Bolsa Chica Sunset

[whaas2]

This is a photo of a sunset over the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Southern California's Orange County. I probably would have gotten a better shot of this sunset over the ocean taken at the beach but I was not at the beach. I was here, about a mile from the beach as the seagull flys.

[cedric_r]

The colours in the sky are really nice. Firey sky is always good.
What the photo is missing though is details in the foreground. There's a lot of nearly pure black there that doesn't hold the attention. So maybe to try to get some details in there or crop to leave only the horizon in the shot?

[whaas2]

Thanks for viewing. I agree with your comments. The only feature in the forground that was not all black was the puddle with the duck in it. It was not much but I decided to leave it in. I would have had a lot better forground if I were at the beach, a mile away but I was not there.

[tonyrabina]

lovely sunset

[whaas2]

Thank you for the kind comment. Here is another cut. There is not as much black which should make it better but the wetlands, what little there is, is gone. The hill to the right is an area known as Palos Verdes.

[sandrann]

WoW! ... some sky, you were definately in 'Orange' county there. And personally I like your original
better, the solid black with its slice of river, or dam, is most effective as 1/3 of your composition.
Excellent.

[whaas2]

Thank you for viewing and expressing your views. Everyone is going to think differently of what they see because they are human. It is nice to get different views on this subject. There is no right or wrong. Digital photography makes it so easy to generate different versions of a photograph. As an engineer, I have been involved with some form of digital image processing since the early 1970's and I am still amaized. A company that Iworked for back them developed one of the first color diaplays. They sold a few units back them but then decided that there was no futuure in digital color imagery so they quit the business. Were they right?

[Tedski TX]

When I lived in Huntington Beach, it irked me to no end that no matter what city a news story happened in -- Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Garden Grove -- the (Los Angeles) TV station identified the "city" as Orange County, CA.

Just sayin', that'a all.

Cheers,

Ted
Tarrant County, TX

[Tedski TX]

Oh. Nice shot, too. Makes me homesick.

[whaas2]

Yes, I was standing in Huntington Beach when I shot this. In what part of Huntington Beach did you live?

[Tedski TX]

I graduated from Edison High in 1972 and lived about a 5-minute walk away.

When I got out of the Air Force in 1979, I lived in the Cambridge Apartments off of Bolsa Chica and (I want to say) Warner (?).

[whaas2]

I know these areas well. This photo was taken about a mile away from the intersection of Bolsa Chica and Warner.

[Tedski TX]

I always loved driving down Warner with that great view of Saddleback Mountain directly ahead.

Not my picture, but one I found on the net.

[whaas2]

Here is a photo of Saddleback taken today. The conditions were not the greatest and I was far away, about 1/2 mile south of Warner. Hopefully it looks familiar. I will try to get some better shots of it and post them here. From the edge of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, while the sun sets to the west, Saddleback appears to the east. I have been to the top of both peaks, many years ago and took film camera photos. If I happen to find them I will try to digitize them and post some of them here. Saddleback is really two peaks. There is a road up to the top of the highest one. The highest one is full of radio and TV antenas.

[nldunne]

My vote goes for the top sunset as well. It needs the bottom part - at least to the bottom of the puddle.

The one of the mountain at the bottom - I wonder if the brightness level was brought down - just a tad - if the texture and details in the mountain would come out better along with the clouds? Some of the white in the clouds are losing texture and detail. Any ideas here?

[whaas2]

Thanks for viewing and commenting. This photo of Saddleback has already been enhanced to bring out detail of the mountain at the expense of the clouds. I used a form of histogram enhancement as well as increasing both the brightness and the contrast. I had no interest in the clouds, just the mountains. The real problem is the effect of clouds and haze. Getting at least 10 miles closer to the mountain would have helped but I did not want to do that yesterday. Maybe in the future when conditions are better and I happen to be closer to the mountain I can get a better shot of it.