Another long exposure (120 seconds) made with a ND110 filter and a 2 stops hard-edge ND filter. I don’t have too much time to write a longer post, but I did update the previous post to show a comparison between an image shot with ND110 and one without.

I am heading up the mountains for a few days. Hope to bring back a good photo or two.

Remember Passing Storm? This is another shot showing the top half of the Passing Storm vertorama image that I posted last month. For a few minutes, the reds were unbelievable before the sky turned grey.

“Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.” — Author unknown.

I haven’t been around much lately. It has been two hectic weeks. Wife’s grandfather passed away last week, and we’ve been running back and forth taking care things. Last evening, I took a few visitors out for a beach walk to give them a chance to escape reality for a while. I was hoping that they could catch a peaceful sunset, but we witnessed one hellish looking sky after the sun went down. I guess it was fitting considering what we went through during the past few days. Imagine standing underneath those overpowering clouds and colors …

This vertorama is a composite of two separate horizontal shots. I didn’t have to do much to get those unreal colors and textures: RAW to TIFF conversion with cloudy white balance + 3 black points + linear S curve. Composition wise, I threw the rule of thirds away. The symmetry suggests one’s state of mind. It’s all about finding one’s balance.

An oil platform just off the Southern California coastline.

Renewable energy (energy generated from natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat) vs Non-Renewable energy.

As usual, I sat on the beach and waited for the evening sky to turn red. The sky was a little dull and lifeless for a while, then it lit up for a few minutes just before darkness came. This is one of my favorite things to do: hang out on the beach and wait for those red skies.

The title for this image might be a little unusual, but it reflects my thoughts while shooting this scene. I sat there and thought, one of these days, those oil rigs would turn into wind and wave turbines covered with solar panels. By then I could beach without having to remove all the tar on my feet when I get home. I’m sure the protected snowy plowers on this beach would love that too.

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PS: I spent last weekend cleaning up this site. The four major sliding panels (navigation, flickr badge, exif info, and comment) now remember their state(open/close). I’ve been wanting to fix this for a while, but never got around to it. I also did a bunch of other smaller fixes and added preview thumbnails for the next/prev link on my onblack page.

Another beach sunset afterglow photo that I took last winter. I saw this strand of kelp submerged in the wet sand and decided to setup my tripods there. I posted a similar shot back in my January 2nd 2008′s post, Fleeting Heart. This Kelp Strand in the Sand image was taken about seven minutes prior to the Fleeting Heart shot.

Why did I decide to post this now? Some times I feel like an Ostrich, burying my head in the sand … ignorance is bliss … or is it oblivion?

Shot this last month, but didn’t want to post it because I normally try to avoid man-made structure in my seascapes and landscapes. It’s getting harder and harder to find a scene without our footprints. We, the human species, are running up an ecological debt that we might not be able to repay…