New composition, "Liquid Light" by D. "Bodhi" Smith

This new composition is entitled "Liquid Light" for the way everything made of water was flowing and glowing around me in this extremely long exposure. It was captured on my trip last month during my brief visit to Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park on the South Island of New Zealand.

This image was captured on Lake Rotoiti's boat launch dock. It was difficult to finally get this long exposure (15 minutes plus) with numerous boats coming and going, which would always result in them bumping the dock which would move my camera and I would have to start all over...I took some other shorter exposures ranging from 2 minutes to 8 minutes, but really liked the results of this composition better (after finally capturing it cleanly without having my camera bumped). Of course, with such a long exposure, all movement on the lake gets erased (boats, wakes, waves, and ducks).

The light you see here is actually 180° away from the sunrise that happened behind me. But for some reason, the cloud deck continued to hold color well past the sunrise and change colors from a red glow to a softer grayish-blue-yellow.

Btw, the dock is not actually this reddish, I took some artistic liberty in changing the color from brownish red to more red to contrast better with the yellow clouds in the sky which creates a nice color profile much different than any of my other works.

One neat thing about this spot was that swimming around and under the dock were numerous very large eels...many people were pulling up to the dock especially just to see them. Strange, scary, and quite ugly looking fish...

Camera Settings: ISO-100, 24mm at f/8 for 915 seconds using 15 stops of Lee Proglass ND filters at 8:30am about 1 hour past sunrise on a cold cloudy morning on Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park on the South Island of New Zealand

#Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #24mm #Dolica #tripods #Lee #Filters #Proglass #Big #stopper #LongExposure #BodhiSmith #Impressionist #expressionist #Sunset #dock #Lake #Rotoiti #New #Zealand #Nelson

Newest image is entitled "Noche de Coronado." by D."Bodhi" Smith

This newest image is entitled "Noche de Coronado." It was captured last Wednesday on a very calm, windless, clear, and moonless evening here in SoCal. This is a bit of a departure for me, as I seldom, if ever, take images of city buildings...but the stars and the reflection, well, I guess that is more like me.

The name is literally translated as, "Crowning Night" but could also mean "Night From Coronado"...both translations apply quite well to this image, so hence the title...

As many of you know, for the better part of 8 months now, I have been trying to capture a magical image of a reef on Coronado beach for clients of mine who were engaged and married on that very spot close to the Hotel Del Coronado. I have been patient (and thankfully so have they) waiting for the conditions to be right for the image i have in my mind's eye: I need a very high tide of 6 feet happening at sunset combined with clouds in the sky.

Last Wednesday I drove down to Coronado Island to give it a try and see if I could get lucky with mother nature, for the conditions were close with a 5 foot tide happening at sunset, but no clouds showed and the tide was ultimately not high enough. Closed out once again, bummer. Of course, I will not give up and I will be trying again in mid-May when the conditions are perfect hoping to get a cloud system passing over one of the nights during a 96-hour window of opportunity.

So while I was walking back to my Xterra along the beachway, I noticed that it was unusually calm for Coronado Island. I got in my truck and went over to the other side of the island to try my luck with another image I have had a vision of taking for a couple of years now...my vision needs a windless calm in order to optimize reflections I want to capture in the San Diego Bay at night...

This is another one of those famous scenes that is photographed by millions of people...it is taken from a vantage point across the bay on Coronado Island showing the San Diego skyline at night and its glowing reflection in the water. Easy spot to find, easy composition to make, easy to take with a little bit extra exposure time....but I wanted to capture something especially different, something my style of uniqueness. I wanted to create something that is impossible to capture in true reality at this location with one or even multiple exposures with a camera, as there is just too much light pollution created by the city lights to pull it off.

To get my vision, an image would need to be created from two separate exposures...using an exposure taken of the stars in the San Diego desert which I already had captured to be combined with the image of this Skyline taken on this evening. Of course, things would be considerably more technical for me to get the composition I wanted to create, along with needing things in nature to align correctly for me to match the image in my mind's eye with those taken by my camera turned into one composite image....

I needed the calm night to enhance the reflection of the lights and eventually the stars in the water. It also had to be clear and cloudless, with no moon to help create the final blended composition. This is an image composed of 2 separate exposures: one for the city and the skyline reflection in the water; the other for the stars in the sky (the stars' reflection is explained below). Using Photoshop CS6, I had to manually blend these two images together to create the composition you see here.

Camera settings: For the city and city lights reflection part of the image (not stars): ISO-100, 52mm at f/2.8 for 123 seconds using two Lee Proglass filters (.9ND & .6ND) to block down the light 5 stops and permit a much longer exposure while using such a large aperture as f/2.8. I wanted the larger aperture to soften the sky behind the city and the lights in the foreground as much as I could. For the stars part of the image: ISO-1250, 24mm at f/1.4 for 15 seconds using no filters (this is also a different lens than the one used to capture the skyline scene). The stars' reflection is a post-production addition using editing software to create the final effect on the image, an effect that is made further possible by the use of the long exposure of the city lights in the water making the bay flat and glasslike...

I hope this image and message find you well.

