High Surf and Arch

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 4 October 2009 in Landscape & Rural.

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The recent devastating earthquakes in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific prompted tsunami warnings and closed beaches along the Big Sur coast this past Wednesday. The offshoot of this tragedy was some incredible wave action, albeit from the safe elevation of the headlands.

I was working with a student on a private lesson and headed to this location near Sobranes Point prior to sunrise. Under the early light of dawn, I decided to play with dragging my shutter with the help of a Singh-Ray 8-stop variable neutral density filter. Because the sky was void of clouds, I cropped it out all together and concentrated on placing the frame around just the arch and some neighboring rocks.

The filter allowed me to shoot at 30 seconds at f/16 and combined with the ferocity of the surf, produce this almost feathery-like effect. I cooled the water off a bit in Adobe Camera Raw by moving the temperature slider to the left. then brought back the warm color in the arch and rocks with the help of Nik Viveza (an incredible piece of software).

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Comments (18)

Babzy from Besançon, France

The image is stunning !!

4 Oct 2009 7:18am

Judy from Brooksville, Florida, United States

Oh, how beautiful, but teaching us to expect nothing less from you.

Here, this one is for you!

4 Oct 2009 7:24am

@Judy: Excellent shot of the moon Judy, and with a point-and-shoot no less!

Stefan from Thiersee, Austria

Stunning image Don, like the texture of the foreground rocks , great colors!

4 Oct 2009 8:29am

zOOm from Paris, France

Superb. Are we in the air, is it a cloudscape ? By a seaside ? We don't know from here (and my screen)... and is it really important in fact... ? just behold this fantastic panorama... Again, bravo Don.

4 Oct 2009 10:06am

john4jack from Corvallis, Oregon, United States

Terrific aperture/shutter speed combo for that lovely water effect. I love the muted colors. In my experience, all of Nik's plug-ins are excellent. I generally use their plug-ins in PS rather than LR because of Layers and being able to use Blending Modes and different degrees of Opacity. In my color work, I use Tonal Contrast a lot, but I almost always back it off in varying degrees once it has been globally applied.

4 Oct 2009 2:02pm

@john4jack: I agree with you Jack that Nik has produced an excellent set of plug-ins. They are intuitive and easy to use, and they work!

Scott F. Schilling from San Martin, United States

Awesome shot - I like the long exposure on this!

4 Oct 2009 3:19pm

@Scott F. Schilling: Hey Scott, hope your moon shot worked out. We were in the Whites last night - it was pretty incredible! Hope to have the image up by next weekend. Have fun in Hawaii and we'll hook up when you get home.

alex centrella from California, United States

well caught !

4 Oct 2009 3:28pm

Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal

It's so beautiful.

4 Oct 2009 5:51pm

Lambspun from Madison, Maine, United States

How incredible.....rock arches in the boiling ocean cauldron! Impressive shot!

4 Oct 2009 6:30pm

Viewfinder from Bradenton, FL, United States

Very effective, and visually stimulating to see this place under such extreme conditions.

4 Oct 2009 8:10pm

keyhan from Iran

wonderful

4 Oct 2009 8:16pm

Tracy from La Selva Beach, United States

I Love the misty quality of this! it almost looks like mountain peaks rising from the clouds.... I am loving the NIK software I just got! It is so easy to work with, and fun, too :)

4 Oct 2009 11:06pm

@Tracy: Thanks Tracy, Nik software is incredible and easy to use. Glad you are starting to work with it.