Riding Off Into The Sunset (California Style)
It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Venice Beach for sunsets and it's normally my first thought when I see a cloudy sky from my balcony in Hollywood. It's easily the closest and most direct destination along the Pacific Ocean for me and with the predictably unpredictable LA traffic, that is no small condition to consider. It's also relatively easy to legally park for free near where I go since I avoid the pier and further down by Santa Monica. I'm kind of in the dead zone because I'm usually the only photographer within sight and I rarely see more than a handful of people from here. I set up over by the lifeguard Headquarters which sorta splits Santa Monica from Venice. It may be hard to believe, but if you were standing beside me in this exact location, you'd understand what I'm saying and also why I come here.
With a big, colorful sunset predicted by the Photographer's Ephemeris app (and based on what my eyeballs saw all day) a few Fridays ago, my choices were endless but...I was lazy and waited until the only place I had time to get to was Venice. Shocking, right? I say that like it's a bad thing but honestly, when I have too many choices and ample time, I end up debating over and over about where to go, how long I want to drive, the known vs unknown, parking, when we plan to eat dinner, etc until I'm usually left with just Venice or worse: I drive half way to a bunch of locations in different directions and STILL end up at Venice.
I came here expecting a good sunset and hoping perfect weather and a friday night wouldn't make parking impossible. Parking was easy but a few things I hadn't considered occurred: the tide was high--very high and using a 70-200mm lens meant reflections on the shore weren't gonna happen. Also, it was crowded! I mean, lots and lots of people on the beach with most waiting for the sunset. I'd guess there were 10-15x more people here for the sunset than I usually see. Last and perhaps most surprising was there dozens of surfers in the water in front of me. I've never seen a single surfer here in all my trips prior. You'll see surfers between Malibu Pier and the Lagoon and surfers by Hermosa and the beaches closer to Palo Verdes but not here. The combination of tiny waves and a generally low tide seem make Venice a poor option for this I guess. I think I had seen like 3 paddleboarders in the water before this night and that's it.
Being able to photograph surfers during sunset was both a great change of pace and also a bit annoying. Unless I planned to remove the surfers from the photographs later, I had to set my exposure for them instead of the fiery sunset. Fortunately I had a other angles I could choose from to mix up the shot selection and there were a few breaks where the surfers were further towards the pier than my line of sight. I left when the last bits of color left the sky and the last surfer exited the water. No panoramas and no shots of the pier on this night. All my focus was on this view in front of me...for good reason I think :)
LOCATION
Venice Beach
Venice, California
March 10th, 2017
SETTINGS
EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
@70mm
ISO 200
f/4
1/100th second
Riding Off Into The Sunset (California Style)
It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Venice Beach for sunsets and it's normally my first thought when I see a cloudy sky from my balcony in Hollywood. It's easily the closest and most direct destination along the Pacific Ocean for me and with the predictably unpredictable LA traffic, that is no small condition to consider. It's also relatively easy to legally park for free near where I go since I avoid the pier and further down by Santa Monica. I'm kind of in the dead zone because I'm usually the only photographer within sight and I rarely see more than a handful of people from here. I set up over by the lifeguard Headquarters which sorta splits Santa Monica from Venice. It may be hard to believe, but if you were standing beside me in this exact location, you'd understand what I'm saying and also why I come here.
With a big, colorful sunset predicted by the Photographer's Ephemeris app (and based on what my eyeballs saw all day) a few Fridays ago, my choices were endless but...I was lazy and waited until the only place I had time to get to was Venice. Shocking, right? I say that like it's a bad thing but honestly, when I have too many choices and ample time, I end up debating over and over about where to go, how long I want to drive, the known vs unknown, parking, when we plan to eat dinner, etc until I'm usually left with just Venice or worse: I drive half way to a bunch of locations in different directions and STILL end up at Venice.
I came here expecting a good sunset and hoping perfect weather and a friday night wouldn't make parking impossible. Parking was easy but a few things I hadn't considered occurred: the tide was high--very high and using a 70-200mm lens meant reflections on the shore weren't gonna happen. Also, it was crowded! I mean, lots and lots of people on the beach with most waiting for the sunset. I'd guess there were 10-15x more people here for the sunset than I usually see. Last and perhaps most surprising was there dozens of surfers in the water in front of me. I've never seen a single surfer here in all my trips prior. You'll see surfers between Malibu Pier and the Lagoon and surfers by Hermosa and the beaches closer to Palo Verdes but not here. The combination of tiny waves and a generally low tide seem make Venice a poor option for this I guess. I think I had seen like 3 paddleboarders in the water before this night and that's it.
Being able to photograph surfers during sunset was both a great change of pace and also a bit annoying. Unless I planned to remove the surfers from the photographs later, I had to set my exposure for them instead of the fiery sunset. Fortunately I had a other angles I could choose from to mix up the shot selection and there were a few breaks where the surfers were further towards the pier than my line of sight. I left when the last bits of color left the sky and the last surfer exited the water. No panoramas and no shots of the pier on this night. All my focus was on this view in front of me...for good reason I think :)
LOCATION
Venice Beach
Venice, California
March 10th, 2017
SETTINGS
EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
@70mm
ISO 200
f/4
1/100th second