I found myself returning to one of my earliest Decaseconds posts (almost exactly 11 years ago) as I updated my Top 32 album on Flickr—the digital portfolio where I display my best (or simply favorite) photographs. Finding “Waves and Rocks Dwarf Man” in that set, I saw both the excellent light and composition that my old Nikon had captured in 2011, as well as all of the places where my choices in processing the original image now left my unsatisfied. Rather than simply reprocessing that original image, I went back to the folder of camera raws from that day and selected an image I took just moments later to tackle. (Always keep save those raw files!) I not only like this composition better than the older one, but I also feel that I have brought something new out here, rather than simply reprocessing something old.
Category: Pacifica
Saturday Afternoon on the Pier
Resilient Tree at Sunset
Of all the plant phyla, I’ve always felt a particular affinity for the conifers. Those spiny softwood survivors have a diverse yet particular set of aromatic compounds that accompany them; I can chart a lot of happy memories to pine or cypress groves and their applied organic chemistry. Starting on the east coast, through the midwest, and finding myself in grad school on the west coast meant contact with a lot of different species. These ocean-wind-sculpted examples from Pacifica, California are particularly dramatic.
California Coast II
Rough Coast
Anchor Oxidation
Another California Coastline
Sea Canyon
Seaside grafitti
If you give people a maleable surface and some privacy they will almost undoubtedly deface it. This is certainly true on this soft, well-worn sea cliff on California’s coast. It was difficult to make out much of the writing but it is evident that someone sure wanted to make sure that heart would endure. Almost makes one wonder if the original artist periodically comes back to touch up and admire their handiwork or if the heart just serves as a painful reminder any more.
Relaxing afternoon on the beach
Seaside cliff
Surf Sunset
Rocks and Surf
Ocean Sunset
Captured at the same beach as the shot posted earlier this week though from a slightly different perspective this time. Here you can get a better look at the waterway connecting with the ocean. I think that the steep bank above the waterway creates a cool looking effect, distorting the sense of scale.
Waves and Rocks Dwarf Man
The coast near Pacifica, California has some gorgeous, craggily coastline. All kinds of people were out walking their dogs; if I were a little braver, I would have gone over to shoot portraits of them, as well. Still, composing everyone together into a landscape produced a pretty satisfying result. The old man on the log looks more idyllic than I could have hoped.
I was initially disappointed that it was such a misty evening, but the upside was that the contrast was lowered to the point where I could produce HDR images from a single RAW photo.