California Pier Sunset Pictures are some of the world's favorite images. When you think of California, much of the globe envisions sunshine and beaches. Piers are the anchor to this icon, the sunny beach. Add to that the desire to see a sunset over a California beach and you've captured the heart of most everyone. Humans seek patterns (patterns of recognition), and the pier takes a normal beach sunset, and add that pattern we humans desire. Form, content, and size relationship all lend to the image captured and remembered.

You'll notice in most of our California pier sunset photos that we wait for people. That has partially to do with the photographer's training as a journalist.  Never considering her images more than documentation, the idea of creating a still life without the people seems just boring to this web site.  But the still life photos tend to be more commercially viable. So if you are cutting your teeth on photography and hoping to make money selling your beautiful sunsets at piers, you need to consider: "Who's your market?"

If I were hoping to sell my photos for posters that people buy, I'd either make sure the still life was strong enough to carry itself without people, birds or other objects associated with life and animation, or I'd pick out an animate object that is somewhat timeless such as the Huntington Beach Pier sunset with the surfer above.

While one of our favorite seasons is the holiday snowflake decorations that adorn many California piers, they are dated in their appeal, as people associate them with a specific month and event...Christmas. 

Pier sunset picture tips: Some of the challenges of taking pictures of piers at sunset involve the sun's angle in the sky, and the length of a pier, plus it's vertical structures.  Piers are inherently horizontal in California, so you need to take into account the vertical objects that play with your picture's components. For instance, in Pier Sunset Photo above of Tower Zero, we discuss the tower and the challenges of lighting. But did not mention the balance of shapes on a silhouette photo that you so often get when taking pier sunset photos.

Try to keep all this in account when taking your sunset pier pictures. If you can think about balance, lighting and interest "Who's your market?", you may get yourself a winner commercially. But you really don't have to sell your pictures to gain personal enjoyment out of them. Just thinking about the human emotions tied to that picture is reward enough for most photographers, professional or amateur.