"A Dream Approaches"...a new release from D."Bodhi" Smith

This is my newest composition entitled, "A Dream Approaches." It was captured on Coronado Island in San Diego this past Friday May 15th during an extremely high tide event right at sunset.

Unfortunately, this scene needs many factors to align: a high tide of 6 plus feet is a must, clouds coming in off the Pacific, and both have to happen at sunset. A tide of this magnitude happens only a few times a year, and I was lucky this time that it was occurring as a Pacific storm was hitting us here in Southern California, which is rare for the month of May. Thus, my alignment was possible, and I had a widow of about three days to get lucky with a capture...and of course, I was at this spot all three days.

I have had this picture in my mind for close to 9 months now, but had to wait through numerous occasions of getting washed out with no luck because one of the factors was not present. And ironically I LITERALLY got washed out during my first attempt in the 3-day window of opportunity that was given me from mother nature. For as the night before I captured this image, I fought that strong Pacific storm in a torrential downpour hoping the clouds would break at sunset, but there was no such luck and all that happened for me and my dog was that we got on heck of a natural shower, absolutely soaked, even drenched through my rainwear because of the veracity of the wind and rain.

But as you can see, the next night was much more kind for me and I caught this image. And consequently I managed to get another great shot on the third night that maybe someday I will process and put out there.

Anyway, this image is dedicated to the Annets (Jean-Luc and Julie) for their patience with me in trying to catch this scene for them...

The title is derived from one of Salvador Dali's paintings similarly named "The Approaching Dream"...since his surrealist influence is very strong in my photographic visions.

Camera Settings: ISO-100, f/8 at 45mm for 915 seconds using 2 Lee Proglass Filters (3.0ND and a 1.6ND) to drop the exposure 16 stops... this is two 15 minute exposures composited into one image using Photoshop CS6, which creates a perfect square for the final composition. The sun was setting about 45 degrees opposite of the reef and not directly over top of it as I wanted. So one long exposure is for the sunset and one long exposure is for the rock reef.

I hope this message and image find you well.

Peace,
D. " Bodhi "

#Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #Dolica #tripods #Lee #Filters #Big #stopper #LongExposure #BodhiSmith #Impressionist #expressionist #Sunset #SanDiego #Coronado #Island #reflections #reef #Beach #Seascape #California #Pacific #Ocean

"Into the Magic Door" is a new composition from D. "Bodhi" Smith

"Into the Magic Door" is my new composition captured during the "Scripps Solstice" which is a special event here in San Diego that happens twice a year in late April-early May and then again in mid-August when the sun aligns perfectly in a sunset directly through the window at the end of the underbelly of the Scripps Pier.

Unfortunately, successfully photographing this phenomenon has many problematic facets:

1. Many other photographers crowd (horde often literally) into a small tiny space to capture the alignment--so to secure a great spot, gotta arrive about 2.5-3 hours before sunset
2. A heavy cloud deck on the horizon kills the view, and these heavy clouds are common in early May
3. There are 3-4 days where the sun is aligned in the window, but it is hard to gauge exactly which day will have the sun dead center
4. Having clouds over head is a bonus, as long as they are not out on the horizon blocking the view
5. Parking is at a premium...And if you listen to friends (ahem--Jeff) and park in the wrong spot, you will get a $65 ticket.

I had been fighting a sickness all weekend, but still could not pass up this small window of opportunity occurring here only twice a year to capture and witness something spectacular.We were there the night before this image, and there was a media circus there. Literally. The Channel 10 news crew was there to film a guy putting on a light painting show using a pixelstick to add to all of the photographers crowded in hoping to see some magic with the setting sun. I made the comment that we "were all truly paparazzi photogs waiting to catch that rare photo of out favorite star" ;) The weather did not cooperate and the sunset was flat with the sun partially obstructed...I was sick and just went home and did not stay for the light painting show.

Monday (the night of this photograph), I had to make a delivery of three of my newest large pieces to the Fallbrook Artist Guild Show, and then friend and fellow photog, Jeff Deveau and The Dude, and I headed down to the pier to take another shot at it for the second night in a row. We arrived about 5:30pm, two hours before sunset to find only two others there (both upstanding great fellow photogs). We were NOT disappointed. It was a perfect setting with only a handful of other photographers there (all very cool and great group to chat with while we waited), a perfect level of the tide coming in to keep the sand extra reflective, great clouds--a nice cloud cover that was NOT on the horizon to block the sun, and the sun aligned underneath almost perfectly. It was centered and just barely touching the top of the window.. We knew that the placement of the sun was better the previous night, but half of it was obscured by a cloud deck...For this night, I could not have asked for a better night, other than maybe having the spot all to myself (impossible pipe dream) and NOT getting an annoying parking ticket for parking in a place that was on the UCSD campus but I was assured was safe and never checked for parking passes. Um, Yeah, $65 wrong call..oh well... ;)

I wanted to create another composition, but unfortunately I did not bring my spikes for my Dolica tripod so I could drill it deep into the sand (I was sick and forgot them for the second night in a row like a doofus). As a result, my tripod moved a couple times making it impossible for me to create my first vision from two images...but this one did not come out too bad, I am quite happy with it.

