"Ok look, let's get one thing straight.  You pull me out of this bucket and I'm going to open a can of whoopass on you the likes of which you've never seen.  If you'd like a quite day then I suggest you leave me soaking in here for a little bit longer.  If not, well, let's just say that there's a fair amount of nap time I can make pretty unpleasant for you, capiche?  Now shoo!"

They're quite random at this point, but Noah's facial expressions are so diverse at times.  This is the second shot in a series of three where in the first and last frame he's smiling.  That serious look in his eyes was quite a surprise as I was going through these photos.  I kept the contrast in the general skin area low and tried to put the focus on the eyes.  As for the end result, I'm quite happy.  Then again, I might be a little biased :D

EXIF: [ F22, 0.5s, 17mm, iso 50 ]  [ on black ]
Canon EOS 5D   & Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM  + Lee 0.9 GND 


Obviously, this is a black and white version of Rising Tides Falling Clouds. Although this was a straight forward b&w conversion (channel mixer + selective dodge & burn), everything in this b&w version seems so exaggerated to the point that this version has a completely different mood than the colors version. When I shot this, I reached for my 3 stops split ND filter instead of 2 stops b/c I wanted to keep the sky a touch darker so I can really pop the clouds during the b&w conversion process.

Since I answered two emails asking how do I keep my tripods from shifting on the wet sand when attempting this type of shots, I thought I’d share these: I try to minimize the tripods movements during my exposure by keeping my tripods low and by spreading the tripods legs wide. I also try to get a shot off before the sands shift too much. This implies that I can’t use too long of an exposure time. Finding a good spot to position the tripods is important: large rocks and higher patches of sand are prime locations. Another good practice is to shoot when the waves retreat. I listed a few things that I learned in my Primed Canvas post. Hope these help.