02 « July « 2010 « Places 2 Explore

I have traveled to San Francisco many many times as I have a few top customers in the area. I have shot around the city tons and had an idea to stay the might before I was leaving in lovely Monterey. I sent my buddy Horace Kwan (Horace Kwan Photography) an email about my plans and he joined me for a late afternoon drive down the Northern California coast south of Monterey. This was my first drive down PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) up north. One word….UNREAL!! It was a perfect day!!! Clouds, blue sky and amazing blue water!! We drove about 35 miles down the coast and stopped nearly at every overlook. Took us a few hours, but all worth it. We witnessed some stunning coastal scenes. A cruise I hope to re-visit again one day!!!

I’ll post my first HDR this Saturday and another next week. This was from Point Lobos (only 10 minutes south of Monterey). It was taken on our way back and the clouds arrived at sunset and blocked our chance for great shots. It was a chance to give my Neutral Density Filter another try! Whew…a learning curve indeed! I took about 10 shots to get this one. As it is a 6 stop filter…it is very dark. Auto focus is possible, but as lighting gets lower it may not work…manual may be the only option. So I was able to focus on the rocks and standard settings were thrown out the window. The black spots on the rock are birds relaxing for the night. Many long exposures look great in B&W..so I converted it in Silver Efex Pro….very cool! Practice makes perfect with this ND Filter. Its a nice photographic challenge!

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