P#13: A Striking Photograph of Muir Beach

The Right Exposure and Perspective

Jennifer Wu: This photograph was taken at Muir Beach in the San Francisco Bay area. Here I used long exposure to get the misting look on the water. I also used the wide angle lens.

You can see that there's more of a perception of depth here by using that wide angle lens and getting up close to the subject. This time, I got down really low to the ground, only a couple feet off the ground, to create more of an interesting perspective than the usual looking straight on at the subject. (click the image for a larger version)

Audri Lanford: Those rocks in the foreground -- are they big or is it the lens that makes them appear much bigger?

Jennifer Wu: The one on the left, that was a fairly large-sized rock. Three or four feet, or something like that. The rocks are a little bit bigger out there. You can kind of see the seaweed a little bit in the foreground to give us a little bit of a sense of scale.

Dramatic Lighting

Audri Lanford: The light here is just exquisite.

Jennifer Wu: The photograph was taken at sunset. After sunset, there was just that glow of the light coming through the clouds there. I've been to that beach several times. Sometimes there are no clouds, and a lot of times it's overcast. It's just a matter of going again and again until I got an interesting sky.

To Conclude

If you want to get dramatic landscape photographs you need to find the right combination of elements. Jennifer Wu combined proper exposure and perspective with beautiful scenery and dramatic lighting to get this striking image of Muir Beach.