I have long called the end of this pier as the "Magic Door" and this title is derived from my idea of this mixed with the sun dropping right in to align in the middle for this image. It is pretty cool to watch and witness and the sun comes down in from from the south to the north at an angle of about 70 degree or so as the sun is setting in all it glory of color.

Camera settings: ISO-100, 29mm at f/8 for 29 seconds using two Lee Proglass ND filters (.9ND and 1.8ND) to block down the light 9 stops. image was captured just before sunset at 7:23pm as the sun was in the upper middle of the "window" at the end of Scripps Pier

I hope this message and image find you well.

peace,
D."Bodhi"

#San Diego #Scripps #Pier #LaJolla #Sunset #Alignment #Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #24-70mm #Dolica #Tripods #Lee #Filters #Little stopper #ND #ND Grad #LE #LongExposure #Expressionist #Impressionist

"Idiosyncre Sea" an image by D. "Bodhi" Smith

The image is named "Idiosyncre Sea"... and just a heads up: I am off to the south island of New Zealand tonight for the next 10 days! This is an exciting trip for me, and I am very hopeful to bring back some stellar impressions from the other side of the world. So, it will be a while before I am able to release any new images (unless while I am there I manage to edit something special)...

In the meantime, I though I would re-post this photo here...an image which is actually composed of a very rare sea formation whose only other match is located in South New Zealand (Moeraki Boulders)--and that is a scene I truly hope to capture and have both of these locations represented in my library of images.

The image is named "Idiosyncre Sea" and was taken at the end of December in 2013 during a trip up the Northern California and Oregon coastlines. This place is south of Mendocino on the N.Cali coast in a location known as Schooner Bay--it has the nickname of "Bowling Ball Beach" to photogs and travelers alike. It is a must see for anyone who is driving the US101 from Point Reyes to Fort Bragg (or vise-versa).

Camera Settings: ISO-100, 18mm at f/8 for 260 seconds (4 mins, 20 secs) using 15 stops of Lee ND Proglass filters (3.0ND, .9ND, .6ND) and one Lee resin .75ND Soft Grad filter to brings down the sky an additional 2.5 stops over the rest of the composition.This image was captured at mid-tide shortly before sunset as a wedge-shaped cloud formed over the beach to the south.

I hope this image and composition find you well.

peace,
D."Bodhi"

#California #Coast #Seascape #Pacific #Ocean #BowlingBallBeach #Reef #Schooner #Bay #Mendocino #Sunset #Surreal #Impressionist #Expressionist #LongExposure #LE #Landscape #Bodhi #Smith #Nikon #Nikkor #D800 #Dolica #Tripods #LeeFilters #Lee #BigStopper #ND #Filter

"Coronación de la Puerta" new release by D."Bodhi" Smith

Entitled, "Coronación de la Puerta," this is my newest composition. It was captured last Sunday during a surprisingly low tide event at sunset on the extreme south end of Little Corona Beach in Corona Del Mar, CA. As the sun was setting, I never would have imagined that I would end up capturing this surreal little beauty with my camera.

Last Sunday, I was watching the clouds all day and hoping for something stellar at sunset. When it looked like maybe something special was going to occur, I headed off to Newport Beach with my dog, The Dude, as well as with my friend and fellow photog, Jeff Deveau. This area was selected for two reasons, Jeff had never really shot this part of Orange County, and it is a great low tide location to shoot, and it was a low tide on that evening.

We arrived slightly late after hitting a couple "detours" and traffic along the way, consequently it was only 20 minutes until sunset as we were walking down onto the beach at Little Corona. I quickly noticed that this low tide was much lower than it was supposed to be (according to my favorite app: "Tide Chart Free"). So, I decided to quickly hump the half mile trek southward down to the hidden arch; Jeff opted to stay at the north end of the beach by the sphinx and bypass the sketchy hike which can be tricky and slippery, especially when rushed.

The beach was overly crowded for a winter's evening, but I think that lots of people just all decided to try to watch/photograph a stellar sunset at this magnificent location on this particular night for some reason. Having all of the hordes of people present was yet another big part of my reasoning in my decision making process to head south to the hidden arch, especially since there is never more than 1-2 people tops ever down there as most people do not even know of the arch's existence.

My pup and I hustled down the beachline and actually safely made it before sunset in a record time. But, Wow, really?!? When I got there, I could not believe my eyes...there were 12 other people there. Twelve!? There was about 6 others photographing the arch, 3 on-lookers, and 3 people climbing on the arch. Never have I seen people climbing the arch, never. There actually might have been more people than pelicans and birds here for a change because of that fact.

