dreaming

Imperial Beach San Diego Long Exposure Photos

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Imperial Beach San Diego Long Exposure Photos

Long Exposures + Ocean = Dreamscape

If you asked me, I would tell you that a tripod is a must for making long exposure photos. In fact, I have already shared some long exposure ocean photos from San Diego featuring the Ocean Beach Pier that were all shot with my Nikon mounted on a tripod. That said, if getting a tack sharp image is not needed, handholding a slightly long exposure photo, especially with a lens that has VR (vibration reduction), can produce some very cool shots. The latter was the method I used to hold my Nikon right above the incoming water at Imperial Beach, San Diego, California at sunset. Why do a long exposure? Because it makes the water look like stretched out cotton. In the above shot you might easily think it was taken from a boat in deep water, when in reality it was me in less than ankle deep water letting that few inches of water whoosh past me as the camera’s shutter stayed open for 1/6th of a second.

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Dreaming in black & white portrait of a young woman

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Dreaming in black & white portrait of a young woman - Nikon D80 Nikkor 50mm @ f/2 ISO 200 1/200thSome photos you edit immediately, some you get to years later, others you put aside because you know eventually you will want to edit them.  The latter is the case for the above photograph.  It was made two months ago, but it was not in the right mind frame to edit it until apparently today.  Occasionally I would look at it in my Random folder in Aperture 3 and think, do something with this photo now?  No, not yet, but keep it here, I will do something someday.  

I wanted the image to have a dream-like feel to it, so the choice to process it in black & white was natural.  I chose a push process filter in Nik Silver Efex Pro and to that applied a yellow filter to really soften the whites and leave just a few shadows for contrast.  I used the glamor glow filter in Nik Color Efex Pro to also soften the image.  

In composing the shot I did not want the young woman's face to be seen directly, as that would lead the viewer away from vague dreaming and more to wondering who she was.  The profile view shows a little, but leaves a lot a mystery, especially what might she be looking at or what is the expression on her face?

Pigeon dreams of being the black swan

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Is this pigeon dreaming of being the black swan?I often wonder what someone, something, anything animate or inanimate, might be thinking.  I believe even an inanimate object can feel, thus I would never haphazardly toss my shoes into the closet, or set something heavy on top of them, for example.  It is much easier to wonder what animals are thinking since they are sentient, but cannot speak English.  Thus, they have to be thinking something, but they have no verbal way of telling me.  So, I am left to observing their behavior and concluding from that what possibly might be going through their minds.

Such is the case with the above pigeon.  It was reaching elegantly and gracefully for its closest tail feather.  It instantly looked to me like a ballet dancer reaching for her toe over her back.  That lead me to thinking of BLACK SWAN, the 2010 movie starring Natalie Portman (my movie review).  Might this pigeon want to be the Black Swan?