Best of 2015 - Nightscapes startrails

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: Nightscapes– Startrails

Date Taken: 10/25/15

Location: Eastern Sierras, CA

I only recently got into star trails so I only have a handful of them but this is my fav from this year. It really boils down to the location on this one. Most petroglyphs are carved into vertical walls but this specific one (with a name to match) is located on a slab open faced to the sky. After researching the location, I knew I wanted a Milky Way shot here. First time I came here I realized my 20mm was far from wide enough given the petroglyphs are in such a confined area and there is only so much room to back up as you are on a boulder. The second time I came back I had the 14-24 with me which was much better. After a successful MW session I turned around to capture a timelapse of images facing the North Star which produced this image.

Best of 2015 - Steel wool in San Pedro

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: Steel wool scapes

Date Taken: 9/7/15

Location: San Pedro, CA

For the most part, a spin is a spin. You can increase/decrease the size, do orbs or other shapes, and add other light elements to try and change things up. Location matters in these types of shots so we did a bunch of exploring earlier in the year when we were still spinning. San Pedro had quite a few awesome spots including this one. Got a chance to collab with my man @dariustwin who owns the night writing game. This was all done in a single exposure with the wool orb spun first, then Darren going in and drawing his skeletons afterwards. I’ve never run a 5 minute wool exposure so when I checked the LCD after this shot, I was amazed with how it came out. I have some other wool only spins that I like more than this image, but nothing quite as unique and that’s what puts it at the top in this category.

Best of 2015 - palos verdes sunset seascape

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: Sea scapes

Date Taken: 6/28/15

Location: Palos Verdes, CA

Probably not a surprise as I have posted this a few times but this is one of my favorite seascapes taken in 2015 for a few reasons. One, this cave looks south but the burn lit up the entire sky so we got a nice sunset which doesn’t always happen in this direction. Two, high tide made the foreground epic. I’ve seen a lot of shots here at low tide and it just doesn’t do it for me. I was after something different and this wave sealed the shot for me. High tide made getting in and out of here quite challenging with all our gear, but it paid off in the end.

Best of 2015 - Milky Way from Convict lake

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: Nightscapes – Milky Way

Date Taken: 8/20/15

Location: Convict Lake, CA

Another one of my favorite Milky Way shots, this one from a place I absolutely love. Convict Lake is always a stop when I’m in the Mammoth area no matter what season. I love how the boat dock looks out towards the lake and always wanted a shot here under the stars as it’s nice and dark here. Conditions never lined up prior to this shot as the slightest wind causes the boats to move making this long exposure shot difficult unless you snap a foreground exposure before dark. While I was out there this night it was super windy and I had already taken most of my shots from other spots on the lake. As I was just about done the wind just died so I rushed over to the dock to catch this shot. The vertical summer Milky Way lines up perfectly shooting out of Laurel Mountain in the background. Not only one of my fav night shots, but one of my fav shots from here in general.

Best of 2015 - Los Angeles skyline

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: City scapes

Date Taken: 2/24/15

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Probably my favorite location to view LA from. I’m still after an epic sunrise or sunset burn from here with fresh snow on the San Gabriel’s. I’ve been here more times than I can count looking for that shot. It’s either a dull sky, too smoggy/foggy which doesn’t make the mountain as crisp as I would like, or there is no snow. Winter is the only time I can get it, and I’ve been waiting for another storm to roll through to try again. I had everything I needed this day except the sky didn’t cooperate. Therefore I stayed after sunset and captured a nice twilight shot with the city lights on. What I like about this shot is that there was still enough ambient light at twilight to illuminate the snow capped mountains in the background which pretty much disappear into the darkness 20 mins later.

Best of 2015 - landscapes from Malibu

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: Land scapes

Date Taken: 7/7/15

Location: Malibu, CA

So who thought it was going to be a fall shot of trees? This year we were out in Malibu quite a bit during the gloom months to try and catch some nice fog rolling through the Santa Monica Mountains at sunset. Unfortunately, it’s not all that close and we only got out there once in a while. Needless to say I still haven’t captured many of the fog shots I want out there. However this particular day there was a bit of haze lingering around the horizon. As the sun dipped into it, it created these awesome rays through the mountain ridges. I snapped on a telephoto to frame the sun and the rays in a triangular pattern. I love the light/dark contrast here caused by the rays, and given that it’s something different than your average shot from here and that is what makes it a great image to me.