Three of the photographers were set up pretty far back of the arch itself trying to catch reflections in the tide pools. This was not a composition I was crazy about, especially with the fact that the clouds were quickly dissipating at sunset as they often do here. Eventhough the climbers were in everyone's compositions as the sun was setting, I did not want to get in the way as well of the other photographers who were there before me by pushing forward to the spot I would rather have set up closer to the arch, so I set up in line with them and opted for my Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 lens for this shot.

However, it really looked like this was not going to be a night when I captured anything special as the sun was setting. The composition was really not doing anything for me. There were way too many people milling around for this spot, the light was off in the wrong direction, plus, the clouds and sky were stubbornly not cooperating well with me either.

From where I was set up, most of the rockband to the right of the arch was blocking out all of the wonderful colors in the clouds that were really glowing on the horizon five minutes after the sunset. The climbers were all standing on top of that side of the formation watching the cray reds in the sky absolutely going off like fireworks. Its brilliant colors pulled all of the other photographers around the side of the arch out of my sight to try to shoot it. This left the arch wide open all to myself for me to shoot. But, I did not move with them, for I was was just not crazy about the composition facing northwest, even though the colors of the sky were awesome. I decided to stick with my composition of the arch as "a door with no sky" in the scene except only those few glowing clouds that could be espied through the arch.

I actually could have moved forward to the spot I first wanted because everyone cleared out and headed back 20 mins after the sunset. But I was already set up and did not want to have to swap out my lens, filters, and then redial in my focus. I did get my wish of solitude, as all 12 people, including the climbers, evacuated the scene and were slowly making their way back north navigating through the slick and sharp rocks under the cliffs in the low light. Jeff said he saw the steady stream of headlamps slowly progressing their way towards his location. My pup and I were alone under the fading dim red glow of the sky.

I always overshoot. I usually will not leave the beach until the light is totally gone. I just do not give up that easily. Even on this night when I truly figured that a great shot was just not in the cards, I stuck it out just a little bit longer. More-often-than-not, I capture nothing as the light quickly falls of--it happens all too frequently, and unfortunately, is one of the banes of being a landscape photographer (if watching beautiful sunsets in isolated places on the beach can ever be any sort of a bane).

Ten minutes after sunset as the other people around me were clearing out, I had tried to capture a 15 minute (900 second) exposure using my Lee Proglass 3.0ND filter (10 stops) at f/11, but the image came out too dark in the dwindling light. Still, I decided one more shot (I am glad I made this decision!)...took the 3.0ND off and replace it with a Lee Proglass .9ND filter (3 stops), patted my pup on the head for luck, bumped my aperture up to f/8, re-focused at the new f/stop, set the timer for 500 seconds (8 mins 20 secs), and sat down on a rock next to my dog to enjoy the gorgeous colors still in the sky while my camera took its last shot of the night. Now, here before you are the results for your eyes to enjoy. :)

This ultra long exposure photograph helps me to ultimately fathom a deeper meaning of witnessing things before me that cross through into another dimension--sort of like the meaning behind the name of the famous rock group, "The Doors. " With chills running up my spine, I can imagine a partially delusional Jim Morrison watching a groovy surreal sunset such as this at this spot and afterwards finding enlightenment for a name that he would forever be linked with..

My title roughly translates in English to the "Crowning of the Door"... I was not going to put this image out there until after I finished processing my Easter Island series, but the Vice President of Sales at Dolica Tripods (Daniel C.) saw this image on the back of my camera when we were out shooting together last week. A big reason for me selecting my title in Spanish is to honor his heritage and parallel the name of the town where the picture was captured with my feelings of transcendence. Daniel's stoked reaction alone made me decide to process this image a little quicker...let me know if you think his reaction was right...

Camera settings:ISO-100, 80mm at f/8 for 500 secs using one Lee Proglass .9ND filter to drop the exposure 3 stops as the light was dropping off exponentially at 25 minutes after the sunset at 5:40pm.

This image is dedicated to VP of Sales, Daniel Calderon, at Dolica tripods for instilling the desire in me to process this image now and not wait until later...thank you Daniel.

I hope this message and image find you well.

Peace,
D."Bodhi"

#Lee Filters #Dolica #Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #Sunse t#Long Exposure #Orange County #OC #Corona Del Mar #Newport Beach #Low Tide #Arch #Impressionist #Surreal #Doors #Bodhi Smith

Bodhi Smith new release, " Soul to Rest."

This new release is entitled, "Soul to Rest." This composition was taken during a brilliant sunset last month on Coronado Island in San Diego, CA. I took this shot a couple days before departing for Easter Island. I chose to release it now as I did not want it to get lost in my archives once I started processing out all of my Easter Island compositions over the next couple of weeks.

