Panther Beach, Torment

Name: Panther Beach, Torment
Price: 550 USD
Availability: InStock

$550.00

Panther Beach, California, USA.

The waves were unforgiving, smashing Panther Beach in Santa Cruz over and over and over again with increasing force and rendering each attempt to get closer to the edge of the water at least dangerous, both for us and our equipment. But when the Light is just right, there is no turning back: each shot became more daring, I inched forward every time, planted the tripod, composed, shot and closer again until I got right where I first wanted to be, when the waves calmed down briefly before growing strong again. I managed to fire few shots of exactly the scene I had in mind, when the sun was at the right angle and the light was dim enough, but so red to make the moss look like fire. It was like standing by the river Styx, the entrance to Dante's Inferno. Few seconds later I was knee deep in the cold Pacific water.

This is Torment , where the Fallen soul desperately waits to be finally delivered from his lost fairy. There is no future here. And never never again, will be back.

I was looking for chaos and movement in this image, which is what I got in large quantities by simply standing on the edge of the water. I dialed f/11 to get enough depth of field, and the shutter speed between 1.5s and 2.0s, where the sweet spot is to get the milky effect on the waves that I love so much. This shutter speed usually gives me the sense of motion I was after, without the foamy and calming quality of long exposures. The triangle composition gives even more dynamism to the scene. A graduated neutral density filter, again, kept the sky exposure in check. The background comes from another exposure with a more interesting wave approaching. In post processing, I slightly dodged the waves to give the idea of white flames licking up to complete the image.