Best of 2015 - nightscapes milky way

I categorize my website by different type of scapes so I’ll be sharing some of my favorite ones shot this year in each category to close out 2015.

Category: Nightscapes – Milky Way

Date Taken: 4/17/15

Location: Red Rock Canyon, CA

I’ve taken a handful of MW images this year that I like including some at Convict Lake, the petroglyphs, and Joshua Tree. This one stands out for 2 reasons. One, it’s a little different than all my other shots as I was able to catch a big rig flying by adding some perfect light trails leading out to the Milky Way. Two, it was the first time I used the D750 + 20mm 1.8 combo and I was stunned at the amount of detail it could pick up wide open with a high ISO. Shot during International Dark Sky week. Red Rock isn’t the darkest area but it’s quite sufficient for being 1.5 hours outside of Los Angeles.

Joshua Tree Star Trails

Here is the final startrail shot from the Geminid meteor shower while we were out in Joshua Tree.  For this trail shot I only stacked about 60 of them, from when the sky was mostly clear. The files towards the end where the clouds came in make it look a little too hectic and the clouds overpowered the trails. What I like about using less of the files is you get not only the trails, but some of the cloud movement too which is subtle enough and not overpowering. It’s interesting to play around with a different amount of files to get shorter/longer trails. I’m not quite sure which I prefer yet, all I know is they are cool!

www.bay-photography.com

The Point Vicente Lighthouse resides at the most southwestern point of the Palos Verdes peninsula. Not all that many angles to shoot from, as the lighthouse are on coast guard grounds. This is the common angle which doesn’t always get the benefit of a nice sunset burn as it faces more South. However on this day clouds were clustered in this direction so I chanced it and decided to shoot here for sunset which proved to pay off. I used my telephoto to frame out all the distractions and most of the cliffs below, just focusing the shot on the lighthouse and the palm trees. I took some wide angle shots that I’ll share later before the afterburn which had some nice yellows. Just as I snapped on the 70-200 as it was glowing pink, I had a couple come ask to take a pic for them. Normally I would be happy too but not at the height of the burn. I only got off 3 shots, 2 which were blurry as I was rushing. Probably would have made a good xmas card, but sorry I had to get my shot.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/16, 5 sec, ISO-50

www.bay-photography.com

Moonlit Drive - Joshua Tree Geminid meteor

Here is a still from my timelapse from Joshua Tree Sunday night. We were treated to a pretty epic sunset followed by a decent size window where the clouds cleared leaving the sky nice and open to watch the Geminid meteor shower. I setup my foreground shot after twilight before I started the sequence, using the crescent moon behind me to provide nice subtle light. The star exposure was maybe an hour later when the moon set and we saw a nice bright one streak by. This shot points North as I am going to work on a startrail shot with this same comp, therefore the meteor doesn’t appear to be coming at you as it would if you were facing Gemini. After this lapse, the clouds came in real fast and pretty much covered the entire sky so we snapped a few with the clouds and called it a night.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, foreground: f/4, 126 sec, ISO-3200; sky: f/2, 15 sec, ISO-6400

www.bay-photography.com

Sun Catcher - fisherman at sunset Palos Verdes

I don't normally use fast shutter speeds with water as I like the look of the motion. There is one exception and that's when I need to freeze something in my frame. In this case, I needed to freeze the fisherman as he was moving, and freeze the wave to show the power of it. I lined this shot up so both the fisherman was fishing towards the sun and so the sun was behind the wave to provide nice backlight.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/16, 1/125 sec, ISO-200

www.bay-photography.com

Fall in the south bay - torrance CA

 

 

