Images of Broken Light (or: Bzdula Beams!)

coscorrosa

After shooting the sunrise at Second Beach, I walked back out on the small trail looking for some sunbeams (the forecast said there would be 95% humidity with a matching temperature and dew point, and no cloud cover, which is a recipe for fog, this is why I chose Second Beach for sunrise).

Some of the Bzdula Beams also have Muench Stars (it couldn't be helped). Incidentally, the new 24-105 that came with my new camera produces better diffraction stars than the one I had previously (and sold used to a friend). I'm not complaining.

Anyway, I got lucky and there were some great beams (this is the first time I have shot these).

#1:



#2:



#3:



#4:

dlplumer

bryanj87

O M G!!!!!!

Coscorrosa Beams from now on.

These are stunning. I could never come close to this.

Coscorrosa Beams.....

aktse

stunning. seriously stunning.

Awais Yaqub

clapclaplustlust

schmoo

I love the new terminology! Whatever they're going to be called, they're awesome. Beautiful, gorgeous work and you certainly do your homework for getting the shot. I will have to remember that recipe for fog.

scole

Ron, #1 is phenominal. I LOVE the way the tree at far right is highlighted and the conversion to black & white was a great choice.

It's really satisfying when you're able to snag more great shots like this after your primary shoot (your sunrise shots). Well done. Have you upgraded to a 1Tb harddrive yet? Surely you must be running out of space!

Steve

Darren Troy C

Great shots....#1 is SUPERB!

anwmn1

:wow That first shot is just amazing. Very well done Ron.

Kwarta

bow

Shootin1st

Very nice

kts

WOW.

or as everyone else has been saying... bow

coscorrosa

dlplumer wrote:

A man of few words! Thanks Dan

coscorrosa

bryanj87 wrote:

O M G!!!!!!

Coscorrosa Beams from now on.

These are stunning. I could never come close to this.

Coscorrosa Beams.....

Nope, sorry, tradition says that these have to remain Bzdula Beams!

And you certainly could do this, I just happened to be very fortunate with a great subject. I've found that 99% of it is just being at the right place at the right time (and you can do a lot of things to increase your odds, but you're always at the mercy of forces beyond your control).

It was difficult for me to find compositions for these, the forest was pretty thick, and moving just a degree or two would completely change the shot since the beams are so directional.

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

I love the new terminology! Whatever they're going to be called, they're awesome. Beautiful, gorgeous work and you certainly do your homework for getting the shot. I will have to remember that recipe for fog.

Thanks schmoo, actually the national weather service did the homework, I just copied their answers

When you go to the NWS website you can search for a city (and then actually double click on the map if the area you're at isn't at a city, which comes in handy sometimes):

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=La+Push&state=WA&site=SEW&textField1=47.9089&textField2=-124.635&e=0

And then click on the Hourly Weather Graph link at the bottom:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=La+Push&state=WA&site=SEW&textField1=47.9089&textField2=-124.635&e=0&FcstType=graphical

Extremely useful for finding what the conditions (temp, precipitation, dew point, wind/direction, etc.) are going to be at dawn and dusk (the "morning/afternoon/night" split they give on the news isn't detailed enough for anyone).

Abiciriderback

Very cool Ron really like #1 and the B&W conversion. All are spectacular guess you can wrap the trip up as a success. Very nice work on both post.

Ray Still

coscorrosa

scole wrote:

Ron, #1 is phenominal. I LOVE the way the tree at far right is highlighted and the conversion to black & white was a great choice.

It's really satisfying when you're able to snag more great shots like this after your primary shoot (your sunrise shots). Well done. Have you upgraded to a 1Tb harddrive yet? Surely you must be running out of space!

Steve

Thanks Steve, there was too much contrast to try and get much color out of #1 so I didn't have a lot of choice but did like the way the B&W turned out.

I have a 1.5 TB RAID disk (that's full) and I just bought a new computer with two 640 GB hard drives

I wizened up last year and started deleting photos I didn't like, but I still have a bunch of old crap I need to get rid of.

The stuff I care about I also backup on Amazon S3 (the same storage service that SmugMug uses), I use JungleDisk and find it works very well (and I can use it from Linux, OS X, or Windows with no problem).

coscorrosa

Thanks!
Thanks for the comments everyone! #1 is my favorite as well. Olympic National Park is outstanding, and unlike the other two national parks here (North Cascades and Mt. Rainier) it's pretty much open for business all year long (the rain forest and coast parts, not the mountains of course).

I'm lucky that I can get there in about 4 hours with minimal chance of getting pulled over for speeding. I plan on making a few more trips before things warm up weather permitting.

kdog

2,3 and 4 are just lovely, Ron. But I have to agree that #1 steals the show. That light is amazing, but that little starburst through the trees is just showing off.

Great job reading the weather. Wish we got weather out here like that. :cry

Cheers,
-joel

shniks

Good Lord- #1 is S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G.... :eek1


Great series...


Cheers,

coscorrosa

kdog wrote:

2,3 and 4 are just lovely, Ron. But I have to agree that #1 steals the show. That light is amazing, but that little starburst through the trees is just showing off.

Great job reading the weather. Wish we got weather out here like that. :cry

Cheers,
-joel

Thanks Joel, actually the showing off part was that I took that shot *while standing on just one leg*. I know, maybe that doesn't sound impressive to you, but the Steller's Jay a few feet away was digging it.

coscorrosa

A few more...
Here a few more I converted to B&W, I still think the original #1 in the thread is the best. Like I said before, I had a hard time finding compositions for these in the thick forest.

#5:



#6:



#7:

cj99si

Very nice, youve been busy!

Ann McRae

WOW!


Excellent, and stunning photos!

ann

dlplumer

I am sure you have motivated many of us to try this. I have already visited Bzdula's website.

grimace

Ann McRae wrote:

WOW!


Excellent, and stunning photos!

ann

I couldn't agree more.

Tee Why

Great concept with very dynamic lighting.

bryanj87

dlplumer wrote:

I am sure have motivated many of us to try this. I have already visited Bzdula's website.

I guess I motivated Ron to try these incredible shots, and now he has motivated many on us, including me. I still think that first shot is a show stopper. Well done, young jedi.

Dwayne Oakes

The first one rocks !! Great job Ron.

Take care,

Dwayne Oakes

TJDIV

Very cool. I'm wondering how this would look / turn out with 4' of snow and no leaves on the trees....


Thanks for sharing-

coscorrosa

bryanj87 wrote:

I guess I motivated Ron to try these incredible shots, and now he has motivated many on us, including me. I still think that first shot is a show stopper. Well done, young jedi.

I'm more of a Star Trek guy than Star Wars, but thanks anyway

But yeah, you're right, your shots that you posted from Rialto Beach actually put the thought of sunbeam shots in my mind, and that, along with the forecast, actually altered my plans and I shot at Second Beach instead of Ruby Beach for sunrise (incidentally, that was a great choice, as Second Beach at sunrise that day was incredible). So, thanks!