weekly photo challenge…’horizon’
October 2013
I’ve been admiring some great water themed photography on numerous blogs of late, and particularly enjoying those using long exposures. I love the glass-like stillness of the water when it’s shot this way, clearly reflecting the colours in the sky. I decided to try to incorporate this technique when taking ‘horizon’ shots after work today…knowing that I would only have around 30-40 mins before the sun bid its farewell, so no pressure! I was happy to discover a low tide (I hadn’t checked of course) and so planted myself in a good vantage point where evening strollers could peek at the back of my camera and silently (or not) rate my efforts, but not get in the way of business. I didn’t realize at the time, but when reviewing the fruits of my labour on arriving home, I found it interesting how dramatically the colours changed over a very short timeframe.
It should be known that I don’t yet have a fancy grad filter (although I’m hoping that perhaps Santa will see fit to bring me one this holiday season!) to enable an efficient long exposure. So I opted for the next best thing in my kit – a polarizing filter. I think I did pretty well for a first attempt, although if the water had been choppier I can imagine the results would have been more dramatic. I’ll give it another try sometime soon. I also experimented with some camera movement during exposure (hand-held) and again am pleased with results.
I don’t have a spirit level, nor do I have the inclination for this level of fiddling – so instead I chose to press the easy button and straighten horizon lines (all of them to some degree!) in Lightroom.
carrymycamera.com 
Sounds like you had a fun trip. Its always somewhat stressful shooting the sunset as you never really know what its going to be like. So the more times you go to more lucky you will get. My favorite of the series is the very last one. I like how its very calming and colorful.
Thanks for stopping by and for your feedback. When I can photograph sunsets as creatively as you photograph cars – I’ll be a happy clicker! 🙂
Wonderful sunsets, the colours are amazing
Thanks Joan…I’m really lucky to live a short walk from the waterfront and be able to take advantage of water sunsets! I enjoyed looking through your images btw!
Thank you.
Hi Deb…Great shots of English Bay. Looks like we’re neighbors. I posted a view of English Bay for this week’s challenge. Looking forward to following your blog. Cheers.
Hi Andrew….yes, we are neighbours and aren’t we lucky to have such wonderful vistas on our doorstep to photograph! I love the moody way you captured English Bay. This said, I also noted you like trekking and Machu Picchu is on our bucket list to do in the next couple of years, so enjoyed reading the blog post of your trip. If you haven’t done it yet, we recommend the hike to Everest Base Camp in Nepal – our story of which is here if you’re interested: https://carrymycamera.com/2012/12/04/the-only-way-is-up/
I’ll be following your adventures in pictures too! 🙂
Wow. Stunning! I love the effect from the long exposure. I didn’t know you could do that. Very cool.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and yes, the long exposure thing is cool – I definitely want to try it some more.