Pearl of the Pacific - Palos Verdes sunset

Monday’s fire sunset hanging out alone with the birds in a Palos Verdes cave. On this day the tide was low and it lined up with sunset so I headed to a place really only accessible at low tide. There have even been rescues here during high tide with people trying to swim across the channel and underestimating the current in this bay. Normally I like to setup real close to the water to get some nice water motion but the waves were pounding around the corner and every now and then a rogue wave would splash up and mist everything. That was the case here; I had some lens flare along with the mist in the air that provided some nice soft light around the right side of the image. I actually had to tone the misty light bleed effect down and even it out as it was too bright and distracting. The clouds looked pretty thick all day but had some color to them so I knew there was going to be a good chance for a burn. As the sun was setting, it came out from behind the clouds and illuminated the inside of the cave with an awesome orange glow. It also allowed me to get a nice sunburst to seal this shot off. Not the best water motion but I wasn’t risking getting soaked. I hung around for the afterburn so I’ll get around to posting another version of this shot down the road. This goes up there with some of my favorite local images. Great way to start off a strong 2016.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/16, ISO-200, 1/8 (sky) and 0.8 (foreground)

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