Joshua Cripps' Photo Blog

Notes From the Field: Foggy Fun

Josh — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:14:27 +0000

Shooting seascapes in the summer in Santa Cruz (say that 5-times fast) is a tricky thing: the marine layer inhibits sunsets and makes capturing a worthwhile image all the more difficult. I rarely go out to shoot in the summer here, but since some excellent photographer friends of mine were in town, I made a point of going out to shoot with them, and was happy to come home with this shot.

How did I battle the fog and still come home with a nice image? Full details after the jump

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Technical Notes on This Shot

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ISO 100

12 mm

f/10

1 sec

3-stop LEE soft GND

Camera Settings and Filter Use

When shooting the ocean I nearly always aim for a shutter speed in the 0.5 – 2 second range because it gives a sense of motion while retaining some form and definition in the water. This is just a personal preference, and just one of many ways to do things. Nevertheless, that’s what I was shooting for (yuk yuk) on this evening. By this point in the evening, the sun had gone down behind the fog bank, so there wasn’t too much ambient light to deal with. So with a shutter speed of ~1 second as my goal and by using the built in light meter of my camera and chimping until I got a foreground exposure that looked right, I settled on the settings you see above. In theory I could’ve used ISO 200 (one stop higher than ISO 100) because it provides the highest capturable dynamic range on the D300, but in order to maintain the shutter speed I wanted, I would have had to stop down to f/14 (one stop lower than f/10). Both would provide the same exposure with the same shutter speed, but since I was using a 3-stop filter and I was shooting into the wind, I wanted to de-focus any sea-spray drops that landed on the filter as much as possible. Shooting at f/10 versus f/14 helped me do that.

Then in order to balance the sky with the foreground, I used a LEE 3-stop soft GND at a slight angle with the full density beginning just along the edges of the bluff.

Composition and Timing

Because of the unpredictable nature of the ocean, composing seascapes can sometimes be a tricky thing. Depending on what the waves are doing in your shot, the balance and feel of your comp can change dramatically from frame to frame. So I always try to pre-visualize the final look that I want and compose around that idea. In this shot I wanted to capture the waves pulling away from the rocks in the foreground so I watched the surf for a little while to get a feel for its behavior, then I got to work composing.

First of all I used the rule of thirds to place my horizon about a third of the way down the frame in order to give the bulk of the photo over to the cool rocks in the foreground. Then I got down fairly low (maybe 3 feet off the sand) to get a more up close and personal feel. The most important aspect of this comp was arranging the rocks. Just based on where I was standing the rocks kind swept away from me out toward the horizon. In this kind of situation you have two important considerations: where you want the closest rocks to appear in your frame, and where you want the farthest rocks to appear in your frame. This allows you to direct your viewer’s attention exactly where you want through the image. And if you’re unsure of what to do, you can almost always fall back on the ol’ rule of thirds, which is pretty much all I did here. If you imagine a central point to all the rocks on the right-hand-side in the foreground, you can see that it lies pretty close to the 1/3 point in the lower RHS. I then finessed the location of my camera and the direction it was pointing until the farthest rocks lay roughly on the 1/3 point on the upper LHS. Note also that this is where the brightest, and most attention-getting part of the sky is. This is not a coincidence.

Once my composition was locked in, I simply waited for the right wave to roll in, and this one was just about perfect: less water and the streaks would feel more like an after thought in the images. More water and the wash would start obscuring the rocks on the RHS of my frame and possible mess up the balance of the comp. As for timing, I waited until the wave came up the beach, paused at its apex, and then just as it started to swirl back down the sand I snapped the shot.

Post-Processing

Once I got home and reviewed my images I realized that the 3-stop GND wan’t dense enough to provide as much rich color in the sky as I would’ve liked, so I decided to process the raw file twice (once for the sky and once for the foreground) and then blend them together.

For the sky, in the raw converter I pulled the exposure down about 1/3 stop and then used a curves adjustment to drop the midtones and highlights to deepen the glow. I then did some local brightness adjustments to bring the cliffs back up out of the deepening shadows I had created by dimming the image. I also warmed up the shot a little bit for two reasons: 1) in low light my D300 tends to shoot cool (actually most cameras do for reasons I won’t go into here), and 2) a warmer WB helped the coloration of the image out immensely.

I pretty much left the foreground alone, except for a slight curves adjustment for added global contrast and some localized contrast adjustments to add texture and glow to the water streaks.

I exported both to Photoshop and did some selective sharpening for the rocks and the cliffs then I combined the sky and foreground images with a vector mask with a gradient blend and some high-radius, low-opacity brushing to get rid of the grad line.

And that’s the scoop on this one. Until next time!

~Josh

Monterey SpringFest, May 8th and 9th

Josh — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:50:30 +0000

SpringFest in the Custom House Plaza

The lovely Spring weather we all love has returned and so I am back outside, exhibiting my photos as much as I can. This weekend I’m excited to be participating in SpringFest in the Custom House Plaza in Monterey. The Plaza has been a great venue for me in the past and I’m really looking forward to being back there and showing off my photography.

Brand New Booth

Another reason I’m looking forward to SpringFest this weekend is that it will be my first show with my new booth display. I’ve spent the past two weeks hammering, drilling, and sawing to create a brand new set of display panels designed to highlight my work and create a “sanctuary of space” in which to view my photos, and now I am eager to put them to the test! So come on out to The Custom House Plaza this weekend in Monterey to say hello, check out the new display, and look at all the new photos I’ve added to my portfolio since I was last in Monterey.

10% Off All Prints

As always, here’s a 10% off coupon available only to my fans and supporters. Just print it out and bring it to the show to save 10% on any of my prints.

Take care, and hope to see you at the show!

Josh
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http://www.joshuacripps.com
209.728.7982

p.s. can’t make it to this show? check out my events calendar to see what else i’ve got coming up

On the Prowl (aka Doin’ the Panther Beach Shuffle)

Josh — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:13:11 +0000

Last week I called up my friend and fellow photographer Jim Patterson to see if he felt like going shooting. I didn’t have whatfor in mind, so Jim suggested a place called Pebble Beach near Pescadero. We cruised up the coast, being buffeted by high winds the whole way. We got to the beach, and hopped out of the truck to scope out conditions, and that’s when we began doin’ the Panther Beach shuffle.

You see, thanks to the wind, the ocean froth at Pebble Beach had been whipped up into a foamy meringue which was completely covering the beach in foot-thick, viscous, undulating drifts. I busted out some video to document this weird phenomenon and got totally splattered with foam in the process.

Ok, so shooting here was totally out of the question due to the high winds and ubiquitous foamy goop. So where to go? Jim and I were shouting at each other over the roar of the wind and decided our only course was to head back south.

After some miles we pulled off at a little turn out to scope the rocks just north of Waddell Creek. The water was coming up pretty high over the rocks so we hemmed and hawed a bit and Jim made the decision to leave, and I made the decision to get in his truck so he didn’t leave without me.

Further cruising ensued until we pulled into the Panther / Hole in the Wall Beach parking lot. We scrambled down to the beach to see about getting to HITW but the arch way was impassable as the ocean had scooped a good 50 tons of sand out of the floor of the arch and the water was running really high through there. Ok, so north end of Panther it was. But we got up there and the waves were absolutely demolishing the rocks, sending spray shooting 40 feet into the air.

Hrm. So back to the south end we went and ended up shooting a bunch of stuff near the arch. And the conditions ended up being pretty awesome; better than I think either of us expected. So we set our D300’s rattling as the sun set and came away with some nice images.

See video below!

~Josh

The Storm Beckons

Josh — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:05:15 +0000

Click the image for a larger version to see all the neat detail in the clouds and water

Boy, I must be a glutton for punishment for tonight I shot at Hole in the Wall Beach at high tide. The last time I did that, I had a serious accident. So how the heck did I find myself there again under similar conditions? Well . . .

A passing storm brought the promise of drama to our sunny shores here in Santa Cruz for the first time in about a week. The clear skies, along with the fact the my car has been in the shop, kept me from shooting for the longest time in a while: going on 9 days. NINE!! Yikes!