This is fall in the southbay. We don't have much color here, but for those who live around here the Maple's lining Del Amo are fabulous. These trees actually line a busy street with parked cars and signs all along the street. Careful framing makes it so you would never know and this is why I am not positioned in the middle of the sidewalk. The maples closer to the street are already red and won't last much longer. The ones off the street in the grass area are just starting to get some good color. Maple's aren't as translucent as aspens so I made sure to come at golden hour when I had the light about 45 degrees to my left as I shot this right before it dipped behind some houses. This shot screamed for a person and I got my wish as a family came and started raking and stealing a bunch of leaves lol. Took some planning to get the right light, and some luck to get the person to seal the shot.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/2.8, 1/2000 sec, ISO-640

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Tropical SoCal - sunset from Palos Verdes

Caught a clearing storm down in the coves of Palos Verdes. The burn wasn't fire but it let off this awesome clean pink glow that only lasted a few minutes. Combine that with the awesome lingering clouds and some foreground water action, couldn't have asked for better conditions on this day. Reminds me of some of those killer Hawaiian sunsets.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, 1/5 sec and 1 sec blended, f/8, ISO-100

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Bloody Mary - Queen Mary long exposure sunset

A shot from the Queen Mary at sunset. Used a long exposure to smooth the water and streak the clouds. Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/14, 180 sec, ISO-50

www.bay-photography.com

The View - Palos Verdes Low Fog sunset

Everything just lined up perfectly for this shot

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO-1000

www.bay-photography.com

 

Seasonal Shift - palos verdes rainbow sunset

 

 

Woo all done with fall. Thanks for letting me get through them. What season are we in now??? Winter?? Well this is what winter looks like in SoCal. Yesterday was 80 and sunny lol. I think fall is usually the only season that I chase every year just because I love capturing the colors of the trees. Spring would be sweet to capture some wildflowers so maybe in 2016. This one was taken in Palos Verdes after a clearing storm. This wasn't the peak of the rainbow but it was when the clouds first started lighting up at sunset so I opted to use it instead. Used my telephoto and framed a vertical shot with an incoming wave crashing against a rock.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/8, 0.6 sec, ISO-50.

www.bay-photography.com

 

Time Travel - eastern sierra petroglyphs

I'm having a lot of fun with these startrails. I've only done a few of these but now I can go work on these while I wait for the MW to return next year. Got a few spots in mind, some close to home. The foreground here has no light painting, just a stack of about 80 or so photos. Clouds came in halfway through my sequence and I wasn't sure how that would affect the final image, but they don't end up showing except near the bottom. I'll post one of the shots in the sequence sometime in the next few weeks with the clouds. I love how the contours of the foreground provide a nice base for the startrails. I still prefer to shoot the Milky Way but I can see myself doing a lot more of these.

 

 

Mono Magic - mono lake eastern sierras

Here is a pano I just finished from Mono Lake. This was made up of 6 vertical shots panned horizontally. I lined up the MW in between two of the big tufas, off centering it just a tad. I do like the scattered plants in between all the tufas, gives some different color and element interest to the place. No additional lighting used besides what my sensor picked up with ISO-6400.

 

All shots with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/1.8, 15 sec, ISO-6400

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Lookup Season - fall in the Eastern Sierras

What's a trip to see the fall colors without at least one of these? I still love the one I did last year in June Loop but the tips of these ones were nicely colored from yellow to orange. This was taken with the 14mm so the FOV is real wide. Figured I'd add the sun in there for some extra interest. Taken in the table mountain campground on the south fork outside of Bishop.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/18, 1-100 sec, ISO-250

www.bay-photography.com

Stars and Stripes - Eastern Sierra petroglyphs

 After I was done shooting the milky way from this spot I turned around to capture the stars facing north as I ran my intervalometer for a startrail shot that I am working on. Before that, I captured a few single frames to see how it would look. Was picking up some airglow so I first setup my foreground focus and used some light painting, then focused for the stars and bumped the ISO up to 10k to get as much as I could out of it. I then blended the two in photoshop. The tail end of the Milky Way is on the right which is why the stars are brighter on that side. One of the coolest places I've spent under the stars.

 

Foreground: Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/4, 25 sec, ISO-3200 Sky: Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8, 25 sec, ISO-10,000

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

6th street farewell - Los Angeles Cityscapes

Re-took a few shots from the iconic 6th street bridge before they close it for remodel which is expected to be completed in 2019.

Climbed up the right side to catch the sunset



and the left side for twilight



Cant wait to see what the new bridge has in store.

www.bay-photography.com

Eastern Sierra shots

Here are a few more from my recent trip to the Mammoth area in the eastern sierras.

Had to visit that395 house



South Lake had some awesome color:






North Lake road was peaking too:




Will post more as I edit them.

www.bay-photography.com

Wheels in Motion - Eastern Sierra Petroglyphs

Came back out here while I was up in the Eastern Sierras. I wanted to use a wider lens and a different technique. Focus here is challenging as the petroglyphs are inches in front of you. So I shot the foreground at twilight in order to achieve maximum depth of field and the stars about 1.5 hours after when it got darker. Since daylight and night time shots look different, you can't just throw the two together as it looks odd. For the foreground a good tip is to desaturate the image a bit to tone down some of the color as night images are a little flatter. Also, use a blueish photo filter to remove the whites from the image. Brightness varies by preference. I tend to leave the image a bit darker to match the sky, just enough to make out the details. Still had some snow on the sierra range from the past weekend. Not the darkest area but still one of the coolest in my book. Can't beat thousands of year old rock art under the night sky. Hope everyone got their astro shots in, Oct was really the last month this year where the core is visible. If not, gotta wait until Q2 of next year.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, foreground: f/14, 1 sec, ISO-100 sky: f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-6400

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Redheads - South Lake Eastern Sierras

 

 

Captured this awesome grove on the south lake fork right below mist falls. Saw this one from far away as the yellows were very vibrant with some orange/red tips. Captured this from the road so used my 70-200 with the 1.4x teleconverter. Shoulda brought along my 300mm but didn't want to carry both that and the 70-200. Snapped this as the sun was coming up over the mountain from behind. Not where any direct sunlight hit the grove yet, but enough to give it some nice warmth. The south lake fork still has plenty of potential with lots of lime green. Should be good this/next weekend.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200 + 1.4 TC, f/16, 1 sec, ISO-50

 

www.bay-photography.com

Zen - Low fog over Palos Verdes

Sometimes it's the unexpected photos that turn out to be the good ones. I wasn't expecting to shoot last night. I was out in Palos Verdes scouting some spots and the sky was pretty clear where I was. In fact I didn't even take my camera out. I packed up prior to sunset and headed back home. As I was near the top of the hill I glanced out towards the ocean and saw some low fog with clouds above starting to light up. I took the first turn at a nearby park, ran up the hill, and caught the afterburn. I love watching a good sunset, but I also like to capture people watching them as well. This comp caught my eye as I was walking up. A single bench with a lady just sitting peacefully enjoying the show. This view is looking NE towards the southbay beaches with Malibu out in the distance. I think I've seen low fog over the southbay once before and I didn't have my camera so I was glad I could capture this moment. If I woulda knew it was rolling in I woulda been here for sunset.

 

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120 @120mm, f/4, 1/200 sec, ISO-1000

 

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Burn Baby Burn - Palos Verdes

Been a while since we had a good afterburn. I found myself running around trying to catch this awesome burn in all directions. This was the peak of the burn facing out west. Took a long exposure for the foreground to give it the ethereal feel and smooth out the water. Hope you like it.

www.bay-photography.com

Tippy Tops - Fall in the Eastern Sierras

Man, who knew there would be such a craze over people running around taking pictures of trees changing color. I've pretty much made it an annual thing to get up to the Mammoth area to capture the beautiful fall colors and I'm excited to head back up next month. It's always hard to time but this year I only have one free weekend in Oct so I'll just have to hope some areas are peaking during my visit. If not, there are always stars and Toomey's. This one was from last year right as the morning light came over the mountain and lit up the leaves. I'm always on the lookout or should I say lookup for a good shot like this.

