Highway 1 Coastlines

Bakers Beach

Sunset at Bakers beach, San Francisco, CA

Baker Beach, San Francisco, CA

Straight Lines Part II This is another image where I had to resort to straight lines in the waves to save me from a bad composition. When we arrived at Baker Beach, which is just south of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the beach was covered with Sea Foam. Sea Foam is pretty unsightly and apparently caused by offshore breakdown of algal blooms. I was quite ready to give up and go home! As a last resort, I decided to get into the water a bit (my waders saving my shoes!) and used a long exposure in the water to hide the unsightly sea foam. As the sunset turned into dusk, the little lights came on the bridge - resulting in a mesmerizing moment!

Dusk, Pacifica Pier, San Francisco, CA

Canon 5D Mark III, 24-70mm f4

A rock strewn beach leads to the sunset at Garrapata State Beach.

This place was filled with wildflowers of every color. Here I used the bright red flowers to serve as a focal point for the whole image. Exposure blend of 3 exposures.

Calla Lilies, Pacific Coast, CA This is similar to shot #1, except that it is at a slightly different focal length, showing more of the foreground.

Calla Lilies, Pacific Coast, CA As we were driving along highway 1, we spotted these lilies growing in a little valley. I used a wide angle lens to highlight the flower in the foreground, and the stream by the side leads the viewer to valley and the ocean beyond. The soft transition of the GND filter is visible on the distant hill, but it is hard to avoid this without doing an HDR.

The pathway to the beach had this purple and white flowers growing. I used a 1.2 GND filter to balance the exposure in the foreground with the skies.

Wildflowers, Pacific Grove, CA Here I used a low perspective to give an impression of a vast expanse of flowers. The wide angle lens makes the clouds stand out impressively.

Composition Tips for shooting landscapes

I thought I will use this latest image of mine to share certain effective composition rules for Landscape Photography in general. The first rule is that rules are meant to be broken ;-) There is a time and place for each rule, and ultimately your judgement must prevail. 1. Rule of thirds I will restate this oft-quoted rule as it proves effective and pleasing to the eye in general. Always place the horizon on the upper or lower third of the image, depending on whether you want to highlight the sky or the foreground. In this image, the sky was rather plain and boring, so I decided to highlight the foreground instead. 2. Use a foreground object This technique works very well for images shot in the portrait mode. The rock in this image, serves as a point for the eye to enter the image and also as a "resting place" for the eye. It tends to add a 3D feel to your images and is a powerful landscape technique. Also of interest is that the rock is placed on the lower third of the image, further exemplifying the rule of thirds. 3. Use of leading lines Once the eye has entered the image, you want to lead the eye throughout the image and then exit it. Leading lines are a good technique to achieve this. In this image, the receding wave lines served to lead the eye towards the Natural Bridges rock formation and then exit the image with the cloud on the top.

Hole in the wall

Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, CA

Sunset at Pescadero Point, Highway 1

f/8, 300 seconds at ISO 100.