Anyway, got my car back from the shop and saw a whole world of intriguing clouds out over the ocean; nothing was going to keep me inside tonight. I checked the tide levels and saw that they were fairly high, which more or less ruled out Hole in the Wall Beach, aka my favorite place in the whole area. But somehow I still found myself pulling into the parking lot if only to “check it out.”

I tromped on down to the beach and saw that there was quite a lot of sand piled up since my last visit, which made the arch much easier to pass through. It was still a race against the waves back up around the side of the cliffs but a fair bit of sprinting, hooting, and hollering kept me ahead of the salt water.

I wasn’t sure where the best conditions for sunset would be so I clambered up onto the rocks at the south end of the beach where there are a million and one things to shoot. And boy did I have a frikkin’ field day out there.

The lighting conditions were constantly changing and I shot composition after composition. I almost filled up my memory card, which is something I never do any more. Towards the end of the evening I was shooting a massive storm cell ruddily illuminated by the sun’s last rays when a sneaker wave ricocheted off of a rock 40 feet in front of me and somehow flew backwards through the air to land entirely on my chest.

Ahh, sigh. It isn’t a night at Hole in the Wall if you don’t come home soaking wet.

Should be lots of sweet shots to share here over the next few days. Thanks for looking!

~Josh

The Storm Breaks

Josh — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:46:36 +0000

Early April was an incredibly rainy time here in Santa Cruz. April 2nd was one of those days so rainy I didn’t even bother to check the conditions for sunset because of the steady downpour. Around 6:45 pm though, I heard something: Silence. All of a sudden it was too quiet! I looked outside and sure enough, the rain had stopped. And what’s more, the clouds were breaking up and some glow was beginning. So I really quickly threw my camera gear in my bag, hopped in the car, and jetted down to Natural Bridges, arriving just as the setting sun threw some lovely pastel colors out onto the tail end of the storm clouds.

So far since moving to Santa Cruz I’ve been avoiding Natural Bridges simply because it is such a highly-photographed beach. But lately I’ve been wanting to add a Natural Bridges shot to my portfolio and this night ended up being a perfect opportunity since NB is the beach closest to my house and I didn’t have time to get anywhere else. When I got down to the beach, I found a mid-level tide which kept me pretty far from the classic arch. But that ended up being just fine since backing way off was the only way I could get the arch and the sky color in the same shot. I loved the way the arch looked against the long exposure waves and I think I might have an infatuation brewing with that. Now I just need another night with a nice sunset and a bit of a lower tide. Can’t wait!

~Josh

The Silver Lining

Josh — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:09:04 +0000

The silver lining to an otherwise crummy day

I spent the past weekend at an outdoor art show in Pacific Grove, CA. Well, that’s not really true; I spent last Saturday at the show. Sunday was unofficially canceled due to intense downpours and fierce winds. But even Saturday was not without weather problems. Cloudy, cold, and gusty: those were the conditions, and they did not make for a terribly enjoyable show. Attendance was low and sales were slow. Some vendors even lost money because their merchandise blew over and broke. Around four in the afternoon the promoter came by and said that an emergency storm warning had been issued and that Pacific Grove could expect 40-50 mph winds overnight. 40 to 50 mph?!?! Goodbye canopy! That’s when I decided to pack it in and not worry about coming back the next day.

But all that disappointment did come with a silver lining: got to meet up with a friend of mine and go out to dinner. After food we cruised down to Asilomar Beach for a very quick shoot as the setting sun just barely sent some light peeking over the incoming storm.

After previously complaining about how hard I found composing in Asilomar, I’m happy to say that this composition jumped right out at me as soon as we hit the beach. And how nice it was to be shooting light-colored rocks, rather than the dark-as-night stuff we have in Santa Cruz. Made the exposure a bit easier to manage.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the result and the silver lining it brought to an otherwise disappointing day.

