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 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.

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[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.

Last Sunday, I decided to take my camera out to experiment with my new B+W ND110 filter (1000x). This image is a 90 seconds exposure shot during day light as the sun was setting. For those who have not used an ND110 filter, it’s a 10 stops loss of light neutral density filter. One can’t see anything through the view finder with this filter on.

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been too busy. Last Thanksgiving, I attended yet another funeral. In the last twelve months, we’ve lost three family members due to cancer.

Needing a break from editing funeral photos, I took my camera out to a local beach. I spent two hours on the sand and did nothing but watched the perpetual tides and thought about my own mortality. At sunset, I put on this pitch-black ND110 filter on my lens as if I wanted to see with my eyes closed. At the end of the day, I came home with a few beautiful exposures. I realized that it doesn’t matter what type of equipment I use or what the circumstances are, I tend to photograph what my heart tells me: I like to stay in the light. Light does penetrate the darkest places if given enough time. For those who are in the dark, remember that you always have a choice. We might be living on borrowed time, but we do have choices.

PS: I probably will not be able to post again until next year. To all my viewers and followers, I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season.

This is a candid shot of a girl walking her dog on a Southern California beach during a beautiful summer sunset. This photo was taken on the same day as Broken Kelp. This image is a square crop from a single exposure.

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.

I’ve been waiting for beautiful skies to return to our local beach. Tonight, I was lucky enough to capture this classic Southern California summer lifestyle. At the end of the day, there is nothing better than breathing the fresh salty air, feeling the cool water, and watching those magical clouds getting lit up by the setting sun. Life is pretty darn beautiful if one chooses to experience it … as the locals say, it’s chillaxing.

This image was not what I had in mind when I started shooting. I lined up my camera to shoot a few long exposures to create a vertorama, but when I saw this surfer in my frame, I flipped all my settings to shoot a single frame with a faster exposure time, hoping to catch him before he disappeared into the waves. I wished I had time to frame the surfer a little further into the scene, but for a candid shot, I’m quite contented with how it turned out.

Sometimes, my camera allows me to see what my naked eyes cannot see …

This image was shot a few minutes before these two: Ocean in Motion: Ebbs and Flows and Stillness Amid Ebbs and Flows. Obviously, the light intensity in this image was not as strong as the other two. To leave a softer feel for the image, I also didn’t apply my usual level and curve adjustments.