Haystack Rock at Dusk

Dusk is my favorite time of day because of the colors on display – a mix of cool blues and purples with vivid, warm oranges, reds, and yellows. I feel that dusk has a certain mood to it that makes for great pictures and, fortunately, I don’t have to get up early in the morning to capture it!

These photos were taken a bit after the one in yesterday’s post. I was looking for a shot that would focus primarily on the waves crashing against Haystack Rock but, once I got to what I thought might be a good location to do so, I realized I could go wide and capture a pretty moody picture due to the darkness settling in, the setting sun, and the amazing looking rocks in the water. I swapped lenses, framed the shot, and then got the camera setup on the tripod. I took probably fifteen different shots like this with varying compositions, with and without a polarizing filter (I wanted the extra stops of darkness the polarizer would provide – and thus a longer shutter speed – rather than using the filter for its polarizing capabilities). I also timed my shots to coincide with different patterns in the waves and this, combined with the varying shutter speeds, made for many different variations.

The photo below was taken without the polarizing filter so the shutter speed wasn’t as long as the others, allowing for more detail and reflection in the water. Nearly all the shots with the filter had too long of a shutter speed so blurred the water too much, making the water difficult to notice.

The following photo was taken with the polarizer on. I like the balance between the water on the left and the darkness on the right caused by the “S” shape of the waves along the beach. I tried different crops to see whether I could emphasize that aspect of the shot but ended up liking the uncropped version best. I also like how the rocks are framed in this shot as compared to the horizontal frame. This shot was taken to the right of the previous one in order to get that effect.

Cannon Beach at Sunset

Cannon Beach in Oregon is one of the most spectacular beaches I have been to. It’s a beautiful town with well-maintained beach homes and great, scenic coastline. If you’re looking for rugged Oregon coastline then Cannon Beach isn’t the location to visit, but it has sandy beaches and some unique, scenic coastline (especially if you have seen the movie “Goonies”).

I visited Cannon Beach for a couple of days and hoped to get some good weather. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy the entire time I was there but there was a brief period during which the sun made an appearance and I had made the trip to the beach in hopes that I could capitalize on the brief opening in the clouds during sunset.

After searching for a decent location I settled in and waited for the sun to work its magic. I tried to time my shots properly so as to capture the warm sunlight and good waves along the beach. I was hoping for the waves to provide some leading lines into the frame and I was able to get some decent lines to coincide with the excellent lighting we briefly received.

The one real difficulty for me was the large number of people along the beach, and thus in my frame. Of course, there was no way I could capture the shot without them so I figured I’d consider removing them in Photoshop during post processing. However, once I began processing the photo I realized that the people aren’t much of a distraction, you can’t identify anyone because they’re all blurry, and most importantly, they provide perspective to the viewer when considering the size of Haystack Rock. The thing is immense and without the people in the frame, the viewer just wouldn’t gain an appreciation for how big the rock is, so I concluded that I would leave the people in the shot. Besides, I’m not much for fussing around in Photoshop and trying to remove each person from the shot would be tedious. I like the people in the frame.

Jon Cornforth Site Added

I added to the list of links another photographer who I think deserves mentioning. His name is Jon Cornforth and he’s got some excellent photographs. Here is an example of one of his latest (and one of my favorite shots of his):

Reflection Lake Wildflowers 1

Take some time to visit his site and view his photos.

Busy Months

I’m finally winding down two very busy months. Things are only slowing down a bit – I’ve still got plenty to do – but I won’t be traveling near as much as I have been the past couple of months. It will be nice.

I also have a bunch of photos to process from the Uinta Mountains and the Oregon coast. I’m excited to get them processed and to see if any of them match up to what I envisioned them to be when I tripped the shutter. Hopefully there will be updates forthcoming.

Snow Canyon State Park – First Visit

I had to go to St. George for work this past week so we decided to make a family trip of it. My wife and kids had never been to either Zion or Bryce National Park so, in addition to lounging by the pool (well, the family did more of that than I did as I had to work), we hopped over to those parks for some hiking and to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We also managed to make it to Snow Canyon State Park, which is just north of St. George. I had never been there but I heard that it was quite amazing and, I must say, the reports are accurate. It was beautiful and I was able to spend a brief amount of time taking some photos. Since I had never been there I wasn’t sure what to expect or when the best light would be available, but I took some shots anyway. We made our way over there at about 6:00 PM and the lighting was decent. Though we didn’t have much time to spend hiking and photographing, it was a lot of fun and I definitely plan on returning when I have more time for photography.

The below shot was one of only three spots I was able to photograph. It’s my favorite from the trip but I don’t like the fuzzy seeds all over the cactus plant. I didn’t want to remove them and was unable to find another plant in the vicinity with a similar background so I had to shoot this one anyway.