I kind of went crazy in Santa Cruz...

Austin Greene · Nov 17, 2014

Well, I visited Santa Cruz today to give myself the opportunity to get used to the new Lee Big Stopper and Lee .9 GND Soft filters. I got a little excited once I realized I could do long exposures any time of day, and indeed, the first of these shots (while not a great shot) was taken at about noon.

Last one will be this weeks photo for my 52 Weeks photo project. I'll be burying myself for the next week as I study for my GRE's.

Hope you enjoy them! I'd love any feedback you'll give me, as the Big Stopper is a bit of a process to use, and I'm sure I can improve with it.

Best,
Austin

1.

Contact by TogaLive, on Flickr

2.

The Surfer by TogaLive, on Flickr

3.

Strung Out by TogaLive, on Flickr

4.

52 Weeks: Maw (37/52) by TogaLive, on Flickr

Bo4key · Nov 17, 2014

The second is definitely my favorite of the bunch, nicely done.

I think the water is just too overdone in the others.

JoeW · Nov 17, 2014

I like the second one the most--very effective. The water ones work better if there is more contrast...black rocks, setting sun in the sky with color in the water, green algae, brown driftwood...stuff of that nature. Also, that kind of concept (long exposure with water) works best in trying to set a mood. For oceans, I find that's best around sunrise when there might be some fog on the water and the sky has a lot of darkness to it (or at least some color). So out of the water shots, it's the last one that works the best for me. Even though I love extended exposure with water, it's really easy for it to look overexposed.

Austin Greene · Nov 17, 2014

Bo4key said:
The second is definitely my favorite of the bunch, nicely done.

I think the water is just too overdone in the others.

Thanks man! I think a slightly shorter exposure on the water would have been useful, but then again after about 15 seconds it all looks the same (loses all texture). In these I very much wanted just a lake of milkyness. Next go around, I'll see about changing things up!

JoeW said:
I like the second one the most--very effective. The water ones work better if there is more contrast...black rocks, setting sun in the sky with color in the water, green algae, brown driftwood...stuff of that nature. Also, that kind of concept (long exposure with water) works best in trying to set a mood. For oceans, I find that's best around sunrise when there might be some fog on the water and the sky has a lot of darkness to it (or at least some color). So out of the water shots, it's the last one that works the best for me. Even though I love extended exposure with water, it's really easy for it to look overexposed.

Thanks! I think that a technical note is needed though. The water is, technically, not overexposed (no blown highlights). This whole area is nothing but breaking waves, so there is no texture to be had. Anything more than 1/10 sec and the whole place goes to this, a milky smoothness. That said, that really is what I was going for. In hindsight it doesn't fit the shot the best, but we'll see what I can do when I return to this spot. As for sunsets, I was waiting for it, but the colors and lighting turned out to be a dud.