"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

Book #4 "Bodhi Simplique Part Quatre"

Bodhi Simplique Part Quatre by D. "Bodhi" Smith | Make Your Own Book

"Les Champs Infini du Sauvignon" ... Most recent composition from D."Bodhi" Smith

Entitled, "Les Champs Infini du Sauvignon," this is my most recent composition captured last Saturday morning in wine country of Temecula, CA. The name is French and roughly translates to: "Endless Fields of Wild Grape Vines"...I chose French because cabernet sauvignon grapes originated close to Bordeaux, France combined with the fact that this is a field of cabernet sauvignon grape vines in the spring which will eventually produce grapes that will be harvested by Lorimar Winery and Vineyards in late summer.

For this composition, I wanted to create something different from my other impressions from this spot...Many of you know that I have shot this location numerous times since it is just down the road from where I make my home in Temecula, CA. It is great to have such a beautiful locale to shoot almost in my backyard at five mins away, one where I have to exert very minimal effort to visit. This is also the spot where I created my signature "Four Seasons of Temecula" piece that consists of each of the 4 seasons from this very spot, which took me over one year to capture to my satisfaction. This series of compositions can also be found as the artwork on the label of the current bottle of Chardonnay from Lorimar Winery in Temecula....and the summer scene in the series can be found as a 5ft long panoramic metal print on permanent display at Temecula City Hall.

As I do with all my photography, I pre-vision exactly what I want my final image capture to look in my mind's eye. My goal with this composition was to try to capture the clouds streaking in such a way as to mimic the simplicity of the rows of grape vines on the ground. This is a task which I believe I succeeded in completing with this image, and in doing so, created a version of this scene different from all my others shot at the same spot. Still, getting what I wanted was not without effort and patience, for I tried numerous exposures both longer and shorter before I found the right time limit to capture the effect I was hoping for. I am very thankful to mother nature for letting the clouds hang around and not burn off while I did my trial-and-error process of finding the right exposure. I shot one at 15 mins, but the clouds were smoothed out way too much; I shot another at 60 secs, but the clouds were not streaked enough; then another at 8 mins, but again, the clouds were still too smoothed out; then one more at 3 mins, but the clouds were just not quite right...then I tried my good old faithful 260 secs time limit (4 mins, 20 secs) and the exposure was dead on with my pre-vision...what you see before you are the results.

The actual raw image had a lot of blue haze in it (color cast from the morning sky as well as the Big Stopper filter I was using), and I was not crazy about this at all. It muddled the composition making it dull and not withstanding, full of a lackluster "ho-hum" boredom. So, when I processed the image, I unsaturated all of the blues to create the color profile (silvers and greens) your see here using Adobe Lightroom 5 which made the rows of green grape vines jump out vibrantly under the silver-toned rows of clouds streaking in the sky. Thus, this final composition has an eloquent simplicity to it that I really like...and I hope you find it just as pleasing.

Camera settings: ISO-100, 18mm at f/8 for 260 seconds using one Lee Proglass 3.0ND Filter (10 stops) to create the streaking clouds and two Lee ND graduated filters to allow me to balance the brighter foreground as well as the sky at the same time in-camera during the composition (.9ND Grad for the sky and a .75ND Grad for the foreground placed inverted to each other in the filter holder) 

I hope this image and message finds you well.

#Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #Dolica #Tripods #Lee #Filters #Big Stopper #ND #Graduated #Long Exposure #LE #Bodhi #Smith #California #Wine Country #Vineyard #Winery #Lorimar #Temecula #Grape #Vines #Wine #Cabernet #Sauvignon #Spring

peace,
D. "Bodhi"

"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

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

New Composition, "Broken Emotions" by D. Bodhi Smith

Entitled, "Broken Emotions," this is my newest composition...it was captured last night at on Broken Hill in Torrey Pine State Reserve just south of Del Mar, CA.

I guess you could say that Broken Hill and much of the Torrey Pines State Reserve is San Diego County's version of Bryce Canyon with all of the eroded sandstone formations. Quite beautiful, and located right next to the ocean in a park that is protecting the last grove of Torrey Pine Trees in the world (it is an endangered tree). And, of course, I have been trying to catch a special image of this spot for close to one year now, having shown up to this place numerous times only to go away empty handed. But alas, finally last evening I was able to capture something worthy of my own liking. We had a system coming in off the Pacific late yesterday afternoon, and it looked extremely good early on for some great clouds at the coast. But then as I was driving down to Torrey Pines, I could not believe my eyes as it started to clear up (this is a bad thing for a landscape photog). 

After getting to my "short-cut" parking spot close to the golf course, I figured I would still hike out to the point and see what was presented to me through the lens of my camera. I just never give up, you never know, and once again, this image is the result of my persistence and patience. Besides, it is a very beautiful hike and it was a cool spring evening here in San Diego, so I took off my flip-flops, threw on the hiking shoes, and strolled down the 1.5 mile trail out to Broken Hill. I have had my composition picked out here for a considerably long time now, as I have just been patiently waiting for the right conditions (clouds, sunset, springtime)...so when I got to Broken Hill, I did not need to figure out where I was going to set up for my shot...

After getting my Nikon D800 situated up on my trusty Dolica Tripod, I dialed in with my focus, and got my Lee filters all in place. But the skies had now gone total bluebird. Really?!? Was I going to get shut out of getting the image I have been trying to capture for a long time one more night, again??? There was still about 45 minutes until the sunset, so I just waited--maybe the heavy cloud deck on the distant horizon would roll in....and that is exactly what they did. Right as the sun was getting ready to set, the clouds rolled back in with a vengeance. In fact, they rolled in so fast that the window of opportunity for my image opened and slammed shut extremely quickly. I was able to take just 2 long exposures in that short time frame (this one and one a bit longer), and that was all, before the cloud deck was too thick and destroyed of the beautiful sunset hues and long shadows of contrast. Poof, the gorgeous light was gone. But who needs extra shots? Of the two, this one came out pretty good I think.

I hope this image and message find you well.

Camera settings: ISO-100, 24mm at f/8 for 83 seconds using one Lee Proglass 3.0ND Filter (Big Stopper) and one Lee .75ND Grad filter. Image was capture at 7:13pm, about 10 minutes before the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

peace,
D."Bodhi"

#Nikon #D800 #Nikkor #24mm #Dolica #Tripods #Lee #Filters #ND #Proglass #BigStopper #Bodhi #Smith #Expressionist #Impressionist #Surreal #LongExposure #LE #SanDiego #Torrey #Pines #Broken #Hill #Sunset #Pacific #Ocean #LaJolla #DelMar

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"