California Dreamin'

While Marti had a work assignment in Los Angeles this weekend, I took the rent car and drove from Monterrey (Carmel by the Sea) to Malibu and tried to see what I could find along Hwy 1, listening to the Beach Boys blaring on my Iphone.  What a gorgeous drive all along a two lane highway down the coastline.  Here are a few samples of what I saw along the way. 

Here is one of those easy sunset shots if you remember to meter your scene on the sky above the sun as mentioned in a previous post, which brings out all the colors so brilliantly.  Actually, the sunset this particular evening wasn't that great, but by metering high in the sky, you can greatly enhance the colors of a less than exciting sunset.

Here is one of my favorite spots, with an old historic bridge just outside of Monterrey a few miles as you head south on Hwy 1.  The timing was NOT perfect, in that a huge fog was over the entire area when I got there and I tried to wait for it to lift, but finally had to keep moving and this was all I had to work with.  I will defintely want to come back and catch it another time when the light is just right!

Even when we try to capture our imges at sunrise and sunset, many times mother nature doesn't cooperate and we have to make the best of what we have to work with.  If you can choose to come back another day when the conditions are more favorable, then you have a better chance of capturing the perfect image at the Perfect Tyme. 

In this instance, which happens many times to all of us, you only have one chance to capture what you see and you have to work with conditions you are given.  This is one of those where the HDR technique will have to be used, because the dynamic range is just too great for the camera. 

This image shown herein is actually what I got right out of the camera without any photoshop work.  I did capture multiple images at various exposures levels and when I come back to Houston I will see what I can do with it using the HDR techniques I also mentioned in previous posts and a technique we teach in each of our workshops.

The remainng images are just a few additional shots I saw along the way and had to stop and capture the memory and share them with you on our blog.  The last one is a little friend I saw sunning on the beach when I distrubed him from his nap.

So take your camera everywhere you go, and be on the lookout for that surprising sunrise or sunset that pops up unexpectedly so you can capture a killer image just at the Perfect Tyme.

Hope you have a great weekend!