~Josh

Patience and Diligence

Josh — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:41:14 +0000

Many people might assume that photographers are extremely lucky because somehow we’re always in the right place at the right time. But the truth is that luck rarely has anything to do with. Rather, great photographs are often forged out of planning, understanding, patience, and diligence. Such was the case for a recent shot I took near Santa Cruz:

There’s this fantastic shelf just north of Four Mile Beach in Santa Cruz, and on this shelf is this cool, pseudo-seastack. And when the tide is right the waves come in, crash against the rocks and send jets of foamy wash around the pseudo-stack to cascade back into the ocean. It’s pretty excellent to watch.

I’ve been trying to get a good shot of this phenomenon for awhile now – ever since I found this shelf in the first place. But the conditions have to be just right in order for the photo to happen: the tide has to be higher than 3 feet, otherwise the water doesn’t come up high enough to go around the stack. At the same time, the tide has to be lower than about 4 feet, otherwise the ledge you stand on to see the waterfall from gets doused repeatedly by the waves. And you also need some nice sunset color to the southeast.

With the limits imposed by the tides, there’s only a window of a few days about every two weeks when you can attempt this shot. And if the sunset doesn’t cooperate during that window, well then you’re out of luck and have to try again later. I visited this shelf no fewer than five times before the conditions finally all came together for me and I was able to capture this image.

So you can see it wasn’t luck that led to this photo, but rather an understanding of the necessary conditions, and the patience and diligence required to return to this spot over and over until I got the result I wanted.

~Josh

53rd Annual Pacific Grove Good Old Days

Josh — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:12:04 +0000

Spring has sprung and that means the 2010 art show season has begun! And I am excited because it means I get to be back on the street, meeting people, exhibiting my photography, and having a great time. This weekend I will be at the 53rd annual Good Old Days celebration in downtown Pacific Grove. I’ve never done this show before but it sounds like an absolute blast. It’s Monterey County’s largest arts and crafts show, with over 225 art and food vendors, a parade down Pine Avenue, and live entertainment on five stages. There’s also a California Police motorcycle competition, old-fashioned games and contests, and lots of family fun. Admission is free is well, so there’s really no reason not to come enjoy a day out in Pacific Grove.

New Photos from Santa Cruz, Asilomar, and Big Sur

Over the winter I’ve had some fantastic opportunities to explore the central California coast and I’ve been amazed by the beauty I’ve found. I’ve also come away with some wonderful new photos of the beaches in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Big Sur and I can’t wait to show them off.

My booth will be located on Lighthouse Ave, between 18th and 19th street, so come on out to say hello and see the new shots.

10% any print with this coupon

As always, here’s a 10% off coupon available only to my fans and supporters. Just print it out and bring it to the show to save 10% on any of my prints.

Take care, and hope to see you at the show!

~Josh

And seal it with a kiss

Josh — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:21:06 +0000

Elephant seals are funny animals. And I mean funny in a haha kind of way.

A happy little weaner

Had a fantastic opportunity on Saturday to go out with some researchers who were putting satellite transmitters on young elephant seals, or “weaners.”

These guys are some of the noisiest critters I’ve ever been around and it was a fairly hilarious afternoon listening to them honk, spit, hiss, burp, gurgle, yelp, squeak, and fart continuously for the entire five hours we spent with them.

Soon these 90-100 kg “little babies” will be headed out to sea to make their way in a scary world filled with hungry white sharks. Sadly only about 40% of them will survive to adulthood, but the ones who do make it will be big bad monsters who you don’t want to mess with.

Some more pics from the afternoon:

Weaners all in a row

Like a giant, warm-blooded grub

You lookin’ at me?

Happy Monday, everyone! Have a great week,

Josh

Poseidon’s Drive-In

Josh — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:29:58 +0000

Poseidon, the god of the sea, has a pretty sweet 100,000-inch movie screen with a trillion watt projector which plays all your favorite hits. He’s got a pretty sweet sound system too and man, when the bass is booming you can feel it throughout your whole body. Last night he invited me over to watch a classic sunset, which was nice of him because that’s one of my all time favorite pieces of entertainment. We both forgot the snacks though, so I went home hungry, but I didn’t really mind since the light show was so good.