Pier sunsets in California are
spectacular watch, as seen in this
dynamic, golden sunset picture
above.
And for lifeguards watching from
piers in towers, the setting sun can
be daunting...well, sort of.
Most pier lifeguard towers in
California enjoy tinted windows to
help see the ocean, the swimmers,
surfers, beach-goers and even
photographers enjoying the sunsets.
Though statistics don't bare out a
high number of rescues around
sunset, this is a challenging time
for guards to see folks in the
water.
At tower zero on the Orange County
Pier above (in Huntington Beach),
the state-of-the-art facility
features darkly tinted glass
windows. If you look up from the
beach, you can see the lifeguards.
But when you stand at sunset, the
sun looks nearly blinding as it
passes by the tower and seems to
shine right through it. Of course
this is only from your angle that
you're seeing it.
Pier sunset picture tips:
But the point for pier photographers
shooting sunsets is that you have to
play with the light. Keep moving
till you get it right. And the
biggest danger is in blinding
yourself. Looking through your
camera eyepiece is one dangerous
proposition for most don't include
the filtering needed to protect your
eyes.
A
digital camera may give some
advantage if you look through the
output screen. Just be careful as
you do so.
On this photo above, no special star
filter was used to obtain the burst
of light pattern breaking through
the tower zero structure. It was
merely an effort to keep moving
until we hit the spot where it just
bounced off the building and cut
through ever so slightly to our
field of sight.
So when photographing California
piers at sunset, do wander till you
see the vantage point that
accomplishes your desired effects.
Maybe you are not seeking
silhouettes so much as overall
impressions and a wider range of
colors. If you took the image
above and just shifted your camera
slightly upward toward the sky, you
would accomplish exactly that. Or
another option might be to back up
on zoom lens and grab a larger piece
of the pie. The averaging meter most
use on their automatic cameras
should meter the sky and get you
some of that color. Keep
looking at the output for feedback
and tweaking. Keep moving till you
get it right.
But as for the pier sunset photo
above, this image was taken with a
Nikon D200, using manual
settings...probably about a 125ISO,
speed 1/60 second and an fstop
that's in the range of f8 - f22,
depending...>
More pier sunset picture taking
tips.
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