‪#‎Dolica‬ ‪#‎Tripods‬ ‪#‎Lee‬ ‪#‎Filters‬ ‪#‎Proglass‬ ‪#‎ND‬ ‪#‎LongExposure‬ ‪#‎LE‬ ‪#‎Nikon‬ ‪#‎D800‬ ‪#‎Nikkor‬ #24-70mm ‪#‎Seascape‬ ‬ ‪#‎Bay #Harbor ‪#‎Pacific‬ ‪#‎Ocean‬‬ ‪#‎Landscape‬ ‬ #Coronado #Island #San #Diego #Skyline #Reflection #Stars #Night #Sky

Peace,
D."Bodhi"

New composition, "Surrealist Dreams"...fourth in New Zealand Series

My newest composition entitled, "Expressionist Dreams." This is the fourth in my series from New Zealand, and the first of my seascapes from the south Island.

The beach pictured here is called Wharariki (pronounced "far-a-ricky") and the rock formations in the image are actually part of the Archway Islands. This beach is located at the extreme north top end of the south Island of New Zealand and it is remote enough to get few visitors. Because of the inanely steep and curvy Takada Hill, it took me a little over two hours (each direction) to drive from Nelson where I was staying to the trailhead parking lot. The path to the beach is a little over one mile and is easily walked in 20-30 mins. The track is well marked up until the sand dunes, which are about a quarter of a mile wide, and where the path becomes your own footprints.

Wharariki beach is extremely beautiful and quite diverse with all sorts of different formations such as sea caves, natural bridges, tide pools, arches, sand dunes, channels, sea spires, waterfalls, and seals (even baby seals playing in the many tidepools). The actual beach is over two miles long and very wide and flat, perfect for a long stroll at sunrise or sunset, and is a must see if you ever find yourself in New Zealand.

Wharariki beach is famous for being insanely windy all the time (as it was on this evening), which is evident from all the pristine sand dunes surrounding the beach. While I was there, the high winds even erased all traces of my footprints and all others from existance off the dunes. I recommend that if you are ever visiting this beach and plan to stay after dark, be certain of your route back using GPS or other means as the trail home over the dunes might no longer be there when you head back (as with what happened to me).

While I was there, there were only two other couples on the entire beach, possibly because of the high winds and it being mid-week...but totally abandoned is my kind of beach. One very nice bonus about the winds is that they blow all the pesky black sand flies away--so no human blood-crazed sand flies, hoo-rah! The winds were howling close to 50mp and I had to drill my tripod deep into the sand and anchor it with sandbags to ensure it and my attached camera did not move during the entirety of both long exposures used to compose this image. This composition is comprised two long exposures taken about 15 mins apart, without moving the tripod...one is for the exposure of the Archway Islands and the other is for the moon exposure. At low tide, the flatness of the beach kept the sand very wet and super reflective as the waves would roll in and out for several hundred feet while only being less than an inch in height. This is absolutely perfect conditions for this sort of a long exposure mirrored photograph.

I truly love the range of color tones in my image here as they are reminiscent of the exact same color blends that can be viewed in my personal surreal favorite, and Salvador Dali's most famous painting, "Persistence of Memory."

I am glad to be able to share this gem with you, but the pleasure was all mine in getting to experience this enchanted and wondrous beach on the northern tip of the Southern Island of New Zealand.

Camera Settings: ISO-100, 34mm at f/8 for 260 seconds using one Lee 3.0ND Proglass (Big Stopper) Filter, one Lee .75ND Grad Filter to balance the sky down 2.5stops, and one Lee .3ND Grad Filter to balance the reflection down 1 stop--this filter was used inverted. Both exposures were taken a short time after sunset using the same filter setup...

I hope this message and image find you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"


#Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #squaredroid #Dolica #tripods #Lee #Filters #Big #stopper #LongExposure #expressionist #Impressionist #Surreal #Bodhi #Smith #New #Zealand #Beach #Seascape #archway #islands #Sunset #moon #rise #reflections #Wharariki #farewellsplit #Motueka #Takaka #Nelson #Tasman #Sea

"Murmur of a Sigh" newest release from Bodhi Smith

Entitled, "Murmur of a Sigh," this is my newest release from my Easter Island (La Isla de Pascua or Rapa Nui) series of compositions. 

I captured this composition during my recent trip to the island a few months ago at the end of December and beginning of January. As it turns out, this was my last picture taken in the calendar year of 2014. Looking back, this is really a mighty nice image to cap off what was truly a very, very good year for me. 

For this image, I again traveled from the town of Hanga Roa where we were staying across the island to the Tongariki Ahu (ceremonial platform) to try to capture these magnificent moai (statues) under the stars, and then stick around to be hopeful of a stellar sunrise. I got the former, but not the latter on this morning. But the things I got to see, memories to behold which no camera could bring justice to, emblazoned images found only in the recesses of my brain, sights to behold for my eyes only on that morning...this all just left me longing for the moment in this picture with a big sigh (and hence the image's title). 

