• Twice The Gloom • - a photo on Flickriver

            Here's another shot from that stormy, rainy afternoon and evening in Venice last Saturday. As I mentioned, the day began mainly how it ended: wet, windy, and gross but there was enough of a break in mid afternoon to convince me it was worth checking out. The last time I came here when it was extremely overcast, there was a more consistent cloud cover that wasn't as interesting as this. It was a solid sky of gray and bluish clouds and the light that poked through was extremely bright and poured through the openings with very little shape. It also remained dry that day and there was virtually no wind at all. Saturday was the opposite. 

It's been rare that I've come here to shoot and the clouds behind me on the shore have been dark enough to affect the overall reflection but that happened this time. The storm at sea wasn't isolated just in front of me. Winds and rain pushed in all directions and made the trip a lot more difficult than any of the other visits here. The rain seemed to actively avoid whichever direction I aimed the umbrella and wiping the lens constantly messed up the flow I normally have. I chose this exact spot for the reasons visible in this shot: it was the largest burst of light and color out to sea and also the biggest stretch of undisturbed reflective shoreline. The higher than normal tide wiped away many of the areas I typically set up by and I wasted some of the precious little light wandering down the beach towards Santa Monica in search of reflections. 

The light on the day shifted between bluer skies and golden yellow/orange hues more in the direction of the Santa Monica mountains (to the right and out of frame of this) but was darker here and East towards the direction of the Venice Pier and Marina Del Ray which was further and further away from the little sunlight. Most of the shots I took were either right here in this spot or facing the mountains because it simply got too dark to use faster shutter speeds anywhere there wasn't visible sunlight. This is probably the first time I've been here and didn't take a single shot of the Pier and I also didn't stick around until after dark like usual. 

This is a 2 frame panorama which has become my favorite way to present a scene of cloudy Venice. As always, I had the tripod about 18 inches off the ground and tried to incorporate as much of the reflection as I could. I would've benefited probably from moving a little to the right so the perspective would be a tad better but I was thrilled these shots came out pretty well. On the day as a whole, about 30% of my images were entirely out of focus (from what seems to be an issue with my image stabilization) and many more were either too dark or not timed as well as I would've liked. Outside the images that were trash, I ended up with about a dozen captures that I was happy with and showed the full scope of my very weird, quick 1 hour at a completely empty beach. 

WHEN & WHERE
Venice Beach
Venice, California
November 26th, 2016

SETTINGS
Canon T4i
EF-S 18-135mm IS STM
@18mm
f/6.3
1/13th second
CPL
   

Taken on: November 26, 2016

Tags:

Venice Beach

Venice

Venice California

Los Angeles

California

Pacific Ocean

Autumn

afternoon

beachfront

canon T4i

cloudy

canon

contrast

clouds

dark

dusk

darkness

evening

eerie

golden

horizon

landscape

light

land

18-135mm

18mm

lens

panoramic

panorama

nature

night

overcast

outside

ocean

oceanfront

oceanscape

perspective

coast

mirror

rain

rainstorm

raincloud

reflection

rocks

reflect

shadow

scenic

sky

skyline

sunset

sand

sea

surf

symmetry

seascape

seaside

sundown

seagull

sunbeam

sunlight

water

wet

waves

wave

windy

Wilkof Photography « less

Sets appears in: • oceanscape • Maryland to California With A Dog: 3,600 miles over 10 days more » • Sunrise Sunset « less

Camera: Canon EOS REBEL T4i, f/6.3, 1/13 sec, 18mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS REBEL T4i
Lens:	EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.077 sec (1/13)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	100
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 CC 2015 (Macintosh)
Show full info

Stats: 10,016 views / 25 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: