Sunset Pano from the Balcony

Stayed in Fajardo in Puerto Rico at the amazing El Conquistador Hotel. Had a nice high view overlooking the North end of the Island. Had a number of Thunderstorms that rolled in while we stayed, which sorta makes the day a bit tough from a planning perspective, but when they start to clear out around sunset, those clouds just provide the most amazing drama your lens can find.

This is a quick handheld panorama, did the Scott Kelby trick of turning my feet so it wouldn’t be so distorted when Photoshop stitched them together. In retrospect, I should have done this on a tripod and done a Pano-HDR like I did at Yosemite. I would have liked a bit more light along the hillside to show a bit of definition to the trees. Because the sun is already past the hilltop, everything underneath is just to dark in one exposure to have any detail. Bummer. Next time…

Nonetheless… I love these type of shots that show “transition areas” like sea to sky, sea to land, and land to sky… they simply make for more interesting shots.

Enjoy!

Baker Beach Sunset

I owe my good friend Dave Alfaro a mighty big thank you for pointing me to this location- Baker Beach. Located not to far from the base of the Golden Gate Bridge on the City side of the Bay. Headed there for sunset… was a bit worried as the sky was bald blue all day, and the sky had no drama. Arriving before the sunset, things began to fall into place, as a bank of wispy clouds and another lower set moved in, which provided some great reflective light in the sky.

Enjoy!

Obviously the range of light dictated this image to be an HDR. I’ve pretty much adopted this technique shooting sunsets and sunsrises where I include the sun itself… otherwise the metering in camera focuses on that (blows it out) and everything else loses its detail.

Nature’s Colors

This is the water’s edge down on Robert Moses beach looking west at sunset. The colors of the sky and water are what caught my eye. Lasted only a few minutes after the sun had set… sky was amazing during this brief window of time. Love how the drying water where the waves wash up, reflect the light so brilliantly.

Simply beautiful scene brought to you by Nature herself.

Robert Moses Sunset

After shooting the Lighthouse for a bit, turned the camera left toward the setting sun and the blazing color falling across the horizon and lower sky. Simply amazing when Mother Nature decides to dazzle our retinas with her own fireworks display.

Tough to write or say anything more… just let the colors themselves do the talking.

For those of you local Long Islanders this is taken due East of the Field 5 parking lot… pretty much in front of the Lighthouse looking West.

Robert Moses Lighthouse at Dusk

Finally! An iconic shot taken right here on Long Island. I’ve caught some flack at the Gallery for not having some real “Long Island” photographs, and I am happy to type that thanks to a great sunset (imagine, I go to shoot the Super Moon, and I get this incredibly colorful dusk shot), we have a true Long Island shot. Hey it’s only one, but one is a great start, and when you see the color on this image printed, its truly breathtaking. Will head back to this spot I am sure, although I am doubtful that the colorful hues of this sunset will return so vibrantly.

Makes me happy my passion is photography and this moment has been captured forever.

Will be available in the Gallery this weekend… come down and check it out!

Amazing Grace

Funny thing about naming a picture… you want to have something fitting but not to obvious, something that sticks in the mind of the viewer without being cliche, something that captures the moment behind the lens and the emotion or feeling you were experiencing. Tough thing to do.

This is Wilson Creek Beach in California. Maybe 10-15 miles south of Crescent City in Northern California. It wasn’t the original shoot location we had planned, but it ended up yielding some truly amazing images. Images that have stuck with me, images that have been printed and published. Images that keep me coming back to them to remember that glorious sunset along the California coast.

One thing about being a landscape photographer is you chase the light. And sometimes that light fails you and you end up with a crappy shot. But when the light comes to play, well, its pure magic, indeed its amazing grace…

Enjoy!

What my eyes have seen…

I love sunsets. Love capturing them in all their glory, which means a HDR (High Dynamic Range) shot. That bright sun tends to blow out the image, so I find that a 7 or 5 step HDR does the trick for holding the detail in the shadows, and just letting those satuarted oranges, and yellows, and yes even those blues behind the clouds live in all their majestic glory.

This was taken at Cambridge Beach resort in Bermuda. I’ve blogged before, but I think Bermuda and California hands down have the most amazing sunsets.  It’s as if the atmosphere itself is saying goodnight to the sun. Just amazing stuff… Glad I was there to bear it witness…

Sunset

Another great thing about unobstructed views on the water is they really create spectacular sunsets. Had an opportunity to witness this one  the other night… Glorious!

Enjoy!