This composition is really a segue image between a full blow starry sky and a morning sky with a glowing sun. In this image you see the longest rays of the sun starting to awaken the sky and wispy clouds, but you still can catch a fleeting glimpse of the brilliant stars of the southern hemisphere before they go to sleep for the day. It is a departure from my ultra long exposures into the world of just a few seconds of exposure, but is still retains my dreamy style...the impression I am trying to give is of elegance that routinely wakes up every morning like clockwork; its excruciating exquisiteness repeated, over and over, day after day, year after year, and all the same while being unbeknownst to itself; the beauty goes to sleep at the end of the day to rise and shine and repeat it all over again, never knowing how discerningly lovely it really is...<sigh>

I can only hope that you enjoy this image a fraction of the amount I enjoyed being there to witness and capture this image...

Camera Settings: ISO-1250, 24mm at f/1.4 for 4 seconds at 5:30am this past New Year's Eve at about one hour before sunrise. 

I hope this message and image find you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

‪#‎LeeFilters‬ ‪#‎Dolica‬ #Tripods ‪#‎Nikon‬ ‪#‎D800‬ ‪#‎Nikkor‬ #24mm ‪#‎BodhiSmith‬ ‪#‎LongExposure‬ ‪#‎expressionist‬ ‪#‎Impressionist‬ ‪#‎Surreal‬ ‪#‎EasterIsland‬ ‪#‎SouthPacific‬ ‪#‎Ocean‬ ‪#‎Nightscape‬ ‪#‎Stars #Moai #Tongariki #‬RapaNui #Isla #Pascua 

New image, "Ojos Fantasmal" from D. "Bodhi" Smith

This is my newest release from my Easter Island series (yeah finally!) entitled, "Ojos Fantasmal" which translates in English roughly to spooky or ghostly eyes...

While I spent time on Rapa Nui ( a.k.a. La Isla de Pascua or Easter Island) , I kept coming back to this lone moai (sacred statue) that's right next to the ocean on a cliff close to the island's only town of Hanga Roa which is located on the west side of Easter Island. Hanga Roa is quite small and is the only place to find lodging and modern amenities while visiting this remote island. Since this is where I was staying, and this moai is located just north of town, it was an easy hike to visit this statue almost daily (either at sunrise or more often at sunset).This particular statue stands alone on the north section of the ceremonial Ahu Ta'hai and is named the "Ko Te Riku" which translates to "with abundant growth."

I was absolutely entranced by the eyes on this particular moai...a unique trait of the Ko Te Riku that set it apart from all the other moai on the entire island, for no other moai on any ceremonial ahu have eyes. The whites of his eyes are made of white coral and the pupils are made of red obsidian and are really offset beautifully by the Ko Te Riku's maroon pukao (tophat). And under the moonlight, his eyes glowed with an eerie effervescence which is what instilled the desire in me to capture this impression as I did.

All of the moai on this tiny island (it is only about 35km across) in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean were symbols of authority and power, both religious and political. But they were not only symbols....to the native Rapanui who erected and used them, they were actual repositories of sacred spirit and centers of ancestral respect. Carved stone and wooden objects in Rapa Nui, when properly fashioned and ritually prepared, were believed to be charged by a magical spiritual essence called mana. Mana is a form of spiritual energy and also healing power which can exist in places, objects and persons. Also, almost all of the moai (statues) face away from the ocean and inland towards the settlements as if to watch over the people of the island. The lone exception is the seven moai on Ahu Akivi (that are inland but much higher in elevation to the coast) which face out to sea...myth has it to they were placed to help travelers find the island. There is a legend that says there were seven men who were waiting for their king to arrive. Sorry, I guess as I ramble here, you can see my fascination for this special little island in the middle of nowhere...

Anyway, this new image is just the first of a many compositions of this moai that I will be releasing since I was so transfixed with the eyes of the Ko Te Riku, I was almost hypnotized by them....

Camera settings: ISO-100, 24mm at f/4 for 30 seconds at 10:05pm under moonlight and clouds (about 45mins after sunset) on December 27, 2014...using one Lee Proglass .6ND filter (2 stops) and one Lee .75ND Grad filter to balance down the sky 2.5 stops...and for two seconds using flashlihts, light was painted on both the right side of the moai (by me) and the left side of the moai (by my friend Sam)

I hope this message and image find you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

#Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #Dolica #LeeFilters #EasterIsland #RapaNui #Ahu #Tahai #KoTeRiku #HangaRoa #Chile #Isla #Pascua #Expressionism #Surreal #Impressionist #SouthPacific #Moai

Newest release, "Owachomo" from D. "Bodhi" Smith

Here is my newest composition entitled, "Owachomo." I captued it a couple nights ago at Natural Bridges National Monument in the middle of Utah. To see the full image, you might need to click on the image. (btw, this is another LONG post). This image is also dedicated to my good friend's sister who just recently passed away the night after I captured this image...He stated it was a perfect image to symbolize her going up to the heavens (Jeff, this one is for your sister and please accept my humble condolences once again).

Sometimes my life is stranger than fiction...following here is a mega strange story of what happened to me while I was capturing this image.