This was one of those rare times where I feel my photography came up inadequately short with capturing the true essence of the awesome beauty I saw with my own eyes on that particular winter evening over the Pacific Ocean...I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of color in the sky on that night and just could not do it justice with my camera.

Some of you know that a few months ago I had been commissioned by a husband and wife to create a special composition of a particular spot on Coronado Island that holds special meaning for them. This couple has entrusted me with the task of creating the new centerpiece of their beautiful home on top of the hills in De Luz, CA...I will not disappoint them.

However, many weather related things have to align for me to fulfill the vision I have in my mind's eye for creating the perfect impression to capture for them with my style of photography. On Coronado Island, I need a fiery sunset full of colors, and to get this bold display of hues, I need the tail end of a Pacific storm to be exiting right before sunset...plus, this spectacular sunset has to happen during an extremely high tide so the waters reach the spot they want me to immortalize--the spot is located quite far up on Coronado Beach close to the Hotel Del and I predict a tide of at least 5.5-6ft is needed for the water level to reach it.

Unfortunately right now, the high tides are happening at sunrise, and the low tides are happening during the sunsets. It is going to be a few months before the high tides flip back and start aligning with sunsets. This is another example of the never ending patience needed in photography. I need my clients to have that same patience as well...

So in a showing of good faith that I am shooting this location, the image here is the second stellar composition (the other one is named "The Promise" from back in October 2014) that I have now captured close to the spot they want. Almost all of the weather needs aligned here for this picture except one--this was taken during an extremely low tide event and I am positioned several hundred feet out at the extreme end of the rock reef waste deep in the incoming waters. However, like the first image (which also had all of the elements present save one--it was captured during a sunrise not a sunset), this newest one again shows the great promise of something better to come in the future.

This composition gets its name from another of my play on words with a dual meaning. "Sol" is the Spanish word for sun and is pronounced the same as "Soul." The soul of this image is the sun (sol), and it is setting to take its rest for the night. However, the inspiration for this title is a little bit more somber: a well know soul here in Temecula named Zeus just passed away on Friday due to unforeseen complications during a surgery, and I wanted to always have something that would remind me of him just a little be extra: Zeus' great soul is at rest.

Camera settings: ISO-100, 44mm at f/8 for 142 seconds (2 mins, 22secs) using one Lee Proglass 3.0ND filter to drop the exposure 10 stops and one Lee .75ND Grad filter (resin) to bring the brighter sky down 2.5 stops to balance it with the water in the foreground.

I hope this image and message finds you well on this day of rest.

peace,

D."Bodhi"

New Release, "Poseidon Smiles" by Bodhi Smith

New composition entitled "Poseidon Smiles" for overly obvious reasons...

This is another image taken in Corona del Mar, CA similar to the last one I put here on my blog a week ago...this has a bit of a "shorter exposure" by ten minutes at 1 min, 11 seconds...There is more emotion and movement in this compoistion, so it is quite a nice compliment to the other composition taken just after this one...

Camera Settings: ISO-100, 20mm at f/8 for 71 seconds using one Lee Proglass 3.0ND Filter (10 stops) and one Lee .75ND Grad filter to balance the sky with the foreground (2 stops). Image captured just before sunset.

Peace,
D. "Bodhi"

New Composition entitled, "Winter's Prophet" by Bodhi Smith

Okay, looks like i am on a roll...so here is another new composition entitled "Winter's Prophet." Next weekend on December 21st marks the official start of winter with the solstice, and I am hoping this storm is a prophet of good things to come. And right now, it looks to be true as it appears storms are lined up to hit us every few days over the next couple weeks. I guess I named it this because I am hopeful for this winter to bring us some needed rain to SoCal and in the process give me some excellent clouds to photograph above the ocean over the next few months.

So with the approaching Pacific storm hitting us here at low tide, I chose one of my favorite low tide spots on the coast. So me and my pup and muse, the Dude, met up with a friend and made our way to capture something special of this great place just south of Newport Beach and just north of Crystal Cove, CA

This long exposure was captured at Arch Rock in Corona Del Mar. This location can only be reached at low tide, unless you are one of the multi-millionaires with one of the three private homes on the cliff above the arch's alcove who have staircases down to the beach. You can get to it from "Little Corona" Beach and just start walking south about half a mile under the cliffs and along the rocks and reefs between the cliffs and the ocean. Rocks are slick and some are quite sharp, so caution is always a must with never being in a hurry literally taking it "one step at a time." Almost never is anyone here, and it is really a magical spot. I have been shooting this spot for months now, but until last night I have had nothing to show for my efforts. Again, proving my point that patience is necessary, along with good planning, and a bit of luck thrown into the recipe of success (I will be publishing a book called "Planned Chance" soon detailing all the methods I use to capture my impressionist photography).

I love the cool blue and silver tones in the image created by the sun dropping below the cold cloud deck on the horizon which was the start of big Pacific storm blowing to the north and coming ashore...the same system that is pounding us with wind and rain here in San Diego as I type this...

