Golden aspens awaiting first light as the morning mist rises from Patricia Lake, Jasper National Park – Alberta, Canada

I shot this image about fifteen minutes prior to my previous photo, Layers of Stillness. From this view, turn 120° left to see the alpenglow on the Triden Range. Patricia Lake is small and easily accessible, but when those aspens turn colors on a crystal clear lake water surface, this place is incredibly photogenic. Throw in a moody cold Autumn mist rising under a colorful sunrise sky, this place can take one’s breath away. The best part about this beautiful morning sunrise? I saw only two other sunrise watchers enjoying this scene in silence. Out on this small lake, I found my own space and time, and I loved the absolute stillness of this quiet sunrise. This was one of those rare intangible moments that I can’t described nor captured with my camera. I think of myself as a “light chaser”, but it is not just about the light, it’s about finding those “pauses” that make time stands still. “Light” is what you see.

Last week, I took my camera gears to the mountains, hoping to shoot new photos, but for three days, I saw 50 inches of fresh snow and no sun. A day later, I was back on my local beach watching this beautiful scene unfolded right in front of me. What a difference a day makes: from a whiteout blizzard at 8000 feet to a colorful sunset at sea level.

As for the tittle of this shot, I could write a long post about it, but I am leaving possible interpretations to my viewers.

A surfer heading out during a summer sunset on a Southern California beach.

I recently lost another friend to cancer. I attempted to put up a tribute post two weeks ago, but decided to keep it private. Photographically speaking, I am hitting a motivational wall. My camera is sitting in a corner collecting dusts. I don’t even want to turn on my computer when I get home from work. This image is from my 2009 photo archive. This picture reminds me to get out there more often as I always find my escape and my balance on this beach.

Thanks for visiting, and have a wonderful summer should I don’t post again until the fall.

A 100 seconds twilight exposure of a Southern California beach shot with a BW ND110 filter.

I haven’t been out on the local beaches as often as I did in the past years. I really missed shooting these shoreline twilight scenes.

Last Friday, I left work early and went straight to the beach. During my rush, I left my remote cable release and Lee filter holder at home. I ended up hand-holding a Lee GND filter with one hand and pressing down on the shutter release button for 100 seconds with the other hand. I wanted to make a longer exposure, but had to cut my exposure time short because I knew that I couldn’t make a sharp enough exposure without my remote cable release. I underexposed this shot by about 1 stop. Thanks to RAW and post processing works, I am able to salvage this shot.

A 110 second winter twilight exposure on a Southern California beach.

This long exposure shows the cloud movements and the small pebbles rolling around the sand with the tides.

I shot this over a month ago during my experiment with ND110 filter. I also used a 2 stop hard-edge GND filter on this shot. The BW ND110 added too much saturation to my long exposures. The sky was colorful, but not that intense. The actual scene was much darker. I thought about toning down the colors, but decided to leave it. When I get a chance, I’ll post another version shot without the ND110 filter.

–
[Edited 3/1/2010]

After the above long exposure was recorded, I removed the ND110 filter and took a 1/6 second exposure of the same scene at the same aperture (F16) and ISO (200). These two images were shot about 3 minutes apart (counting the 2 minutes exposure time for the first shot). Both raw exposures were converted to JPGs using identical steps.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. — Ernest Hemingway

As I mentioned in my previous post about a twilight surfer, I lined up my tripod to make a vertorama, and this image was what I had in mind. I rushed the last shot out because I did not have time to finish processing this image.

Today’s sunset – first time that I saw a nice sky in months! It felt good to be out in the warm summer water and to breathe the fresh ocean air again. It’s been one stressful summer, and I can’t wait for the fall.

I don’t have time to write much since I’m packing for a short trip to San Diego for a friend’s wedding. Have a great weekend.

PS: This is a vertorama composite of two horizontal images shot a few seconds apart using the same exposure settings and focal length.

To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude. — Jeanne Moreau

Surfing through my photo archives again … Photographically speaking, the summer months are my least productive months.

This is one of those shots where reverse ND grads would come in handy. A 3 stops Daryl Benson Reverse ND grad is on my list of filters to purchase this winter. For this shot, I wanted to retain the sun’s highlight; thus I decided to keep the sun in check and let the sky be much darker than in real life.

I did create another version where the sky was much brighter to depict a more realistic capture of the scene, but I felt that the bright sky dominated the viewer’s attention. With a brighter sky and foreground, the stone and the sun got lost in the brilliance of the clouds and their reflections. Thus I decided to post this darker version where I get the vignetting effect without introducing artificial vignetting.