I took this about five years ago on one of my visits back to where I grew up. But as they say, home is where the heart is. Never in a million years would I have imagined I'd end up in Florida. But here I am, and the longer I'm out here, the more I need to go back to the Pacific for little trips to recharge. Maybe I miss the mountains and evergreens which we don't have in the sunshine state. This image is my favorite from that trip, but I waited until now to process it. For whatever reason, it needed to age like a good California wine.
Waves washed in on this remote stretch of beach. Then egressed, and wash back out into the oncoming storm. My idea was to use a wide-angle and capture the motion. To do that I used a small aperture to get a long exposure; about one-quarter of a second to get this effect. One little tip about shooting waves at the shore is tripod legs sink when the water washes over. So, if the exposure is too long, objects get blurred. Another tip is to wash off the tripod legs in freshwater as soon as possible. A couple of helpful pointers for you photo bugs.
I almost didn't go down to Venice Beach because I knew if I did, I'd end up retaking pictures of the pier. But I went anyway, and I did it anyway. I have this internal dialog in my brain. One side plans, decides, and weighs; the other does the opposite. In the end, all the noise is just that, noise. So this is the pier in Venice, it's a shot I've done before, but each time is a little different. This time I included only the sun's edge, so its presence is felt without becoming the scene's focus. At least that's how my left brain explains what the right brain did without asking permission.