Crazy story: the Dude and I hiked down to Owakomo Bridge about 2 hrs before sunset at 4pm and stayed until 10pm when the stars were brightest and the Milky Way appeared perfectly over top of the bridge and at the same time reflecting in the pool in front of me...

I chose to hike down so early so that I could scout the area and set up cairns (stacks of rocks that are like bread crumbs for a hiker) for my route back in the dark because I've never been there before and wanted to be extra sure the Dude and I could safely find our way back to the main trail... especially since there was some scrambling involved on some steep rocks to get down into the dry wash and then back up about 20ft again to this vantage point overtop of the pool of water...

It all went great as planned: had perfect stars to photograph; got to spend a beautiful sunset and a few hours under the brightest Milky Way I've ever witnessed; I was spending quality time with my muse, the Dude; I was on a beautiful hike in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Utah under a Natural Bridge that most people never see...perfect.

After I was done shooting and repacked all of my camera gear, I began to head back. My network of cairns to mark my path in the dark under stars worked brilliantly to reunite us safely to the main trail...but the steep hike back up to the truck made me quite winded (Dude was leashed and literally dragging me). Damn, he's in so much better shape than I am right now, especially with me fighting this flu cough thing that I have...but we got back to the truck at the top of the lookout feeling absolutely great about this fabulous experience.

So here is the inane-weird part. A few feet away as I approached my Xterra, I noticed something on my truck's hood and scattered things under my windshield wipers that sort of looked like small branches. I quickly realized it was bird crap all over my truck hood, and it was everywhere. Great.

Upon closer inspection, those were not small branches, they were instead the thin metal strips that run along the length of the rubber in the wiper blades. My windshield wipers WERE shredded like they had been badly abused and became a very old set of windshield wipers. I was really cold, very tired, and this was the last thing I really wanted to have to deal with, especially since I had a new truck. At first, I was furious with what I saw in front of me. This is a brand spanking new loaded 2015 Nissan Xterra I just purchased in January.

So with my judgement clouded by anger, my first reaction was that some idiot had bad wipers and swapped them out with mine. Then common sense set it. Because, why in the world would a thief put their old torn apart wipers back on my Xterra? It just didn't really add up. I was perplexed.

Then, when I got in my truck to head back to my campsite, I noticed my side mirrors were all screwed up...they were not bumped out of place, the mirrors themselves were all pushed in...really, what in the world? I gave it all some deep thought as I drove the short distance back to camp...

So... My brand new truck now has no wipers, and I find myself literally in the middle of nowhere in one of the more remote places in the entire United States. I can't use my wipers to clean my bug-riddin dirty windshield or they will scratch the windshield...so, the mystery remains, what happened to them and why the messed up side mirrors? Was someone messing with me?

I put more thought into it and then I remembered seeing a warning sign posted on the bulliten board at the park visitor center earlier that day about ravens in the area, but I didn't read it (of course, why should I? Dolt=Me)... I put all of the different pieces of evidence together in my mind and thought some more. So, did birds eat the rubber off of my windshield wipers? And then try to get at the rubber in my side mirrors?

The mystery would have to wait till morning, I was tired, in dire need of some sleep, and I just didn't feel like driving up to the visitor center in the middle of night. It could wait until morning.

So the next morning, I stopped by the visiter center. Sure enough, that warning about Ravens that I did not read stated that if you're down underneath the Natural Bridges for any extended period of time, to be sure to take your windshield wiper blades off of your vehicle. Ravens in the area had been witnessed messing with windshield wipers on parked vehicles. So, if wipers were left on an unattended vehicle for an extended period of time, there was a high risk of the ravens tearing them apart.

Really?! You have got to be kidding! Who in the world would have the foresight to think to take their wiper blades off of their vehicle before they went on a long hike? Well, with this weird situation happening to me, I guess I do now wink emoticon

So the mystery was solved. It was NOT an inconsiderate self-absorbed thief stealing my wiper blades and then rearranging my side mirrors to mess with my mind, at least not one that was human anyway. I had devious ravens in the middle of nowhere eat my windshield wiper blades...birds with much bigger-than-normal bird-brains did this. Wow. Truly crazy stuff like this only happens to me I think... wink emoticon

Goofy wierd, eh?

The next day, I did end up stopping at the Walmart in Page, Arizona so I could buy new wiper blades for my truck and hose the bird crap off my hood.

Of course, I really really dislike devilish ravens even more now..."Nevermore" will I leave my windshield wipers on my truck for a long hike in Utah I guess. wink emoticon

So, what you see before you here is the image I took while the ravens were eating my windshield wiper blades....

Without planning, this composition could not have happened (unless someone was just crazy lucky)...conditions were perfect for this image to be possible and it will be quite some time before all of those variables align again. This is yet another example of what I call "Planned Chance" in photography.

There was a perfect alignment a couple nights ago of a deep and dark Milky Way over top of Owakomo Bridge with close to a new moon cycle under crisp cold cloudless skies (gonna be a long while before it aligns overtop to the due north like this again)....no winds what-so-ever to keep the trees sharp....there still is water in the big pool to its south down below in the dry wash that will dry up soon without more rain....pre-scouting to find this elevated vantage point about 20ft above the pool to capture deeper reflections....and cold conditions to help limit some of the color noise pollution in the image (it was 20°F and I was freezing my rear off!)...

