Aliso Beach Sundown

During the months leading up and into Winter, the low tides and sunset align a couple of times a month. The last visit to experience this occurrence was back in October to Crystal Cove.

Leading up to the final low tide point, the waves would cycle in intensity, with a 10 wave beat culminating in a sound that could only be compared to a car crashing into a steel wall and a visual of waves coming up to 20 feet over the rocks as a disintegrating wall of water. The birds would come in the waves and hover over the possible fowl carnage. Having the camera setup for landscapes, there wan’t much opportunity to catch the gulls or pelicans coming in for what was being churned up in the waves. Any future visit may need a two camera setup.

This low tide was to finish a foot or two below sea level, which is funny to type as you are at the sea level at the beach, and the sea is actually lower for a short time. Think on that a while.. Arriving about 45 minutes before sundown, the sky was looking mostly clear with just a few streams of clouds off in the distance. As time moved closer for the moment the sun would sink over the horizon, at the same time, those initially good clouds were expanding taking over more of the skyline. It did get to a point where at sunset, the clouds only left a sliver of sky way, way, waaaayyyy off in the distance to see the golden glow. Pushing the clicks well after sunset, the scene moved from golden hour into blue hour until nothing remained of the sliver of skyline for the remnant of the sun to highlight the underside of the cloud cover.

To bring out the detail of all the sky shots, 9 shots were taken to combine a HDR composite. This also has an added benefit of giving motion to the water as it lapped on the beach over the length of the individual combined photos.

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