I don’t know if wave splashes in long exposure have any artistic value, but they are sure fun to obtain. They are also impossible to replicate. Taking a long exposure photograph is looking at the scene in whole different away. It is magical, it slows up the time for your eye to see.
A few times in the last two months I have been, alone or with friends, to this place near the Golden Gate Bridge called Rodeo Beach. It is relatively close to my home and that allows me to arrive early and leave before lunch time, just when the parking lots are getting full. There, on the right hand corner where the surfers hang out, it is possible to photograph the most amazing splashes.
Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger version of the images.
Location: Coastal trail at the Marin Headlands, Sausalito, California, USA;
Equipment: Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm F2.8, Lee Filters (Polarizer, 6 stops); tripod;
Settings: 200 mm f/18, 1/5s, ISO 320;
Tips: Get there early. The Marin Headlands is a very popular place, and it gets really full of people. Take different grades of neutral density filters to the photoshoot: the light in this location changes fast, from overcast and dark to bright and sunny. When doing long exposure of the ocean, don’t be scanty, take many pictures with the same settings and vary the camera’s settings also. It is better to sort things out at home than to miss that especial moment when the waves do just the right thing.
It is all about the light 
These are so beautiful. I do want to learn how to capture the ocean in slow mo!
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Come with me one day, Anne! I teach you. I am hoping to be fully vaccinated by mid April…
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While long-exposure pictures of waterfalls are common—some might say a cliché—your slow-shutter-speed takes on splashing waves are the first I’ve seen. Happy novelty.
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Well, I’m glad. It’s hard to take a photograph that people have not seen before many times in one form or another.
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What fun! When I was playing around with photography, I used to love getting out, going places, finding interesting things to shoot. I don’t do that so much with art. I go to the park or to nature preserves when I can and I do a bit of sketching there — and take a few photographs to work from later. I wish I were closer. I would love to venture out with you for a day of photography!
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I do not know where you are. I am in the Sacramento area of California. Yolo county, where I live, has an artists’ program, once a month different artists go to a local farm where paint, photograph or write something. I am often intrigued by the painters because they stay put the entire time, whereas the photographers hop about like a bee hopping on flowers. Yes it would be fun to go out together.
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I am far away in the middle if the US. Close to Kansas City. Have fun!
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Excellent work and images! I love photographing seascapes and water scenes. I love how you were able to allow the water to have some nice texture and structure. Really adds to the feel of power of the waves.
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Thanks, Goose!
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Wonderful shots. I’ve always loved the idea of showing in photographs what’s there but that you’re eyes can’t see
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These are just beautiful, and especially so in black and white. It seems like a great location too, wild and untamed.
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Thank you. It’s sure a beautiful location, I wish I could have seen it in pre-colonial times.
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