Category: Sunsets

Sunset from the jetty

The Moose on

I had planned to play with the film camera today, but by 1PM there was scud rolling in and the light was really tricky, so I decided to leave it at home. I expected overcast at the beach and with the new camera I have a few issues I need to overcome, not the least of which being the fact that the 50mm lens, which is perfect for landscapes, has a 112mm filter thread! Seriously. 112mm. That’s ridiculously large.1 I’m using a 100mm system now with the largest thread for the adapter ring being 82mm. That means it’s good for my 100mm and 210mm Fuji lenses, but I need something bigger2 if I am to use filters on the 50mm or 80mm, which are, of course, the obvious choices for landscape.

I could have taken shots … with zero effort had great reward. I mean, it was an f/8 and be there kind of moment

If it means anything, I’ve wanted something that’ll do 95mm ever since I shot Palmhenge3, I just haven’t because how often will you really use a filter at 500mm?4 I guess now I will have some more opportunities, though I’ll be limiting the number of filters as the most likely candidate seems to be a Cokin XL. Those 130mm filters are a lot less common than the smaller ones, and can get expensive. So without a way to stop down the sky on the ultrawide I just assumed it would not work out. Thus my decision to not have it set up and in the truck.

The problem with this decision? Well, the sunset was perfect for photography. First. the sun came out and lit the power plant and the bluffs behind the cooling pond spectacularly. I could have taken shots away from the sun, no filters, and with zero effort had great reward. I mean, it was an f/8 and be there kind of moment, and I realized straight up I should have had the confidence to at least have the camera ready.

Of course, I had the z6 in the truck, so I headed south planning to shoot wherever I found a parking place. The first open hole was by the cold water jetty, so I trekked out to the middle of the jetty to see whatever I could see.

By the time I was on the jetty a cloud obscured the sun, which removed the glorious glow on the powerplant and bluffs, but the sky was still fun so I took pictures of the surfers. There were some kids catching the white water and laughing and yelling the whole time. Their mother was on the beach yelling at them to come in and they’d call back “Not yet! Wait until it’s dark!” I left after it was well dark and they were still in the water, but by the time I was to my truck they were getting the “You come in right now!” speech, with all sorts of threats. Those kids are in for a stern talking to tonight. But I’m sure it was worth it.

After a few shots of the surfers the sun peeked out beneath the clouds again and the sky turned into a picture postcard, ready to be made. A young couple was out on the end of the jetty, so I used them as a focal point. I got more than a few good shots, some with them silhouetted, one or two where they’re more exposed. I gave them an email address as they were leaving, I hope the contact me so I can give them some pictures.

After they left I set up again as the light was changing, hoping to get some birds and this fishing boat that was on the horizon. But, then, the most annoying thing on earth happened, some lady and her child climbed out on the jetty. Now, that’s OK. I don’t own the jetty, but for fuck’s sake, you have a pile of rocks thirty feet wide and two hundred feet long, do you have to stand LITERALLY right in front of the camera I have carefully placed on a tripod?

Do you have to stand there? Really?

The climbed around in front of me until the sun was almost gone, pretty much ruining the rest of the shots from this perspective. For obvious reasons, I didn’t give them my email address.5 They don’t get a lovely framed 8×10 Color Glossy picture with circles, arrows, and a paragraph on the back.

The thing with this sunset, though, is that it never quit.6 The color died down for a few minutes, then it went insane, the sky lighting up pink and crimson, and the water reflecting colors. It kept changing, and I kept taking shots thinking “This is the peak” but it didn’t peak for 10 minutes. The color would just be brighter to the left or the right. At that point I could easily have taken film photos, with ANY lens including the 100mm. Below is a photo taken at 47mm, and I cropped it to 6×8 to get an idea of what field of view I might get with a 100mm lens and, frankly, it makes me feel that much more foolish. I’ve said it before, sometimes the days that look ugly in the afternoon come up with the wildest, most interesting skies.

47mm cropped to 6×8 should be about the same field of view as the 100mm medium format.

There were many, many more lovely moments. I left long after sunset and the beach still harbored dozens of people staring west. When I got home another blossoming of color happened, streaks of purple and deep red lit all the clouds. Had I stayed I might have gotten some fun long exposures, but I had important business to attend7 and hustled away. I think I got enough after sunset shots, even if I was impatient.

Here’s some experimenting with images I got after dark. I converted one to black and white to see what it might look like shooting Delta100 or something. The pelicans were taken well after dark, and are a touch blurry, but I love birds in my photos. My favorite is the one with the crashing wave, but there are two dozen equally colorful photos on the memory card. It was that kind of an evening.