 

Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16, f/11, 1/50 sec, ISO-200

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Spillage - Palos Verdes Sunset

I love how you can visit the same exact spot and come back with such different shots each time. The clouds/sunset play a huge role but when you're on the coast so does the tide. When I'm here at low tide, I'm able to walk a lot further out to explore the tidepools. When the tide is high, I stay back and capture shots like this when sets come crashing in. I originally was going for a more subtle flow as the water was cascading nicely off the rock in my foreground but once I saw this on my computer I knew I wanted to use it instead. This is a blend of 2 exposures, one for the water and one for the sky.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/14, ISO-50, 1/10 sec and 1/2 sec.

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Palos Verdes seascapes - before and after

Here are two seascapes from the same night in Palos Verdes. The first is when I was searching for comps. I liked the clouds so I took a shot:



Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/16, ISO-50, 1/4 (foreground) sec and 1/13 sec (sky).

The second is the actual sunset shot where I was treated to some nice sunrays

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/14, ISO-50, 1/2 sec (foreground) and 1/15 sec (sky)

 

Hope you like them both.

www.bay-photography.com

Panic at the Disco - San Pedro steel wool and light painting

Steel Wool: @bay.photography
Light Painting: @dariustwin

Had a blast on this collab with @dariustwin. We headed out to San Pedro to light up the night where we combined my steel wool with his light painting. The end result is what you see here. Haven't been out spinning in a while but this one was awesome. Check out Darren's blog post titled 'mortar-pit-session here to see some behind the scenes footage of this shot and a few others from that night. 


Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/8, ISO-100, 318 sec

www.bay-photography.com

Heaven's Dock - Convict Lake

 

Here is a different perspective from the Convict Lake boat dock. I lined up the Milky Way in between the boats to catch some of the reflections in the water. This is when the wind was the calmest and it allowed me to capture this 5 shot vertical pano. Haven't seen too many astro shots utilizing the boat dock from Convict lake, and I'm almost liking it better than the standard view.

 

All shots with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2, 15 sec, ISO-6400.

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Eastern Sierra - Star Trails and Milky Way

Here are a few more that have been processed from my recent trip to Mammoth. Did some star trails while I was waiting for the moon to set and also some standard Milky Way shots.








www.bay-photography.com

The Trickle Down Effect - Palos Verdes sunset

Being that we don't have much in terms of waterfalls here on the SoCal coast, sometimes you have to improvise. This is Sunday's sunset from the coves of PV. I knew tide was on the rise so once I climbed down, I took a few minutes to see what the waves were doing. As soon as I saw them overflow down this bank I knew I had my comp. Waited for the clouds to light up and took two exposures, one for the foreground and one for the sky. Figured I'd give you a small break from the Eastern Sierra posts.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/14, ISO-250, 0.8 sec and 1/8 sec.

 

www.bay-photography.com

Love Boats - Convict Lake Milky Way

 

 

 

I knew I had to spend some time shooting the night sky at Convict lake. It was super windy through the night and the moon was still in the frame until around 10:30pm. At around 11pm, the wind pretty much died completely and I headed straight to the boat dock to snap some before it picked back up. Long exposure shots here aren't always possible as the slightest wind moves the dock and boats causing them to be blurry. I snapped a few comps here and then a few from the classic lookout. Here is one of the comps from the dock with 2 boats lined up in front of the Milky Way. I think the boat on the right moved ever so slightly. I'll dig into the other shots I took here next week. Happy sunday.

 

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2, 15 sec, ISO-6400

 

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Smoky Surprise - Mammoth Lakes

We had pretty much clear skies the entire trip, but on our last night after driving back from some fishing at Convict Lake the sun burst through the smoky haze and produced some pretty cool rays. Color didn't explode but the rays against the dark mountain range looked awesome. I had to pull over and take a few before heading back to the cabin. This was an awesome sky to end the trip.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120 f/4, f/11, 1/3 sec, ISO-100

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Day vs. Night

Yesterday I showed you a daytime shot from here. Today I show you one of the many comps I took here at night, and no better way than to use the new format. IMO it's the best of both worlds to be able to show most of your image but still retain the square grid format. This shots been on my photography list for some time now and I'm glad I finally had the chance to get it. It was probably the most difficult night shot I've taken so far since the petroglyphs are literally inches in front of you. This is essentially a vertically oriented 3 x 3 pano which consists of 3 vertical rows of 3 shots panned horizontally. I could have made my life easier with a wider lens, and I plan on bringing one when I return here in October. I wanted to keep everything natural with no light painting and I'm pretty happy with the results. No focus stacking was needed on this shot, but I did take some other comps utilizing that technique which I will get around to editing soon. Hopefully this image gives you a glimpse of how special this place is and how cool it was to be out here capturing thousands of year old rock art sitting below the Milky Way.

