• Sun Shy • [EXPLORE #2: 10/19/16]

I’ve been in California with Scotch for nearly 10 months now and in that time—including the 10 day drive from Washington, DC—I’ve filled up 9 32GB memory cards and have taken roughly 10,000 photos. I’d also estimate that 75% of those shots came in the first 3 months. As was the case back home before leaving, a lot of my trips were either exploring new places or shooting in bulk, hoping I’d eventually be able to post all the photos I wanted even as they’d get pushed further back with each trip.

 

I knew there was a drought and I knew Southern California was supposed to be a place with consistently perfect weather, but you’d never have known that in the early days of my trip that turned into a move. Sunny clear days and evenings were an anomaly and my biggest challenge was trying to deal with the Santa Ana winds when shooting long exposures. I know…sounds really tough haha.

 

As March and April came, I realized that while the winter here was incredible to shoot, the spring and summer brought the weather everyone (but me) desired. Gone were the clouds and rain, gone were the colorful skies and a golden haze crept over the area for months. A couple times each month, clouds would come back or overnight rain would push away the haze but for the most part, every day felt the same.

 

The weather here has cooled considerably and with it, some cloudy days have returned. It even rained a bit late Sunday night into the early morning but the early evenings are still generally cloudless. I’ve set out with Venice in mind 6 times in the last month, but only actually went 3 times. Of the voided trips, once was due to terrible traffic that would’ve had me arriving after dark and the others because the clouds I was promised from weather forecasts vanished half way there. From home, I drive straight towards Venice so I end up with 55 minutes of skyline in front of me and it’s usually pretty easy to tell if there will be a great sunset or if the trip will be a dud.

 

Really the only positives from those long breaks from shooting outdoors have been the ability to spend more time photographing and hanging out with Scotch, time to both go through my archives and work on my editing skills and upload some of the shots I never got a chance to show. I’ve been trying very hard to streamline my editing process the last few months and come up with a more consistent way to color correct images and reduce the amount of steps needed to get the photo right.

 

One of the first places I visited here back in January was Manhattan Beach and it also ended up being one of the more interesting trips I took. I arrived late afternoon to a golden, hazy sky which was initially disappointing until I got down to the pier and starting shooting. It was really crowded on the beach and after trying to wait out the people hovering by me or walking by, I finally switched to the 10 stop filter and kept it on for the rest of the visit. I essentially spent the time until dark in 2 places: directly beneath the pier and then just to the right of the pier. I posted a handful of shots from here many many months ago but always wanted to go back when I had a chance to edit some of the remaining images using the methods I use today. My hope was to get a significantly more accurate image that matched what my eyes saw as closely as possible. I really lucked out with the position of the sun and was able to shoot long exposures as the sun dipped and then hid behind the pier until it was gone. I took a few dozen images from here ranging from a few seconds to several minutes and while similar, the changing position of the sun and varying exposure times created different shadows and reflections which was amazing to see. Manhattan Beach is another place I expect to return to quite a bit once the cloudy fall and winter days return but in the interim, I do love looking back on many of the trips that helped to convince me not to return to Maryland :)

 

▪️ WHERE & WHEN ▪️

• Manhattan Beach Pier

• Manhattan Beach, California

• January 15th, 2016

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▪️ SETTINGS ▪️

• Canon T4i

• EF-S 18-135mm IS STM

• @18mm

• ISO 100

• f/20

• 76 seconds

• ND1000

• CPL

Done