I live in California, and I took the opportunity during the heat wave in California to drive to Sonoma Coast. It is only 21 miles and a 50-minute drive from my house. However, the weather is always colder, between 10 - 20 Fahrenheit less, depending on the season. I checked the weather, and the forecast was cloudy. When I arrived in Bodega Bay, the weather was currently overcast. I was hoping for some sunny spell, but it did not seem it would happen. It was low tides and walking on the beach; I was looking for a landscape composition and wanted to take the opportunity to use the diffuse light from the sky.
I was standing my feet in the water. I used a tripod and a ND8 filter to get an exposure of 1/5 seconds to create a movement in the water. I knew I would blend different shoots of the same view to get what I had in mind. I was looking for a high-contrast final image. I combined three photos, one for the sky exposure and two for the shape of the waves. In post-production, I increased the white to give more contrast without playing with the highlight in the tone section.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor