Botany Bay Revisited

My first attempt to apply a texture to an otherwise blah looking photo, using Totally Rad Dirty Pictures that my lovely daughter gave me for Christmas!  I'm looking forward to trying it out on other photos that need some more interest added to them.  

Below is the original photo taken at Botany Bay in South Carolina so you can see the difference the texture layer adds.

Tree in the Water

Just a little ways outside of Charleston was Botany Bay.  A very interesting beach where the ocean has eroded the beach and when the tide is up it covers the bases of some of the old dead trees. 

Boardwalk

We were in the community of Sandwich, Mass. on the first day of our Cape Cod trip and found this walkway over the marsh.  As the photo suggests, it went on for a ways and led to the beach on Cape Cod Bay.  It must have been paid for by contributors who each got a plank in the walkway with there names inscribed on it.

Cape Cod Fences

 On our recent trip to Cape Cod there were plenty of opportunities to photograph these fences that are designed to keep the sand from blowing all over.  In addition to the sand, there was plenty of the classic beach grasses that are so prevalent on the east coast.

Wave Motion

Photographing waves and making them look unique or interesting can be challenging, at least for me.  This was a swipe, where I was moving the camera along the movement of the wave. 

Looking South

Went to the beach last weekend.  A storm had just hit the previous day and the waves were churning and the wind was blowing.  It made for a pretty scene.  There's nothing like the salt air and the sound of the crashing waves to relax you.  This was taken from the pier looking south.

Muscles on the beach

You've heard of "Muscle Beach", here are muscles on the beach.  Low tide at San Clemente pier at sunset.  

It's been awhile since I posted mostly because I haven't been out photographing.  I'm hoping to change that in the coming weeks.  With it being the dead of winter here in SoCal (80 degrees today) I'm hoping for some rain and storms to get some dramatic skies. Unfortunately, nothing in the forecast about rain. 

Laguna View

Canon 5D Mark II, EF 24-105 F/4, 1/10 sec F22  ISO 100

This was taken in Laguna Beach behind the Montage Hotel.  There was a wedding taking place and this ship (boat?) seemed to be part of the wedding.  At the prescribed time in the wedding (the bride and groom being pronounced husband and wife) the ship shot off a few rounds from its cannon and then began moving away.  I'm sure a wedding at the Montage isn't cheap, but I wonder how much extra it was for the cannon blasts?  I'm sure the added memories it caused was well worth it.

Evening Surf

This was shot off of the San Clemente Pier just before sunset.  I wanted to blur the surf a little to convey the feeling of the incoming surf so I used a small aperture (f22) in order to get a shutter speed of 1/4 second.   

Pfeiffer Beach

Took this at Pfeiffer Beach last year.  One of many beautiful scenes found all along the Big Sur coast of California.  This was taken in the late morning hours and thus the light was very contrasty.  I used my Singh Ray Vari-n-duo filter to slow the shutter speed and make the surf  look misty. 

Crystal Cove

We went over to Crystal Cove to have a nice lunch at the Beachcomber the other day.  As you can see in the above photo it was a classic, beautiful sunny California day.  Lunch was good too.

Laguna Seashore

I went over to Laguna last weekend hoping for a nice cloudy sunset only to find a few scattered clouds in the sky.  This made for an OK sunset opportunity, but nothing too exciting.  I did set up this shot about a half hour before the sun went down that I liked.  Having a prominent  foreground subject always seems to make for an interesting photograph.  This is an HDR photo using 3 exposures (+2,0, -2).  I also used NIK's Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast filter.

Portland Light

While this is not a particularly unique photograph of the Portland Lighthouse in Maine, it is one of my favorites.  As some of you know, my wife is very intrigued by lighthouses, so we try to stop in at different lighthouses whenever we are in the neighborhood.  This one was taken a few years ago on a trip through New England.  This is one of the most picturesque lighthouses on the east coast.  We were here the evening before but the weather was miserable and rainy and not really photogenic.  So the next day we got up early  and backtracked about 30 miles to try again.  I was glad we did because the conditions were very nice.

Empty Beach

I visited Lake Mission Viejo a couple of weeks ago to check out the sunset and took this photo using my 16-35mm lens set at 16mm f/22.  I was trying to convey the emptiness of the beach.  This was processed as a single image HDR and then I added some vignetting.  I'd be interested in any feedback you might have.  Do you like this look or is it over the top?