Winter Beach Sunset by abirkill

Winter Beach Sunset

The sun sets on a cold winter afternoon at Birch Bay State Park in northern Washington, just across the border from BC. In the distance across the water can be seen the San Juan Islands in the US and the Gulf Islands in BC.

The sun was just peeking out from behind some patchy clouds before it set behind the treeline, and the low angle of light caused some beautiful shadows to be cast by the pebbles on the beach. I waited until a wave came in to give some interest to the water.

7-shot HDR photograph taken with the 16-35mm lens. Aperture set to f/18 both to keep the whole scene in focus, and to emphasise the starburst effect of this lens. Careful positioning was needed to minimise lens flare.

Worth viewing large!
Fabulous fav
January 19th, 2013  
wow!
January 19th, 2013  
Awesome!
January 19th, 2013  
Gorgeous! Totally a Fav!
January 19th, 2013  
Swoon
January 19th, 2013  
So beautiful! Wonderful!
January 19th, 2013  
Wow! Love the detail in the foreground - the colour, shadows and waves - superlative!
January 19th, 2013  
Outstanding!!!
January 19th, 2013  
wow! that light is stunning... especially on the pebbles in the foreground :)
January 19th, 2013  
WOW! Fave!
January 19th, 2013  
must view large! love the long shadows the pebbles make. awesome!
January 19th, 2013  
Beautiful! I love the sharpness and quality of the image, the all the tiny shadows of all the rocks, and of course the starburst of the sun :)
January 19th, 2013  
Great picture!! Did you time the waves to be in same place for each of the seven shots?
January 19th, 2013  
Love it great HDR and processing. A fav for me.
January 19th, 2013  
Absolutely amazing shot. Those clouds are incredible. Fav.
January 19th, 2013  
Makes me wish I was there! Gorgeous! The colors Wow!
January 19th, 2013  
This is gorgeous! Thank you also for providing your info. for your shots! It really helps the learning experience! Fav!
January 19th, 2013  
Spectacular shot !
January 19th, 2013  
This is stunning--great job.
January 19th, 2013  
Fantastic beach, so much character!
January 19th, 2013  
beautiful
January 19th, 2013  
Swoon just like my sister said! Fav. Always appreciate the explanation behind your shots, too.
January 19th, 2013  
just stunning
January 19th, 2013  
@missileman Thanks! I picked the exposure that was best for the water and took a few photos of it to get a shot with movement I liked, and then manually blended that area of the photo into the HDR with Photoshop to get consistency in the waves.

Some HDR software allows you to select areas where you want to avoid ghosting (and/or try and correct ghosting automatically), but I find it more controllable to do the blending myself.
January 19th, 2013  
Alexis...why dont I have the patience you have to get shots like this. Love the wam colouring on the water and sand.
January 19th, 2013  
@abirkill Nice, thanks for the insight on the post processing. :)
January 19th, 2013  
damn, fabulous! fav...
January 19th, 2013  
This is absolutely gorgeous.

So much thought goes into your shots. Are you ever spontaneous with the camera?
January 19th, 2013  
what a beautiful shot! all the different ellements give it a very dramatic look! fav!
January 19th, 2013  
brilliant and great editing
January 19th, 2013  
Beautiful
January 19th, 2013  
Beautiful shot, I like the clarity and colours of the pebbles.
January 19th, 2013  
Lovely warm light. The starburst is so cool.
January 19th, 2013  
Color everywhere. The sun and the see are wonderful. 7 frames bracketed quickly out of the camera would that be? The detail of the water breaking is still clear. Or was the processing more complicated to get rid of "motion ghosts?"
January 19th, 2013  
Jim
The starburst and the color and clouds are great, but what really catches my eye is the color and light of the rocks in the sand. Beautiful
January 19th, 2013  
Spectacular - an instant fav!
January 19th, 2013  
Stunning shot .... fav! :)
January 19th, 2013  
Beautiful..a FAV!!
January 19th, 2013  
So much to look at! Love the beauty captured in this shot!
January 19th, 2013  
Stellar!
January 19th, 2013  
Fantastic! Fav! So much detail!
January 19th, 2013  
Fabulous textures and detail...fav!
January 19th, 2013  
beautifully captured light
January 20th, 2013  
wow - did I say it? WOW ... definitely FAV
January 20th, 2013  
Awesome sunset with fab foregound!
January 20th, 2013  
Love all the details and light in this image!
January 20th, 2013  
Kev
Stunning, just stunning...
January 21st, 2013  
Wow... great shot. I love the sunburst!!
January 21st, 2013  
Stunning shot, Alexis! Fav!
January 21st, 2013  
great shot
January 21st, 2013  
This is beautiful in every aspect Alexis! I love your photography! +F
January 21st, 2013  
Bloody stunning!! amazing +F
January 21st, 2013  
Great capture of this beautiful sunset. Love the low rays of light and shadows.
January 21st, 2013  
stunning
fav!
January 21st, 2013  
Another stunning image
January 22nd, 2013  
Wow your work is unbelievable,Love it.
January 22nd, 2013  
Oh My! Where have you been ? How come I am just seeing your photo's all of a sudden! This is another Fav! So glad we finally Meet!:)
January 23rd, 2013  
You have amazing stuff here! Glad I've come across your project :)
January 24th, 2013  
Oh, fav'd! And I'm now following you ;) this is gorgeous
January 25th, 2013  
Gorgeous. FAv.
January 26th, 2013  
Wow Alexis you certainly gots the skillz that killz! Awesome Fav.
January 26th, 2013  
Another fav. Just stunning.
August 12th, 2013  
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