Grandmother of the Ages #1 - Trinidad, Humboldt County, California

Grandmother Rock bears witness to yet another impressive sunset at Trinidad Beach, just north of Eureka, California. First image in a series made during this evening! No HDR.

Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!

See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/349703097...

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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 21
1/4-second exposure @F11
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.6 angled from 8am-2pm
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
ISO 50
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Keen water shoes

Last weekend, it looked like the week ahead would be unusually stormy for Late April in California. Usually we are dry until November. So I headed north on Monday from my place just east of San Francisco do do a little shooting. I heard about Trinidad State Beach from a co-worker and what I saw on Google Earth looked impressive, so I found a place to stay nearby for the entire week. I wanted to make sure that I had several chances for good light at sunset.

Also, in addition to the US National Weather Service satellite images that I use,
www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/satl.php
I find the California Coastal Records Project website to be the best way to figure out how to get to the places I want to go:
www.californiacoastline.org/
(Be careful or you will spend several hours looking at every foot of the California coast!)

So anyway, on Friday an impressive storm (for this time of year) was heading to the coast. It rained hard all day but I watched the satellite photos all day and the final front looked like it may pass overhead right at sunset. Of course, if it was was 1/2 hour too late, my planned shoot would be doomed.

I headed to my planned beach, and 30 minutes before sunset, I could see a thin line of clearing way out over the ocean, and it was headed my way. Would it reach me by sunset? Then it started to rain heavily and some fog dropped the visibility to a few hundred feet. The few people at the beach headed home. But I knew that the frontal edge was hiding in the mist.

So I headed out onto the beach in the driving rain with my umbrella hoping for the best. I could see hints of light appearing in the fast-moving clouds so I ran across the beach as fast as I could, looking down to avoid the waves. When I got to my spot, the rain was ending and I looked up and I was literally shocked at what I saw in the sky. Brooding mammatus clouds, multiple cloud decks, you name it. I have never seen anything like this in my life!

I got the camera ready and was actually nervous that I would not be able to record this event! I took a few shots and realized that the focus ring had moved while I was fiddling around. Fortunately I noticed or my whole series might have been lost. And I have never shot a series of photos like this.

It was high tide but I wanted reflections so it was extra hard to hold the umbrella while chasing the wet sand from the previous wave. But the reflections really add to the overall effect.

So here is the first image of many!

The map shows exactly where this is.

See my profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
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Taken in: United States / California / Trinidad (show map)

Taken on: May 1, 2009

Tags:

Trinidad

California

sunset

clouds

mammatus

rock

tree

forest

sand

beach

storm

travel

landscape

seascape

canon

canon 5d

mk II

grandmother rock

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sea

ocean

pacific

coast

SearchTheBest

nature

water

interestingness

moonstone beach

moonstone

17-40L

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/11.0, 1/4 sec, 21mm, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.25 sec (1/4)
Focal Length:	21mm
ISO:	50
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
Show full info

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