First Twilight Concert of 2016

The first Twilight Concert at the Santa Monica Pier was last night featuring Mayer Hawthorne and it was one of the more packed shows I have been to. It was so crowded that I couldn’t actually get up on the pier, so I wandered around near the pier and made these images. As always, click on the images so get a larger view.

Girl Watching the Sunset

Girl Watching Sunset
Girl Watching Sunset

There were lots of clouds in the sky all day today, which is pretty unusual for Southern California, and I just knew a great sunset was going to come out of it. So I went down to the beach by my house and waited. And I noticed this girl doing the same thing. Contemplative, serene, peaceful.

Longboat Key, FL Sunset

Sunset in Longboat Key, FL
Click on me to see a larger version

Tech Scout day on Longboat Key in Florida, the afternoon was overcast and at one point it started to rain pretty hard. As the day waned the rain had moved on, but the clouds that had been left behind foretold of a bleak sunset. Most of the crew left but I stayed behind hoping something interesting might happen, and right at the tail end of sunset, the clouds started to break apart and this beautiful scene presented itself.

They named it Magic Hour for a reason.

Balancing Sunset with a Foreground Subject, part 1

A technique I have been wanting to try for a long time now has been balancing a beautiful sunset with a good exposure on a person in the foreground. It’s not entirely simple as the subject should not be lit flat like from an on-camera flash, and the proper balance has to be found. This is my first attempt and I did not have the flash set up properly and didn’t have all the equipment I would have wanted because we just happened to be driving by the beach when we saw this sunset and ran out to grab some photos, but I made do and these are the images I came up with. Thanks to my buddy Bret for being such an accommodating victim. I learned a few things just from that brief foray and will refine the technique from here.