 

All shots: Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/1.8, 15 sec, ISO-6400

 

www.bay-photography.com

Ancient Petroglyphs

 

 

It is said that a culture inhabited the area known as the Tablelands some 8000 years ago. These people used hard stones to etch patterns and designs into rocks to form petroglyphs. The inner carving is lighter than the darker exterior rock and provides the contrast to make them visible. Sunset here was pretty hazy and no real color came through. I was worried that the sky would not clear by night, but the wind blew most of it away leaving a nice clear sky for stargazing. I'll get around to editing some of the night shots I took here but in the meantime here is one as the sun was setting. You can see some of the haze in the background. Stopped down to get the sunburst more pronounced.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/16, 1/125 sec, ISO-100

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Abandoned 395 house, Mammoth Lakes

Alright here is the first edited shot from my trip, and a trip to Mammoth is never complete without visiting that one house. I came here after I had shot a bit at Mono Lake and by the time I got here it was already about 1 am since the moon didn't set until 11:45. Still get freaked out standing here alone in the dark so I only took a few snaps from this one angle. Next time I'll give myself some more time to do some light painting.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2, 15 sec, ISO-6400

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Water Texture - Palos Verdes sunset

Awesome sunset burn from the coves of Palos Verdes. Love the water texture I was able to capture here as the set came rolling in. This is a blend of 2 exposures, one for the water and one for the sky. Shooting from these coves never get boring, compositions are endless. hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

 

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, 0.6 sec, 1/15 sec, f/8, ISO-200

 

 

www.bay-photography.com

 

Galaxy Crossing - Milky Way over Mojave

The Milky Way stretches over a railroad crossing from the small town of Cantil outside of Mojave. Strong light pollution from the city in the back.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/1.8, 15 sec, ISO-5000

www.bay-photography.com

 

 

Golden Cove - Palos Verdes

Don't really need another title other than the name of this cove and you can see why it's called that. When that golden hour light hits the cliffs, the warmth just radiates off them. This is a blend of 3 exposures, one for the water and 2 for the sky. For some reason my land exposure shifted and I couldn't get it lined up in post, so I spent more time then I cared to masking back in the water. A person was also walking through the frame during this sequence but an easy way to mask out people is to take multiple shots with the same exposure. Layer each shot in photoshop and mask over the people using another layer where they had already moved. This is a much easier technique then trying to clone stamp your photo to death and it's a handy tool when you know there will be tons of people walking through your shot.

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/16, ISO-50, 1/3 sec, 1/4 sec, 1/6 sec

 

www.bay-photography.com

Skyway - Malibu Milky Way

We were out capturing the fog roll through the Santa Monica Mountains from a lookout in Malibu. The Milky Way positioned itself nicely with one of the curves in the road so I captured a few with the curving lines leading out towards the sky. I see a lot of people zooming through these curves. Add a view like this and it can be a recipe for disaster. There's already a memorial at this specific lookout. Be careful when you drive through here and protect yourself and others. Vertical image but the 1:1 crop shows a decent amount.

 

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-2500

 

 

www.bay-photography.com

Frank - PV shipwreck sunset

This is the exact same angle of the shot I posted of the PV shipwreck a few weeks ago except this one is a longer exposure. The LE brings a totally different mood to the shot, helping smooth out the water and streak the clouds just a little more. The clouds ere movin real fast and I wanted to keep some texture so I didn't lengthen the shutter too much, just enough to get a slight bit of movement. Without the sunburst you can see more details of the crane. So whats your go to with seascapes? Do you prefer the smoother more ethereal water produced with long exposures, or do you like to capture the water movement with shorter exposures?

 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, 13 sec, f/11, ISO-50, CPL + ND

 

www.bay-photography.com