Seattle sunrise from alki beach

So this happened when I was up in Seattle. I headed across the bay to Alki to catch the sunrise. As I arrived during the am twilight hours the clouds were looking real good directly over the city so I setup near the boat ramp and waited. As the sun started to come up the clouds slowly drifted to the right. While it didn’t end up directly over the city, the burn was quite awesome. I gave it a LE treatment to both smooth out the water and to put a tiny bit of motion into the clouds. The burn looked like a huge hand coming out from the city. I hung around for a little while after it died down and just enjoyed the peace and quiet of being out there as I don’t see many sunrises these days. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm, f/11, 60 sec, ISO 50 with a 6 stop ND and CPL stacked.

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Seattle twilight cityscape

This is one of my favorite views of Seattle from Jose Rizal Park with a more head on view of the 5 leading into the city. I used my 50mm here to focus the shot on just the leading curve into the city. I knew there was only one hole in the fence and I got here early to ensure I was able to secure a spot, and I took a few exposures through the twilight hours. This is mainly one exposure with a few brackets to control some selected highlights. The red car down below was pulled over and I like the addition of a single car contrasting with the rest of the light trails. Seattle has some pretty heavy traffic, and that’s coming from someone living near LA. Nikon D750, Nikkor 50mm 1.8, f/14, 30 sec, ISO-160.

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Los Angeles fireworks - Dodgers home game

A shot of the last Dodger's regular season home game from a unique vantage point. Nice blue fireworks to go with the theme.

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Palos Verdes sunset seascape

A nice sunset while I was down in the coves of Palos Verdes. Caught a nice pre-sunset burn during golden hour. I’m used to seeing the real golden yellows during this time, but the clouds had some stunning oranges which was a nice change. I waited for the sun to break through the thin clouds right near the horizon to catch a burst and to get some nice light on my foreground rocks covered in sea grass. Tide was low so I knew there would be some goodies to be found. The waves were moving nicely between all the rocks so I shot my foreground as one receded back to the ocean to capture the movement. Didn’t catch any afterburn but the color here was good enough for me for this shot. This is a blend of 2 exposures. Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, 0.8 sec and 1/20 sec, f/14, ISO-125

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Wild About Kerry - Kerry Park sunrise, Seattle

A slightly different take from the standard Kerry Park shot. I came here for the first sunrise of my trip and there wasn’t too much interest in the sky at sunrise but got some nice clouds that blew into the frame after the sun rose. I noticed this bunch of wildflowers on the hillside the day before and knew I wanted this comp. I was glad to be able to see Mt. Rainier from here for the first time. All previous times it has been blocked by clouds. I contemplated a lower POV to block the street and cars but it would have meant some of the wildflowers towards the middle would not be visible so I stuck with this slightly higher vantage. After all, it is a city shot with a touch of nature to go along with it. This is composed of multiple exposures as well as several focused stacked shots as my camera was close to the flowers. Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/11, ISO-320. The ISO was bumped a bit to keep the flowers still from the slight wind.

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Crash site - B-52 in the desert

The clouds lined up perfectly in this shot, looking like it was actually smoke from the plane. The sky had a nice glow from the light pollution from the nearby towns and were thin enough to let the stars shine through. I swear it felt like a scene out of transformers. Still reminiscing about this great night. Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-4000.


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Seattle sunset - Jose Rizal Bridge

Here is one from the Jose Rizal Bridge. Clouds were looking real good during golden hour and the sun broke through as it was setting so I stopped down to catch a huge burst over the CenturyLink Stadium. The sun provided some great light throughout the scene shining on the tips of the trees as well as the highway and the side of the city. You also get a hint of fall from the trees in the foreground and I love how the trees stand between all the passes. As a disclosure I cleaned up some of the trash/tents down below which is unfortunate to see and I blended in some cars from separate exposures to give a sense of motion to some of the ones in the foreground to mix it up with the stopped traffic going the opposite direction. This is a shot of multiple exposures, some for the foreground and quite a few for the sky to bring back most of the highlights all shot with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8 at f/16. 

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Convict Stars

Here’s a re-edit to one of my faves from the Eastern Sierras. I spent more time cleaning the noise from this version, and went lighter on the contrast for a softer feel. This is a 3 shot vectorama with the camera in landscape orientation. The overall reflection is darker as it should be but a few of the stars in the moving water became brighter. Most of the stars in the sky can’t even be seen in the water except the few ones noted. Not sure if that is an effect of the water not being perfectly still or what but it gives some interest to the water. I’ll be back here next month chasing fall so I may try and retake this if I get some of my other locations in first. I really want this shot with a perfectly calm lake. Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2, 15 sec, ISO-6400

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San Francisco sunset

Here’s a shot from my recent trip up to SF hanging out with some good friends. Hiked down to the bottom rocks as the tide was low enough shoot from there. I wanted a bit more water movement in the foreground but this turned out ok. At least the color broke through a tiny bit from the thick fog this night. Took some shorter exposures and some longer exposures and this was the final shot of the shorter exposure. Already looking forward to getting back up here, probably next year. Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/11, 0.8 sec and 1/40 sec blended, ISO-200. 

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Cloud Stacks - Malibu Milky Way

Some Monday holiday milk mixed up with some clouds sitting on a bed of low fog. I took this towards the end of a previous session out in Malibu. I got there as the fog was rolling in and the sky was clear of high clouds. By the time I was wrapping up, the fog had filled the canyon and high clouds rolled in from the West. After I snapped this set, the clouds took over the sky and the Milky Way. This is a vectorama made up of 2 vertical shots with the camera in landscape orientation which was manually blended in post. Both shots with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 20mm 1.8, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-4000


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