Dana Point, Day 1 - Day and Night

I couldn't wait to get off the plane and to the resort and the beach yesterday. I had packed every last piece of equipment I owned in my carry-on luggage, and was hoping it would be worth the effort. I knew that getting back into taking pictures after a fairly long hiatus would be an adventure.

It started out bumpy, admittedly. While I picked a great property with terrific views and nature, my pictures fell a bit flat. They felt cliche. I pushed through, though, because I wanted to see if anything would inspire me. Here's my best shot of the day:



I went back and forth on the treetops here - they're a bit cut off. I like them as is (it's a little off kilter and quirky), but I may want to reshoot and see if I change my mind. I love the simple lines, the dark sky, and the fact that I broke about 10 different photography rules.

It took a long time to get here! Here's where I started:





I'm drawn to the second one - it's simple, and it has some color. It makes a nice background somewhere. :)

The two darker ones were taken much later in the day than the two lighter ones. I like the shapes and curves of the first two. The third one was taken with a longer exposure, and that's what got me inspired to take my favorite one. My poor sister watched me as I took one 30 second shot after another.

I then went to the property, excited to take more long exposures. The results? Iffy. Take a look:





I loved the idea of taking long exposures of the pool, but yikes, was it tough in practice. There's an awful lot of noise in the last two - but I'll buy a noise correcting package and see if that will do the trick (look for that in a future post). These 30 second exposures were done without a tripod - I set down the camera in different areas of the pool and went for it. I'm sure everyone was wondering what I was doing. What was cool was that there was someone swimming while I was taking the third shot, but because of the long exposure, you don't see it.

I've packed my tripod, so I'm going to try different shots with it. My lesson is, though, that crisp and clean seem to do the trick for me. Either that, or quirky and crazy. Middle ground is not very "me".

Anyway, equipment used:

My standard DSLR, kit lens, and wide angle lens

ISO - 200 to 800 (if you click on the shots, Flickr will tell you)

White balance - mainly Tungsten for the night ones

Shutter speed - 25 to 30 second for the night ones, Aperture priority (so much faster speeds) for the daytime ones

Today, I'll attempt some tripod shots in the evening (I should have plenty of time), as opposed to just setting down the camera. I'm sure I'll see different results. If I can get one "shot of the day" every day, that will be fine with me. I'll also have my camera with me during the day, and will see if anything else inspires me. :)