San Clemente Sunset
Subscription Form
American Falls
View Post

The American Falls

This photo is from last year when I went to Toronto, Canada. It's of the American Falls taken from the Canadian side. To the right of this is the Niagara Falls. This is one of those sites that is just breathtaking in real life. It's hard to really capture the scale of this in the photo. I tried not to alter the colors too much to give the photo the most natural appearance of what the scene actually looks like. The water is really a beautiful emerald blue like this. 
View Post
Redondo Beach Pier
View Post

Redondo Beach Pier

The different beach cities all along the coast of California all seem to have their own little vibe. And Redondo Beach is no different. For this shot, a thick marine layer blocked most of the sun. A few minutes after this, the light from the sun was pretty much gone, even though the sun was still a good 15 minutes from setting. Luckily, the Redondo Beach Pier has a lot of great and interesting areas with nice lighting, so night photography there can be fun.
View Post
Laguna Mussels Beach With Bird
View Post

Two Seagulls in a sea of Mussels

This is an HDR photo of two seagulls relaxing in a sea of mussels during sunset. It was a very low tie, so the mussels were all exposed. I'm sure the seagulls were looking for an easy meal with all the other animals that were exposed. I'm on a 16mm shot in this photo, and I was surprised at how close these birds were letting me get to them. I'm a lot closer than it appears here. I guess the birds on California's coasts are more helpful to people.
View Post
HDR Photo of Hermosa Pier
View Post

Beach Photography

Like most people, I love the beach, I love shooting there, and I always love great ocean and beach pictures. I grew up on the beach and have spent a lot of time in the water—hours a day surfing on summer break or between semesters. It's safe to say I've learned a thing or two about the ocean and how it acts. I hope to share several photography tips I've picked up when shooting pictures of the sea in this post.
View Post
Victoria Beach Tower in Laguna Beach
View Post

Victoria Beach Tower

This Photo is of the Victoria Beach Tower, which is actually a 60-foot spiral staircase built with reinforced concrete that leads up to a house on the top of the cliff. This was built in 1926 as part of California Senator William Edward Brown and his wife's summer vacation home so they could escape the heat of Beverly Hills. It must be nice. I guess 85 degrees in the summer was too much for them to handle back then. The look of this tower comes from old French Chateaux and Castles. Many people returning from the First World War were inspired by these structures and attempted to mimic them. 
View Post
HDR Photo of Hermosa Pier
View Post

Hermosa Pier Sunset

This shot is of the Hermosa Pier right before the sun went down. The sun is there but very small in the shot because I'm on a really wide lens. This photo is just before the sky turns to a deep purple color, which created a totally different look from the one found in my other night HDR photos of the exact location. With a sunset photo like this, it's very important to have a High Dynamic Range, so I find I either have to shoot a five shot bracketed HDR offset by two stops or shoot RAW, which is what I did in this High Dynamic Range Photo. I also was using the Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens. I didn't want to use this lens for too long since It does not accept screw-on UV filters, and the salty, misty sea air would quickly cover my glass. So I switched to my Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L ii to shoot the rest of my night HDR photos after the sun went down.
View Post
Beneath The Hermosa Pier
View Post

Beneath the Hermosa Pier

My experience photographing the Hermosa Pier was much better than when I went to the Santa Monica Pier. Parking was much easier in Hermosa, with fewer people and photographers crowding around. I basically had the whole purple hour to myself. The purple hour is the hour after the sun goes down when the sky transitions from blue into the black starry sky. The combination of the blue sky and the orange and red sunsets turns the sky purple or pink. This is also a great time because if you set your aperture high enough, you can get really nice long exposures that smooth out the water.
View Post

Privacy Policy | Licensing | About Me | Contact

Copyright © Alik Griffin Inc. 2025