Result: A reflection of the stars and Milky Way in the pool, along with the dark shadow of the bridge reflecting in the pool, and then a big giant long Milky Way up above the natural bridge.

You know I have to be charged up about a pic to process it while I am still on the very trip I shot it during...

To create this portrait view panoramic composition, this is actually two images shot back to back (remember stars move pretty fast) at identical camera settings and then photomerged together to create a 1:2.5 ratio

Camera settings: ISO-2500, f/1.4 at 24mm for 15 seconds. I selected the higher ISO (2x higher than my usual star settings) so that I could better illuminate the bridge and rocks around the pool (with out light painting) as well as to better catch the stars reflected in the pool...

I kept the title simple and named the composition after the bridge itself, "Owachomo," which means "rock mound" in Hopi... Hope you like it.

I hope this message and image finds you well.

Peace,
D. " Bodhi "

#Dolica #LeeFilters #Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #24mm #f/1.4 #BodhiSmith#LongExposure #expressionist #Impressionist #Surreal

Latest Image, "Repose" by D. "Bodhi" Smith

Here is my latest composition entitled, "Repose" This image was captured a few weeks ago on January 18 during another one of our gorgeous California sunsets over the Pacific Ocean at the Huntington Beach Pier.

This is another extremely long exposure of over 11 minutes so that I could minimize all of the people who were roaming about on the pier and directly in front of me in the water enjoying the same sunset that I was...on this night, with this radiant sunset, there were ALLOT of people, so I need the extra exposure time to "erase" them from the composition.

The name come for the fact that the word "repose' has multiple meanings, each of which fits well for me with this image. Until this image, I had not captured a color image of the Huntington beach pier which even remotely overly thrilled me until this one, so this is another "reposing" of the pier before me. It also lives up a couple other meanings of repose--laying in tranquility or sleep, and situated in a particular place...this pier is "going to sleep" for the night as people leave after the sun went down....plus, it is a staple of Southern California culture and an icon in movies, music videos, album covers, pictures, and vacations.

Anyway, I hope this message and image finds you well.

Camera settings: ISO-100, 24mm at f/8 for 677 seconds (11mins, 11secs) about 15 minutes after the sun had set using one Lee Proglass .9ND Filter (3 stops) and one Lee .75ND Grad filter (2.5 stops) to balance the sky with the darker sand in the foreground.

peace,
D."Bodhi"

#LeeFilters #Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #80-200mm #Dolica #BodhiSmith #Huntington #Beach #Pier #Pacific #Ocean #Sunset #LongExposure #LE #PCH1 #OrangeCounty #California

"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"

"I'orana Tongariki" new image release by D. "Bodhi" Smith

Entitled, "I'orana Tongariki" this is my first released in my new series of Easter Island (a.k.a. Rapa Nui or La Isla de Pascua) compositions taken with my Nikon D800. Warning: there is going to be quite a few of these over the next couple of weeks.

The name of this image is derived from the Rapa Nui native language with the word "I'orana" which means hello-goodbye (similar to the word Aloha in Hawaiian) combined with the collective name of these moai (statues) which is "Ahu Tongariki." I chose I'orana because these statues greeted me each morning with stellar sunrises while I was on Easter Island, which made it hard for me to say goodbye to this place...

Btw, this is one of the most magical and transcendent places on the entire earth to enjoy a sunrise. The glory of Ahu Tongariki more than wakes you up-- it brings every essence of existence to life physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I am now one week removed from my last hours spent at this spot, and I miss it dearly.

Some background info here...The Ahu Tongariki is a ceremonial platform with fifteen moai on it, all of various sizes and shapes, and all in a perfect North-to-South formation facing west with their backs to the Pacific Ocean and the rising sun every day. I am sure the alignment and placement of this ahu is not a coincidence. I was lucky enough to be at this location on the east side of the Island every morning (but two) that I was on Easter Island, and I was treated to beautiful sunrises each time.

An interesting note, one of the moai has a pukao (tophat) because when the archeologists raised these fallen statues, they chose not to use a pukao for any of them...but, the locals believed each of the moai here should have a pukao, and made a statement by managing to place one pukao atop of one of the moai (second from the right) with their own efforts. Not sure if there is any sort of a movement to get a pukao placed on top of each of the other fourteen moai on the Ahu Tongariki or not.

Camera settings: ISO-800, 80mm at f/16 for 260 seconds (4 mins, 20 secs). One Lee Proglass 3.0ND Filter (10 stops) was used to achieve for the long exposure, and one Lee .75ND Grad Filter (2.5 stops) was used to balance the brighter sky with the darker foreground. Image was captured at 7:03am about 20 mins before sunrise.

Some of you might be wondering why did I select an ISO-800? Honestly, I was shooting the dimming stars as the sun was rising the whole hour previous to this shot, and I simply forgot to drop my ISO back down to 100 when the light started getting brighter...I have done this about three times now when I have been out in the field, and I kick myself for being stupid and absent-minded sometimes when a I am caught up in the beauty of the scenery.

