Continuing on from my last post Deciding What To Shoot, I will now go into what it takes Shooting the Images.  

I arrived at Garden City Pier about 30 minutes before sunset.  Since I have shot so many pier shots I was thinking of what I could do that was different.  One way is to get the pier at different angles like the photo on the left.  This was taking underneath just looking up As I stated in my last post, all these images are HDR images.  

I always shoot raw.  I almost always shoot manual so I control the aperture and shutter speed.  Something that might surprise some, I do normally shoot autofocus because I don’t trust my eyes to make sure something is in absolute focus.  The camera does a much better job than I can.  It also is because I tore my last contact lens and I haven’t gone for my eye exam and shooting with glasses on is not fun. I’m getting my eyes examined on Thursday and will be going back to contacts…..YAY!!!!!!

The problem with shooting the sunset on the east coast is that it sets over land so you don’t get the dramatic sun over the water shot. I was constantly looking for a new angle to shoot that I could get at least some of the pier but also the beautiful pastel colors of the sky.  

I was bracketing three shots and then slighting change the settings and bracket three more shots so I would have an assortment to choose from when I got home.  It gives me options but it fills up the memory card rather quickly.  Luckily my memory card is 16GB.  

With all my shoots, I’m always looking for something different to set my photography apart from all the other photographers out there.  Sometimes that is in the subject, the angle I shoot the subject or also in the way the photo(s) are edited.

As you can see on the photo on the right, I still captured part of the pier but caught the colors of the sunset both in the sky but also reflecting at the water on the beach.

The settings for the two photographs are:
     Underneath Pier:           Shutter Speed: 1/20th;   Aperture: f/7.1;  Focal Length: 32mm;     ISO 200
     Sunset Reflection:         Shutter Speed: 1/50th;   Aperture: f/9;     Focal Length:  24mm;     ISO 200

The last blog post will be Editing the Images and should be out by the end of the week.