Beach Emeralds

[Don Lacy]

So I wake up this morning and everything I am seeing is telling me to go back to bed but I know better then that so I head out to my local beach again because one it is close and two because it is truly beautiful place to photograph. So unlike last time the sun never makes an appearance but I still spent two hours on the beach playing with different techniques one of them was trying some long exposures. I thought this rock with its wonderful moss would make a strong visual anchor to a long exposure turning the water into a mist of color. Maybe not everyones type of image but it is fun to experiment.

Canon 6D, 16-35 f/4 at 23mm, 124s at f/16, manual mode, evaluative metered, ISO 200, 10 stop ND filter and cloned out a small rock

[David Stephens]

Okay, here's a case where long exposure and waves really works for me. You've totally eliminated the waves and created a wonderful pastel painting, with a strong primary color in the foreground. You've placed the horizon nicely and the diagonals of the wave and water-lines balance the image nicely. I'd bet that this will print nicely in a large size. I don't do this type of thing, so I find it hard to find anything wrong with it. I react to it emotionally, which I believe is the point of abstract photography. There's just enough "real" here to capture my full attention.

[Diane Miller]

This is awesome. Certainly MY kind of thing!! And you are a cloud whisperer!

I wonder about a very subtle gradient burn top and bottom...

[Don Railton]

This is quite beautiful Don... no, its inspiring actually.. Nothing more to say....

DON

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is special Don, really evocative imagery and the moss-covered rock is the perfect foil for the moody clouds and milky sea. :5
The colour contrasts are so natural and pleasing.

[Julie Brown]

A lovely range of colors here, Don. The long exposure created soft transitions that are very pleasing. I really like the rock as a focal anchor and the light through the cloud opening provides a place for the eye to stop and travel back through the image. Print this large and hang it!

[dankearl]

Nice minimalist photo Don, very well done.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Don,

only one sentence: This is a cool image :bg3:

Have a great evening

Ciao Anette

[David Cowling]

A great image Don. Very well thought out and executed. Great use of the 10 stop ND filter. I use a B+W 10 stop but find that it gives a magenta cast which is not easy to correct and my images usually end up as monochrome because of this. What make of filter did you use and how did you correct colour cast, if any?

[Dennis Bishop]

I rarely venture out of the OOTB forum, but this image makes me glad I did. It's a real gem (pun intended). Long exposures is one of the things I do, so this is certainly appealing. You made a great choice of shutter speed and timed it well with respect to the incoming water. The range of colors is beautiful, and the contrast of the rock relative to the rest of the image helps to make it stand out.

I hope you don't mind my playing around with your image a bit. With the rock already centered horizontally, I wished the opening in the clouds weren't, so I flipped the sky horizontally and transformed it different amounts both laterally and vertically. I also incorporated Diane's suggestion of burn gradients from the top and bottom.

If you're inclined to do any more long exposures, I hope to see them.


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[Don Lacy]

A great image Don. Very well thought out and executed. Great use of the 10 stop ND filter. I use a B+W 10 stop but find that it gives a magenta cast which is not easy to correct and my images usually end up as monochrome because of this. What make of filter did you use and how did you correct colour cast, if any?
B&W and I consider WB and color cast creative choices for this image I just played around with the temp and color sliders on the WB tab until I got something I liked

[Andrew McLachlan]

Beautiful as presented Don :cheers:

[steve torna]

Hi David, I had the same color cast problem with Lee and B&W ND's; I went to Breakthrough Photography X3 filter, made in USA. Absolutely no color cast and very clean and sharp. Also it's low profile with nice grips around the edges. steve