Dusk light over Devereux Creek – Santa Barbara, California

Last Sunday, I went back to the beach for the first time in over two months. I took a few typical “photofool” seascape exposures, but decided to post this creek side image first.

This image is a blend exposure from a single raw file (10 seconds exposure). The details on the lower right corners are not too visible in this small JPG. I wished I had enough time to put on my GND filter and tried a few exposures.

It’s amazing how this ordinary swamp can be so beautiful during the last few minutes of day light.

I’ve seen a lot of Egret landing images shot at high speed to freeze their motion, so I thought I’d experiment with panning at a slower exposure time. I shot this image in July 2007, but didn’t want to post it back then because I couldn’t get all the bird’s reflection in the water. It’s an out-take, but it adds a little diversity to my photo stream.

On a side note, I need a break from work, so I’m taking the next few days off and head up the mountains to catch some Fall colors. I haven’t been able to shoot anything new lately, so I’m looking forwards to the road trip. Early reports for Fall colors in the Eastern Sierra for this weekend aren’t that promising (early colors & wild fire smokes). Since I already made traveling arrangements last week, I’ll take my chances and just go. Hopefully, I’ll get a good photo to post next week.

Heart found in the water … in a blink of an eye, sun disappeared, heart faded … clouds and light lingered for a while …

Was on my way to the beach, saw this scene, dropped by bike, setup my tripod, waited for the sun to drop behind the trees, saw that I waited for, took a few shots. Debated whether to stay and shoot these reflections or to head out to the beach and look for them on the wet sand. Normally, the incoming tides and the wind would create movements on the creek’s water surface. This time, except for a few birds dropping in and out, the water was perfectly still. Decided to take the sure thing and stayed. Was hoping that in about fifteen minutes, the sky would turn red … and it did. Will post a couple more photos from this shoot later.