Fuego
Jul, 2015Views
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Awards
Action Award
Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 22
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
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Staff Winter Selection 2015
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this on the hills bordering Dockweiler Beach in Playa Del Rey, CA. I've lived here for most of my life, and I rarely explored it on my own until high school. I learned through some online searching that the path I used to take as a safe shortcut from the airport to the beach was cutting through a ghost town. The area was formerly known as 'Surfridge' and Playa Del Rey used to be 'Palisades Del Rey'. Interesting how things change as the area was immensely wealthy but abandoned quickly with the coming of the jet age and LAX's expansion in the 50s. The end of this road was one of my favorite vantage point until it was locked up recently at some point in the past 2 yearsTime
I took this at sunset, back when I was an avid golden hour chaser. I didn't know how lucky I was that day for the weather conditions to provide this spectacular sheet of clouds to refract the colors in such a way.Lighting
I was just starting to self-learn photography. This day taught me a lot that I didn't expect. I was using a friend's fully manual Nikkor lens with a 1.4 (maybe even 1.2?) aperture. Closing the aperture on bright shots like this is tempting to get the sharpness out of distant subjects. But I was naive, I would try everything, tens of shoot setting combinations. When I got to editing I noticed while the open aperture shots weren't super crisp, that's what drew me to those shots. Especially with the sky, the compromise of a much more open aperture provided more benefits than the con of less than perfect sharpness on all edges. The notable benefits were more color in the shadows near the mountains and the color of the water, and the softness of the clouds.Equipment
Can't remember what lens exactly since it was from an old film camera so I didn't save the EXIF info. I used a Canon t3i with a Nikkor 50mm f1.4 (or 1.2) and a concrete divider as a tripod.Inspiration
I just kept going out after seeing a creamy sunrise with the purple and orange hues blending and transforming. I didn't know what was causing the colors in the sky to appear so but I just kept chasing it.Editing
I used Lightroom to paint a mask on the shadows and lighten it a bit. Besides that I did some exposure and color work but nothing too drastic, good shots don't require that much post processing but it took work to get the right shot.In my camera bag
Back then it was just the t3i, the stock 18-55 f3.5 lens, and the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 occasionally. Now we've evolved. I have a Sony a6600 with an eos adapter for my canon lens collection (a tamron 28-75mm f2.8, canon 17-35mm f2.8, canon 75-300mm f5.6) and a full manual cctv lens with a sony e-mount.Feedback
Be out and ready for golden hour. Many many many days may not seem like this, but when it happens, it's worth just taking the time out of your day to see it with your own eyes. And don't be upset if you keep seeking this and you don't see it. Maybe you need to go somewhere else, maybe learn about the science behind how the weather affects the colors in the sky, and once you go somewhere else (physically or mentally), that journey itself might provide other photographic opportunities. Just keep an open mind as shooting with tunnel vision might make you miss something else.