If there is anything to learn from tonight, it’s to keep even the gigantic camera ready to go. I’ll have to ruin a few rolls of film to learn all of its quirks anyway, might as well get on with it. F/8 and be there.8

Since I referred to it before, here’s Palmhenge, the sun setting between a pair of trees about a KM away in October, 2020. What you see here is uncropped, unedited, and I’m strangely proud of that. This one prints out spectacularly, and I’ll gladly sell you a signed and numbered print either in the current aspect ratio (in 8×12 or 16×24 inch glossy) or cropped to match consumer frames (in 8×10 or 16×20 glossy). Just shoot me an email.

1. That’s what she said.

2. That’s what she said.

3. I only now realize I haven’t posted Palmhenge. I have included the money shot here. I should make a post for it, alone, one day.

4. Once. Only once. Well, twice, once to correct what I fucked up the first time I tried it. But only once that I would show anyone.

5. Because Fuck You, that’s why.

6. That’s what she said.

7. Laundry. My important business was laundry, with which I was helped by Lucy. There’s often the annoyance of being bothered by a cat while folding your underwear, and I suppose it’s understandable. Except in this case, because it’s not even my cat, so it’s just weird.

8. For people who haven’t heard the phrase, f/8 and be there is a photojournalist’s credo from the early days, meaning it is better to be ready and take an imperfect, but good enough, shot than to be fussing with your gear and miss something.

Just some experiments

The Moose on

I have been experimenting with a few things recently. Filters, different lenses, and weird light. I scouted a couple new locations that I think will be great for sunrise photos, and took sunset photos while I was there even though I was looking the wrong way because, why not? I saw lots of pelicans diving off the beach one night while I had the 20mm on, so I switched to the long lens for the next time out and… wasn’t able to get a single pic of a diving bird.

So, here’s some random stuff from the last two weeks.

Some tests from sunset tonight

The Moose on

I tested the Nikon claim that my camera was weather sealed this evening. In between rain storms I shot some landscapes, using a GND to tame the sky and a reverse GND to tame that sun when it decided to peek out.

No neutral density. Ocean was pretty victory-at-sea today and the wind was howling, so very few reflections to play with. And I wanted the clouds to look like the looked, which was absolutely wild.

Would have liked to do more experimenting, but the lens and filters were so spotted from the squall you can see coming in in the third photo, I couldn’t get anything but water drop blurries after that. I headed back to the truck to dry off my gear.

Interesting side note as I post these. I did the third one out of Nikon Capture, and the first two from On1. I did auto white balance on each, and On1 wants to correct that magenta cast while Nikon doesn’t. I might try an apples to apples comparison, as it was getting mighty dark in the last photo as the squall line marched toward us, but… I probably won’t. I like it just fine either way.

You down with GND?

The Moose on

Yeah, you know me. Who’s down with GND? Every last lady…

Wait. Not sure that’s appropriate. GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filters are what I’m talking about.

They are a mainstay of old school landscape photographers. I’ve done the circular GND thing, but since I’m using lenses with stupid large filter threads (which means they must be better than smaller ones, right?1) and my favorite lenses all seem to have different diameters, I figured it was time to just get a proper holder and use square filters. They’ll work on my main lenses, which use 77mm and 67mm threads, and when I get stupid and pull out the medium format they’ll work there, too. So it’s a good investment2.

Sometimes the ugly days will surprise you with a few good moments if you’re patient.

I started with an open-box set from the bargain bin on the Formatt Hitech site that has 1, 2, and 3 stop soft GND and 1, 2, and 3 stop solid ND filters in resin. They are pretty cheap to begin with, especially compared to the name brand resin filters, but with the open box bargain they were as cheap as anything save the horrible random-chinese-company-brand filters you get off of the amazon dot com. My thought was to experiment with them and then be better informed if I decide to spend money on higher quality glass in the future.

I’m not bitching too much as getting a half dozen good filters for less than a hundred is impossibly inexpensive — one Lee resin filter costs that much — but they aren’t exactly perfectly neutral. The clouds today and the foggy sky yesterday definitely showed a magenta cast, especially when I tried stacking the NDs to get 5 stops. Maybe Hitech is trying to be the Velvia of the filter world. It’s not the worst thing, and probably correctable in software if I cared or knew how to do more than use the crop tool and click on “Auto sharp”, but definitely not perfectly neutral.

I also got a reverse GND for sunsets since I take way too many pictures of of the sun setting on a perfectly flat horizon. I really should remember to turn around once in a while, as the joy of golden hour light is what’s illuminated, not the lamp. Also, I have heard rumors that there’s stuff east of the beach, though I haven’t confirmed that recently. Really seems pointless to head east of I-5.

