Conway Summit fall milky way at 50mm

Here’s the 50mm version of fall milk over Conway Summit. Luckily the grove in front of where the Milky Way came out had some nice color left. Shot the foreground at twilight and the MW once it got dark. Such a cool spot for being right on the highway. The Eastern Sierras never cease to amaze me.

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Lundy Canyon aspens, Eastern Sierras

We stumbled upon this grove in Lundy Canyon and the grass on the ground was a great complement to the leaves. The spread out trunks made for a great comp and I backlit the scene which added some nice glow to the leaves along with shadows to add depth to the shot. The translucent trait of the aspen leaves make this kind of lighting the best for photographing it. 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO-200   

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Palos Verdes sea cave sunset

Here’s one of the recent winter burns from a local sea cave in PV. I’ve wanted to return here but always hesitant because it faces out south so a burn doesn’t always happen. Coming in winter gives a good chance as the sun sets more to the southwest. I had to setup pretty far out in the opening as the tide was lower and I wanted to catch some water motion in my foreground so luckily I had my 14mm on me for this one. The clouds filled a good portion of the sky and lit up nicely after the sun set. Blended a few exposures for the final shot you see here.

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Manhattan Beach Pier fireworks

Christmas is over and it’s getting real. The countdown begins until New Year. Here’s one from the annual Manhattan Beach show a few weeks ago. They put on all day festivities and end it with an amazing free firework show. We took Cole to eat some Grimaldi’s pizza during that epic sunset, and then headed to the beach to watch the show. It was his first time seeing this show, but not his last. Hope to make it an annual thing and include Mia as well next year.

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Manhattan beach pier golden hour reflections

This is a golden hour shot from my MB sesh last week. Clouds were lookin good and low tide synced up with sunset so I headed out to the pier to catch some reflections. I set this shot up for complete symmetry, with a dead center horizon and the pier placed exactly in the middle of the frame. I was originally going to process a version of just the pier but my eye kept coming back to this version with the kid. I don’t know if it is his placement, or the fact that he breaks up the symmetry, but I ended up liking this one. Kept the details darker to emphasize the golden hour burn along with the bits of light hitting the pier. 

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Fall aspen and pine tree lookup, Eastern Sierras

Here is a new one from my fall trip a few months ago. I got a bunch of standard lookup shots but this one was a bit different. We stumbled upon a grove of very tall aspens that were prime in color. The difference with this grove was that it was standing next to a grove of pines. I lined the lookup so where I’d get about half green pine and half yellow aspen. I also tried lining up aspen trunks on both sides for symmetry. I must have looked crazy walking around with my head up but I’m glad I spotted this as it is different than all my other lookup shots with aspens only. I always enjoy finding those elements that help differentiate a photo. 

Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO-400

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Dec 3rd Supermoon rising from Los Angeles

Here’s a shot of last night’s first and only supermoon for this year. I found a residential street to line it up correctly. Air was super hazy/smoggy and visibility was bad compared to last year’s around this time. Because of this I took a separate foreground exposure and used a bit of dehaze to bring back more detail in the skyline. I then used the lighten blend mode to mask on the moon. The clouds added a nice touch.

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