Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, California
Aug, 2013Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
My whole life I had wanted to travel, with a cross country road trip being one of my main dreams. Ever since I could remember, I was saying it would happen "one day", but I always had an excuse of why I couldn't, be it school, work, or finances. That continued on up until 2012 at the age of 31. In March of that year, my younger died in a boating accident. Whereas I put things off until I have a detailed plan on how to do them, he was always more the one to just throw caution to the wind and just do it. Because of this, he had already been across the country a couple times, with many travels in between. It got me thinking about the fact that although he was only 23 years old, he had lived much more of a life that many people 2-3 times his age. It also got me thinking about how many dreams I had missed out on because I didn't have that same whimsical nature and always had to structure things. At that point, I decided that I was no longer making any excuses and started planning out a mega road trip across the country and started saving money. In the beginning stages, there were initially 7 of us scheduled to go, but it ended up being just my sister, a longtime friend and I. In all, we ended up covering 31 states and 27,000 miles over the course of 6 months. This particular photo was from San Diego, California, about 4 months into our trip. We ended up staying with a high school friend whom I hadn't seen in roughly 15 years, who also happened to be a photographer.Time
This photo was taken just before sunset, but we almost ended up missing it. My friend took us to a small park that I can't recall the name of to get shots of the sunset, but the scenery ended up being rather bland. He suggested this locale called Sunset Cliffs, and we left in a hurry to try to make it there before sun down. We ended up taking a wrong turn along the way, but arrived in time for some very calm lighting just before the sun went down for good.Lighting
From what I understand, rain in San Diego is a bit rare, but it did rain this particular night, and the lighting kind of shows that "calm before the storm" feeling. Somehow it gives more of a calming feel, I think, rather than the typical feeling of a scene you should soon be leaving. San Diego was in my opinion one of the most calm and beautiful cities I visited though, so I might just be casting that attribution to it.Equipment
For this photo, I used a Nikon D5100 body with just the 18-55mm kit lens. I know many people consider that to be a worthless lens, but I have gotten many shots over the years with it that I have liked, so I still keep it in my bag. I also used a tripod, and a Tiffen polarizer.Inspiration
When we first arrived here at the cliffs, there were about a dozen people out on the rocks, and I kept hoping they would leave so I could get a shot without them since the symmetry worked so well from that angle. After a few minutes of shooting other things while waiting, the larger part of the group started leaving and so I started setting up. One couple stayed for a moment and then just sat down. At first that kind of annoyed me since I wanted a shot without people, but once I looked through the viewfinder, I noticed that the couple added to the photo greatly.Editing
I shot this photo as a 3 exposure HDR, which I tonemapped in Photomatix. I would have preferred to just shoot it long exposure as a single standard photo, but at that time I did not own an ND filter and wasn't able to slow the shutter without overexposing. I really wanted motion in the water though in an attempt to mirror the clouds a bit with the water, so HDR was the only option I could think of which would allow me to do that.In my camera bag
My camera back is much less packed than I would like, but with some recent successes, I am hoping to change that in the coming year. As for now, I carry a Nikon D5100 body, the 18-55mm kit lens, a Tamron 18-200mm lens, Tiffen polarizers for each, B&W 10 Stop ND filters for each, two extra batteries, microfiber cloths, lens wipes, and an extra SD card.Feedback
The best advice I think one can give is when you learn from your own mistakes and then pass that knowledge on. So with that, I think my two biggest mistakes here were first the initial thought that I needed a photo devoid of people to be a good one; that the inclusion of a person can sometimes make it that much better, and to have purchased an ND filter earlier. Not that there is anything wrong with HDR, but I do feel like it is something I have grown out of, and now looking back, I think I could have done this shot better with a non-HDR long exposure. Aside from that, I would also say to put more thought into not only composition, but how to use the camera settings to strengthen it. In this shot for example, the cliffs come through the center and split the picture in thirds (sky, cliff, ocean). If I had done a faster exposure, I think I could have still gotten a decent shot, but what I think really makes this shot more striking is how the motion in the water from the longer exposure gives the ocean a matching feeling to the sky, making it feel like a more complete picture.