Of course, the weather yesterday was terrible. Foggy, but not foggy enough to be interesting. Today was almost as bad, but there were high tropical clouds, so at least there was something to test. And sometimes the ugly days will surprise you with a few good moments if you’re patient.

I shot the sand at the waterline, and then the sky, and found 1.5 stops difference. Strange as I usually see 2 to 3 stops, but that’s why you don’t just get a 3 stopper and be done with it. So I began with the 2 stop GND and added 3 stops of ND so I could do a long exposure.

Interesting to see the little blurries there as I was using 15-25 second shutter speeds and there were lots of people around, kids running in and out of the water, surfers, and wading birds. I think the ghosts add flavor.

I did clean my sensor last night and can be proud of the fact that there aren’t a dozen little spotty things to use the retouch tool on. So I have that going for me, which is nice.

Then I slapped the 2 stop reverse GND on as the sun was on the horizon. This worked well, and the hard edge was much appreciated compared to the softer GND I started with. I have some proper glass filters, hard edge, already on the way as I think they’ll be useful for this superwide lens, but this sky wasn’t the best for a reverse GND alone, so I slapped the 1 stop GND on with it to tone down the top of the sky some. That gave me 2.5 stops on the horizon and maybe 1.5 stops at the top of the frame, and I set it up to do three shots, at exposure setting and 2 stops above and below. Just to experiment with what I got using different metering.

Then, somewhere in the middle of this intervalometer experimentation, the sky went insane. This was 10-15 minutes after sunset and the clouds had dulled, but they suddenly brightened again and turned a brilliant crimson. It was cool. Everyone on the beach was either staring slack jawed or trying to take selfies with the red sky behind them.

Alas, I spent time fumbling with the camera, still had 3 stops of ND filter in even though it was getting significantly darker, and still had both GNDs in though the sky was barely a stop brighter than the reflection at this point. I yanked one and lined it up for some shots, but I was rushing and didn’t remember to turn off my bracketing. Of the half dozen shots, each between 10 and 25 seconds long, only 2 came out. Then one I did with a shorter exposure that came out OK. The brilliant sky only lasted a minute or two and all of this was past the peak.

I guess it’s a good lesson. I know how to set this stuff up, but all the fiddling and silly experiments with timers and automatic exposures are too tempting. I could have gotten at least three more great shots with different framing if I’d just stuck to the script. So these aren’t my best work, though I did clean my sensor last night and can be proud of the fact that there aren’t a dozen little spotty things to use the retouch tool on. So I have that going for me, which is nice.

Here are the two that came out close to adequately exposed. Both taken after the peak in the crimson glow, but still before it had completely faded. The last one I had spun the aperture way open and was a bit overexposed, but none of the highlights were blown so it was recoverable. There are benefits to compressing the dynamic range before it hits the sensor.

I’m sure I’ll take more soon, and we have proper rain coming this weekend. Two storms back to back, so maybe I can get something dramatic in between the storms, or after the second one passes. There’s often a day with great visibility and fluffy white clouds after a front moves through, so here’s hoping the timing of the rain is photographically opportunistic.3

1 That’s what she said.

2 By investment I obviously mean expense. No offense, but if you’re looking to someone wasting good money on camera gear for financial advice you’re probably barking up the wrong tree. Between the lenses and filters I have I could have really invested, in something really important and useful. Like a guitar.

3 It’s 2020. Let’s be real, this is about as much optimism as we can invest right now.

Sunset from the Kitchen Window

The Moose on

Another 500mm lens test. Uncropped, taken hanging out the kitchen window to get that dip in the trees.

Taken as the smoke from the wildfires was just beginning to ease out, but still definitely there, mixing with marine layer coming off the ocean.

Sunset with the 20mm

The Moose on

Experimenting with the 20mm lens and sunsets. No parking near where I had hoped to shoot at the warm water jetty, so I went south of Terramar.

I had hoped to do some long exposure and get the washed out waves, but the crowd in the parking lot behind me was substantial and every time I’d leave the shutter open more than 2 seconds someone would turn on their car headlights, blowing out the bluff and weeds in the foreground. Oh, well. I’ll try again another night.

The people in the photos were just folks who were there enjoying the sunset. I decided not to move, and they make a good focal point. Alas, the traffic on the highway behind us kind of ruined most of the photos with glare from the headlights, but I cropped the glare out of a couple and posted them for fun. The one where the phone glow illuminates their faces is accidental. I promise I’m not being snarky, even though I have done that before.