I also decided to make this composition prefect;y square with the length the same as the height (1x1) for reasons only known in my strange working mind...

Camera settings: ISO-100, f/8 at 18mm for 671 seconds (11 mins, 11 Secs) using 1 Lee 3.0ND Pro Glass filter to bring down the light 10 stops and one Lee .75ND Grad to balance the bright sky with the darker rocks in the foreground. Image was captured about 10 mins after sunset under clouds and quickly dimming light at 4:55pm

I hope this message and image finds you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

New release by Bodhi Smith - "El Matador"

This new composition is entitled, "El Matador," and was captured recently in Malibu, CA at El Matador State Beach. The image simply gets its name from this gorgeous beach just along CA Highway 1.

I had to make a trip up to Santa Barbara close to two weeks ago during the Sunday after Thanksgiving--an awful day to travel, especially back into the LA basin from Santa Barbara. I had just ended my association with Oreana Winery and needed to pull my artwork off the wall and take it home to distribute to other venues for sale.

Having to drive on this notoriously ugly travel day on the roads here in California, I definitely wanted to make my efforts pay off more than just picking up my artwork and going home. So, I decided to drive the PCH-1 out of Oxnard along the ocean towards Malibu and Santa Monica, take some pictures and kill time, and let some of the nasty traffic diffuse....the traffic on the 101 was getting all constipated badly anyway in Ventura and Oxnard so it was a brainless decision for me.

It was raining off an on, and at times was very heavy. So heavy in fact, that I was one of the last vehicles to go through before they closed the PCH-1 down north/west of Malibu due to mudslides. When I went through, there was plenty of rock debis everywhere and a couple pretty muddy water falls flowing out onto the highway gaining in depth (looking like Willie Wonka's chocolate river). But I threw my Xterra into 4WD and had no issues what-so-ever navigating through the mess.

As I approached Malibu, I could see that there was going to be a bit of a break in the weather, and it was getting close to sunset, so El Matador SB pretty much chose me. This is a VERY nice beach to shoot, full of little arches and sea stacks of all type and characters. Normally a pretty easy climb down to the beach below, but the rains had washed out a large portion of the path above the staircase and made things very sticky-muddy. Took me quite a bit of time to get all of the packed mud off my shoes and my feet (I had to take my shoes off because the mud got too caked on them).

Once down on the beach, I did my usual survey of all the elements for about 20 mins and I chose this little alcove to shoot--only issue was that it was high tide, and to get the angle I wanted with the sun setting, I had to stand pretty deep out in the water and take a beating from the waves.. I managed to anchor my Dolica tripod very well into the rock/sand beneath the surface of the water--so well, that it never moved once despite the battering waves. And amazingly, my gear never took a single splattering of salt water (but plenty of salt in the air, of course, that would require quite a chore of camera cleaning later). I, on the other hand, got soaked from the waste down of course.

I chose to shoot an extremely long exposure of 10 minutes so that I could smooth out the violent seas and create the effect I wanted...I think my decision for this composition worked well for the conditions, but I really want to go back soon at sunset and a low tide to shoot this spot.

Camera settings: ISO-100, f/8 at 22mm for 610 seconds (10 mins, 10 Secs) using 3 Lee ND Pro Glass filters to bring down the light 15 stops (.6ND, .9ND, 3.0ND) and one Lee .75ND Grad to balance the bright sky with the darker rocks. Image was captured about 10 mins before sunset at 4:35pm

I hope this message and image finds you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

New Image Release from Bodhi Smith: "Rastaban"

This new composition is entitled, "Rastaban," and was captured two weekends ago when friend and fellow photographer, Chip Morton, and I went out into the Anza-Borrego desert in Southern California to shoot the metal sculptures of Ricardo Breceda under the canopy of the night sky. Pictured here under the stars is one giant sculpture that Breceda created north of the town of Borrego Springs that has the impression of of being part Serpent and part Dragon that serpentines underground and above ground (with the appearance of going under the road)...

This image gets its name as a reference to the prominent Draco constellation in the northern sky which is the constellation of a dragon/serpent. Arabic in origin, "Rastaban" means dragon's head and is the brightest star in the dragon's head part of the constellation of Draco.

Btw, Chip worked "extra" hard to help me with this shot--he set up the lighting for me and then went back to the Xterra to catch some extra zzz's and slept until I was through... :0

To keep the landscape orientation and eventually make the composition almost square, I used Adobe Photoshop to PhotoMerged two landscape images, one directly above the other, to permit for extra starry sky above the image that could not have been captured within a single frame without losing resolution.

