A Hazy Evening

The other night I (guarded by my brother) went to Richmond Beach to photograph the sunset. Why did I need to be guarded? Because Richmond Beach, while aesthetically a nice park, is usually pretty crowded and sometimes has some interesting characters. Most of them are just youths having a good time. But you never know.

The sunset was very red-orange. Cliff Mass' weather blog tells me that this was in fact due to smoke from Asian wildfires drifting over the Pacific! Crazy.

This was my best of the evening. An exposure time of 1/15 sec blurred the water a bit without blurring it too much, providing a good sense of motion.

The first thing I noticed while in the park was how colorful some of the Scotch broom seeds were - a veritable rainbow! The second thing I noticed was the soft light that was falling on them (the sunlight was diffused by the haze). This was my best ensuing shot:

I was also able to snag a few interesting plant-and-sunset shots. In this first one, I used a narrower aperture (f/18). This is why you see the rays coming out of the sun.

Finally, this last one violates my usual aesthetic principles--it has houses in the top right hand corner! I usually try to avoid human creations in my work. Still, the shot turned out nicely enough.