Here in So. Cal. we've been in the middle of a weather pattern called a Santa Ana condition. It's a hot, dry blast of air that comes in from the Mojave and the Colorado deserts east of here. Here in San Diego the wind usually comes directly off the ocean and hence we have nightly bouts of marine layers but during these Santa Ana's the marine layer stays well off the coast. So last night I figured I'd take a stroll down La Jolla shores and maybe get some shots of surfers in front of a red setting sun.
But when I got there I saw a funny thing. There under Scripps Pier were a bunch of photographers all set up with tripods, maybe 10 or more. Some high and some low on the ground. My first thought was that it was some kind of photography class or maybe a photo club out taking images. So I decided I'd walk down to the pier and see what was going on. I asked the first person I saw if this was a photo class and he said no. Instead, today was the one day of the year that the sun sits directly at the end of the pier and they were all there to capture that image. Some of the people I met there had been planning over 6 months for this day. And they were all very stoked that it was during a Santa Ana conditions and there would be little to no marine layer covering the sun.
Out of just good ol' dumb luck, I was able to some shots of the sun going down directly in front of the Scripps Pier. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and stop by there tonight, too, even though it'll be slightly off, I'll most likely get a spot more centered than I did yesterday. Here's one of the HDR images I took below and then a slide show with the rest of them. Unfortunately I changed the focal length a couple of times throughout the 5 or so minutes this event was taking place so I had to go back and try to crop them all equally. Granted, I didn't do such a great job but at least you get the idea.
Link to the video slide show - [video]http://bit.ly/18AUKUT[/video]
But when I got there I saw a funny thing. There under Scripps Pier were a bunch of photographers all set up with tripods, maybe 10 or more. Some high and some low on the ground. My first thought was that it was some kind of photography class or maybe a photo club out taking images. So I decided I'd walk down to the pier and see what was going on. I asked the first person I saw if this was a photo class and he said no. Instead, today was the one day of the year that the sun sits directly at the end of the pier and they were all there to capture that image. Some of the people I met there had been planning over 6 months for this day. And they were all very stoked that it was during a Santa Ana conditions and there would be little to no marine layer covering the sun.
Out of just good ol' dumb luck, I was able to some shots of the sun going down directly in front of the Scripps Pier. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and stop by there tonight, too, even though it'll be slightly off, I'll most likely get a spot more centered than I did yesterday. Here's one of the HDR images I took below and then a slide show with the rest of them. Unfortunately I changed the focal length a couple of times throughout the 5 or so minutes this event was taking place so I had to go back and try to crop them all equally. Granted, I didn't do such a great job but at least you get the idea.
Link to the video slide show - [video]http://bit.ly/18AUKUT[/video]