Beach Life

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IMG_7005Canon EOS 6D (70mm, f/10, 1/1000 sec, ISO500)

Pismo Beach, California. Two years ago I posted my favorite shot from my 2010 vacation in the USA. It was taken here, on Pismo beach, underneath this boardwalk. These are from May 2013, from our second trip to California. Blue sky, blue sea. What a place!

But this time I walked the beach with my Canon 6D instead of the Sony NEX 5. A bigger and heavier but also much more capable camera. Even when coupled with the 70-300 VC from Tamron it is still “reasonable compact” and offers plenty of reach. The biggest advantage when shooting with an DSLR is its optical viewfinder. It is clear and bright! No dark EVF that is hard to see in such bright conditions or even worse a tilt screen that simply can’t compete with the blazing sun and the white beach.

IMG_6882Canon EOS 6D (24mm, f/11, 1/100 sec, ISO100)
  IMG_6980Canon EOS 6D (300mm, f/10, 1/1000 sec, ISO320)
  IMG_7014Canon EOS 6D (300mm, f/10, 1/500 sec, ISO125)

Light was far from perfect as expected in the middle of the day at the end of May. It is a great thing to travel in May and June because of the long days but regarding photography I definitely prefer September. Much better light and you do not have to wait forever if you want to shoot a sunset by the sea.

Instead of fighting the contrasty light with HDR post processing I have gone for the contrasty look. I used VSCO’s Velvia setting to process those images and most images of my USA trip. I haven’t had this preset available when I started to post pictures from this trip but now I have it and I like it a lot. It is much stronger than Fuji’s in camera Velvia setting for the JPEGs. Much more contrasty, just like the slide film that I loved so much. The only difference is that Velvia film was 40ASA now I can shoot Velvia at ISO 12.800 if I have to.

IMG_7064Canon EOS 6D (300mm, f/10, 1/500 sec, ISO200)
 IMG_7162Canon EOS 6D (300mm, f/10, 1/500 sec, ISO160)

Just when I was leaving the place I saw Pelicans high up in the sky. I was able to squeeze all of them in one frame. All 19 of them. What a place!

IMG_7181Canon EOS 6D (228mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO100)