• A Storm At Sea For The Birds And Me • [EXPLORE #2: 12/3/16]

I had a very weird 1 hour of shooting at Venice Beach last saturday. It had been extremely overcast and gloomy all day, with temperatures in the lower 50's, wind gust in excess of 25mph and periodic showers and for much of that day, it seemed like a good bet to just stay inside. I took Scotch out for a walk in the rain mid afternoon around Hollywood and to my surprise, saw some sunlight seeping out of the clouds off in the distance towards the Pacific Ocean and Venice. It was around the time of day where Venice would've been my only option timewise anyway so I brought Scotch back in, gathered up my gear and dressed for bad weather...in case that sunlight was just a tease. The forecast suggested initially that the rain would stop and then there would be more rain after sundown. I'd been eager to get out and shoot anyway so off I went. The hourly forecast wasn't quite right.

 

Traffic was very light and despite some light rain periodically on the drive, there was nothing to cause me to turn around even though I was prepared for it. When I arrived in Venice, it felt like a ghost town and there were very few people wandering around the streets and shops and the majority of parking spaces were vacent. When I got onto the damp beach, it was clear that chilly, windy, rainy days keep all the people away because it was completely empty. My normal area to shoot had no reflections, no color and the only light in the sky was on the other side of those rocks you often see in my Venice shots so shuffled towards Santa Monica figuring I'll stop when I found the first reflective area on the shore.

 

It wasn't long after arriving when the "wind-proof" umbrella came out to keep my camera dry and it was no match for stormy coastal weather. I struggled all day to keep everything dry, get my settings correct and keep the lens focused. It's not easy to hold an umbrella, a remote shutter release and manually set up a shot with only 2 hands, About half of my shots were ruined by the wind (my image stabilization was bouncing each time i manually focused for some reason and caused some completely out of focus shots) and rain blowing onto the lens. It's one thing to have a bad day and and get few good photos, but a completely different situation when a bunch of images are literally unusable. During the breaks from rain when i could put the umbrella down and really concentrate on what I was doing, it was actually pretty relaxing. The sunset wasn't much compared to what I've been used to seeing the last few months but it was a nice yellowish orange and reflections from my spot facing the Santa Monica Mountains were fairly clear with some break in the sky at sundown.

 

Besides feeling like a crazy person being out there, the weird part for me was this amazing storm cell out at sea...something I've never witnessed before in person. In fact, it actually took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. California has been my first real exposure to ocean photography and as I mentioned, I rarely shot back home in rainy/windy weather. I can't really think of any other times I've been at the beach in the rain for that matter. For this shot, I tried to set up in an area where a single frame could get both the full storm cloud and some of the sunset surrounding it on either side without having to back up too much since the dark clouds behind me were already making the shoreline very dark. Despite the rough conditions, I managed to get a handful of images like this and a few to use for panoramas as well which I'm happy about. One image had better reflections of the color and the birds in the foreground and the panorama shows much more of the sunset off to the right but the star attraction for me was that giant stormy mass and this particular shot had the best balance of light on either side with the storm most centered. I'm not sure I'm ready to call myself a storm chaser yet but I certainly did enjoy the experience, regardless of how nasty the weather was. I realized after I left that I may never see something like this again though I will prepare better the next time it rains and hopefully I can witness another storm out at sea. Probably at Venice.

 

 

🔷Last but not least, I reached 10,000 followers today which is thrilling and not something I ever expected when I first start posting here on Flickr. For years, the majority of my photography centered on capturing my dog, Scotch, on some of our many adventures together. About 2 years ago, I decided I wanted to teach myself manual photography and went in head first, learning completely via trial and error, some research and lots and lots of practice. I've been pretty candid about this--both with my positive experiences and all the struggles and frustration as well and have used this description area to describe and document my process along the way. I've learned so much from my interactions here on Flickr over that time and it's been an amazing pleasure getting to know so many of you through our shared passion for photography. Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to join me on this journey, particularly in the last year when I shutdown my business back in the DC area, packed up my belongings, and moved across the country to Los Angeles on a 4,000+ mile road trip with my dog to concentrate on my photography. I also really appreciate all the kindness and support I received regarding Scotch and am really happy to say he's doing extremely well following his surgery. It's hard to believe that a month ago, I was trying to cope with and prepare for what likely was his last weekend with me after the Laryngeal Paralysis worsened dramatically following his 13th birthday and now he's healthy, happy and can fully enjoy life again.

 

Thank you all again and I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

 

▪️WHERE & WHEN

🔸Venice Beach

🔸Venice, California

🔸November 26th, 2016

 

▪️SETTINGS

🔸Canon T4i

🔸EF-S 18-135mm IS STM

🔸@18mm

🔸f/10

🔸1/10th second

🔸CPL

Done