Dorset, UK: Jurassic Coast Beach (Night Photograph).

EDIT: Unfortunately all my original image links are now broken. My photographs are now hosted at Flickr and on my website. Links to both of these sites are in my signature section.

Apologies for any broken image links that are now showing in any of my threads or posts.

Thanks,

Mike

Nice shot Mike, It has a great dream like quality to it
I was out last night as well and wondered if you would be down the coast taking your super long exposures

EDIT: Unfortunately all my original image links are now broken. My photographs are now hosted at Flickr and on my website. Links to both of these sites are in my signature section.

Apologies for any broken image links that are now showing in any of my threads or posts.

Thanks,

Mike

GORGEOUS! It does indeed have a dream-like quality about it. I especially love the water. The sky looks like a pretty normal day sky, but when the eye flits around the photo there's something that just doesn't look normal, and that's kind of what i like about the photo ... not to mention that the depth of field works well, considering as you said, the lack of details in the background.

Thanks Jane

That's what I like about night photography. Apart from the effects of the long exposure on things like the sea, you do get a rather eerie effect from the moonlight.

I left the star trails in, although I'm not 100% happy with them. Sometimes they make the photograph look untidy.

Mike

Good effort, I like it.

If it was me I would darken it a touch to leave a hint that it is actually a night shot.

Also, and this might sound weird, I would blur the horizon because, next to the blur of the shore and the clouds, it looks a little odd, almost like you've replaced the sky.

Re star trails, I would just clone out or reduce the most prominent one. The others are OK.

Interesting shot... why not use manual focus to get the hyperfocal distance?

Thanks George and Jim.

George, yes, it is sometimes difficult to decide on the exact exposure, but that is something that adds to the mystery of the shot. Full moon is surprisingly bright, once your eyes adjust to it.

Technically speaking the horizon is blurred as it is outside the depth of field for this photograph (at 100% it is visibly blurred). Obviously the shore and clouds blur more due to the movement, but it's all as nature provided, and the timescale did the rest!

Jim, I always use manual focus. In this case I had nothing to focus on (manual or otherwise!) at the hyperfocal distance. The next best thing would be to use the distance scale on my lens, but it has nothing marked on it past the 3 feet marker, then only a small gap to infinity. That's why I'm going to do some test focuses at pre-measured distances, then note their position within the unmarked part of the distance scale on my lens.

Mike