Camera settings: ISO 1250, 24mm at f/1.4 for 15 seconds taken at 11;20pm on 10/25/2014

I hope this message and composition find you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

Smooth Sunday Sunrise on Coronado Island: "Promise"

This is a new image entitled "Promise"... like Coronado Island where it was captured, this compositions has its own "Je ne sais quoi" (for those of you not well versed in French, this phrase means: "a quality that is hard to describe")

The image you see here is inspiring on many levels for me personally and hence the composition's title. Some of those are:

1. Sunrises at the beach always promise the start of another beautiful day here in SoCal...and I spent all day this past Sunday roaming the beaches of San Diego County with my dog--just does not get much better than that in my book.
2. This is my first released image taken on Coronado Island (San Diego, CA), so there is definitely a promise of more to come. This image may be the start of something beautiful.
3. A wonderful couple commissioned me about one month ago to create an image for them close to the spot this composition was captured. It is a special place for them on Coronado Island--they met, were engaged, and were married all at the same spot (pretty romantic, eh?). They know that is might take months for all of the conditions to be right for the composition I have envisioned in my mind for them; and on this morning all of the conditions (especially the tide) were not right for what I needed, however, I did manage to capture this marvelously peaceful composition. This showed the couple the promise of this area and gave them a taste of what I will create for them as soon as all the variables align to permit me to do so.
4. Scenes like this make me reaffirm the promise I mad to myself to be in as many spots (such as this) at the right time to be able to share my vision, emotions, and memories as I live my life and walk the path I must follow...

This image was taken on the rocky reef that protects the beach in front of the famous Hotel del Coronado here in San Diego. Coronado Island is one of the many neighborhoods that make up San Diego Metropolis, and this small community definitely has is own "Je ne sais quoi." It has beautiful beaches and a very nice dog beach as well. It is a bit more upscale and has some fine dining and shopping. However, up until recently with my commission, I have never had this location on my radar for my photography. So this image may be the start of something beautiful. :)

What caught my eye at this spot was way the ebb and flow of the waves were mixing the sea water in the small pool in front of me. The way the waves were crashing into the rocks out front, they would lose all of their force and back off into the ocean...but some of the sea water was still managing to just trickle through the cracks between the rocks and rapidly fill in this small pool in front of me and then recede back into the ocean with the waves. It would repeat this cycle in 15 second intervals, so I determined my exposure time should be around 2 minutes. Honestly, I cannot tell you definitively why 2 minutes and 22 secound was the time I selected for this image, and why not select 5mins? 10mins? (but my OCD creates the 2.22 from 142secs). Through my experiences, I just know and feel it with the effects I want to create in the scene before me. Many times, I can actually see the long exposure in my minds eye before I even capture it...

When shooting long exposures as I do, waves crashing into things usually create a misty effect (which you can see evident here). However, it is really difficult to ever get any sort of a  reflection that transcends down into the mist. In this composition, I was able to capture the rocks reflecting in the mist because of the relative calmness of the water in the pool, even though it was all bubbled and constantly moving around from the force of the relentless waves hitting the reef. Combined with the soft morning light, this misty reflection really creates a soothing scene that I really dig...

Camera settings: ISO-64, 24mm at f/14 for 142 seconds (2 mins 22 seconds), captured about 45 mins after the sun had risen under a canopy of morning clouds on Sunday October 26th, 2014.

I hope you enjoy the tranquility of this smooth morning impression...

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

"Quietus" a new image taken in the Anza-Borrego Desert

This new composition is simply entitled, "Quietus." This term is often synonymous with "a release from life or death" but I have always associated with meaning "anything that eventually ends"... I apply this term to what happened to the dinosaurs and hence my choice for the title of this image...especially since the metal dinosaur sculptures pictured here under the Milky Way look to be in a firestorm.

The famous dinosaurs ruled this earth for over 100 million years before their reign eventually ended and they suddenly died off. Many theories exist as to why a massive extinction happened on earth about 65 million years ago that caused the demise of most life at the time.

The most popular theory rationalizes that a huge asteroid crashed into the earth causing a massive fire explosion that generated such a cloud of dust around the earth that sunlight was blocked out for almost a year, killing off plants that needed the sunlight to survive. A large scale domino effect of animals that lived off those plants subsequently could no longer survive and died off, followed by predators that lived off of those animals dying off, etc. The dinosaurs were so large that they needed the most food to survive, so their fate was sealed, and they all died off as a result. Smaller animals, such as the mammals and birds, made it through the tough times and exist as what wildlife we see around us today.

So, this is another new image captured in the Anza-Borrego desert last Saturday evening. It is highlighting two metal T-Rex sculptures by Ricardo Breceda that are facing off under eternal stars and the Milky Way that appears to be afire.

To tie in with my title of "Quietus" and the demise of the dinosaurs,I wanted the impression of fire to be in this image along with the emotion of the dinosaurs, so I took the artistic liberty of changing the colors of the Milky Way here to be more red-orange and flame-like. it was quite easy as the lower part of the capture was already yellow as a result of the light pollution from the San Diego Metropolis to the west.

