Fiery Sunset

This is another oldie but a goodie from Big Sur.

I had gone there often when I lived in Texas, sometimes 2 or 3 weekends per month, to get "the" shot. I discovered that the winter solstice was the best time to try to get something with this collection of seastacks, because it pointed, not to the west, but to the southwest. Shooting here in the summer months made it appear the sun set to the north, and would include the coastline road.

So, this December (I think it was 1996), I decided to point my camera this direction to catch the sunset. Also, I had seen what happens when you shoot these scenes too soon. The spray doesn't look "misty", but "steamy". However, that's when the sunset colors are deepest.

Therefore, I decided ahead of time to do a double exposure. This is film, so it's all in-camera. I shot two exposures, one on each of the two sides of the film holder, when the sunset color was deep red. Those exposures were maybe 2 to 4 seconds each at f-45., with two graduated filters (2 and 3 stop) darkening the "bottom" of the shot.

Then, I waited 30 minutes and flipped the grads to darken the sky, and shot the second exposure for 2 minutes for each piece of film. This one was the one that was not slightly over-exposed.

Velvia 50, pushed one stop, Graflex 4x5, Schneider 90mm at f-45.