Keeping with the same subject but with a touch of color now.

This trip did not yield many seascape images with dramatic clouds and colors, since they weren’t there. The sky was pretty open; extremely open, I must say, giving that unflattering lighting. I have checked  the tides chart the day before and one of the low tides for the day was going to be a few hours prior to sunset and right into it.

Since I did not find my inspiration up in the sky, I turned my attention to the rocks, sea stars, and things around me. Interestingly enough there was a whole lot more in there than I have imagined.

For this location, I would say that a macro lens would be a good candidate since there are all kinds of elements filled with texture, colors and interesting patterns; there are so  many things begging to be photographed up close. Also a wide angle can prove itself invaluable in places like this offering very dramatic views.  After the day was over I thought that a small reflector would have helped a bit in certain places where shadows were pretty dense and these handy collapsible disc can do wonders opening up shadows and also they can be use as a diffuser when the sun it’s hitting the subject too hard.  Another item to seriously consider is a  tripod since it can turn this session into a very rewarding day.  More on this tomorrow

 As I was walking about the tide pools, I saw this nice looking fellow waiting for a photo session. I didn’t need a whole lot to get excited over this colorful sea star; so I grabbed my macro lens Canon Ef 100 mm 2.8 screwed a circular polarizing filter to it and the session begun.

The camera settings ( should anyone care to know ) were as follows. Camera is always in raw . Manual mode, Iso was at 200 F 8  speed 1/125. I dialed the exposure down by 1/3rd to keep the details within the histogram and to saturate the orange a bit more. After the capture Photoshop cs3 assisted with the final touches here and there.

Here are a few more shots of these friendly but very quite little creature.

Not to far from my new colorful companion I saw another potential super star, so we invited him or her to join the party. Moved the rock where it ws glued to and arranged it next to Mr Orange seat star. Settings were roughly the same, just closed down the lens a bit to F11 speed 100 and no EV (exposure value) compensation.

Came on and joint the sea star party…

After several shots with the 100mm lens; guess what? one more star joined in. Then I decided it was time to add a bit of salt and pepper to this. It was time for the fun lens; yes, the fun lens. The one that can fit all kinds of things inside the little rectangle (that is the  sensor I’m talking about) Canon EFS 10-22mm. This is one of those lens that can make the magic happen, turning a boring image into something  pretty interesting. This will fit all 3 stars and put a different flavor to them making them, for lack of better word the stars of the picture.

After a while of mingling with the stars, my interest shifted to an old, rather plain looking sea weed.When I got closer, I guess what saved this ragged looking fellow, was the fact that the sun was setting and hitting it low and backlighting it creating nice shadows and reflections, thus revealing great texture.

There we go again to Mr back pack to change lenses. This time Canon Ef 70-200 2.8 IS. stretched the lens to 200mm F 4.5 speed at 1/25 ISO 100  and be stealth holding that beast. I set the DOF (depth of field) rather shallow directing the attention where the texture is.