Humboldt Bay At Night

I'm more than a bit slow processing my CA trip pictures from June. I hope someone likes at least some of these. They are all mid-range shots from brackets for HDR. I haven't got a handle on the HDR stuff yet, so this is it for now.

1.

Nice! I like the reflections.

The spectacular skies are due to weather from 5000 miles of open ocean banging into steep California coast here. They pile upwards and split causing gravity waves, and LOTS of rainfall, up to 200 inches a year in some spots! (It is raining now)

Thanks for the comment. Are you in Humboldt? I was raised there myself.

1 and 3 for me Gary very nice

Forget the planned HDR, these are great!

Gary McDuffie wrote in post #8637228
Thanks for the comment. Are you in Humboldt? I was raised there myself.

Yes I am, down on the lost coast inside the blue hole. Semi-retired now, I'm thoroughly enjoying photographing the googolplex of beauty all around while waiting for just the right third career opportunity to present itself. With no need to run away for love or money, I think I'll live here forever!

#3 in particular is a winner.

Great shots,

Makes you want to use HDR for everything.

Very nice series; great exposure and composition.

scot079 wrote in post #8638189
Forget the planned HDR, these are great!

Thank you. I really am trying to learn the HDR thing, but haven't had time to play with any of these yet.

siriusdogstar wrote in post #8641443
Yes I am, down on the lost coast inside the blue hole.

Semi-retired now, I'm thoroughly enjoying photographing the googolplex of beauty all around while waiting for just the right third career opportunity to present itself. With no need to run away for love or money, I think I'll live here forever!

Had a good friend down at Mattole years ago. He's moved to OR now I hear. I haven't been down there in decades.

I'd like to move back, but not sure it will happen. I'll be in EKA again for reunion (EHS) in 2013, probably not before. I hope to take more time than I had this year and hit several areas shooting the old sights. By the way, I did shoot the beaches north of Arcata this trip, but I didn't like ANY of them. Ran out of talent, I guess.

PM me if you happen to be involved in ham radio.

BobRelyea wrote in post #8643863
Great shots,

Makes you want to use HDR for everything.

As I said, these aren't HDR, but I think something could be done with them. I shot all of these in brackets and hope to get something out of them eventually.

CameraBuff wrote in post #8644057
Very nice series; great exposure and composition.

Thank you, and everyone else who commented. To all who prefer #3, me too!

Just looking at these, I suspect that if you were able to get +/- 1, 2 stops (total of 5 pictures per HDR image), you could get very good results.

The hardest part of HDR for me to learn was tone mapping so the colors didn't end up looking goofy. If you haven't tried Photomatix yet, you might try the trial version just to see if it works for you.