[Photography] Benefits of Using a Large Aperture and Tips for Shooting Wide Open

Upon first glance of one of my most prized lenses, the Canon 50mm f/1.2L USM, a bewildered remark typically arises from professionals and hobbyists alike. Though absolutely spectacular photographers in the industry love working with a wide open aperture, there are equally as many who wouldn’t touch anything lower than a f/4.0 with a ten foot pole.

“I’d never shoot as wide as f/1.2” is a common comment I’ve encountered over the years of working as a professional photographer.

Stylistic choices aside, upon further inquiry as to why the response to a f/1.2, f/1.8, or f/ 2.0 f-stop yielded such results the truth came out. There are common misunderstandings of how to use and work with a wide open aperture! If your artistic aesthetic drools over soft, dreamy photographs and creamy bokeh, then you better get ready to play with some low, low, low numbers.

Before we get to the “how”, let’s discuss the “why”. There are several beneficial reasons to shoot with a wide open aperture, aside from simply liking the result.

Benefit #1 – Working with a Difficult Location

Depending on the type of photography that you do, you may not always have the option of utilizing an ideal location. Maybe your client is only able to commute to one place? Maybe the location of a shoot that was booked months prior has changed for the worse upon your arrival on site? Or maybe you just have to get a specific photo done pronto and you aren’t able to find a new spot?

Whatever the reason for your woes, a wide open aperture is here to help! With the depth-of-field being so shallow, whatever troubles you about the background can easily melt into a beautiful creamy bokeh. Utilizing an f-stop of f/2.0 or lower helps you work with a less than immaculate location, as the extremely shallow depth of field allows you to mask the flaws.

Benefit #2 – Excellent for Detail Shots

A shallow depth of field can make for very beautiful detail shots. If you look through current wedding photography trends, you may find that several heavy-hitters in the industry are turning to wide open apertures to capture photographs of the bouquets, rings, and table settings. This is because photographs taken with a large aperture allow all of the focus to lie on the subject, and the background ceases to remain a distraction.

With events such as weddings, where the arrangements can appear cluttered if you only want to focus on one little aspect of the set-up, a shallow depth of field will keep the interest solely on your single subject. Music photography adores wide apertures for the same exact reason. If you want to bring out a detail while photographing behind-the-scenes of a recording session, f/1.2 is wonderful.

Benefit #3 – Create a Dreamy Photographs without Post-Processing

With all of the technology available for photo editing, almost anything is possible with the right knowledge. However, rather than spending countless hours in the editing room creating a specific look artificially, why not get it right in the camera?

For those who adore dreamy, ethereal, or soft photographs, a wide aperture will quickly become your most trusted friend. Filmmakers consistently utilize wide open apertures in order to create a soft focus with a shallow depth of field to give the viewer the illusion of a dream-like state. When we dream, it is often hard to clearly and sharply recollect some of those thoughts when we wake. So the idea of soft and not perfectly in focus images came to mind.

We can replicate this using an aperture of f/1.2 easily, especially if you have objects in the foreground which are just as out of focus as the objects in the background.

Benefit #4 – Makes Low Light Photography a Breeze

Possibly one of the most dreaded phrases in photography is “low light”. Two very short, simple words that cause some of the biggest photographer headaches. This is because there isn’t a lot of available light to play with, and as such, getting the right exposure can be hard.

However, if you want to take a well exposed photo in low light, you need a lens with a wide enough aperture to let in more light. Using a lens that goes down to f/1.8, for example, is a great way to let enough light in and make the frame bright. Remember, the aperture is the hole the light passes through in your lens. The wider the aperture, the more light that enters the camera.

Now that we’ve covered some of the “why”, let’s have a nice chat about the “how.” Many of the challenges associated with a wide aperture revolve around the focus and photographing in bright light. From a recent poll I took, here are the primary issues troubling photographers about low f-stops, and some solutions to help you solve them.

Tip #1 – Shooting in Bright Sunlight Without Overexposing

With the aperture being the opening that lets light in through the lens, and a wide aperture which lets in a lot of light, one may think that shooting in the bright sunlight is off-limits. The solution to this dilemma is taking advantage of tinted filters that darken your lens, such as a neutral-density (or ND) filter. The purpose (and benefit) of an ND filter is to reduce the amount of light entering the lens. Doing so allows you to utilize a wide aperture that would otherwise produce overexposed pictures.

Tip #2 – Getting Critical Focus

To quickly refresh you of the basics, when you focus your camera on a subject, it establishes a focal plane. To get your subject in focus, it has to be on the focal plane. Focal planes happen on an x (horizontal) and y (vertical) axis. This means anything along either of those axes will be in focus, and anything not on them will be out of focus.

Simple, right? Well, the difficulty with a wide open aperture is that your focal plane is quite small. As you decrease your aperture number and make the opening wider, the invisible area in front and behind the plane of focus will get smaller and smaller, leaving you with much less wiggle-room. As such, distance from the subject plays a key role in your focus.

When shooting wide open, even the smallest diversion from either of the focal plane axes will cause your subject to be out-of-focus photo. You cannot take a step forward or back without the need to refocus when shooting at a wide aperture. But by keeping this in mind, you can adjust your photography technique to better accommodate the small focal plane.

A trick to help make sure that what you want in focus is indeed sharp, is to use single point autofocus. By default, your camera will probably select either the object that’s closest to the camera or what’s in the center of the frame. By using single point autofocus, you tell the camera exactly where to focus, which is extremely helpful with low aperture numbers. Refer to your camera model’s manual to find how to change the focus setting!

Tip #3 – Getting Multiple Subjects Sharp

Keeping in mind how the focal plane works, there are several things you can do to ensure your multiple subjects are all in focus. First, try to set up all of your subjects on the same axis. Keep everything you want perfectly in focus the same distance from the camera.

Secondly, the farther away you are from the subject, the easier it is to get the subjects all in focus. If you have a large group of subjects you’d like in focus, move further away from them!

Tip #4 – Getting Sharp Images Generally

Sharpness is an interesting concept. How sharp a subject appears is a matter of two things: the focus the camera captures and the amount of contrast on your subject. The term “sharpness” is, in fact, an illusion. You see, for an image to be considered sharp, it needs to have contrast. If the there is little contrast in the image, the subject will not look three-dimensional regardless of whether the focus is perfect or not.

Biologically, the way that our eyes work, our vision naturally detects edges to register sharpness, and shadows and highlights in order to record the depth in a subject. This is a very important concept to understand when answering the question of how to make images look sharp.

With this now in your knowledge arsenal, proper lighting aids significantly in making your images look sharp. The other factor in an image being sharp is, of course, the focus. Ensuring that your subject is in focus using the aforementioned techniques, combined with great lighting, will make certain that your images come out sharp.

Now that you know how to take advantage of those low numbers and wide openings, go forth, and create!

The post Benefits of Using a Large Aperture and Tips for Shooting Wide Open by Anabel DFlux appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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[Photography] The Minimalist Landscape Photographer: What do you really need?

Landscape photography is arguably the first form of photography, literally. At some point around 1826, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made an exposure on a bitumen covered pewter plate from his upstairs work room. The resulting image would be the first known photograph which displayed his view from the window at his estate in Le Gras, in the Burgundy region of France.

Since then, the gear and techniques used in landscape photography have grown exponentially. So much in fact, that some photographers possibly feel the only way to make strong landscape photographs is by investing hundreds if not thousands of dollars into specialized camera equipment. But, nothing could be further from the truth!

In reality, landscape photography can be made as complicated or as simple as you would like it to be. Granted, there are a few pieces of gear that will enable you to shoot with more versatility, but at its core, outstanding landscape photography can be accomplished with only a few pieces of basic photography gear. In this article, we’ll share a few suggestions for “minimalist” landscape photography gear. You might be surprised to learn that you probably already have everything you need to get started right now.

The Landscape Photographer’s Mindset

I learned a long time ago that capturing a strong landscape photograph has more to do with having a concrete understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish more so than the tools you have at your disposal. In those days, I had only one camera and one lens. Not even a tripod. The lens was a Canon 28-135mm and I only used it because it was the one that came with my camera. Oh, and my camera at the time, it was my first digital camera…ever.

One of my first landscape photos with my new digital camera. Circa 2010.

Since then, I’ve evolved and so has my gear, my attitude, and my photography. Still, the realization remains that it was never the gear that defined what I was doing even back then. Rather, it was my desire to learn and practice; the idea that I didn’t have the “correct” outfit to shoot landscapes never entered my mind.

I was just happy to have a camera, the open air, and a place to make photographs. I knew that I needed to photograph the landscapes I saw and from there, everything else was just a matter of making do with what I had at the time. So with that mindset now hopefully at the forefront, here are a few items I consider to be must-have gear for the minimalist landscape photographer. It’s an extremely short list. Consisting of only three things.

#1 – A Camera

Yes, it goes without saying that if you’re going to make landscape photos or any other photo for that matter, you need some kind of camera. Today, there are dozens (at least) of digital camera models to choose from ranging from the relatively cheap to the astronomically priced. My advice to you, if you want a serviceable camera body suitable for landscape work, is to dismiss any idea that you need the latest and great camera in order to make solid landscape photos.

That first digital camera I mentioned earlier was a Canon 7D, which I still use to this day. It’s a great camera, hefty, rugged, and I’ve taken it everywhere. That being said, if I had it to do all over again, I would have gone with a much less expensive camera body. Why? While having blazing fast autofocus capability is nice, it’s not wholly necessary if you’re shooting mainly stationary objects. If you plan on shooting a wide range of subject matter like weddings, sports, etc., other considerations might come into play.

But as a general guideline for landscape shooting, find yourself the highest megapixel camera you can afford (preferably weather sealed) and forget everything else. Save your money for something that I know understand is a much more important piece of the landscape photography pie. And that is…

#2 – Lens

The lens is the eye of the camera. Photographs are just physical manifestations of light and that light must travel through your lens before it ever reaches the camera. I’ve shot landscapes with lenses that range from very good to the budget variety. As well as having used lenses that ranged in focal length from 10mm all the way to 600mm (yeah really).

Some of those were 30-year-old fully manual lenses that cost $10 at a pawn shop and others that priced in the $3,500 range. What did they all have in common? They let light into my camera to make a photograph.

While it’s true that certain focal lengths render various effects in landscape photography, there is no set rule that you have to use a wide angle or any other focal length lens to shoot landscapes. Virtually any lens you have has the capability to shoot a good landscape photo. Wide angle lenses, say 14mm to 35mm, do capture more of the environment and add a sense of openness to your photos but they are not a requirement.

Shot at 24mm

If you’re looking for a lens to use for landscape photography without breaking the bank or having to buy multiple lenses, simply search for the fastest (smallest f-number) lens you can find that falls in the medium wide angle range. I say medium wide angle because even though landscapes can be captured using virtually any focal length, it’s the wider lenses that tend to be more versatile in more situations. Something in the 14mm to 50mm range will suffice. There are plenty of options today to find excellent quality fast prime (fixed focal length) lenses for under $100.

#3 – Tripod

These days, nobody wants to carry around a tripod. And it’s true, there are ways to work around needing a tripod for some types of photography. This isn’t the case when it comes to landscape work. So often the lighting in a scene requires a shutter speed of such length that hand-holding the camera isn’t a possibility.

While there will always be that person who says, “I can hold the camera still for ten seconds!” the fact of the matter is if you want ultimate sharpness in your landscape photos you will need a tripod. End of story.

That being said, this doesn’t mean you will have to sell your car in order to obtain a usable tripod. My first tripod cost me $35 from Wal-Mart. Was it the latest in lightweight carbon fiber with a graphite ball head and a cup holder? Of course not. Did it provide a solid platform for my camera? Absolutely.

When you’re searching for a tripod, one of the things that you need to look out for is the weight rating. Be sure to get a tripod that can support your camera and lens combo with about another third of that weight added on as a cushion. Just like with the camera, the emphasis on tripod importance is somewhat paradoxical in that it serves an integral function in your work but at the same time being nothing more than something to hold your camera still.

Find a tripod that gives you the height versus the portability you need and can support the weight of your camera rig. Everything else is just icing.

Final Thoughts on Landscape Photography and Minimalism

These days, I find myself fortunate to have much more refined and varied equipment than I had 15 or even 10 years ago. Generally, though, 90% of my landscape work is shot using only two lenses which range from 14mm to 24mm. There are times when I venture out to the 50mm range and beyond but not often.

So really, if I had to, I could do virtually all my work with one camera and one 24mm lens if the need should arise. Being a minimalist landscapist is often brought about by necessity and coupled with the need to make photographs. Remember, you really only need three things:

1. Camera – Get the highest resolution camera you can afford. Weather sealing is a plus.
2. Lens – It’s possible to get great results with only one lens. If you can, find a lens that is a medium wide angle with a fast speed (low f-number).The key is to learn to use whatever lens that might be to its fullest potential.
3. Tripod – Even a minimalist needs a tripod. They can be found extremely cheap if you have realistic expectations. Be sure to use a tripod that can support your heaviest camera and lens combo plus one-third.

Conclusion

Yes, that’s truly all you need to make landscape photographs. The gear you use can extend into the realm of high-end GND filters, multi-thousand dollar cameras, space-age tripods, and lenses that would make NASA proud. But when you peel back all the layers, only three things are needed: a camera, a lens, and a tripod.

Once you have those, everything else is up to you. Becoming a successful landscape shooter has more to do with how you see light, the scene, and how adept you can become to tailoring the image based on the gear you have on hand. Being a minimalist landscapist does not necessarily translate into being a second rate one.

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[Photography] Speed up Your Workflow with the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and Batch Processing

It’s not uncommon for me to sit down at my computer with a memory card full of images and stare blankly at my ever-growing Lightroom catalog while my mind reels at the thought of editing each and every one of them. Many photographers have experienced this phenomenon and there are certainly some good methods of dealing with it such as using Presets in Lightroom, syncing edits across multiple photos, or even just copying and pasting a series of edits from one image to the next and then tweaking as you go.

Other programs offer similar tools for processing multiple images at once, but the Achilles Heel of this type of workflow is that the edits are often static in nature. You can choose from a predetermined set of values (e.g. Clarity +10, Saturation +5, Highlights -20, etc.) and then apply that to many images at one time. But what if some of your images require subtle changes to those parameters?

Lightroom and just about every image editor I have ever used for batch processing won’t tweak your editing parameters if a picture needs a little extra contrast boost or exposure adjustment. That’s where Luminar is different, and its unique Accent AI filter combined with the program’s built-in batch processing offers a great way for you to significantly speed up your workflow while producing outstanding images for yourself, your clients, or your fans on social media.

After batch processing with the Accent AI filter in Luminar.

Accent AI Filter in Luminar

The Accent AI filter is new in Luminar Neptune, an update to Luminar that was released this summer. It works by using artificial intelligence to analyze your image and make adjustments depending on where it thinks the picture needs it most. Accent AI isn’t just a predetermined set of adjustments, but a series of tweaks and edits applied dynamically to the image, all controlled by a single slider that lets you control the overall intensity of the filter.

When I edit my images in Lightroom I often start with a custom preset that includes many alterations such as sharpness, highlights, shadows, tone curve, etc., and then adjust those on a per-image basis according to how I want them to be fine-tuned. It’s the latter part of that process which becomes tedious, and it’s precisely where the usefulness of the Accent AI filter really starts to show.

If Luminar thinks that an image might benefit from lowering the highlights, increasing shadow detail, altering the exposure, or any number of other editing parameters then it adjusts all of these at once instead of forcing you to edit individual sliders and change numerical values.

Original unprocessed image. All I did to edit this into the image you see above was to use the Accent AI filter in Luminar and nothing else.

Applying the Accent AI Filter

Another example of the effectiveness of the Accent AI filter is this image of the Seattle skyline I took from the Sky View Observatory at the top of the Columbia Center Tower. I spent a lot of time using the various sliders in Lightroom to try to get a decent final result. But when opened the same picture in Luminar and used the Accent AI filter, I got a great finished photo in a matter of seconds.

Original photo. Listen closely and you’ll hear a sad trombone playing in the background.

The first version, processed only using Lightroom. I spent about 10-15 minutes to achieve this in LR.

The Luminar version is so good I like it even better than the results I got from manually tweaking all sorts of sliders in Lightroom, and it literally took less than 10 seconds with the single Accent AI slider.

Applying the Accent AI filter dramatically improved the image. The only thing I don’t like about this picture are the spots from dust on my lens in the top-left corner. Accent AI is great at many things, but it won’t fix blemishes like that. Luminar does include a powerful Erase tool to fix blemishes if you want to, but of course, it doesn’t work for batch processing.

Accent AI can also be used in combination with other filters in Luminar to enhance your images even more. You can get just the right combination of editing parameters to make your photos shine. I often use the Accent AI Filter as a starting point, usually adjusting the value to between 60 and 80, and then apply other edits as I need them like Vignette, Dehaze, or Soft Focus.

But the real power of Accent AI lies in how it can be used for batch processing wherein it can dramatically speed up and enhance the results of your photo editing workflow.

Creating Presets in Luminar

Click the Add Preset button (shown here with a red circle around it) to create a new Preset that you can use when Batch Processing several images.

In order to use Accent AI for batch processing you must first create a preset, since you can’t just apply individual filters when going through a batch of images. Your mileage may vary but I’ve found that a good place to start when working with this type of operation is a value of 75. Set that, then click the icon third from the left (circled in red on the screenshot) and give your Preset a name, but make sure it’s descriptive like “Accent AI 75”.

Presets can contain as many filters as you like. I have create several for different types of images including: landscape, close-up, portraits, etc. All of them include the Accent AI filter and a combination of other filters in order to get the right look. The heavy lifting is done with the Accent AI filter, though. So I have a few different presets created with just that one filter set to different values like 60, 80, and 100 so I can quickly apply a single Accent AI adjustment to multiple images at once.

The Accent AI filter shines

Since the Accent AI filter examines each image individually and edits them based on where it thinks they need to be altered, I can generally trust it to give me good results and often don’t even need to use any other adjustments or filters.

Another way to approach batch processing with Accent AI is to open a single image from a collection of similar photos, apply the filter just as much as you want for that specific image, and then save that value as its own unique Preset. Then enter the Batch Processing mode and apply that Preset to all of your images at once.

The thought of going through and editing each one of these pictures individually really bugs me. I created a preset called Cicada Accent AI 82 for editing these in a batch, which was nothing more than the Accent AI filter set to 82 Percent.

The major difference between using the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and syncing (or copy/pasting) edits in Lightroom is that Accent AI works dynamically to apply adjustments where they are needed. So each picture is edited individually rather than having all the same edits applied to all of them at once. That makes it ideally suited for batch processing in a way that is a step above what Lightroom and other programs have to offer. I’m not all that comfortable with applying a single preset in Lightroom to many pictures at once without then going through and tweaking all of them. But I’ve learned to trust the Accent AI Filter in Luminar and I’m quite pleased with its results.

Batch Processing

Once your preset is created, click the multi-file icon in the top-left of the Luminar interface to enter Batch Processing mode. Here you can set a variety of options such as export location, image format and quality, resizing, renaming, and more.

In the example above I have loaded the Accent AI 75 Percent preset and ran a batch process on 50 photos of a cicada bug. Luminar processed all of them in about the amount of time it would have taken me to edit a single image in Lightroom.

A quick caveat

As good as the Accent AI filter is for batch processing, it does have some important limitations that you should be aware of. I have found that it works best for nature, landscape, and architecture photography and generally prefer its results in those types of situations over portraits.

That’s not to say it isn’t useful for portraits, just that I’m a bit overly picky and tend to obsess over small details that even the advanced artificial intelligence in the filter can’t quite match. Also there can be a tendency to apply it a little too much, especially when you first start using it. My advice would be to hold back a bit to a value of 40 or 50, especially when batch processing. Sliding the filter all the way to the right can sometimes result in photos that look a little too over-edited and fake, so it might be best to start small and then find how you like to use it over time.

Conclusion

Even if you don’t like the idea of trusting a computer to edit your photos for you, I would encourage you to at least give the Accent AI filter inside Luminar a try. Use it in combination with a couple other filters and see how it could save you a great deal of time, especially with batch processing or generating proofs for clients. You might be surprised at how much you like it.

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[Photography] How to Find More Creativity Through Using Less Gear

In this article,

A few weeks ago, I was packing for an 8-day photo workshop I was leading in the Alaska Range. It was autumn, which meant we’d be concentrating on the landscape, but there would likely be ample opportunities to photograph wildlife and create macros. That diversity meant that I would need to pack for every opportunity.

A year ago, or heck, three months ago, that would have meant my bag would have included: two DSLRs, a 500mm f/4 with a 1.4x teleconverter, a 70-200mm f/2.8, a 24-105mm f/4, a 17-40mm, a fixed 14mm, a polarizer, a variable neutral density filter, a big Gitzo tripod to hold that heavy kit, and a monster camera bag to hold it all. The total weight of all my camera gear would probably come in around 50 pounds, maybe more.

So there I was, packing my camera gear for more than a week of shooting the grand landscapes and wildlife of Alaska. I loaded my small daypack, topped it off with a rain jacket and a sweater, threw it over my shoulder and walked out the door. Total camera gear weight was under 8lbs.

What happened?

I realized that all my gear, lenses, filters, and the enormous DSLR bodies; none of them were actually improving my photography. Plus, I was being hindered by all that stuff. I’d be out shooting and find I was more concerned about selecting the right lens or filter than I was about the actual composition.

And that, right there, is where creative photography goes to die.

Cutting back and using less gear

So I cut back. I adopted the Lumix mirrorless system and acquired three lenses for the trip: a 12-32mm, a 45-150mm, and a 300mm f/4 (the only sizeable piece of glass in the kit). Since the Lumix system is micro four-thirds, all those lengths are doubled when compared to a full-frame camera. I can cover almost anything from 24-600mm in a kit that weighs a small fraction of my DSLRs. I could, quite literally, fit it all in my pockets.

When in the field, I can switch from one lens to another quickly and without fuss. I learned to keep the most likely lens set on the camera. If wildlife was a possibility, then the 300mm lived on the camera. When we were hiking and I was looking for wide landscapes, then the 12-32mm was the go-to lens. On gray days with patchy sun, the mid-range 45-150mm zoom was always ready.

Time to be more creative

When I saw a composition,  I would raise my camera and shoot, re-compose, shoot again, and so on for several minutes, while other photographers were still working out the best lens, camera body, or filter for the situation.

I also found I had more time and energy to simply sit on the tundra, look, and wait. I wasn’t fiddling with my gear so I had long moments to experience the places where I was photographing.

Come to think of it, that may actually be why I feel my photography improved so much. I had the time to be creative.

As any photographer worth their salt knows, making images is not formulaic, it is creative. In order to be creative, we have to be open to the situation, not distracted. And we have to be ready when the light or action is happening. My gear, or lack of it, gave me that time and flexibility.

Did I ever miss all my equipment?

I’d like to say no, but there were times, that yes, I did miss my old kit. Cutting back my camera gear meant some sacrifices. Occasionally those sacrifices involved a particular focal length or filter that I hadn’t brought along. Once or twice I wished for the clean bokeh of my 500mm f/4 to separate a bird from a tangled background and on one occasion, the 24mm equivalent wasn’t wide enough to capture the expanse of the sky I was after.

Comparison rears its ugly head

But the sacrifice I remember most clearly (and I feel like an idiot for even mentioning this one) was my vanity. At one point, I was among a good size group of serious photographers not related to the workshop I was leading. There were more 500mm and 600mm f/4s hanging off sturdy carbon tripods than you could shake a stick at. Meanwhile, I stood there, an actual bonafide professional photographer, with a tiny point-and-shoot sized mirrorless camera and a couple of itty-bitty lenses in the pocket of my jacket.

I wanted to justify my compact gear, defend my decision by bragging about how good my kit actually was, even compared to their monstrous cameras – but I didn’t. Instead, I kept my silence, listened to their discussions of lenses, f-stops, and autofocus speeds, and thought instead about my next composition.

I bring up this somewhat uncomfortable subject because I think that this sense of inadequacy, in the lives of photographers, is very, very real. We want to be taken seriously. And when we are in the field, (when no one can see the images we are actually creating) we are usually judged by the gear we are carrying and using. There is a hierarchy in which those with the biggest, most expensive glass and bodies rise to the top, as though their investment is somehow reflective of their skills or knowledge as photographers.

Gear doesn’t make you a good photographer

There is a lot of pressure to BE one of those people with the huge camera bag and big lenses. But the reality is that your gear has nothing to do with how good you are as a photographer. Gear helps, it’s even necessary to a certain extent, but its presence or price tag is not reflective of you, the photographer. It’s the images that matter.

In the future, I’m going to try to let my photographs, not my gear, be the source of my pride (or inadequacy).

Though not the Alaska Range, I continue to embrace the minimal gear mentality. I made this image the night before I wrote this article, on the beach in Homer, Alaska.

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