Today I was out to take some shots at the beach, was looking for stones that would obstruct the waves and create exciting movements. Today was the first day in about a week where there wasn’t a cloudy sky.

The water was much higher today then usual. Perhaps due to the close to full moon we have now ?

I used my main body, the 1D Mark IV, with the EF 16-35mm F4L IS lens. I used tripod of course, and I used the Lee Little Stopper and 0.9ND grad filter.

The most used setup today was wide apart legs to get a low angle, and at the same time a much more stable tripod. In my opinion a low angle for the camera towards the subject is very important. And since I often emphasise on the foreground in the shot, the angle towards it is important.

To me it is also important to get close to what I am shooting. In other words if the foreground is supposed to be some rocks I need to move my camera close to them and the sea so I do not have unnecessary beach to cut away.

I try to capture the colors, the mood and atmosphere. I believe it is important to freeze the “chaos” that we see, where everything moves all the time and to move it into a setting where we experience the movements and how they as a greater collective of things move along. The best way I think to achieve this is to use long exposures.

I am very happy with the results I had this day. I have been able to increase my portfolio with some superb landscape shots – and that doesn’t happen everyday. And I have been better friends with my new lens.