Huntington Beach, California
September 9, 2017
18 mm: ISO 200: f/18: 1/4 sec.
After I got the shot I wanted, I did not have a lot of time left to shoot anymore. The original plan was that my wife would take the bike we rented with a trailer for the kids and head back to the Hyatt Resort so I had plenty of time to shoot the rest of the sunset. Unfortunately, it was about this time that I realized my wife had the keys to lock I would need to unlock the bike I needed to take back. If I did not get back to the bikes, locked up under the pier, before my wife and kids headed back, I was going to be in for a long night of walking back to the hotel, then back to the bike.
Since I really was not happy with my first composition and was not sure it would even work with all the people milling about, I looked for a composition where I could further minimize the people in my shot. I opted to run just a little south of the Huntington Beach Pier where I could capture more of the sunset. Because I wanted a faster shutter speed that would separate the waves into pleasing layers, I had to find a way to minimize the people walking through the frame. I timed it the best I could where people were standing or walking behind columns. It was impossible to do this very well and I ended up needing to clone out about 4 people that were between the columns. Luckily, that was a pretty easy clone job as it just required lining up the columns and the tides. I thought about cloning out the people on the pier as well, but that proved more work than I thought it would be worth since they are so minor in the image and not in a place of focus.
To see how we ended up in Huntington Beach for a short weekend, staying free at the Hyatt Resort, read this article.
Gear Used:
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