Rock of Moloaa Bay
Aug, 2018Views
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Awards
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Judge Favorite
Top Shot Award 21
Featured
Community Choice Award
Contest Finalist in Creative Landscapes Photo Contest vol2
Contest Finalist in Boulders And Rocks Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Monthly Pro Photo Contest Vol 43
Staff Favorite
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
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All Star
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in Moloaa Bay, which is on the northeastern side of Kauai. Earlier in the week I had visited a local photography gallery and was lucky enough to book a private workshop session with the photographer for my last day on the island. I never would have found this scene without a local guide because this particular location was hidden away at the end of long, heavily-forested dirt road.Time
This shot was taken just before sunrise as the early rays of light started to paint the clouds on the horizon. I left my hotel near Lihue (on the southeastern side of the island) around 4 am so that I could make the drive up to Moloaa Bay with enough time to get set-up before sunrise. Whenever I'm planning a sunrise photo session, I always plan to get to the location well before sunrise so that I have time to scout out the area and explore different compositions before the day breaks.Lighting
If you're trying to catch the movement of water in a photograph by taking a longer exposure (without a filter), low-light conditions are ideal. I've found my best shots happen in the moments just before sunrise or just after sunset when there is still color in the sky but no direct sunlight. Direct sunlight will typically blow out the highlights of your image, because an exposure long enough to capture the motion of the water will make the rest of the image way too bright. Even without direct sunlight you may end up losing some of the highlights, but this can usually be corrected in post-processing (more on that below).Equipment
I shot this image using a Canon T5i camera and a Tamron SP AF 10-24mm lens. I used a tripod to avoid having any camera movement during the longer exposure, which also allowed me to take a less-exposed second image that I used in post-processing to restore the blown-out highlights.Inspiration
I love taking sunrise and sunset photographs by the ocean because of the beautiful light and the colors in the sky and reflecting on the water. With this image though, and thanks to the help of the local photographer I was with, I was able to purposefully incorporate the motion of the waves into my composition.Editing
I used Adobe Lightroom to make "global" adjustments to this image, which primarily consisted of dropping down the highlights and adding in a bit of contrast and saturation. Even though I reduced the highlights in the image, there were still areas of the sky that had been blown out, which made me very glad that I had taken a second shot with a lower exposure. After I took this photo, I had checked my histogram and realized that portions of the sky had been lost because it was much brighter than the rest of the image. In order to be able to correct this later in post-processing, I immediately shortened my shutter speed and took a second shot that properly exposed the sky. Because I was shooting on a tripod, I was able to keep everything else about the image identical, so that when I stacked the layers in photoshop I would be able to "mask out" the blown-out highlights. Once I got back to my computer and had made my global adjustments to the primary image, I opened both images in Adobe Photoshop and used layer masking to pull back in the parts of the sky that had been lost in the original image.In my camera bag
I only have one camera body at the moment (my Canon T5i), but when I'm shooting landscape photos I always have a tripod with me as well as my Tamron SP AF 10-24mm lens and my Canon EF 24-104 f/4L lens. There are many times when I stick with the 10-24 for an entire shoot (especially because my camera has a 1.6x crop factor), but sometimes it feels a bit too wide and so I love having the 24-105mm available in case I need it.Feedback
Whenever I'm taking photos of a scene with a high-dynamic range (ie, when the scene has both very bright elements and very dark elements), I keep a close eye on my histogram to make sure that I haven't lost any detail in either the brightest or darkest parts of an image. If I notice that part of the image was too bright to register any detail, I will darken my exposure and take a second shot - keeping every other setting the same and making sure not to move my camera at all (I always shoot sunrise/sunset photos with a tripod). Having a secondary image of the same scene is a huge advantage when it comes to post-processing because it allows you to restore parts of the photo that may have been lost. I configured my camera settings so that my image playback will always also show me the histogram and any section of the image that has been lost due to under or over exposure, and I highly recommend doing this if your camera allows. As far as capturing the motion of waves, there is certainly a bit of luck involved as you never know exactly what the water will do when you press the shutter button. As a general rule I always try and press the shutter right before a wave breaks on the shore to capture the water as it spreads out over the sand. However, don't forget to press the shutter again when the water starts moving the other way, back toward the ocean. With this particular image, I actually pressed the shutter just as the wave started to recede and was very lucky to capture the water swirling around the boulder on the beach.
