Santa Monica Spin #3 - Santa Monica Pier, California

This is a view from the first annual Greater Los Angeles Summit of Fine Art Photography held at the usual place just south of the Santa Monica Pier. hehe... 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/425824867...

Settings etc.:

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105L @40
4-second exposure @F13
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 (two filters would create reflections with these lights)
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer.
ISO 50
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto pistol grip ball head
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop

Space was extremely limited due to heavy demand and the heavy publicity going on for at least 5 whole minutes before the big moment. So, there were a total of 3 lucky attendees including Jim Patterson, Kendra Karr, and me. Once the paparazzi were cleared from the beach by the security team, and the the airspace was cleared of helicopters, we shot the breeze for a while and then got down to business. Also, this was a 100% chimping-free summit!

This is the new wheel that was installed after the old one was sold on eBay for US $132,400 to an Oklahoma developer sight unseen! See this photo with the old wheel for more information. This is a very high-tech wheel with programmable lights that can create patterns and images. Also, it is powered by the solar panels you see in front of the wheel.

www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/3977498042/

The good news is that the wheel changes colors and patterns every few seconds. So every shot looks completely different it seems. The bad news is that you only get about 10 minutes where the light is even enough to get a decent exposure across the entire frame. That is the brief period when the lights are bright, but not too bright and there is light in the sky. The other bad news is that it takes about 7 minutes to fill up the wheel with passengers before it spins 2 or 3 times and then stops again. So I really only got a few minutes during the entire evening where the wheel was in motion and the light was good at the same time. Still, I managed to get a few nice ones!

Thanks goes out to Jim for saving my water shoes from a danger-filled trans-Pacific voyage initiated by a quickly rising tide!

Resources:

Google Earth
earth.google.com/

Simply the best way to scout out locations that there is. You can see sun angles and pre-visualize light under lots of different conditions. Sometimes you can actually pre-compose your shots! This has saved me many thousands of vertical feet of climbing by avoiding spots with blocked views etc.

Satellite imagery (choose 'National' for a local US region or use your fave website)
www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr

Tide charting and preditions: (chose your area in US, other countries have similar websites)
tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=235

Wave Heights (I choose 'North Pacific from Global')
polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/main_int.html
Or Here:
www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/RP1bw.gif

Photos of every inch of the California coastline from a small plane. Excellent for close in detailed views.

www.californiacoastline.org/

The map shows exactly where this is. It is an easy hike from the parking lot.

See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
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Taken in: United States / California / Santa Monica (show map)

Taken on: December 28, 2009

Tags:

ocean

sea

sunset

sand

beach

rock

sky

wave

seascape

landscape

santa monica

pier

los angeles

california

travel

vacation

long-exposure

ferris wheel

USA

light

socal

architecture

blue

canon

bay

water

clouds

color

fun

geotagged

holiday

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night

nocturne

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Sets appears in: • 50,000-99,999 Views • Southern California

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/13.0, 4 sec, 40mm, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	4
Focal Length:	40mm
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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