I need to give Chip Morton a call out and thanks for helping me to light-paint the sculptures correctly in this image...to get the lighting just the way I wanted, it was a two person job, and I would not have been able to do it by myself.

And Chip paid a bit of a price of pain at this spot when we were originally setting up for the shoot. As it was dark, and as it was in the desert, by accident, he walked briskly into a cactus (close to the T-Rex sculpture on the left) hard enough to get his lower leg impaled with a numerous cactus spines. He was making all sorts of crazy noises of pain, so much so that originally, I honestly thought he was joking around. of course, he was not (for a change)...One of the quills drove in pretty deep, and I had to help pull it out extremely cautiously to make sure it did not break off in his ankle--which would have cause numerous complications that probably would have ended our evening early. So I guess you could accurately say on this night, Chip took one for the team...OUCH.

Camera settings: ISO-1250, 24mm at f/1.4 for 15 seconds captured at 8:45pm on Saturday 10-25-2014.

I hope this composition and message finds you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

Fall Image entitled, "Monet Aspens"

This image is entitled, "Monet Aspens" and is one of my many images currently hanging on display at Lorimar Winery and Vineyards in Temecula Wine Country...it is also my favorite fall composition of my own to date, and I hope to capture a few better than this over this weekend in Portland, OR.

This image was captured early in the morning in October 2012 beside a small fishing lake a few miles east of Bishop, CA just before the tiny berg of Aspendell, CA up in the Buttermilk Range of the Eastern Sierra. This picturesque scene of colorful aspens mixed with evergreen pines is just a few feet away from the main highway, and it is ironic that most people obliviously drive right by this spot on their way up to Lake Sabrina and/or North Lake to go check out their beauty and actually miss something more exquisite in the process...

Anyway, I leave for Portland here in a few hours at 6pm this early evening...and the good news for me is that it appears so far from the weather forecasts as if ma-nature is going to cooperate with me for the most part to help me create some visions I have in my mind that I want to capture with my camera. Wish me luck...This weekend's focus is going to be on waterfalls and trees wearing their fall foliage...

Peace,
D. "Bodhi"

New Adventure and Image Release, "Ambient Lemmings"

This is my new image entitled, "Ambient Lemmings" and was captured this past Sunday morning (October12) just as the sun was rising in Ventura, CA...

It is very difficult to call this place a beach with so many cobbles strewn all over the place, but I guess there is some sand here and there. It is quite the long and laborious hike across these big and small cobblestones to get to this point from the closest parking lot by the county fairgrounds, but is worth the effort in so many ways. 

Saturday night, the girlfriend, me, and the dog all stayed the evening in a hotel by the Ventura pier. I woke up about two hours before sunrise, and me and my trusty muse, The Dude, made our way to this spot, one that I have been scouting for the right conditions for about 6 months now. This composition needs a high tide, and on Sunday morning there was a substantial high tide. And the weather patterns looked good the night before for a little bit of an eddy to hang overhead to provide me with cloud cover, but in dealing with so many fluid conditions at the beach, you just never know sometimes how much the weather (especially the clouds) will cooperate, until the sun rises and the scene is illuminated. Dealing with the weather directly at the coast is like the saying from Forest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."  However, on this morning, I lucked out and ma-nature rewarded me and all my efforts with some nice breaks in the marine layer to give the sky in the composition some character and color...and the ambient lighting was absolutely glowing for me.

The waves were BIG on this morning, and the tide was coming in just as I wanted and planned. Surfers were starting to arrive in droves to play on the big waves, so a longer shutter speed was going to be necessary to "erase" them from my captures images. To get this composition, I had to set up right at the line of the high tide where the waves were crashing into the cobbles. I really worked at anchoring my tripod in deep in the cobblestones, taking about 15 minutes of disgruntled bitching and moaning until I finally got it situated right to my satisfaction. So the main reason why I shot with my Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 and 80-200mm f2.8 lenses was so I had the option to change my focal length without having to move my tripod and go though anchoring it in the cobblestones again.

But the waves were large enough to move even the bigger sized cobbles, and many of my long exposure compositions ended up being blurred and ruined because the camera moved ever so slightly during the exposure time resulting from the endless battering of the huge waves on the rocks. The rocks would shift under the pressure from a wave and move and the camera would move a little as well...and jiffy-presto, what you get is a double image in the exposure which creates an ugly blur whose only remedy is the delete button.

And of course, one of the risks of shooting beside the sea when it is rough is getting bitten by the fury of the ocean. About an hour after sunset, I took a direct hit shooting up the beach at 150mm as one extremely huge wave broke right on the shoreline behind me and barrelled over top of me, soaking me and all of my camera setup...which is a pain in the ass to clean-up at the beach because of all the salt and sand in the water. Salt and sand will scratch filters and lenses, especially after it dries. Salt will also cake up buttons and camera controls. I was using four stacked filters and water got in between each of them along with a direct hit to the camera body of my Nikon D800. Not something I like to happen, but unfortunately is inevitable when shooting in the waves so I must always be prepared to handle the situation when it happens.

The Pacific's sea water was very warm this time of year (for us here on the left coast) , but the air was cold and windy. I was really chilled from being damp and cold and could not really accurately clean my equipment the way I need to with my hands shaking so much. The boardshorts I was wearing were doing their job of keeping dampness off of me, but the evil criminal was my salt-water soaked cotton t-shirt...so, I had to discard the shirt and put on the thermalite windbreaker I keep in my camera bag for just this sort of occasion. Aaahhh, warmth again. About 20 minutes later, I did manage to get all of my filters and camera clean so that I could continue shooting some more, but I went through every single dry microfiber cloth I had in my bag.

For those of you worried about the Dude, no worries, for he was safely up the embankment of cobblestones about 8 feet above me out of the reach of the waves where he found a nice flat cozy spot that he could curl up in and chill while I did my artist thing...and in fact, I think he was laughing at me after I got mangled by that one bastard of a big wave.

Back to the actual composition: I really like all of the different colors and shapes of these cobblestones, and the fact they all appear to be headed into the ocean one after another just like lemmings going for a morning swim all lit up exquisitely by the ambient light under the marine layer (hence the title).

Another cool thing in the photo (something that will make more of a noticeable mark when this image is printed large): if you look in the background at the horizon on the left side, you will be able to spot some balanced rock stacks creating various shapes (with the shape of the cross column being the most prominent)...a local homeless man created a small city of these stacks at the far north end of Ventura Beach just beyond the city limits, it is very impressive and worth the look-see if you are in this area anytime over the next couple weeks...I helped the man out with some money for his efforts with the hoped intent that he would use it to get a warm breakfast on this beautiful morning.

Camera settings:  ISO-100, 70mm at f/16 for 222 seconds using one Lee 3.0ND ProGlass filter and one .75ND Soft Grad resin filter to bring down the sky exposure even with the cobbles...

I hope you enjoy my efforts here to capture this nice new seascape image.

peace,

D."Bodhi"

Our La Jolla sunset Last Night was Spectacular

This is a new image that I am calling "Simon's Cliche." 

Last night we saw a beautiful sunset as the red light reflected off the high clouds which were overhead because they were blowing off the top of the Tropical Storm Simon to the south of San Diego in Baja California. 

Last night in la Jolla (Hospital's Reef) was yet another memorable sunset full of color and clouds that I got to spend with my dog, a couple visiting from the Netherlands on a photography tour of the California coast (Berrai and Bianca), and a cool surfer named Kevin who sort of inspired me to create this composition which is a bit different from my recent norm.

Usually, I do not like using surfers in my images, well, I gave it some thought on my drive home from the beach last night and decided to process this image from last night. A surfer climbed out of the water in front of me right at sunset last night, and I knew I had captured a pretty nice ghosted shot of him with the sun on the horizon just as he turned his back on me and looked back over the ocean and the other surfers before deciding to make his way off the reef onto the beach.

So, after talking with Kevin at length, while I was shooting with my dog at my side, and the tide was coming up and over the top of the reef at about 5 feet soaking my lower body and The Dude (my dog), I was inspired to go with this composition after deciding to go outside of my norms...

Btw, it is seldom, if ever, that I process an image taken the night before on the next day for print, but with this composition being a bit different for me, I think I wanted to get it out there and see other people's reactions...let me know what you think...

Camera settings: ISO-100, f/2.8 at 24mm for 13 seconds captured at 6:26pm as the sun was setting and the tide was almost high ...for the in-camera effects I wanted, along with limiting my depth of field (using f/2.8), I used one Lee ProGlass ND 3.0 filter (10 stops) to permit the 13 sec exposure with a large aperture and one Lee .75ND Soft Grad (2.5 stops) to bring down the brightness of the sky even with the rocks and the surfer...

Btw, the name comes from the Tropical System, "Simon" and the fact that putting a surfer into a seascape photo is very "cliche"...

I hope you like this one...it is a bit off-pace for me.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

Evening of Art in the Vineyards

Image above courtesy of (c) Chip Morton Photography

This Thursday Evening (October 9th, 2014) from 6-9pm, Rancho Damacitas is sponsoring this charity event hosted by Ponte Winery in Temecula Wine Country (35053 Rancho California Rd Temecula, CA 92592 (877)314-9463)

I am proud to announce that I will be one of the local artists invited to participate in this event, and I will be donating 25% of all my sale proceeds to helping Rancho Damacitas  provide for children in needs of special care and treatment (mission).

If you have the free time available this Thursday evening, please come out to wine country and support my artwork and this fine organization with your presence and/or donations.

I hope this message finds you well AND I hope to see you there.

peace,
D."Bodhi"