• A Pier In The Shadows •
I know, I know...another shot of the sunset behind the pier from Hermosa Beach haha. What can I say, I enjoyed my evening here. I only have a few more from this night that I intend to post soon and then I will move on to another set of shots. I've spent a few days since Hermosa at or around Hollywood Bowl Overlook since it's really close and I've been a bit lazy lately with my choice of location.
One benefit of setting up in one place for a shoot is that I don't waste any time or light and can keep my focus on the changing sunset from start to finish. Even moving to the left of the pier to try a different angle would've cost me a few minutes and without knowing how the light would look, it just felt unnecessary. My first trip anywhere is generally just for the sunset and then subsequent visits will be for exploring, time permitting. When I arrived, I was the first photographer there and had my choice of location. I picked this particular one because it would let me follow the sun from right above the end of the pier as it set. I was hopeful for some clean shots of the sun squeezing through the end of the pier like I managed to get when I was at Manhattan Beach Pier back in January but a lot of the light at that moment was harsh. It was a struggle to get long exposures clean and quicker exposures lit properly.
This shot is one of the darker captures I took, with the pier almost fully in shadows at this exposure time. I wanted the water blur and reflections but didn't want to spend too much of the little light remaining on just long exposures. It also seemed like most of my other images were brighter so I thought i'd at least see how these would turn out. I love following the light as it fades even if it can be a chore to get the exposure correct. The waves were big enough and wind wasn't very strong even next to the ocean so I'm always concerned that the water won't look right if too bright. It requires a much longer exposure to blur the ocean than the rivers and streams I got so used to back in the Maryland countryside and I still struggle at times with medium length exposure times. My visits to Point Mugu were a bit different than standing on the shoreline at a regular beach because my higher vantage allowed me to ignore the choppy inconsistent surf by the beach and focus just on the smoother sea and horizon. When I set up low on the beach here or elsewhere, I often must go super long with the time or keep it short to avoid too much noise and distraction.
When I first left to shoot Monday afternoon, I was actually pretty disappointed driving around and none of the locations I was used to felt all that appealing. I keep intending to head to Laguna Beach for a long afternoon and evening of shooting, but something always interferes with that. It's a long trip without traffic, but with traffic it's awful and the nearly 2 hour drive would've left me with only a very small window to shoot and considering I've never been there, it just didn't seem worth it. I have some trouble making really long trips as well since I don't love being gone without the dog for 6 or 7 hours either. Traffic out here is terrible just like it was around DC and both locations are routinely in the top 5 worst traffic cities in the US. The main difference is traffic in the DC area is predictable--you know when it's going to be bad and even though there aren't a ton of ways to avoid it, you can plan a bit around it. Here in LA, traffic can be clear in one area and stopped near by or flowing at a certain time one day and awful at the same time another. Not a lot of rhyme or reason to the traffic in the city. It took me 45 minutes to go about 2 miles and I was still on Sunset Blvd heading towards the highway so I turned around and set the GPS on Santa Monica which would give me a choice of Venice, Santa Monica or Malibu. About 15 minutes from Santa Monica, I changed my mind again and decided on Manhattan or Hermosa Beach. A lot of indecision for no great reason.
At some point, I will get a good start when I head out, find lighter than normal traffic and get the weather I'm after but it rarely happens now. I've seen so many photos of Laguna on flickr and Instagram and it seems to offer all of the aspects I look for, including the rocky areas along the shore. But until that happens, I'll always be pretty happy with any unobstructed view of the sea, a pier and a beautiful sunset.
WHEN & WHERE
Hermosa Beach Pier
Hermosa Beach, California
October 24th, 2016
SETTINGS
Canon T4i
EF-S 18-135mm IS STM
@22mm
ISO 100
f/14
23 seconds
ND1000
CPL
• A Pier In The Shadows •
I know, I know...another shot of the sunset behind the pier from Hermosa Beach haha. What can I say, I enjoyed my evening here. I only have a few more from this night that I intend to post soon and then I will move on to another set of shots. I've spent a few days since Hermosa at or around Hollywood Bowl Overlook since it's really close and I've been a bit lazy lately with my choice of location.
One benefit of setting up in one place for a shoot is that I don't waste any time or light and can keep my focus on the changing sunset from start to finish. Even moving to the left of the pier to try a different angle would've cost me a few minutes and without knowing how the light would look, it just felt unnecessary. My first trip anywhere is generally just for the sunset and then subsequent visits will be for exploring, time permitting. When I arrived, I was the first photographer there and had my choice of location. I picked this particular one because it would let me follow the sun from right above the end of the pier as it set. I was hopeful for some clean shots of the sun squeezing through the end of the pier like I managed to get when I was at Manhattan Beach Pier back in January but a lot of the light at that moment was harsh. It was a struggle to get long exposures clean and quicker exposures lit properly.
This shot is one of the darker captures I took, with the pier almost fully in shadows at this exposure time. I wanted the water blur and reflections but didn't want to spend too much of the little light remaining on just long exposures. It also seemed like most of my other images were brighter so I thought i'd at least see how these would turn out. I love following the light as it fades even if it can be a chore to get the exposure correct. The waves were big enough and wind wasn't very strong even next to the ocean so I'm always concerned that the water won't look right if too bright. It requires a much longer exposure to blur the ocean than the rivers and streams I got so used to back in the Maryland countryside and I still struggle at times with medium length exposure times. My visits to Point Mugu were a bit different than standing on the shoreline at a regular beach because my higher vantage allowed me to ignore the choppy inconsistent surf by the beach and focus just on the smoother sea and horizon. When I set up low on the beach here or elsewhere, I often must go super long with the time or keep it short to avoid too much noise and distraction.
When I first left to shoot Monday afternoon, I was actually pretty disappointed driving around and none of the locations I was used to felt all that appealing. I keep intending to head to Laguna Beach for a long afternoon and evening of shooting, but something always interferes with that. It's a long trip without traffic, but with traffic it's awful and the nearly 2 hour drive would've left me with only a very small window to shoot and considering I've never been there, it just didn't seem worth it. I have some trouble making really long trips as well since I don't love being gone without the dog for 6 or 7 hours either. Traffic out here is terrible just like it was around DC and both locations are routinely in the top 5 worst traffic cities in the US. The main difference is traffic in the DC area is predictable--you know when it's going to be bad and even though there aren't a ton of ways to avoid it, you can plan a bit around it. Here in LA, traffic can be clear in one area and stopped near by or flowing at a certain time one day and awful at the same time another. Not a lot of rhyme or reason to the traffic in the city. It took me 45 minutes to go about 2 miles and I was still on Sunset Blvd heading towards the highway so I turned around and set the GPS on Santa Monica which would give me a choice of Venice, Santa Monica or Malibu. About 15 minutes from Santa Monica, I changed my mind again and decided on Manhattan or Hermosa Beach. A lot of indecision for no great reason.
At some point, I will get a good start when I head out, find lighter than normal traffic and get the weather I'm after but it rarely happens now. I've seen so many photos of Laguna on flickr and Instagram and it seems to offer all of the aspects I look for, including the rocky areas along the shore. But until that happens, I'll always be pretty happy with any unobstructed view of the sea, a pier and a beautiful sunset.
WHEN & WHERE
Hermosa Beach Pier
Hermosa Beach, California
October 24th, 2016
SETTINGS
Canon T4i
EF-S 18-135mm IS STM
@22mm
ISO 100
f/14
23 seconds
ND1000
CPL