Photo: The Amazing Wild Coast of….Los Angeles

Please click on the photo to view it larger and more clearly!  Thanks!

A beautiful warm day in late October. Lisa and I went to the most beautiful beach in Los Angeles.

These are long exposure photos. This one is a ten-second long exposure. The challenge to me is to try and keep the tripod still when the ocean water is ebbing and flowing, pulling on the tripod, pulling the soft wet sand away from the tripod and wrapping seaweed around the tripod legs! I always jam the tripod in as hard as possible, and this certainly helps, although of course not always!

And the other challenge is to try and keep the water from splashing on the lens or the camera. I destroyed my Nikon D90 at Bowling Ball Beach by having water splash on it, frying the circuit board.

Title: Sunset on the Secret Coast
Info: Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 with B+W 1.8 ND filter. ISO 100, 1.6 second exposure, f/11.
Photography: Ken Lee
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA.

Equipment:  Nikon D7000, Tokina AT-X 116

 

Advertisement

The Infinity Pool of California

California’s natural infinity pool.

The remains of a pier, Bombay Beach.

The Salton Sea – California’s largest lake

This lake is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault, predominantly in California’s Imperial Valley, and is about 226 ft (69 m) below sea level. The deepest area of the sea is 5 ft (1.5 m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo rivers, as well as agricultural runoff drainage systems and creeks.

It’s this agricultural runoff and drainage, along with the high salinity of the rivers, that make this water rather putrid. Tons of tilapia wash up on shore, and the water has a peculiar odor.

The lake hasn’t been around for long, though. The Salton Sea as we know it began in1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, pouring over headgates for the Alamo Canal, gushing down the New River and Alamo Rivers, rushing over an Imperial Valley dike, and carrying the entire volume of the Colorado River to create the Salton Sea in two years.

The Salton Sea, however, has no outflow, so all the salt, all the runoff, and all the drainage stays in this salt-encrusted water.

Geek Talk  This is a long exposure shot taken with the Nikon D90 and Tokina 11-16mm f2/8 lens and a B+W ND1.8 filter, keeping the shutter open for several seconds at f/22 to create the milky effect from the water. Shortly after I took this photo, while switching lens, one of the legs of my Feisol tripod suddenly shortened after it had been standing for five minutes, sending my camera plunging lens-first into the sand. Nothing appears permanently damaged, but it took a long time to brush the sand out of the lens, filters, and camera.

Equipment:  Nikon D90, Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX AF 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens For Nikon

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
You can see more of these photos here  on my Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like).

And you can go to the Ken Lee Photography website, which has more photos from Ken Lee.  Thank you very much for visiting!

Featured Photo: Rock and Tree

Joshua Tree is otherworldly, and sometimes looks to me like a planet Captain Kirk and Spock might have beamed down on.  But I think this is rather captivating even by Joshua Tree standards. I shot this with a fairly small aperture to make certain both the narrow balancing rock and the lone tree, which is considerably closer to the camera, were both in focus.

Yes, this is another photo from my 28 April 2012 photographic trip to the desert, a 24-hour excursion for taking photos during both the day and night. This month we’ll be featuring many of these photos, and on June 1st, will discuss in detail the process of how the star trails photo from a couple of posts ago was created.
Equipment:  Nikon D90, 18-200mm VR Nikkor lens

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
You can see more of these photos here  on my Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like).

And you can go to the Ken Lee Photography website, which has more photos from Ken Lee.  Thank you very much for visiting!

Featured Photo: Mystic Pier

This mystic pier photo is an early morning photo of the Ventura Pier in Caifornia.  Opening the shutter for a long time gives the ocean water a beautiful ethereal misty sort of feel, which I really love.

Ventura Pier, Nikon D90, 11-16mm f2/8 Tokina, f/22, 6 second exposure using B+W 1.8 ND filter. – at Ventura Pier, California

Featured Photo: Balancing Rock, Hidden Valley, Joshua Tree

Balancing rock, Hidden Valley, Joshua Tree National Park. Changing this photo to black and white heightened the drama and the strength of the composition, so I went with it darkening the blues when processing the photo to heighten the contrast.  And yes, that sliver of white in the sky is the moon.

I also just recently purchased a wide-angle lens by Tokina.  When I shot film, I shot largely with a wide-angle, and found myself really missing that, so for this trip, I shot exclusively with this, a kid with a new toy.  So far, it’s responsive and sharp, and unlike the 18-200mm, retains a consistent aperture all the way through, which is quite nice.

Equipment:  Nikon D90, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens