IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER

About 5 PM last night it looked like it might be worth a drive out to Cannon Beach for sunset. I checked the visible satellite radar via www.intellicast.com  and it appeared like there was a chance of a few clouds would be around only to enhance the sunset. It also looked like this would be the best night until next week due to some incoming weather. Never the less, I got out to Cannon Beach about 7:30PM. Sunset was at 8:15PM.

As I was framing some shots, hoping  for the light to start to “happen” when another photographer, hand holding  a Nikon D50 walked up to me. He seemed like a nice enough guy so we began to chat. He said he shot Hassleblad’s, Leica’s in his old “pro” days but now he’s hooked on digital. Hmmmmmmmm? I didn’t get into the hand holding situation, as he didn’t even have a lens hood, cable release either, let alone a tripod. The biggest problem was that he left before the show!

IMAGE 1, was taken right as the sun disappeared below the horizon. There was nothing exciting going on here as far as I was concerned but he though it was great. Again, I bit my tongue. Another problem we had was that some folks built a huge fire to the right of Haystack Rock on the beach. Fires are common in the evenings on the beach but this one was huge. The wind was blowing out and caused the smoke to unsharpen the image a bit. However I knew that if the light worked out right, the smoke could help the image, but it wouldn’t happen for another 1/2 hr or so.

 IMAGE 1 —- shot about 8:15PM

Below is IMAGE 2. This was shot about 8:25. My new friend shot this at the same time as me. I was shooting at ISO 100, F 16 at about 3 seconds or so. Handheld? NO WAY!!!!—-But he shot it anyway. This light was pretty good, and getting sweeter. Right after this shot, he looked at me and said ” Well we nailed it!” and shook my hand and began to prepare to leave thinking that he had just shot another winning image. He asked If I wanted to walk back with him, and I said that I was going to hang around for another 1/2 hr to 45 minutes because the show was just getting started. He looked at me like I was crazy. So much for being an ex-pro.

I played around with different compositions, some verticals ( for those of you who know me know my passion for vertical compositions!) I even got a nice image looking the other direction(south) toward Hug Point. ( Very last image on the bottom of this writing)

  IMAGE 2  –shot about 8:30   not bad but wait!

Now I was alone and things started to get great. The light became sweeter and made for the best images of the evening.

IMAGE 3  Shot about 8:45  1/2 hr after sunset   15 Minutes after my buddy took off!

IMAGE 4 was photographed around  9:05PM  50 minutes after sunset, and 35 minutes after my fellow photographer left, when the light was just about done but still really great. Here is the final shot of the evening. It was well worth hanging around for the duration.

The moral of the story is, “It Ain’t Over till its Over.

 IMAGE 4  shot at 9:05PM  50 minutes after sunset.

Here is the shot looking south toward Hug Point. This was shot about 8:20PM

LOOKING SOUTH-toward Hug Point. Sometimes things are happening in the other direction too!

JG