The Santa Monica Pier

A couple of days ago it was a beautiful sky; it was also a full moon; so we run to the beach to capture the sunset and the moon. It was the first time I fully used the camera tripod I purchased last March in Brookhaven. Here are the results.


First off, the sunset:

Almost all digital cameras have very poor dynamic range. It is impossible to capture all variations of lighting in a scene, unlike the human eye which can see and amazing 8 orders of magnitude in intensity. Hence it the above photograph the sum and sjy is very bright and the sand and beach very dark.

As the sun was setting, on the opposite side the moon was rising:



Here's what happens when you let the camera shutter open for several seconds while the wheel ir rotating:



Here's a similar picture, but with some camera filters on, so that we get a retro feeling:




Finally, the whole landscape after the darkness fell some more and with lots of seconds of exposure... notice how the seas waves and lights are smoothed out...