366 Days of 2012, Day 353 - Low Tide

Tonight was going to be special. I had done the maths (well at least the computer had) and I was ready.

Tonight the waxing moon would set in just such a way that it would be visible in the centre of the jetty. Imagine sitting on the beach, under the jetty, looking down under the pylons and out to sea. At exactly 23:50pm tonight the moon would would be perfectly aligned in the centre of the jetty and its reflection would travel all the way back under the jetty back to shore. 1.4 degrees above the horizon and 14 minutes before moon set I was ready.

Well despite the best maths brought to bear in predicting this convolution of moon, horizon and jetty, sadly it did not predict the clouds on the horizon. At exactly 11:40pm the moon which had been completely visible all evening slipped behind clouds not to be seen again.

A change of plans ensued and as the tide was low I found many interesting and varied formation in the intertidal sand to capture instead. This image is a very subtle HDR fusion composition of two images, one exposed for 30 seconds and the other for 2 minutes. HDR fusion simply increases the dynamic range of the raw image without all that in-your-face tone mapping. The result is bold and dynamic without being unnatural.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 353 - Low Tide'. 120s f/7.1 ISO640 15mm