Luckily, my Nikon D800 handled the extra noise from the higher ISO extremely well, as it always does, which is big reason why I own it since I shoot such long exposures and a by-product of that fact is always dealing with extra noise. However, the extra grain in the image from the higher ISO did alter my perception of how I needed to process this image, so what you see here is something a bit different in color tones and texture than my all of my other compositions...

I hope you enjoy this image and that its message finds you well

Peace,
D. " Bodhi "

New Release, "Hoku-Noho-Aupuni" by Bodhi Smith

New image entitled, "Hoku-Noho-Aupuni". The name translates to the term used to describe the Milky Way in Hawaiian.

All I can say is that here are gorgeous stars and night skies in Hawaii. The beauty of this island does not disappear when the sun sets...

This image was captured in Kihei at 4am, a couple hours before sunrise

Camera Settings: iSO-1250, 24mm at f/1.4 for 13 seconds.

I hope this message and image find you well.

Mahalo and Maluhia,

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 release, "Unruined Radiance" by D. "Bodhi" Smith

This another new release named "Unruined Radiance". This composition was captured under the old decomposing pier in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The title comes from the radiantly glowing colors and the idea that this pier is in ruins .

At first glance, this pier looks like an eyesore. This pier is literally condemned to just wither away and crumble into the sea eventually. My girlfriend and I were visiting the giant Buddha at the Jodo Buddhist Mission just south of the pier in Lahaina, and I was taking a bit longer than she was with the site, So she went ahead to check out the pier...she came back and told me that she did not think I was going to like the pier because it was falling apart. But after we left the temple and went around the corner onto the beach, and i caught my fist look of the pier, I told her it was perfect and exactly what I was looking for: Ugly on top, but beautiful underneath.

The sun was getting close to setting and I promptly set up under the pier. The winds were really up and some sets of waves were coming in pretty big across the open Pacific to the east. I originally wanted to set up at the back of the pier by the break wall, but found that impractical soon after taking a couple hits from waves coming in AND banking of the break wall creating a node of intensity, This was was not conducive to taking long exposures, Plus there was a huge chance of getting me and my gear both soaked with salt water. I was going to have to set up further out under the pier away from the banking action of the break wall.

We had driven only about 45mins to get to Lahaina from Kihei, but I did not want to get wet/soaked since I did not bring a change of clothing. Simple and fast problem solving, I would just have to take off my shorts to keep them dry...go wading in my boxer briefs. It was getting dark as the sun was setting, and nobody was around under the pier, so for me it was not a big deal. It was wierd to be taking pictures under a pier in Hawaii at sunset in my underwear, but I did not give it a second thought.

I waded out under the pier about 100 feet and I anchored my tripod as best as i could in about 3ft of water. The air and water were both ultra warm, so temperature was not an issue as I stood waist deep in the Pacific ocean under a crumbling pier catching a beautiful sunset.

I thought the pier was giving way. As every so often when big set would come in, dust, debris, and smaller chunks of concrete would fall off the pier down into the water. I thought the pier might collapse on me at anytime, or at least a big slab let go and tumble down into the water as the sea continued to erode the old wretched salt and weather beaten concrete. Later, my girlfriend told me that there were idiots walking around on top of the this extremely unstable pier while I was shooting, which was what was causing the cracking and dust to fall of the pier...still, they could easily have fallen through at an moment while I was shooting...

I shot several longer exposures of 4 mins plus, but could not keep the tripod from moving during these more lengthy exposures because of the larger waves hitting me chest high (any movement of tripod = blurred images = trash). So, I had to settle for what the conditions would permit, which were much "shorter" (for me) exposures of 30 seconds where I could keep the tripod stable in between the bigger waves rolling in at intervals of about every 50-60 seconds or so.

The colors of the decomposing concrete were luminous and radiant, especially in the red light waves of the sunset...mix those colors with the crystal blue Hawaiian waters and what you see here is the result, I hope you enjoy it, and the impression i want you to feel when looking at it ...

Camera Settings: ISO-100, 48mm at f/8 for 30 seconds using one Lee Proglass .9ND Filter and 2 Lee .75ND Grad filters inverted at 90 degrees to bring down each of the bright sides of the pier compared to the underbelly of the pier. Image was captured just as the sun had set at 6:05pm.

I hope this message in image find you well

Mahalo and Maluhia,
D."Bodhi

"The Afterglow" - New Composition by Bodhi Smith

This is a new composition entitled, "The Afterglow." It was captured well after the sunset, but the ambient light was still glowing in the sky and sparkling off the waves...hence, the image's name.

We have been getting some very nice clouds here in Southern California with the numerous weather systems that have been blowing in off the Pacific Ocean the past couple of weeks. For almost every night this week, I have been on the beach at different locations (dependent on the best location for sunset each night based on the tide heights).

On this particular evening a few nights ago, there was a low tide. So, me and my trusty companion, the Dude, headed up to Laguna Beach, CA for sunset. Victoria Beach in Laguna is a spot I often go to as Victoria's Tower located around the north point of the beach can only be reached at tides lower than about 2 feet. Often I can be found here on nights like this, as a stellar composition of the tower itself has repetitively eluded my capture for well over a year now, and I keep going back when the conditions are right trying to finally catch it.

This composition is an example of how sometimes we go after something that we though we really wanted, but something else much better finds us instead. I was on this beach in Laguna on this evening to capture Victoria's Tower, but I instead got this more fascinating composition. Go figure, eh?

For this image, I really ventured deeper into the world of impressionism. I really feel like I am "painting" an impression here with my long exposure techniques combined with my use of selective focus. The long exposure played with objects in fluid motion along with the light to create a unique smooth glow around the rocks in the ocean and the clouds in the sky. My choice of a big aperture at f/2.8 blurs and softens the rocks in the foreground (and thus de-emphasize them) so as to draw your eyes towards the wave glow around the rocks at sea and the sunset. All of this really makes me feel like I truly created a painting here and not a photograph, and I think the results back up that opinion. But do not be overly fooled, this is a photograph...

Btw, Catalina Island (60 miles away) can be seen in the background of this picture on the horizon...this shows how clear this evening was at the beach...

I hope you enjoy this unique perspective of the night's fading light out over the ocean...I really like this one.

Camera settings: ISO-100, 70mm at f/2.8 for 420 seconds (7 mins) using one Lee Proglass .9ND filter (3 stops) and one .75ND Grad to balance the brighter sky. Image was captured at 5:55pm, about 1 hour and 10 minutes after the sun had set

I hope this message and image find you well.

peace,
D."Bodhi"

"Under the Kukui" - New Composition by D. Bodhi Smith

Here is my newest composition entitled, "Under the Kukui"...This is another new image from my recent trip to the Hawaiian island of Maui. There are so many beautiful waterfalls on the island, that it could take years to capture them all with a lens in a way that did them justice. I hope I did that for these falls.

The waterfall pictured here is one of the more famous and better known called "Twin Falls" located a few miles east of Paia alongside the road to Hana via a short hike of about 1.5 miles. The falls are on private property, but the owners run a fruit stand and permit people to access the falls if they stay on the trail and "behave" themselves.

When I woke up in Kihei, I went outside and saw that there were no clouds, but this is not a problem for a photographer on Maui because there are several micro-climates on the island. Kihei is on the Southwest corner of Maui and is easily of the driest places on the island with a climate similar to what I am used to here in my native San Diego. But the opposite side of the island, the Northeast, has rainforests and it actually rained on that part of the island every single day we were there.

So I decided to drive at sunbreak to Twin Falls and try my luck. And it worked, except I got a little more weather than I had bargained for. It started raining about 1/2 an hour into the drive just outside of Paia, which is about 10 miles from the falls. By the time I got to the trailhead, it was really raining. So I put on all my wet gear and headed off down the muddy trail to see what I could capture.

After a very easy gradual uphill hike of about 1.5 miles is where the trail ends into the stream that has the falls upstream. It had rained pretty hard for the past couple of days here, so the water level was pretty high and very cloudy. I used my tripod as a probe to check the depth of the water and thankfully it never got deeper than my shoulders. (But I imagine that many people would probably turn around and not got the rest of the hike to the falls because of this small pitfall).

I made my was across the stream to the opposite bank and then made my way through the forest to the falls. At first glance, they are quite breathtaking and eternal in their fall. I walked all the way around and under them to scout out the best angle for me to shoot. The spot I chose (the vantage in this image) was right underneath a Kukui tree--which gives the image its title. There were fallen nuts all around, so I guess I fit right in ;) Btw, I love kukui nut necklaces, and I own close to 20 different ones, many of which I brought back from Hawaii on this trip. Simply put, I believe that they bring me luck, so I frequently wear them.

Because of the rainfall over the past couple days here, there was much debris of broken tree limbs in the pool beneath the falls that I has to clean out before I could shoot. Some of the limbs were pretty damn big, so it took me about half an hour to "tidy" up my scene. I figured that all the tourists who would end up shoot here later in the day would never know how cluttered it was, so I guess i did a nameless and thankless job that other benefited from.

I really had to fight with the rain for every exposure i took, especially the longest ones with keeping my filters dry and unfogged. Man, was the rain coming down...but even though I was soaked to the bone, I was really never cold, which is a cool thing about being in the rain on a tropical island I guess.

With the downpour from the heavens and the earliness of the morning, I had the place to myself for almost two hours, which was very tranquil and special considering that this location gets pretty packed with tourists every day. I had plenty of time to capture the images I wanted. So when the first group arrived, a party of 4 who showed up to swim under the falls and film themselves with a GoPro, I was done and ready to head out.

Of course, right then as I was leaving, the skies opened up and the rain stopped. Go figure.

On the hike back, which always seems longer than the hike in, I walked by hundreds of people headed up to the falls. It was like a dam of people broke open and they were all flooding to Twin Falls. Crazy amounts of people, of whom half must have asked me "Is this the right way?" and "How much farther are the falls?" To which I gave the same response, "Yes, you are almost there" no matter how far away I was getting from the falls. In a world where everything is relative, they were all almost there, no matter how far down the trail they were in reality.

Camera Settings: ISO-50, 24mm at f/22 for 610 seconds using one Lee Proglass 3.0ND Filter (10 stops) and one inverted Lee.75ND Grad to stop down the brighter pool of water 2.5 stops. I chose a f-stop of f/22 and an ISO of 50 so that I could get a longer exposure without having to put another filter on the holder and have to fight with an additional filter getting wet. Btw, to qualm my obsession with numbers, this image was exposed for 10mins, 10 seconds and captured from 10am until 10:10am...

I hope this image and message find you well.

Mahalo and Maluhia,

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 release called "Haunting Peace" by D. "Bodhi" Smith

My newest composition, simply entitled "Haunting Peace" because of the two words' dichotomy. One one hand, the effect of the long exposure creating a mist among black and blue tones of the pier just as the sun was setting last night in Oceanside, CA created the strong impression of being eerie or "haunting" (especially with the added effect that ropes in the rafters were moving during this exposure to create ghostly shapes)...but at the same time, it has a tranquil and calming peace with its smooth cool colors...

Last night I was in northern San Diego County running some errands, and I noticed the clouds were starting to roll in as a sort of a gray glaze...I have been after a nice light-diffusing cloud bank for some time mixed with a moderate high tide of 3.5ft-4.5ft. I have had a vision in my mind for a while to capture an image under the Oceanside Pier that is similar to one of my top selling images which I took last February under the Fort Baker Pier in San Francisco. I am from Oceanside, and being its native son, I really wanted to capture an image for me of my personal favorite pier, a pier that I have not shot a lot of recently these days, but have always had in the back of my mind to catch this impression you see here.

Last night the conditions were just as I wanted: A diffusing cloud canopy overhead right at sunset with a mid-high tide of 3.75ft. If the tide would have been too high, I would not have been able to have my tripod in the position I wanted on the sand--I would have been up in the rocks instead; if the tide had been too low, I would not have been able to capture the depth of this "tunnel" of pier posts out to the "door" at 200mm. And if the clouds would not have been present in the manner they were to diffuse the smaller wavelength colors, and at the same time not make things too dark, the blue tones and shadows as you see them here would not have been possible. And if it had not been sunset, the color tones in the "door" at the end of the pier would not have been present and the shadows would have had too much contrast for the camera to capture their details.

As many of you out there know about me, when one of my titles carries the word "Peace" in it, the image was captured selfishly for me, nobody else, and for my piece of mind...if the image happens to sell, then that is just a little bit more icing on the cake for me. I, of course, really like this image and have a strong personal affinity to it with many good memories happening for me in this very spot...

And, as always, It was ultra nice to see a couple of members of the IEPC join me for a very nice sunset last night in Oceanside...

Camera Settings: ISO-100, f/8 at 200m for 4mins, 44sec (284secs) using one Lee ProGlass 3.0ND Filter (10 stops) captured right as the sun was setting here on the westcoast just north of San Diego last evening at 4:45pm.

I hope this composition and message finds you well.

peace,
D. "Bodhi

New Image of Scripps Pier entitled "Idelisa's Sunset"

This image is entitled, " Idelisa's Sunset" This is my newest release of the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA. I have taken so many compositions of this pier that I am beginning to think it is like an old girlfriend or something...and every new capture seems to be a new emotion of this favorite pier of mine here in San Diego, CA.
With this image, you can honestly see the influence which the Expressionist/Post-Impressionist Artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have had on my photography--especially Paul Gauguin.

Anyway, this is a panoramic impression of this scene with very bold colors from a sunset we had hear in Southern California a few nights ago. I honestly think I will never get tied of shooting this pier, I am drawn to it like steel to a magnet...it never lets me down, and I always capture something very different from the previous one...

This composition is created from two images stitched together. I chose to do this to create the panoramic composition without losing any resolution from cropping a single frame down to a panoramic. This method actually permits me to increase my resolution by 75% and give me the ability to print this image huge if a client so wants it to be that way.

Combining two images is not easily done when shooting 3.5 minute exposures. To create the composition, I needed to shoot two landscape orientation images side-by-side, and then blend them together into one long composition. The left side was captured first with the sun setting on the horizon, then the right side was captured directly after. The clouds were moving mostly horizontal (north) which allowed me to keep the sky pretty even even thought the two images were captured three and a half minutes apart. Plus, with the pier being almost in the middle and not moving, I permitted to easily stitch the two images together to create a 1:3 ratio panoramic composition using PhotoMerge in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Had the pier NOT been in the middle of these two long exposures, there would have been no possible way to create a seamless composition as this, or at least not anyway I have figured out yet.

Camera settings: ISO-64, 20mm at f/8 for 213 seconds (3 mins, 33 secs) (both images)

I hope you enjoy this new "emotion" of this pier as seen through my vision, my eyes, and the lens of my camera.

I hope this message and composition find you well.

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"