Seal Beach Surfing

Its always fun and exciting to shoot something I don't get a chance to often and that's some surfing.  Its not that I can't, I just tend to like shooting wildlife more, that is when I'm not covering a game for the local paper.

El Nino is hit and miss thus far, but it has given us some bigger waves in So. Cal, which has made the surfing activity much better, if only I was a morning person I'd get out there more.

Please enjoy the shots.  Sorry they are a bit grainy.  It was a very overcast morning, which caused me to push that ISO up and to be honest their not the sharpest shots either, but I still liked them.

A day to be out and about - Seal Beach / Wetlands

This past Monday was a day to be out, although visually it didn't appear that way.

I was home enjoying my morning cup of coffee when my sugarbooger sent me a text saying she saw something on the news about high surf at Seal Beach, so I took a shower and got my gear together and headed out to Seal Beach, but before I left I brought my shoes and some socks so I could take a walk if the beach didn't turn out.

I'm glad I brought my shoes and socks as the beach did have some high surf but there was just wasn't much going on in the surfing aspect.  I did manage to take a couple of shots, but even with the lack of action it was a nice morning to watch the surf at Seal Beach.

After a couple of hours I packed up, put my shoes on, and headed to Signal Hill for a 3.5 mile walk, which felt great.

Later in the day and after my sugarbooger got home from work I talked her into going to the wetlands with me for the evening.  Added a couple more miles walking for the day as we enjoyed the evening and walk through the wetlands.  Below are a few shots I took during our walk

After leaving the wetlands my sugarbooger and I went out for a nice dinner before returning home to make dinner for the kids.  That's right, mom and dad had a nice evening out.  It was well deserved.

Wetlands to Sunsets - recent captures

I've been able to visit the wetlands and a couple of beaches for some beautiful sunsets during the last few weeks and I'm finally finishing my editing of the shots, so I thought I'd share some captures from the Bolsa Chica Wetlands and some very colorful sunsets from Huntington and Seal Beach.

Please enjoy the wonderful things out there through my eyes and lens

Winter Sunsets

With football over I am now able to focus on my other photography passions and one of those are my sunsets, especially those at both Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.

These first three shots were taken at Huntington Beach during mid Novemeber and are HDR.  Three shots were taken at an exposure of +2 / 0 / -2 and combined in Photomatix.  The shots were then edited and process in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

This next set of shots were taken at Seal Beach and only one of them I did by HDR.  Can you guess which one.  I've had a Graduated Neutral Density filter for some time now, but never used it, so I thought I should break it out and give a play.  Although I did take the same three exposed shots (+2 / 0 /-2) I only processed one of them for my edit.  Still learning and playing.

So again I ask - what shot was processed as an HDR?