•Reflecting Back On Venice• [EXPLORE #2: 6/29/16]

During that amazing day back in late January at Venice Beach, I spent nearly the entire time focused on long exposures and reflections at the shoreline. I hovered between the pier and the rocks that separate Venice Beach from Santa Monica Beach.

 

I don't practice panoramas much and as a result, the process always feels very cumbersome. Shooting vertically on a tripod feels like writing left handed and since my viewfinder doesn't seem to rotate with the camera, all the manual settings and focus had to be done sideways. Normally, I seem to shoot about a half dozen sets of shots that I hope will merge later when I go out, and it's never a focus for me. This day wasn't much different and of the 270 or so images I shot, maybe 20 total were shot with panoramas in mind.

 

The light, sky and tide were great all afternoon but the light kept getting more and more vibrant with each passing minute as the sunset got closer. I pretty much stayed right about here for over an hour before focusing on that crimson sky seen in a few other of my posts.

 

My original plan for this was to find a shutter speed that would keep a lot of the details in the sky but get rid of the waves so I could match the photos easier. I shot 3 horizontal panels and while all 3 did line up, the 3rd panel was just not right so I ditched it. In retrospect, a longer exposure time and a few more shots at each frame would've been helpful but I was pleased with the results. One of these days I need to just head out with the sole intention of practicing panoramas until it clicks for me.

 

Venice Beach Pier

Venice, California

January 27th, 2016

 

SETTINGS:

Canon T4i

2 shot horizontal panorama

EF-S18-135mm IS STM

@18mm

ISO 100

f/7.1

8 seconds

ND1000

CPL

 

Done