monica Pier, California
A beautiful late December evening at the Santa Monica Pier near LA. The owners want to use my pictures for their advertising brochures etc. But watch out! Read on for the details. No HDR!
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version to see the people watching!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/440918163...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105L @40
6-second exposure @F13
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 (two filters would create reflections with these lights)
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer.
ISO 50
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto pistol grip ball head
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Story
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you ever decide to sell photos of this place, or any other isolated private property, make sure to find out what their copyright rules are! Since this place is featured so often in movies and advertising, the Pacific Park company charges a fee if you wish to make a profit from images of their property. I found this out after they contacted me and wished to use my photos, so we came to an agreement. ........Aargh, I should have held out for free rides on the wheel... oh well.... hehe!
Rules get more murky when you take a photo of a skyline full of buildings, many of which may be considered private property. But in a case like this, there is just one main subject.
I enjoyed the company of Jim Patterson and Kendra Karr and we had a good outing.
--- The same wheel information as included in #3. ---
This is the new wheel that was installed after the old one was sold on eBay for US $132,400 to an Oklahoma developer sight unseen! See this photo with the old wheel for more information. This is a very high-tech wheel with programmable lights that can create patterns and images. Also, it is powered by the solar panels you see in front of the wheel.
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3977498042/
The good news is that the wheel changes colors and patterns every few seconds. So every shot looks completely different it seems. The bad news is that you only get about 10 minutes where the light is even enough to get a decent exposure across the entire frame. That is the brief period when the lights are bright, but not too bright and there is light in the sky. The other bad news is that it takes about 7 minutes to fill up the wheel with passengers before it spins 2 or 3 times and then stops again. So I really only got a few minutes during the entire evening where the wheel was in motion and the light was good at the same time. Still, I managed to get a few nice ones!
Thanks goes out to Jim for saving my water shoes from a danger-filled trans-Pacific voyage initiated by a quickly rising tide!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Earth
Simply the best way to scout out locations that there is. You can see sun angles and pre-visualize light under lots of different conditions. Sometimes you can actually pre-compose your shots! This has saved me many thousands of vertical feet of climbing by avoiding spots with blocked views etc.
Satellite imagery (choose 'National' for a local US region or use your fave website)
www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr
Tide charting and preditions: (chose your area in US, other countries have similar websites)
tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=235
Wave Heights (I choose 'North Pacific from Global')
polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/main_int.html
Or Here:
www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/RP1bw.gif
Photos of every inch of the California coastline from a small plane. Excellent for close in detailed views.
The map shows exactly where this is. It is an easy hike from the parking lot.
See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.
Santa Monica Spin #4 - Santa Monica Pier, California
A beautiful late December evening at the Santa Monica Pier near LA. The owners want to use my pictures for their advertising brochures etc. But watch out! Read on for the details. No HDR!
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version to see the people watching!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/440918163...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105L @40
6-second exposure @F13
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 (two filters would create reflections with these lights)
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer.
ISO 50
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto pistol grip ball head
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Story
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you ever decide to sell photos of this place, or any other isolated private property, make sure to find out what their copyright rules are! Since this place is featured so often in movies and advertising, the Pacific Park company charges a fee if you wish to make a profit from images of their property. I found this out after they contacted me and wished to use my photos, so we came to an agreement. ........Aargh, I should have held out for free rides on the wheel... oh well.... hehe!
Rules get more murky when you take a photo of a skyline full of buildings, many of which may be considered private property. But in a case like this, there is just one main subject.
I enjoyed the company of Jim Patterson and Kendra Karr and we had a good outing.
--- The same wheel information as included in #3. ---
This is the new wheel that was installed after the old one was sold on eBay for US $132,400 to an Oklahoma developer sight unseen! See this photo with the old wheel for more information. This is a very high-tech wheel with programmable lights that can create patterns and images. Also, it is powered by the solar panels you see in front of the wheel.
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3977498042/
The good news is that the wheel changes colors and patterns every few seconds. So every shot looks completely different it seems. The bad news is that you only get about 10 minutes where the light is even enough to get a decent exposure across the entire frame. That is the brief period when the lights are bright, but not too bright and there is light in the sky. The other bad news is that it takes about 7 minutes to fill up the wheel with passengers before it spins 2 or 3 times and then stops again. So I really only got a few minutes during the entire evening where the wheel was in motion and the light was good at the same time. Still, I managed to get a few nice ones!
Thanks goes out to Jim for saving my water shoes from a danger-filled trans-Pacific voyage initiated by a quickly rising tide!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Earth
Simply the best way to scout out locations that there is. You can see sun angles and pre-visualize light under lots of different conditions. Sometimes you can actually pre-compose your shots! This has saved me many thousands of vertical feet of climbing by avoiding spots with blocked views etc.
Satellite imagery (choose 'National' for a local US region or use your fave website)
www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr
Tide charting and preditions: (chose your area in US, other countries have similar websites)
tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=235
Wave Heights (I choose 'North Pacific from Global')
polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/main_int.html
Or Here:
www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/RP1bw.gif
Photos of every inch of the California coastline from a small plane. Excellent for close in detailed views.
The map shows exactly where this is. It is an easy hike from the parking lot.
See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.