China Camp Pier on Sunrise - San Rafael, California
This photo was originally a throw away. Then I came back to it. This is sunrise at China Camp State Park in San Rafael, California....
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This photo was originally a throw away. Then I came back to it. This is sunrise at China Camp State Park in San Rafael, California.
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Dec, 2013Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at China Camp State Park, a place I like to hike at from time to time. It is located in San Rafael a 20 minute drive north of San Francisco. The beach section is a historical location landmark and a beautiful place to take photos. I was heading here with a group of photographers looking to get some amazing sunrise shots.Time
We arrived at China Camp Beach at about 5:50 in the morning, before the gates even opened. The ultimate goal was to get sunrise captures. This photo was taken just before 6:30 in the morning just as the sun was rising over the horizon.Lighting
This particular photo started me on a new technique on lighting that I like to use. I like sunrise long exposure shots as they allow colors to mix from dusk to sunrise. You get dark colors to mix with the warm colors. This particular photo show how the blue hour mixes with the beginning of the golden hour creating an interesting mix gradation of colors. I then started to use this technique as I started photographing beaches of Colombia which have the same amazing color mixture.Equipment
This outing was one of the first times I was using my brand new Olympus OMD EM5. I did not know how to use it completely so I had accidently set the ISO to 2000 thinking it was at 200. Because of this I stacked 2 ND filters to cut the light down. Because of this it created the an extremely long exposure helping me discover the technique I explained earlier.Inspiration
I had always wanted to do long exposure photography on a beach front. I have done them before but not in a sunrise situation. I have seen many amazing photographs from one of my inspirations Jim Richardson where he uses early morning colorful photos, I wanted to see if I could do the same.Editing
I did some minor adjustments, removal of chromatic aberration and burned the rocks using a now discontinued application known as Aperture.In my camera bag
As a travel photographer I like to travel light. I usually have my Olympus OMD EM5ii with a Olympus 17mm ƒ/1.8, Olympus 12-40mm ƒ/2.8 Pro, and Panasonic 35-100 ƒ2.8.Feedback
One of the most important thing about travel and landscape photography is patience. I also do a lot of research about a location before going to photograph. I research things like where the sun will be at certain times. Planning and patience are just key to all photography.
